Herbert Witzenmann’s Path to the Philosophical Sources of Anthroposophy | Part I

Abstract

This article is the written version of a lecture given in December 2017 at Alanus University as a contribution to the lecture series “The Philosophical Sources of Anthroposophy”. It pursues Herbert Witzenmann’s (1905-1988) struggle for the philosophical originality of Anthroposophy in the fields of tension and development of his biography and tries to show how this can be found in the relationship of individual appropriation movements to universal meaning structures. This core principle of Anthroposophy, described by Witzenmann himself as the basic structure, is outlined in exemplary aspects of his conscious development and his literary and artistic expression, especially in Witzenmann’s school and university education, his work in the family business, his commitment to the Anthroposophical society and his endeavour to make Anthroposophy connectable to academic forms of science. With his explanation of the double-sided, methodological and structural-logical source point of Anthroposophy, Witzenmann stands productively within Steiner’s unfinished work and at the same time points beyond its current manifestations – and encourages its further development.