Editing Anthroposophy (section)

===Statements on race===

Rudolf Steiner was an extreme pan-German nationalist, and never disavowed such 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>

Some anthroposophical ideas challenged the National Socialist racialist and nationalistic agenda. In contrast, some American educators have criticized Waldorf schools for failing to equally include the fables and myths of all cultures, instead favoring European stories over African ones.

* From the mid-1930s on, National Socialist ideologues attacked the anthroposophical worldview as being opposed to Nazi racist and nationalistic principles; anthroposophy considered "Blood, Race and Folk" as primitive instincts that must be overcome.<ref>Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, 7. Februar 1935. BAD R 4901&ndash;3285.</ref><ref>Report of the SD-Hauptamtes Berlin: "Anthroposophy", May 1936, BAD Z/B I 904.</ref>
* An academic analysis of the educational approach in public schools noted that "[A] naive version of the evolution of consciousness, a theory foundational to both Steiner's anthroposophy and Waldorf education, sometimes places one race below another in one or another dimension of development. It is easy to imagine why there are disputes [...] about Waldorf educators' insisting on teaching Norse tales and Greek myths to the exclusion of African modes of discourse."<ref name="McDermott">{{Cite journal |last1=McDermott |first1=Ray |last2=Henry |first2=Mary E. |last3=Dillard |first3=Cynthia |last4=Byers |first4=Paul |last5=Easton |first5=Freda |last6=Oberman |first6=Ida |last7=Uhrmacher |first7=Bruce |date=1996 |title=Waldorf education in an inner-city public school |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02354381 |url-status=bot: unknown |journal=The Urban Review |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=119–140 |doi=10.1007/BF02354381 |issn=0042-0972 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210601025024/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02354381 |archive-date=2021-06-01 |access-date=2021-06-01}}</ref>

In response to such critiques, the [[Anthroposophical Society]] in America published in 1998 a statement clarifying its stance:
<blockquote>We explicitly reject any racial theory that may be construed to be part of Rudolf Steiner's writings. The Anthroposophical Society in America is an open, public society and it rejects any purported spiritual or scientific theory on the basis of which the alleged superiority of one race is justified at the expense of another race.<ref>The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America (1998) [https://web.archive.org/web/20080106140711/http://www.anthroposophy.org/Gov/StatementOnDiversity.php Position Statement on Diversity].</ref></blockquote>

[[Tommy Wieringa]], a Dutch writer who grew among Anthroposophists, commenting upon an essay by the Anthroposophist {{ill|Désanne van Brederode|nl}}, he wrote "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 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-access=subscription |url-status=live |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.}}</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>

The racism of Anthroposophy is spiritual and paternalistic (i.e. benevolent), while the racism of fascism is materialistic and often malign.<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>

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}}