The Library of Rudolf Steiner
After the turn of the century, when Rudolf Steiner’s work as a spiritual researcher and teacher began in Berlin and the city was to remain his home for an extended period, his book collection had probably acquired the makings of a proper library for the first time. In January 1902, according to a duplicate of a bill of lading that has been preserved, he had his father send a 30- kilogram box containing “books and writings” from Horn to Berlin-Friedenau—presumably his books and documents from his school days and youth.
A few years later, a busy life of travel began due to his extensive lecturing activity. In the places where the theosophical, and later anthroposophical, movement was particularly well established—such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Dornach—Rudolf Steiner had rooms or apartments in which books were being accumulated. It can be traced back to this circumstance that some books are found multiple times in his possession—and possibly also that other books, which he tells us about in lectures and writings, have been lost and are today absent from the library. In 1915 he tells us himself: “When I was . . . in Zurich, we were passing by a bookstore, and in the bookstore I saw a book that I had read years ago. As is the case with my way of life, I would not so easily be able to establish the location of the book in my so-called library, which is in a strange state due to my living in many different places. Perhaps it is no longer there at all” (Berlin, Feb. 22, 1915). Already at that time, his book collection was anything but the well- ordered library of a scholar—his books scattered here and there, across countries and cities, in a “strange state.”
As Rudolf Steiner became increasingly well known, many different books were sent or given to him—mostly by the authors, editors, and translators themselves. Members of the Anthroposophical Society gave or lent him books as well. Rudolf Steiner was an avid visitor of bookstores and antiquarian bookshops, as preserved invoices, his own statements, and remarks in memoirs attest. Anna Samweber recounts how she once came to the Atlantic Bookstore (Atlantic-Buchhandlung) in Berlin’s Motzstrasse in 1917, where Rudolf Steiner had been rummaging for a copy of the first edition of his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (Philosophie der Freiheit): “Following his unsuccessful search, I came a short time later to the same bookstore. The ladies who worked there, whom I knew well, drew my attention to the various piles of books lying around and said: ‘As you can see, he’s been at work again!’” (CW 157).
It is likely that, already in Berlin, Rudolf Steiner’s book collection was partly combined with that of his later wife Marie von Sivers—at least as far as belles-lettres, theosophy/occultism, etc. were concerned, with which both were equally occupied. Thus, strictly speaking, the library as it is catalogued here is both that of Rudolf Steiner and also—albeit to a much lesser extent—that of Marie Steiner-von Sivers until 1925.
Even after the building of the Goetheanum had begun, Rudolf Steiner retained his main residence in Motzstrasse in Berlin, where the headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society was also located, despite spending several months in Switzerland each year. In Dornach, he and Marie Steiner-von Sivers lived at first in Haus Brodbeck (today Rudolf Steiner Halde), and then from June 1914 in the Villa Hansi . . . . Since Marie Steiner’s ability to walk was deteriorating, they wished to move back into Haus Brodbeck in 1923: For this, Rudolf Steiner designed an annex with a large eurythmy room so that Marie Steiner could comfortably walk from their living space to the rehearsals. For himself, he set up two small work rooms with many wall cabinets—presumably, these were to house his library. . . .
