Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== Race and ethnicity===
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Rudolf Steiner was an extreme pan-German nationalist and never disavowed such a stance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zegers |first1=Peter |last2=Staudenmaier |first2=Peter |date=9 January 2009 |orig-date=2000 |title=Anthroposophy and its Defenders |url=https://social-ecology.org/wp/2009/01/anthroposophy-and-its-defenders-2/ |journal=Humanist |publisher=Institute for Social Ecology |issue=4}}</ref>

Steiner's work includes both universalist, humanist elements and racial assumptions.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2008}} Due to the contrast and even contradictions between these elements, one commentator argues: "whether a given reader interprets Anthroposophy as racist or not depends upon that reader's concerns".<ref name="Zander">"Es hängt dabei von den Interessen der Leser ab, ob die Anthroposophie rassistisch interpretiert wird oder nicht." Helmut Zander, "Sozialdarwinistische Rassentheorien aus dem okkulten Untergrund des Kaiserreichs", in Puschner et al., Handbuch zur "Völkischen Bewegung" 1871–1918: 1996.</ref> Steiner considered that by dint of its shared language and culture, each people has a unique essence, which he called its soul or spirit.<ref name=Hammer/> He saw race as a physical manifestation of humanity's spiritual evolution, and at times discussed race in terms of complex hierarchies that were largely derived from 19th century [[scientific racism|biology]], [[Historical race concepts|anthropology]], philosophy and [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|theosophy]]. However, he consistently and explicitly subordinated race, ethnicity, gender, and indeed all hereditary factors, to individual factors in development.<ref name=Zander/> For Steiner, human individuality is centered in a person's unique biography, and he believed that an individual's experiences and development are not bound by a single lifetime or the qualities of the physical body.<ref name="Ravagli">Lorenzo Ravagli, ''Zanders Erzählungen'', Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-8305-1613-2}}, pp. 184f</ref>

Steiner occasionally characterized specific [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]]s, nations and [[ethnicity|ethnicities]] in ways that have been deemed [[racist]] by critics.<ref>Arno Frank, "Einschüchterung auf Waldorf-Art", ''Die Tageszeitung'' 4 August 2000.</ref> This includes descriptions by him of certain races and ethnic groups as flowering, others as backward, or destined to degenerate or disappear.<ref name=Zander/> He presented explicitly hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,<ref name="Treitel 2004 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Treitel |first=Corinna |title=A Science for the Soul |date=2004-04-20 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=0-8018-7812-8 |publication-place=Baltimore |page=103}}</ref> including—at times, and inconsistently—portraying the [[white race]], [[European culture]] or Germanic culture as representing the high point of human [[evolution]] as of the early 20th century, although he did describe them as destined to be superseded by future cultures.<ref name=Zander/>

Throughout his life Steiner consistently emphasized the core spiritual unity of all the world's peoples and sharply criticized racial prejudice. He articulated beliefs that the individual nature of any person stands higher than any racial, ethnic, national or religious affiliation.<ref name="CL" /><ref name="Essential" /><!--CL, p.55--> His belief that race and [[ethnicity]] are transient and superficial, and not essential aspects of the individual,<ref name=Zander/> was partly rooted in his conviction that each individual [[reincarnation|reincarnates]] in a variety of different peoples and races over successive lives, and that each of us thus bears within him or herself the heritage of many races and peoples.<ref name=Zander/><ref name="Kugler Baur 2007 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Blume |first=Eugen |title=Rudolf Steiner in Kunst und Architektur |date=2007 |publisher=DuMont |isbn=978-3-8321-9012-5 |editor-last=Kugler |editor-first=Walter |publication-place=Köln |page=186 |language=de |chapter=Joseph Beuys |oclc=183256999 |editor-last2=Baur |editor-first2=Simon}}</ref> Toward the end of his life, Steiner predicted that race will rapidly lose any remaining significance for future generations.<ref name=Zander/> In Steiner's view, culture is universal, and explicitly not ethnically based, and he vehemently criticized imperialism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myers |first=Perry |title=Colonial consciousness: Rudolf Steiner's Orientalism and German Cultural Identity |journal=Journal of European Studies |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=387–417}}</ref>

In the context of his ethical individualism, Steiner considered "race, folk, ethnicity and gender" to be general, describable categories into which individuals may choose to fit, but from which free human beings can and will liberate themselves.<ref name=Ravagli/>

Martins and Vukadinović describe the racism of Anthroposophy as spiritual and paternalistic (i.e. benevolent), in contrast to the materialistic and often malign racism of fascism.<ref name="Vukadinović 2022 p. 582">{{Cite book |last=Martins |first=Ansgar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7efEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT582 |title=Rassismus: Von der frühen Bundesrepublik bis zur Gegenwart |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-11-070278-1 |editor-last=Vukadinović |editor-first=Vojin Saša |page=unpaginated |language=de |quote=Und genau diese komfortable Situation macht es möglich, dass Anthroposophie bis heute eine ganz erstaunliche Auswahl von rassischen und Völker-Stereotypen tradiert, die in ihrer Gründerzeit anscheinend kaum als skandalös auffielen, aber heute den politischen Status des Ganzen verändern. Steiners nationalistische, antijüdische und rassistische Vorstellungen notierten um 1920 nicht einmal linke Kritiker wie Ernst Bloch Oder Siegfried Kracauer, aber sie sickern zum Beispiel auch noch in die jüngere Waldorf-Literatur ein und führen seit den 1990er Jahren periodisch zu erbitterten wissenschaftlichen, journalistischen und juristischen Auseinandersetzungen. Die Argumente Sind seit Jahrzehnten ausgetauscht, das Andauern der Debatte gleicht einem Sich wahnsinnig weiterdrehenden Hamsterrad. Anthroposophen reagieren dabei stets reaktiv auf externe Kritik. Dass Steiner Sich von den wilden Rassisten des 19. Jahrhunderts distanzierte, wird manchen seiner heutigen Anhänger zur Ausrede, um seinen eigenen, spirituell-paternalistischen Rassismus in der Gegenwart schönzureden.{{sup|4}} Einer überschaubaren Anzahl kritischer Aufsätze{{sup|5}} stehen monographische Hetzschriften gegenüber, die Kritiker des „gezielten, vorsätzlich unternommenen Rufmords"{{sup|6}} bezichtigen. Derweil sprechen Sich die anthroposophischen Dachverbände, wenn die Kritik allzu laut wird, in formelhaften Allgemeinplätzen gegen Rassismus aus und gestehen vage, zeitbedingte' Formulierungen Steiners zu.{{sup|7}} Überhaupt dreht Sich die Diskussion zu oft um Steiner. Es Sind jüngere Beiträge, die seine Stereotype in die Gegenwart transportieren. |access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref> [[Olav Hammer]], university professor expert in [[new religious movements]] and [[Western esotericism]], confirms that now the racist and anti-Semitic character of Steiner's teachings can no longer be denied, even if that is "spiritual racism".<ref name="confirm">{{Cite journal |last=Hammer |first=Olav |date=2016 |title=Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era, written by Peter Staudenmaier |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24644844 |journal=Numen |publisher=Brill |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=118–121 |doi=10.1163/15685276-12341412 |issn=0029-5973 |jstor=24644844 |quote=their founder or their movement has been tainted with racism or anti-Semitism. [...] Denial, it would seem, is no longer an option.}}</ref>

Steiner did influence Italian Fascism, which exploited "his racial and anti-democratic dogma."<ref name="Pilkington Sutcliffe 2023 p. 194">{{Cite book |last=Hill |first=Chris |title=Strange Attractor Journal Five |publisher=MIT Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-907222-52-8 |editor-last=Pilkington |editor-first=Mark |page=194 |chapter='Gustavo Who?' &mdash; Notes Towards the Life and Times of Gustavo Rol; Putative Mage and Cosmic 'Drainpipe' |access-date=1 November 2023 |editor-last2=Sutcliffe |editor-first2=Jamie |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMFNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA194}}</ref> The fascist ministers [[Giovanni Antonio Colonna di Cesarò]] (nicknamed "the Anthroposophist duke"; he became antifascist after taking part in [[Benito Mussolini]]'s government<ref name="peter">{{Cite book |last=Staudenmaier |first=Peter |title=Esotericism, Religion, and Politics |publisher=New Cultures Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1596500136 |editor-last=Versluis |editor-first=Arthur |location=Minneapolis, MN |pages=83–84 |chapter=Anthroposophy in Fascist Italy |editor-last2=Irwin |editor-first2=Lee |editor-last3=Phillips |editor-first3=Melinda}}</ref>) and Ettore Martinoli have openly expressed their sympathy for Rudolf Steiner.<ref name="Pilkington Sutcliffe 2023 p. 194" /> Most from the occult pro-fascist [[UR Group]] were Anthroposophists.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=271}}<ref name="turris">{{Cite magazine |last=Turris |first=Gianfranco de |title=L'Esoterismo Italiano degli anni Venti: il Gruppo di Ur, tra Magia e Super Fascismo |url=https://zdocs.mx/doc/abstracta-de-turris-le1225kj971v |magazine=Abstracta |publication-date=June 1987 |authorlink=Gianfranco de Turris |number=16 |series=II |lang=it}}</ref><ref name="beraldo">{{Cite book |last=Beraldo |first=Michele |title=Esoterismo e fascismo: storia, interpretazioni, documenti |publisher=Edizioni mediterranee |year=2006 |isbn=978-88-272-1831-0 |editor-last=Turris |editor-first=Gianfranco de |page=83 |language=it |chapter=L'Antroposofia e il suo rapporto con il Regime Fascista |access-date=11 December 2023 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pgrCbVilI8C}}</ref>

In fact, "Steiner's collected works, moreover, totalling more than 350 volumes, contain pervasive internal contradictions and inconsistencies on racial and national questions."<ref name="Peter">{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Staudenmaier|url=https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=hist_fac|title=Rudolf Steiner and the Jewish Question|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916050406/http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=hist_fac|archive-date=2017-09-16|journal=Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook|volume=50|issue=1|year=2005|pages=127–147|doi=10.1093/leobaeck/50.1.127|issn=0075-8744}}</ref><ref>See also {{Cite thesis |last=Munoz |first=Joaquin |title=The Circle of Mind and Heart: Integrating Waldorf Education, Indigenous Epistemologies, and Critical Pedagogy |date=23 March 2016 |access-date=8 February 2024 |degree=PhD |publisher=The University of Arizona |url=https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/621063/azu_etd_14891_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |pages=189–190 |chapter=Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications: The Challenge of Waldorf Education for All Youth. Waldorf Education and Racism|hdl=10150/621063}}</ref>

According to Munoz, in the materialist perspective (i.e. no reincarnations), Anthroposophy is racist, but in the spiritual perspective (i.e. reincarnations mandatory) it is not racist.{{sfn|Munoz|2016|pp=189-190}}

====Judaism====
During the years when Steiner was best known as a literary critic, he published a series of articles attacking various manifestations of [[antisemitism]] and criticizing some of the most prominent anti-Semites of the time as "barbaric" and "enemies of culture".<ref>''Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus'', '''11'''(37):307-8, 11 September 1901. [http://periodika.digitale-sammlungen.de/abwehr/Blatt_bsb00000905,00315.html Article]. ''Mitteilungen'', '''11'''(38):316, 18 September 1901. [http://periodika.digitale-sammlungen.de/abwehr/Blatt_bsb00000905,00324.html Article]. Cf. GA31 for a complete list and text of articles.</ref><ref name="HuH">[http://db.swr.de/upload/manuskriptdienst/wissen/wi20041122_2812.rtf "Hammer und Hakenkreuz – Anthroposophie im Visier der völkischen Bewegung"]{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''Südwestrundfunk'', 26 November 2004</ref> In contrast, however, Steiner also promoted full [[Jewish assimilation|assimilation]] of the Jewish people into the nations in which they lived, suggesting that Jewish cultural and social life had lost its contemporary relevance<ref>Thesenpapier von Dr. Jan Badewien zur Veranstaltung: Antijudaismus bei Rudolf Steiner?, [http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/berufspaedagogik/lehrstuhl/forum-thesen-badewien.html Universität Paderborn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130227074919/http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/berufspaedagogik/lehrstuhl/forum-thesen-badewien.html |date=27 February 2013 }}, 23.01.02.</ref> and "that Judaism still exists is an error of history".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Koren |first=Israel |date=November 2012 |title=Rudolf Steiner and the Jews: &quot; That Judaism Still Exists is an Error of History &quot; |url=https://www.academia.edu/33413211 |journal=Makor Rishon}}</ref> Steiner was a critic of his contemporary [[Theodor Herzl]]'s goal of a [[Zionism|Zionist]] state, and indeed of any ethnically determined state, as he considered ethnicity to be an outmoded basis for social life and civic identity.<ref>"The need to overcome nationalism was one of the central themes of [Steiner's] social agenda": Hans-Jürgen Bracker, "The individual and the unity of humankind". in ''Judaism and Anthroposophy'', ed. Fred Paddock and Mado Spiegler. Anthroposophic Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0880105100}}. p. 100. See also "Humanistischer Zionismus", in Novalis 5 (1997): "Steiner generell die allmähliche Überwindung und Auflösung von Stammes-, Volks-, Nationen- und »Rasse«-grenzen vertrat"</ref>

Steiner financed the publication of and wrote a foreword for the book ''Die Entente-Freimaurerei und der Weltkrieg'' (1919) by {{ill|Karl Heise|de}}, partly based upon his own ideas,<ref>Sources for 'Heise':{{Bulleted list|{{harvnb|Staudenmaier|2014|p=96|ps=: "The foremost example of a full-fledged antisemitic conspiracy theory based squarely on anthroposophist premises was Karl Heise’s 1919 tome blaming the World War on a cabal of freemasons and Jews. Heise wrote the book with Steiner’s encouragement and founded its argument on Steiner’s own teachings, while Steiner himself wrote the foreword and contributed a substantial sum toward publication costs.{{sup|101}}"}}|{{Cite book |last=French |first=Aaron |title=Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories: Comparing and Connecting Old and New Trends |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-000-78268-4 |editor-last=Piraino |editor-first=Francesco |publication-place=London |pages=107–123 |chapter=Esoteric Nationalism and Conspiracism in WWI |doi=10.4324/9781003120940-8 |quote=One man inspired by Steiner's lectures during World War I was the enigmatic Karl Heise, who, in 1918, published a now classic work of anti-Masonry and anti-Judaism entitled ''Die Entente-Freimaurerei und der Weltkrieg'', which was partially backed by Steiner, who wrote a cagey introduction to the first edition, very cautiously choosing his words and not signing his name (Zander, 2007, p. 991). |access-date=2024-03-01 |editor-last2=Pasi |editor-first2=Marco |editor-last3=Asprem |editor-first3=Egil |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ksKZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT126}}|{{harvnb|Zander|2007|pp=991–992|ps=: "Ein weiteres Motiv könnte in der Kollision von Steiners Freimaureraktivitäten mit seinem deutschen Patriotismus liegen (s. 14.3.1). Nach dem Krieg nannte Steiner diesen Punkt sehr deutlich, als er in Karl Heises »Die Entente-Freimaurerei und der Weltkrieg«, in der es um die Kriegsschuldfrage ging{{sup|178}}, ein nicht gezeichnetes, auf den 10. Oktober 1918 datiertes Vorwort verfaßte, sich also einen Monat vor dem Waffenstillstand und inmitten des Zusammenbruchs des Deutschen Reiches äußerte. »Die Geheimgesellschaften der Entente-Länder«, hieß es dort, hätten eine »die Weltkatastrophe vorbereitende politische Gesinnung und Beeinflussung der Weltereignisse« an den Tag gelegt. Bei der Suche nach der »Schuld am Weltkriege« habe man auch an die Freimaurer zu denken. Dies war nicht nur eine reduktive Lösung der »Kriegsschuldfrage« im Jahr 1918, sondern möglicherweise auch ein Hinweis auf seine Motivlage im Jahr 1914: Steiner hätte sich dann aus Solidarität mit Deutschland aus dem Internationalismus der Freimaurerei verabschiedet{{sup|179}}. Andere theosophische Gesellschaften haben diesen Schnitt übrigens nicht so deutlich vollzogen{{sup|180}}."}}|{{harvnb|Staudenmaier|2014|p=96|ps=: "The foremost example of a full-fledged antisemitic conspiracy theory based squarely on anthroposophist premises was Karl Heise’s 1919 tome blaming the World War on a cabal of freemasons and Jews. Heise wrote the book with Steiner’s encouragement and founded its argument on Steiner’s own teachings, while Steiner himself wrote the foreword and contributed a substantial sum toward publication costs.{{sup|101}}"}}}}</ref> a book which has been called "a now classic work of anti-Masonry and anti-Judaism."{{sfn|French|2022|p=126}} The publication comprised a [[conspiracy theory]] according to which World War I was a consequence of a collusion of [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]] and [[Jews]] their purpose being the destruction of Germany. The writing was later enthusiastically received by the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Zander|2007|pp=306, 991-992}}{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=96–97}} 
<!--Towards the end of Steiner's life and after his death, there were massive defamatory press attacks mounted on him by early [[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi Party]] leaders (including [[Adolf Hitler]]) and other right-wing nationalists. These criticized Steiner's thought and anthroposophy as being incompatible with Nazi racial ideology, and charged him with being influenced by his close connections with Jews and even (falsely) that he himself was Jewish.<ref name=Werner/><ref name=HuH/> After Steiner's death, anthroposophy had both enemies and loyal supporters in the upper echelons of the Nazi regime.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=118-119}} Staudenmaier speaks of the "polycratic party-state apparatus", so Nazism's approach to Anthroposophy was not characterized by monolithic ideological unity.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=104}} [[Rudolf Hess]], the adjunct Führer, was a patron of Anthroposophy{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=214}}<ref name="Rieppel 2016 p. 246" /> and of Waldorf schools<ref name="Rieppel 2016 p. 246">{{Cite book |last=Rieppel |first=Olivier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgN-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA246 |title=Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig |publisher=CRC Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4987-5489-7 |page=246 |quote=Although in his reply, Himmler pretended to share Astel's assessment of anthroposophy as a dangerous movement, he admitted to be unable to do anything about the school of Rudolf Steiner because Rudolf Hess supported and protected it. |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref><ref name="Douglas-Hamilton 2012 p. 106">{{Cite book |last=Douglas-Hamilton |first=James |title=The Truth About Rudolf Hess |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78057-791-3 |page=unpaginated |chapter=1 Turmoil at the Dictator’s Court: 11 May 1941 |quote=Organisations which Hess had supported, such as the Rudolf Steiner schools, were closed down. |access-date=2 October 2022 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5SyahCctVsC&pg=PT106}}</ref> and a staunch defender of Steiner's [[biodynamic agriculture]].<ref name="Tucker 2018 p. 165">{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=S.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2K6IDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT165 |title=False Economies: The Strangest, Least Successful and Most Audacious Financial Follies, Plans and Crazes of All Time |publisher=Amberley Publishing |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4456-7235-9 |page=unpaginated |quote=according to Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), those sceptics who criticised biodynamic methods on scientific grounds were just 'carrying out a kind of witch-trial' against Steiner's followers. |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref> When Hess defected to UK, their most powerful protector was gone,<ref name="Rieppel 2016 p. 246" /><ref name="Douglas-Hamilton 2012 p. 106" /><ref name="Tucker 2018 p. 165" /> but Anthroposophists were still not left without supporters among higher-placed Nazis.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=103-106}} According to [[Tommy Wieringa]], a Dutch writer who grew among Anthroposophists, commenting upon an essay by the Anthroposophist {{ill|Désanne van Brederode|nl}}, Hess and [[Heinrich Himmler]] saw Steiner as their kindred spirit.<ref name="NRC 2021">{{Cite web |last=Wieringa |first=Tommy |date=8 May 2021 |title=Groene vingers |url=https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/05/08/groene-vingers-a4042900 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507202917/https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/05/08/groene-vingers-a4042900 |archive-date=7 May 2021 |access-date=7 February 2023 |website=NRC |language=nl |quote=Het was een ontmoeting van oude bekenden: nazi-kopstukken als Rudolf Hess en Heinrich Himmler herkenden in Rudolf Steiner al een geestverwant, met zijn theorieën over raszuiverheid, esoterische geneeskunst en biologisch-dynamische landbouw. &mdash; It was a meeting of old acquaintances: Nazi leaders such as Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler already recognized a kindred spirit in Rudolf Steiner, with his theories about racial purity, esoteric medicine and biodynamic agriculture.}}</ref><ref name="Brederode 2021">{{Cite web |last=Brederode |first=Désanne van |date=27 February 2021 |title=Désanne van Brederode is verbijsterd: corona drijft antroposofen in extreemrechtse armen |url=https://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/desanne-van-brederode-is-verbijsterd-corona-drijft-antroposofen-in-extreemrechtse-armen~bb13d660/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419072542/https://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/desanne-van-brederode-is-verbijsterd-corona-drijft-antroposofen-in-extreemrechtse-armen~bb13d660/ |archive-date=19 April 2021 |access-date=7 February 2023 |website=Trouw |language=nl}}</ref>

"Before 1933, Himmler, Walther Darré (the future Reich Agriculture Minister), and Rudolf Höss (the future commandant of Auschwitz) had studied ariosophy and anthroposophy, belonged to the occult-inspired Artamanen movement, [...]"<ref name="Kurlander 2015 pp. 498–522">{{Cite journal |last=Kurlander |first=Eric |year=2015 |title=The Nazi Magicians' Controversy: Enlightenment, "Border Science," and Occultism in the Third Reich |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43965203 |journal=Central European History |publisher=[Cambridge University Press, Central European History Society] |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=498–522 |issn=15691616 |jstor=43965203 |access-date=19 February 2024 |quote=Before 1933, Himmler, Walther Darré (the future Reich Agriculture Minister), and Rudolf Höss (the future commandant of Auschwitz) had studied ariosophy and anthroposophy, belonged to the occult-inspired Artamanen movement, [...]}}</ref> "And Himmler, Hess, and Darré all promoted biodynamic (anthroposophic) approaches to farming as an alternative to industrial agriculture."<ref name="Kurlander 2015 pp. 498–522" /> "'[...] with the active cooperation of the Reich League for Biodynamic Agriculture' [...] Pancke, Pohl, and Hans Merkel established additional biodynamic plantations across the eastern territories as well as Dachau, Ravensbrück, and Auschwitz concentration camps. Many were staffed by anthroposophists."<ref name="Kurlander 2017 pp. 231–262">{{Cite book |last=Kurlander |first=Eric |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1q31shs.13 |title=Hitler's Monsters |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-300-18945-2 |pages=239–240 |chapter=MONSTROUS SCIENCE: Racial Resettlement, Human Experiments, and the Holocaust |jstor=j.ctt1q31shs.13 |quote='[...] with the active cooperation of the Reich League for Biodynamic Agriculture' [...] Pancke, Pohl, and Hans Merkel established additional biodynamic plantations across the eastern territories as well as Dachau, Ravensbrück, and Auschwitz concentration camps. Many were staffed by anthroposophists. |access-date=19 February 2024}}</ref>

The Third Reich had banned almost all esoteric organizations, pretending that these are controlled by Jews.<ref name="Sutin 2014 p. 506">{{Cite book |last=Sutin |first=Lawrence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9iZAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT506 |title=Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4668-7526-5 |page=unpaginated |quote=for the Third Reich had outlawed virtually all esoteric groups (alleged to be under covert Jewish control) in Germany |access-date=9 February 2023}}</ref> The truth was that while Anthroposophists complained of bad press, they were to a surprising extent let be by the Nazi regime, "including outspokenly supportive pieces in the ''Völkischer Beobachter''".{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=174|ps=: "Though anthroposophists complained regularly about negative publicity, Steiner’s movement received remarkably positive press coverage in the Nazi era, including outspokenly supportive pieces in the ''Völkischer Beobachter''.<sup>108</sup> Anthroposophist authors generally encountered few difficulties in publishing their work,<sup>109</sup> SD specialists on occult groups made suppression of anthroposophist publications a priority, but met with relatively little success. They argued that misuse of terms such as “race, nation, community, Germanness” by non-Nazi authors, even if sincere and well-meaning, “must be regarded as an attack on the National Socialist worldview.”<sup>110</sup> Criticizing “materialist misinterpretations” of Nazi racial theory, they contended that the Nazi conception of race united the biological with the spiritual, the physical with the soul, into one comprehensive synthesis. The SD was especially wary of spiritual groups claiming that Nazism had “adopted” some of their own ideas or that their teachings had all along been in concert with National Socialist precepts. Movements like anthroposophy, from this point of view, represented unwelcome competition."}} Ideological purists from [[Sicherheitsdienst]] argued largely in vain against Anthroposophy.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=174|ps=: "Though anthroposophists complained regularly about negative publicity, Steiner’s movement received remarkably positive press coverage in the Nazi era, including outspokenly supportive pieces in the ''Völkischer Beobachter''.<sup>108</sup> Anthroposophist authors generally encountered few difficulties in publishing their work,<sup>109</sup> SD specialists on occult groups made suppression of anthroposophist publications a priority, but met with relatively little success. They argued that misuse of terms such as “race, nation, community, Germanness” by non-Nazi authors, even if sincere and well-meaning, “must be regarded as an attack on the National Socialist worldview.”<sup>110</sup> Criticizing “materialist misinterpretations” of Nazi racial theory, they contended that the Nazi conception of race united the biological with the spiritual, the physical with the soul, into one comprehensive synthesis. The SD was especially wary of spiritual groups claiming that Nazism had “adopted” some of their own ideas or that their teachings had all along been in concert with National Socialist precepts. Movements like anthroposophy, from this point of view, represented unwelcome competition."}} According to Staudenmaier, "The prospect of unmitigated persecution was held at bay for years in a tenuous truce between pro-anthroposophical and anti-anthroposophical Nazi factions."{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=118-119}}

{{blockquote|The anti-esoteric faction ensconced in the SD and Gestapo recognized that they faced influential adversaries in other sectors of the Nazi hierarchy. They knew that Hess and his staff, Baeumler in the ''Amt Rosenberg,'' and Ohlendorf in the SD itself were willing to intervene on behalf of anthroposophical endeavors. Minister of Agriculture Darré and Lotar Eickhoff in the Interior Ministry were also seen as sympathizers of anthroposophy, and the SD considered the head of the party’s “Examination Commission for Safeguarding National Socialist Writings,” Karl Heinz Hederich, a supporter of occultists and astrologers.{{sup|52}}|Staudenmaier (2014: 228)}}

{{blockquote|While anthroposophists were in the center of the SD’s sights, they were supposed to receive relatively mild treatment compared to other occultists.|Staudenmaier (2014: 236)}}

{{blockquote|Despite these measures, anthroposophist authors were able to write long after June 1941. Franz Dreidax, Max Karl Schwarz, Elisabeth Klein, Johannes Bertram-Pingel, Georg Halbe, Otto Julius Hartmann, Rudolf Hauschka, Jürgen von Grone, Wolfgang Schuchhardt and others continued to publish throughout the war. But serious disruptions were common.|Staudenmaier (2014: 238)}}

Morals: Anthroposophy was not the stake of that dispute, but merely powerful Nazis wanting to get rid of other powerful Nazis.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|p=215}} E.g. [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] were treated much more aggressively than Anthroposophists.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=173-174}}

{{blockquote|Yet, the relative moderation of Heydrich's action, which paled in comparison to measures taken against communists and socialists, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as the mentally and physically disabled, continued to reflect the Third Reich's underlying ambivalence toward policing the occult.|Kurlander (2015: 514)}}

Staudenmaier's overall argument is that "there were often no clear-cut lines between theosophy, anthroposophy, ariosophy, astrology and the ''völkisch'' movement from which the Nazi Party arose."<ref name="Koehne 2016 pp. 281–283">{{Cite journal |last=Koehne |first=Samuel |date=2016 |title=Revisiting the "Nazi Occult": Histories, Realities, Legacies. Edited by Monica Black and Eric Kurlander. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015. Pp. 306. Cloth $90.00. ISBN 978-1571139061. |journal=Central European History |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=281–283 |doi=10.1017/S0008938916000492 |issn=0008-9389 |s2cid=148281372 |quote=there were often no clear-cut lines between theosophy, anthroposophy, ariosophy, astrology and the ''völkisch'' movement from which the Nazi Party arose.}}</ref>

Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Guenther Wachsmuth, and Albert Steffen, had publicly expressed sympathy for the Nazi regime since its beginnings; led by such sympathies of their leadership, the Swiss and German Anthroposophical organizations chose for a path conflating accommodation with collaboration, which in the end ensured that while the Nazi regime hunted the esoteric organizations, Gentile Anthroposophists from Nazi Germany and countries occupied by it were let be to a surprising extent.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=103-106}} Of course they had some setbacks from the enemies of Anthroposophy among the upper echelons of the Nazi regime, but Anthroposophists also had loyal supporters among them, so overall Gentile Anthroposophists were not badly hit by the Nazi regime.{{sfn|Staudenmaier|2014|pp=103-106}}
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