After the end of the First World War, Europe lay in ruins. In November 1918, Emil Molt had a stopover in Dornach when he heard Rudolf Steiner say in a lecture that what was now required was to listen carefully to what the circumstances demanded (Leber, St., 2002). During a conversation with Molt in January 1919 about what needed to be done, Steiner mentioned that schools should be founded. On 23 April 1919, Molt summoned Steiner to take charge of a new school that was to be established. On 30 May, Molt acquired Café Uhlandshöhe and its grounds from his private funds. From 20 August to 5 September 1919, Rudolf Steiner delivered 14 lectures entitled «Allgemeine Menschenkunde als Grundlage der Pädagogik» (in English General Knowledge of the Human Being as a Basis for Pedagogy, published under «Practical Advice to teachers» (archive.org)), discussed methodological and didactic questions, and conducted seminars with 25 selected individuals, twelve of whom would later form the founding faculty. On 7 September, the opening ceremony of the Waldorf School took place in the municipal garden of Bad Cannstatt. And like this, out of a perception of the necessities of the time, the Waldorf School was founded at a breathtaking pace within a few months (see also Schad, A., 2018). 

What is interesting to look at is how Rudolf Steiner responded to the perception of the necessities of the time. Many people were traumatised by the events of the war, and many had health issues. There was great hardship. However, Steiner did not respond directly to these contemporary difficulties. In contrast, many of his contemporaries also wanted to provide answers to the necessities of the time, even in the years before the First World War. Steiner, however, already remarked in 1907 in his short work «The Education of the Child» (Die Erziehung des Kindes): «Anyone who wants to make proposals about how things should be done in the future must not be content with merely getting to know life on its surface. They must explore it in its depths.» (Steiner, R., 1907). And then it continues: «The task of providing a comprehensive practical world-view that encompasses the being of human life must fundamentally belong to spiritual science. …Because these prerequisites are rooted solely in true knowledge of life. Whoever knows life will be able to set their tasks only from within life itself. They will not establish arbitrary programmes, for they know that no fundamental laws of life will prevail in the future that are different from those in the present. Therefore, spiritual research will necessarily be marked by respect for what already exists. However much it finds in need of improvement, it will not fail to see the seeds of the future within the existing order. It is for this reason that spiritual-scientific insight into the nature of humanity must provide the most fruitful and practical means for addressing the most important questions of contemporary life» (Steiner, R., 1907).

The above quote speaks of the humanistic deepening into the being of the human. In 1923, Steiner stated that Anthroposophy «merely aims to be a method of inquiry into the universally human and the general phenomena of the world» (Steiner, R., 1991). The title «General Knowledge of the Human Being as a Basis for Education» also indicates that these lectures do not describe the development of a specific individual nor the development of a person from a particular country or continent. Instead, Steiner addresses the being of the human, the «commonality» of humankind. He describes what connects all people on earth: the development of the potential inherent to all humans, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, religious, or socio-economic background and circumstances. Waldorf education can be practised anywhere on earth because we are genuine, fully-fledged, equal human beings everywhere on earth. Only once it comes to each specific individual can we begin to differentiate particularities physically related to gender, geographical origin, and cultural and religious circumstances.

Long before the Waldorf School's founding, Rudolf Steiner intensively researched the connection between the soul and the physical body. He was able to resolve this question after discovering the threefold nature of the human body. In 1917, he outlined this connection in a few pages in the appendix of the book «Riddles of the Soul» (Von Seelenrätseln): Thinking is based on the nervous system, which is widely recognised today. Feeling has as its physical basis the organs of the middle system, respiration and cardiovascular system, which work rhythmically throughout life. And willing is based on the metabolic organs of the abdomen and the limbs. In thinking, we can be fully awake; in feeling, we operate more in a dreamlike state of consciousness; and willing as an activity is not consciously experienced but only «in that very dull (state) that is present in sleep» (Steiner, R., 1917, p. 153). Steiner emphasised that this is not a threefold-division of the human being but a functional articulation, whose processes work differently in all organs yet manifest clearly in the described structure of the body. This discovery was further developed in later works (Schad, W., 2012).

In the previously mentioned work «The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science» (Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft), it is stated that humans develop in seven-year rhythms. However, this concept is notably absent in today's developmental psychology. This raises the question: how can we interpret this? In a lecture given on 16 April 1912 (Steiner, R., 1912), Steiner emphasised that human beings do not develop in a rigid seven-year cycle, but rather that understanding and applying the successive stages of development is a pedagogical task in the education of children and adolescents (Schad, A., 2012). «But if, with the help of the educating adults, the connection to this seven-year rhythm is found, then individual destiny can reconnect with what unites all humans: that is, with humaneness» (Schad, W., 1992). It is, thus, a cultural task and act to divide human life into seven-year cycles: it is about the perception of biographical developmental stages in the successive appropriation of the world by children and adolescents, which are common to all people despite their individual characteristics. This has a supportive and comforting effect on the biography. Moreover, the rhythm of seven can, in some instances, be observed in biographies (Wiechert, Ch., 2020).

Throughout history, truth, beauty, and goodness have been cited as the three great unifying ideals in the conscious development of humanity. In a lecture in January 1923, Steiner explained that the virtue of goodness is related to the soul, the virtue of beauty to the beauty of the living realm, and the virtue of truth to the physical body (Steiner, R., 1923).

How is this to be understood?

When a child is born, it initially lives entirely in imitation of its surroundings. The child lives with the unconscious presumption that the world is moral and, therefore, fundamentally good. This is the great achievement of young children: believing in the world’s morality. Consequently, they can also believe that the world can be imitated. «Thus, the young child is a revelation of the prenatal, the spiritual-soul world. The young child, therefore, still lives in the reverberation of the prenatal, in the past» (Schad, A., 2007). An ideal of Waldorf education is that children are supported to imitate the world in the first seven years of life by being role models for them.

Between teething and puberty, particularly intensively between the ages of 10 and 12, the child lives with the unconscious assumption that the world is beautiful. It wants to find the world beautiful, and it wants to enjoy the world. It lives entirely in the present. Therefore, we should not fail to structure the lessons so that the children can enjoy them and not, for example, so that they evoke disgust and antipathy in the child. However, there is a risk that this principle of making teaching a source of joy and enjoyment can easily be distorted into sentimentality – Steiner called this «hausbacken» (home-baked, ordinary) in his first teacher training course. This can be avoided if the teacher cultivates an intensive relationship with art and the lessons become particularly artistic in this second seven-year period. A closer look at the artistic element in the second septennium brings a kind of differentiation to the fore. Especially at the beginning of school, when children are learning the cultural techniques, a certain sobriety is allowed to prevail – sober, not cold. In contrast, Steiner hoped that later, all teaching and all didactics would be immersed in a wealth of imagination, creativity and originality. In prepuberty, the children’s intellect awakens. An imaginative pedagogy nourishes this intellect so that instead of fuelling self-centredness, it awakens astonishment in the world (see also the last two pages of the last lecture of General Anthropology /Allgemeine Menschenkunde), Steiner, R., 1919).

With puberty, the relationship of adolescents to the world begins to change. They live with the unconscious assumption: the world is true. Now, the teaching should take on a scientific character. If we want to follow Steiner’s statement that truth has a special relationship to the physical body, an inner concept of truth can arise particularly through natural-scientific education, «I can understand the world through thought». The first step towards this is learning to observe and describe accurately to perceive things as they are and not as they suit us or are pleasant. In the third septennium, we support adolescents in their need to discover the truthful aspect of the world. Due to the sheer volume of secondary literature on the subjects taught, and the curriculum guidelines, the original curriculum has sometimes been lost sight of. If, however, one looks again at the early curriculum guidelines, e.g. Karl Stockmeyer’s work on Steiner’s curriculum suggestions, it becomes clear that the curriculum from the 6th school year onwards has a clear focus on natural sciences.

4th grade: Zoology
5th grade: Zoology, Botany
6th grade: Botany, Geology, Physics
7th grade: Chemistry, Mechanics, Algebra, Celestology, Anthropology
8th grade: Chemistry, Physics, History of technological developments, Anthropology