Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner before the movement

The Goetheanum, the movement's own center in Dornach, Switzerland, gives Rudolf Steiner's dates as 27 February 1861 in Kraljevec (then Austria, now Croatia) to 30 March 1925 in Dornach. It reports that he took a doctorate at the University of Rostock in 1891-92 with a dissertation on Fichte's theory of knowledge, published in 1892, and that from 1890 to 1897 he worked at the Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar, where he edited Goethe's writings on natural science.

This account comes from the movement's own site. A scholar of new religious movements adds that anthroposophical ideas and practices rest on Steiner's writings and on more than 6,000 lectures, published in a collected works of more than 400 volumes.

From the Theosophical Society to a separate society

The two sources differ slightly on the first step. The Goetheanum states that Steiner became a member of the Theosophical Society and general secretary of its German section in October 1902, while the scholarly article places his joining in January 1902 and the founding of the German section later that year. Both agree that he led the German section.

The Goetheanum states that the Anthroposophical Society was founded in Cologne on 28 December 1912 with about 3,000 members, and that Steiner separated from the Theosophical Society in 1912 or 1913. The scholarly article says the German section broke with the international Theosophical movement in December 1912 and joined Steiner in founding the new society.

Dornach, the Goetheanum and the 1923 refounding

According to the Goetheanum, Munich summer festivals from 1910 to 1913 staged Steiner's Mystery Dramas, and the first Goetheanum building was founded at Dornach during the First World War. Steiner's biography adds that it was built from 1913 to 1919 and that eurythmy, an art of movement, was developed from 1911. The building was destroyed by arson on New Year's Eve 1922/23.

The General Anthroposophical Society was founded at a Christmas Conference in Dornach in 1923, and a School of Spiritual Science with sections was set up. Steiner died on 30 March 1925, and a second Goetheanum opened in autumn 1928. The society reports about 12,000 members in 15 countries by 1923-1925 and today about 52,000 members in 50 countries, figures that are its own.

Applications in education, medicine and agriculture

The Goetheanum reports that Steiner founded the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919 and directed it until his death, and that he proposed a threefold social organism in 1919. A review of Waldorf early childhood research states that Waldorf schools now number more than 1,000 worldwide, with about 2,000 kindergartens.

An anthroposophic medicine review credits Steiner and Ita Wegman with founding that medical system in the early 1920s. A bibliographic article records that Steiner gave eight lectures, the Agriculture Course, at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce, Poland) in summer 1924 to 111 attendees, who were all anthroposophists, and that the course led to what became biodynamic farming.

Anthroposophy and spiritual science

The Goetheanum describes anthroposophy as a science of the spirit, and as an individual path of spiritual development that is Christ-centered at its esoteric core. The German term Geisteswissenschaft, usually rendered spiritual science, is the movement's own word for this claim to a science of the spirit.

A scholar of new religions notes that many anthroposophists follow Steiner in calling it a science, but treats it, from an external viewpoint, as a form of religious belief because it relies on clairvoyant methods and centers on reincarnation and spiritual beings. The article classes the movement as one of the major new religious movements. The two descriptions, spiritual science and religion, remain in dispute.

Adjectives and related names

The sources use both anthroposophical and anthroposophic. The Goetheanum speaks of the Anthroposophical Society, while medical literature uses anthroposophic medicine for the clinical system. A separate Machipedia page, Anthroposophic Medicine, covers that system, and this page does not repeat it. Waldorf education and Steiner education are two names for the school movement, and the research journal in this field uses both.

Biodynamic farming is the name that grew out of the Agriculture Course. A scholar of the course states that the anthroposophic farming of the course evolved into biodynamic farming under the oversight of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer at the Goetheanum and members of an experimental circle of farmers and gardeners.

Anthroposophy and Theosophy

Anthroposophy is distinct from the Theosophical Society, although Steiner led its German section for roughly a decade. Scholars cited in one article note many similarities between Steiner's teachings and earlier Theosophical and other spiritual traditions, and interpret them as influences. The orthodox anthroposophical view, by contrast, is that Steiner gained his knowledge of spiritual realities through meditation. The sources reviewed do not settle the question, and the page reports both views.

Spiritual training and the claimed source of knowledge

A scholarly article reports that Steiner claimed to have obtained his spiritual knowledge through mental concentration exercises, that he provided instructions for such exercises and that he said others could follow his method and verify his results. The same article states that, in more than a century of the movement, no other member has been widely recognized within it as having enough clairvoyant ability to add anything of importance to his teachings.

This page does not describe any exercise. The tradition teaches that the exercises are a path of individual development, and the details belong to the movement's own publications and are not reproduced here.

Institutions and fields of application

The Goetheanum organizes the society around a School of Spiritual Science with sections, and lists applications that Steiner developed in education, medicine, agriculture, the arts (including eurythmy and architecture), social organization, natural science, theology and curative education. The society reports roughly 10,000 institutions worldwide that are based on anthroposophy.

In education, Waldorf schools are described as using an arts-integrated, child-centered curriculum grounded in anthroposophy. In agriculture, a scholar of the Agriculture Course describes Steiner's lectures as hints to be put to experimental test, not prescriptions, and records that an experimental circle was formed to test them and report results to Dornach.

Medical and therapeutic practices

Authors affiliated with anthroposophic institutions describe anthroposophic medicine as extending conventional medicine with a model of formative forces and a threefold model of human constitution, using plant, mineral and animal medicines, art therapy, eurythmy, rhythmical massage, counseling and specialized nursing. Anthroposophic Medicine and Rhythmical Massage each have their own pages on Machipedia, and details of those practices are given there.

Spiritual development and understanding of the human being

The tradition holds that anthroposophy is a path of individual spiritual development and a way of knowing spiritual realities that is, in its own terms, a science of the spirit. The Goetheanum presents Steiner's aim as a science of the spirit, with a Christ-centered esoteric core, applied to many areas of life.

Anthroposophic medical authors state that the system rests on a holistic view of humans, nature, illness and healing, and that it is based on cognitive methods and results of anthroposophy. These are the claims of the tradition and its affiliated authors, and they are not conclusions of independent research.

Education, farming and social renewal

Waldorf education is described in the research literature as prioritizing holistic development through an arts-integrated, child-centered pedagogy. The Agriculture Course is described by a scholar of it as aiming at a new agriculture, differentiated from the prevailing chemical agriculture of the 1920s, and as a foundation for the later biodynamic and organic movements.

The Goetheanum states that Steiner proposed a threefold social organism in 1919 in Towards Social Renewal. The sources reviewed do not evaluate that proposal, and they do not report how widely it has been adopted.

Scholarship on the movement

The sources reviewed treat the movement as a new religious movement with strongholds in German-speaking and Nordic countries and branches worldwide. One article names a main scholarly reference work on anthroposophy and several historians who have studied the movement after Steiner's death, which indicates an established body of religious studies and historical research.

Education researchers describe a field with substantial activity but few comparative outcome studies. A 2023 review of theoretical research on Waldorf education notes that earlier reviews were mostly in German and that judgments about the movement tend to follow the author's view of anthroposophy. A 2026 scoping review analyzed 21 articles on Waldorf early childhood education, found by a search of Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO on 18 November 2024, and described the research as understudied compared with Montessori.

Clinical research on anthroposophic practices

Authors affiliated with anthroposophic institutions summarize a health technology assessment and its update that identified 265 clinical studies of anthroposophic medicine, among them 38 randomized trials, and describe most as reporting positive outcomes. The same authors state that methodological quality varied substantially, that most evidence comes from observational studies without comparison groups and that four recent randomized trials found no benefit over placebo.

The review's authors note that blinded randomization is difficult to apply to whole-system, individualized treatment, and several are affiliated with anthroposophic institutions. The full evidence on that system is covered on the Anthroposophic Medicine page, and findings about it should not be carried over to the movement as a whole.

What the sources reviewed do not cover

No sources reviewed test anthroposophy's spiritual claims, such as reincarnation or clairvoyant knowledge, and no controlled studies of the movement as a whole were found. Searches run for this page covered Waldorf education outcome reviews, anthroposophic medicine systematic reviews, biodynamic farming reviews and vaccine hesitancy reviews. The Agriculture Course article is bibliographic and does not evaluate biodynamic methods. A review of biodynamic agriculture was identified in searches but could not be opened and is not cited.

Vaccination coverage and measles outbreaks

A 2023 systematic review of 27 papers searched four databases up to 5 September 2022. It found 12 articles documenting 18 measles outbreaks linked to anthroposophic communities in Europe, 8 of them starting at Waldorf schools, and seven articles reporting lower vaccination coverage in anthroposophic settings. Examples include 34.0 percent of Waldorf kindergarten children in a German study with no measles-containing dose, against 4.9 percent in the general sample.

The review's authors state that these communities are not categorically against vaccines, that decisions range from delay to selective acceptance, and that stigma from outside and pressure to conform from within both appear. Limits include moderate study quality, no registered protocol and a loose definition of anthroposophic communities, so findings cannot be applied to every person at a Waldorf school.

Delayed or avoided conventional care

Authors affiliated with anthroposophic medicine note a theoretical risk that patients avoid needed conventional treatment and state that they found no evidence of it. The same authors report adverse reactions in 3 percent of medication users in one large safety analysis, with no serious reactions. These are statements by affiliated authors. This page does not give personal medical advice, and it is not a reason to delay or replace necessary medical care.

Racial teachings and the movement's responses

A 2025 article in a peer-reviewed religious studies journal concludes that Steiner lectured and wrote for more than two decades about alleged characteristics of human races, that his disparaging claims about all races except the white one coincide with the messages of white supremacists, and that leading anthroposophists in at least five European countries adopted such beliefs. The article also states that a website for Waldorf history and geography teachers still recommended related materials in 2021.

The movement disputes parts of this. A committee of anthroposophists reported in 1998 that Steiner's anthroposophy contains no race doctrine, while conceding that some passages are problematic. In 2021 the Goetheanum leadership published a working paper stating that individual passages in Steiner's work are considered racist today, but that it found no evidence of racist disparagement of others or of systemic racism, and rejecting claims of cooperation with the Nazis. The sources disagree, and both positions are reported here.

Who speaks for the movement

Anthroposophy is organized through the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, national societies and many independent institutions such as Waldorf schools and clinics. The sources reviewed do not show that any one body speaks for all of them. Practices differ between institutions, and sources reviewed report no harms from the spiritual exercises themselves, although this reflects the absence of studies and not evidence of absence.