Anthroposophical Society of Great Britain , 1911- The English Section of the General Anthroposophical Society , 1930-[1971]

Anthroposophical Society of Great Britain , 1911- The English Section of the General Anthroposophical Society , 1930-[1971]

The Anthroposophical Society was founded at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland in 1913. It had its origins in the spiritual philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). He called his philosophy anthroposophy', meaningwisdom of the human being'. Born in 1861, in what is now Croatia, Steiner studied science and philosophy in Vienna, and published his first philosophical treatise The Philosophy of freedom in 1894.

He based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal for many activities including education, agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. In 1924, he founded the General Anthroposophical Society to which national Societies are linked. In Britain, H Heywood-Smith came across Steiner's work at the Theosophical Society rooms in London in 1908. He set about finding English translations of Steiner's other writings, and obtained permission to form a Group of the Theosophical Society to study Steiner's work - the Rosicrucian Group, in August 1911. That same year Heywood-Smith visited Berlin to hear Steiner lecture.

When the group outgrew the home of Heywood-Smith, they moved their meetings to the studio of Harry Collison, portrait painter. By May 1912, the group had 64 members. In 1913 Steiner visited England and lectured to the Anthroposophical groups.

In the 1920, Vera Compton-Burnett, her sister Juliet, and Dorothy Osmond (former head librarian at the Theosophical Society headquarters), visited the Goetheanum at Dornach, Switzerland, and met Rudolf Steiner. They began to take steps to form an Anthroposophical Association in Britain from the three existing study groups. Collison, meanwhile, had collected a small library, and a rented a studio in South Kensington was established as a headquarters with a central library of both English and German works. This Association increased in size when Daniel Dunlop and a number of others resigned from the Theosophical Society and joined the Anthroposophical Society. In the early 1920s, the studio was no longer adequate in size to hold their meetings, and they relocated to premises at 46 Gloucester Place.

In 1922, Steiner visited Britain again, and gave lectures at Stratford-on-Avon, Oxford, Ilkley, Torquay, and London. The following year, he visited several countries to be present at founding of their national Anthroposophical Societies, which were to be linked together in the General Anthroposophical Society (GAS). The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain was re-founded at this time. Rudolf Steiner House, at 35 Park Rd, London was opened in 1926, with additional rooms added in 1932.

In 1930, a group of over a hundred members led by Collison seceded from the AS in Great Britain and formed the English Section of the General Anthroposophical Society. This group eventually reunited with the main organisation.