Research Centre on the Works of Rudolf Steiner

The Research Centre was founded in December 2001 in order to intensify research activity into the works of Rudolf Steiner at the Hardenberg Institute.

Rudolf Steiner’s works:
Rudolf Steiner shares the fate of many other authors that his works are nowadays understood with increasing difficulty. This is the result not just of the time which has passed since they were written, but is also significantly due to their particular forms of expression which place great demands on our ordinary reading habits. It requires a special effort to gain access to these works in a way which does not rely on the authority of other people’s interpretation and is more than arbitrary. The Hardenberg Institute has for some time been occupied with the intentionally systematic study of Rudolf Steiner’s written works (of art) and developing a contemporary methodology for reading und understanding them. Many tasks arise from this, such as the survey of particular subject areas and the continuing development of the methodological indications contained in anthroposophy. Many areas which have not yet been studied (e.g. the hermeneutics of these texts) are still awaiting treatment and belong to this subject area.

Work objectives of the Research Centre:

• Studies on the question: what does understanding Rudolf Steiner mean?
• Methodological aids for the study of Rudolf Steiner’s written works in particular.
• Monographs on individual works.
• Cross-sectional subject surveys.
• Studies on the significance and position of anthroposophy in the history of ideas.

Friedrich von Hardenberg Institut für Kulturwissenschaften
Tel: (06221) 2 84 85
E-Mail: info@hardenberginstitut.de