Walter Johannes Stein
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Walter Johannes Stein (February 6, 1891, Vienna – July 7, 1957, London) was an Austrian philosopher, Waldorf school teacher, Grail researcher, and one of the pioneers of anthroposophy – the science of the spirit founded by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner.
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[edit] Early life
Stein studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at Vienna University, before completing a doctorate in philosophy at the end of the First World War, having continued work on it throughout his service in an artillery unit in the war.
[edit] Contact with Steiner
Stein became a personal student of Steiner from about the age of 21, so he enjoyed the unofficial supervision of Steiner while writing his dissertation (a commented edition of which was brought out by Thomas Meyer under the title Dokumentation eines wegweisenden Zusammenwirkens). Broadly speaking, the dissertation was an attempt to write a theory of cognition for spiritual knowledge.
After the war Stein assisted Steiner in agitating for Social Threefolding. However, when it became apparent in 1919 that these efforts were not going to succeed, Steiner asked Stein to teach history and German literature at the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart. It was as part of this work that Stein began his research on the Grail, which culminated in 1928 with his book Weltgeschichte im Lichte des heiligen Gral. Das neunte Jahrhundert (which was first published in English in 1988, and the latest English edition of which is The Ninth Century and the Holy Grail, Temple Lodge Publishing 2001). The blurb for the latest English edition says of this work:
- "In studying the central Grail narrative – Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach – Stein takes a twofold approach. On the one hand he searches historical records in order to identify actual people and events hidden behind the Grail epic's veil of romance. And on the other hand, he deciphers Eschenbach's hidden spiritual messages, revealing Parzival to be an esoteric document containing mighty pictures of the human being's inner path of development."
Thomas Meyer has also published a collection of articles by Stein on themes related to those in the book under the title Der Tod Merlins (which was published in English as The Death of Merlin, Arthurian Myth and Alchemy, Floris Books 1989).
[edit] In London
Stein moved to London in 1933, at the invitation of the theosophist-turned-anthroposophist Daniel Nicol Dunlop. Dunlop was director of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Association (BEAMA), and chairman of the executive council of the World Power Conference. Dunlop had called Stein to London to take up a post in research for the World Power Conference; he had apparently founded the World Power Conference as a precursor to a World Economic Conference, and he had called Stein to London to assist him especially with this latter, more ambitious, project. However, Dunlop died in 1935 before this plan could be brought to fruition. Stein did, however, bring about Dunlop's wish for an independent cultural journal in the form of The Present Age. Stein, having taken up various studies in economics, geography, and geology for his collaborative work with Dunlop, was able to bring together the results of this work in a special issue of the journal under the title The Earth as a Basis of World Economy. The publication of the journal ceased, however, with the start of the Second World War.
[edit] World War II
During and after the Second World War Stein made many connections in government circles in Britain, as well as with the Dutch and Belgian royal families. It has been said that Stein was invited to England to advise Winston Churchill on the question of Hitler's occult practices. Stein was, however, invited to England by Dunlop, not Churchill, though Stein apparently was consulted on these matters as someone knowledgeable about such things.
The primary source of stories about Stein and his (alleged) connection to Hitler and Churchill is Trevor Ravenscroft in his books The Spear of Destiny and The Cup of Destiny. Ravenscroft claimed that Stein would have written the former book but for his untimely death. Both of Ravenscroft's books, however, apparently fail to give an accurate account of Stein's work, and misquote him in several places. As for Ravenscroft's claim that Stein met Hitler in 1902, Stein himself said that he first heard Hitler in Berlin in 1932,[citation needed] and there is no evidence that he ever spoke personally to Hitler. While it is true that Ravenscroft met Stein in 1945, it has been alleged that Ravenscroft intended to publish The Spear of Destiny as fiction, but was bullied into publishing it as non-fiction (see here).
Note that the aforementioned reference mixes up the name of Rudolf Steiner and Walter Stein. "Steiner himself loved Walter Stein, his enthusiasm and headlong commitment, and regarded him as a very special pupil. He was like the naughty boy in the class whom teacher has a soft spot for. Walter Stein also had a special pupil who was equally naughty and got into lots of trouble. This was Trevor Ravenscroft, who shocked the movement rigid by writing a book called The Spear of Destiny. This was a powerful novel which taught people a lot about anthroposophy but was also extremely misleading about certain facts in Steiner’s life, in fact flatly untrue in certain instances." From this one can see that it is Rudolf Steiner that was being referred to here and not Walter Stein. One thing is clearly evident is that Ravenscroft was Stein's pupil, just as Stein was Steiner's pupil. Consequently, although some writers have classified Ravencroft's book "The Spear of Destiny" as a fiction novel, there is no real evidence to say that this was a work of fiction, only that perhaps the author used some poetic license to tell some of the stories contained therein, but its main content was probably factual for the most part.
The only biography of Walter Stein is by Johannes Tautz, translated by John M. Wood. Strangely, although Trevor Ravenscroft is acknowledged as a star pupil of Stein elsewhere, his claims about Stein is not mentioned in the biography. Correction: The only claim [whatsoever] that Ravenscroft was a pupil of Stein's comes from Ravenscroft's fictional book. Here was an opportunity to refute the claims that Stein met Hitler in Vienna before and after the First World War, but the author does not do so, unless it was not necessary to do so because what Ravenscroft wrote could well have been accurate [Correction: Why would a biographer leave out what he found to be accurate? That doesn't make any sense. The logical assumption is that he found no basis in fact for any of Ravenscroft's claims. Why? Because Ravenscroft's book was fictional. To cite the claims of Ravenscroft fictional book as if they were fact would have been ridiculous], or as reviewer of the biography Daniel Hindes says, "Now it may be that all the claims in Ravenscroft’s book are so patently ridiculous as to require no serious investigation. But their existence ought to be mentioned in the only biography of Stein, if only to dismiss them." (see here).
More extensive criticisms have been offered by Christoph Lindenberg in his review of The Spear of Destiny in the German journal Die Drei. According to the journal Lindenberg has done some effective digging at the Vienna Records office. Ravenscroft has Hitler sitting high up in the cheap seats of the Vienna Opera House in the winter of 1910-1911 watching Wagner's Parzifal and sympathizing with Klingsor. This proves to have been impossible, because Lindenberg learned that the first performance of Wagner's opera took place three years later, on January 14, 1914. However, Lindenberg had evidently not done his homework because he had not read what August Kubizek had said in his book "The Hitler I Knew" Chapter 17 -- Nights at the Opera, where he describes Hitler and he visiting the Vienna Hof Opera before 1912 and says "We saw almost all Richard Wagner's works. The Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger have remained unforgettable to me, as has The Ring, and even Parsifal." (see here). As was said before, there is no real evidence to say what Trevor Ravenscroft said about Stein was inaccurate ...[Correction: Lindenberg went to the Vienna Records office to try to verify or disprove Ravenscroft's statements by checking facts. He found that Ravenscroft's statements, on multiple occasions, were blatantly contradicted by official records.]
[edit] As a lecturer
Stein lectured extensively on anthroposophy and related themes from around the early 1920s onward, giving up to 300 lectures a year. He also contributed many articles to The Present Age and similar periodicals, and wrote a number of short books including The Principle of Reincarnation, Gold: in History and in Modern Times, West-East: A Study in National Relationships, Labour: in History and in Modern Times, and The British: Their Psychology and Destiny.
[edit] Spiritual life
Stein appears to have had a spiritual breakthrough in 1924 using the meditative methods of Steiner. Building on this breakthrough, he apparently attained, over his lifetime, some insight into his own karmic background. This is described in greater detail in Tautz's biography of Stein. Addition: Stein himself gives record of his spiritual breakthrough and gives credit to the teaching and leadership of Rudolf Steiner for leading him to this experience. Tautz cites Stein's experience as a fact, because Stein himself recorded it [wrote it down], and indeed Steiner verified what happened to Stein, once again in a written account.
[edit] 2007 event
A celebration of the life of Stein was held in the UK on July 7, 2007, hosted by the Economics Conference of the Social Sciences Section of the Goetheanum[1].
[edit] References
- Walter Johannes Stein: A Biography by Johannes Tautz, Temple Lodge Press 1990.
[edit] Notes
- ^ From I to We - The Life and Work of W J Stein, Celebration of the Life of Walter Johannes Stein. Diary of the Economics Conference.
