Publishing house at the Goetheanum

The Verlag am Goetheanum is an anthroposophical publisher . It emerged from the oldest publisher of this ideological orientation, the Philosophical-Theosophical Publishing House in Berlin . Today's publishing house in Dornach , Switzerland is within sight of the eponymous Goetheanum .

history

Steiner's first scientific and philosophical titles were initially only published as private prints and in magazines, then by various renowned publishers, for example by AW Hayn's Erben . Since Steiner's works seemed increasingly “ esoteric ” to publishers, hardly anyone wanted to take the risk of publication without restriction. A key motive for setting up a publishing house was therefore to ensure that Rudolf Steiner's writings would continue to be distributed.

The Philosophisch-Theosophische Verlag was founded on August 1, 1908 by Marie von Sivers (1867–1948), then secretary of the founder of anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) and later his second wife, together with the then first director of the publishing house, Johanna Mücke (1864–1949), founded. The publishing house was located under Rudolf and Marie Steiner's apartment at Motzstraße  17 (today house number 30).

From then on, all of Rudolf Steiner's publications were published by the new publishing house. On the occasion of the founding of the Anthroposophical Society , the company was renamed the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag in 1913 . Steiner's lecture transcripts soon took up the bulk of the publishing program. In addition, books by Adolf Arenson , Michael Bauer , Mathilde Scholl , Carl Unger , Kurt Walther and others have appeared.

Due to economic difficulties during the inflationary period of the Weimar Republic , the publishing house moved from Berlin to Switzerland to Dornach near Basel at the end of 1923 ; after the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24, the publishing house was integrated into the same department. At that time almost 500 publications had already appeared. In Dornach in 1924 the so-called publishing house was built in a hurry by the Bauverein near the boiler house of the Goetheanum, based on sketches by Rudolf Steiner, using timber frame construction; it served as the publisher's book magazine. A branch of the Free Anthroposophical Society was set up in the Berlin publishing house that had become vacant.

After Rudolf Steiner's death in 1925, his wife initially managed Steiner's literary estate and its publication. From 1936 Otto Reebstein († 1944), who had been a member of the publishing house since 1930, was in charge of the company until 1943. Before her death in 1943, Marie Steiner founded the Rudolf Steiner Estate Administration Association for the purpose of issuing the estate, under whose roof a new publishing house was established. It has been called Rudolf Steiner Verlag since 1971 and, as a stock corporation , has been legally independent from the estate association since 2007 . The Philosophisch-Anthroposophischen Verlag, on the other hand, was legally prohibited from further publishing Steiner's works, so that it now specialized in publications by the Goetheanum and the staff of its sections. By 1953 a total of almost 500 publications had appeared in it. Over time, several publishers such as Rudolf Geering, Ogham and Natura publishers were incorporated into the Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House.

Since 1995, the publishing house has been run independently of the Anthroposophical Society as a Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House at the Goetheanum in order not to endanger the public benefit of the society. From 1983 he was headed by the Steiner school teacher and publishing clerk Joseph Morel. In around 25 years, Morel has overseen the publication of around 1100 books, of which around 600 are still available (as of 2008). 40 to 50 titles appear annually, around 30 of which are new publications. Morel left the publishing house at the end of June 2009 for reasons of age and because of differences with the Goetheanum management.

Christiane Haid has been responsible for the publishing house's program at the Goetheanum since July 1, 2009.

The publishing house was later moved from the publishing house to the so-called “glass house” at the Goetheanum, built in 1914. As a result of the general refurbishment of the glass house, the publishing house moved to the ground floor of the so-called “Gem House” at the end of 2005.

literature

• From the history of the Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House . In: Conrad Schachenmann: Marie Steiner-von Sivers in the testimony of Tatiana Kisseleff, Johanna Mücke, Walter Abendroth, Ernst von Schenk. Verlag Futurum, Basel 1984, ISBN 978-3856360689 .

See also

• Free Spiritual Life & Urachhaus publishing house, the second oldest anthroposophical publishing house

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography Johanna Mücke, Kulturimpuls research center.
2. ^ Peter de Kleine: Residence: Berlin, 150 years of Rudolf Steiner 2011.
3. ↑ 100 years of publishing at the Goetheanum
4. ↑ The "ancillary buildings", ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Anthromedia Internet portal. 
5. ^ Chronicle 1924–1925, initiative for the free administration of Rudolf Steiner's estate.
6. ↑ Biography of Otto Reebstein, Research Center for Culture Impulse .
7. ↑ Reorientation, ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Goetheanum, weekly for anthroposophy, communication dated August 12, 2009 
8. ↑ Verlag am Goetheanum under new management
9. ^ Publishing house at the Goetheanum in new rooms, ( Memento of the original of July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Goetheanum information, December 22, 2005.