Rudolf (Rudolf Joseph Laurence) Steiner, who was of German-Austrian origin, was born on 25 February, 1861 in a tiny village, Kraljevec, then within the borders of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Today, it is part of Croatia. He spent his childhood and youth in the vicinity of Vienna, in Steiermark, and in Burgenland. From the age of 18, he studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, and natural history at the Technical University in Vienna. At the same time, he attended lectures by the philosophers Robert Zimmermann and Franz Brentano at the University of Vienna.
At the suggestion of the (at the time) well-known Germanist Karl Julius Schröer, in 1882, at the age of 21, Steiner was given the task of publishing the natural scientific works of Goethe, the central figure in German culture since the 19th century, in Joseph Kürchner's compilation National German Literature. At 25, he published A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception as part of his work.
From 1884 to 1890, he supported himself as a private tutor in the family of a wealthy Viennese businessman. Another activity during his twenties was to write scientific articles for Pierer's Encyclopedia, where he contributed a number of articles on geology and mineralogy.
In 1891, Steiner acquired a Ph.D. at the University of Rostock. His thesis title: The Basic Question of Epistemology, Especially in Relation to Fichte's Philosophy of Science.
Through his work from the 1880s and onwards, he became well known far outside the borders of Germany as a scholar and cultural personality.
With the turn of the 20th century his life took a new direction. Based on lectures that he was invited to hold in the Theosophical Library of Count and Countess Brockdorff in 1901/1902, Rudolf Steiner developed in an initial form, during the following decade, what he named an "anthroposophical spiritual science" or "human science in the broad sense" ("Geisteswissenschaft") encompassing a number of human sciences in the idealistic tradition in philosophy, rooted in the thinking of Aristotle, Plato, and Thomas Aquinas.
In 1902, he was asked to become the General Secretary of the German section of the Theosophical Society. He accepted, but gave the stipulation that he could speak freely only of what he developed through his own spiritual investigations.
In 1912, a separation from the Theosophical Society became necessary, and an Anthroposophical Society was founded by co-workers of Steiner. While he continued his lecturing activity on what he called "spiritual science", he held no office in this Society, and was not even a member of it.
In 1912, he also initiated a new art of movement, eurythmy, as one part of the general development of the arts at the time, in a kindred spirit to that of Isadora Duncan, regarded as the mother of "modern dance".
In 1918, when a revolution took place, not only in Russia, but also in Germany, and threatened to disintegrate the social fabric, Steiner presented suggestions for a conscious threefold differentiation of society as a path for the future. It focused on the development of freedom in the cultural sphere, equality in the sphere of politics and legislation, and a globally oriented brotherhood in the sphere of economy. Steiner lectured widely on this topic, leading to a movement for social threefolding.
Today, Steiner's ideas about a conscious threefold differentiation of society has been one of the main inspirations for the work by one of the recipients of the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2003, Nicanor Perlas, and other civil society activists.
Steiner also gave indications for a curative education for the developmentally disabled, for an extension of medicine, a renewal and development of agriculture into what today is called biodynamic agriculture, and other areas of practical life. The results of these indications can be seen in numerous institutions and companies throughout the world.
On New Year's Eve 1922/1923, the Goetheanum, wholly built of wood, burnt to the ground as a result of arson. Up to his death in 1925, Steiner was only able to create an exterior model for the presently existing second Goetheanum, built in concrete. Today, the full version of Faust by Goethe is one of the dramas regularly staged at the Goetheanum.
In 1923/1924, Rudolf Steiner initiated the foundation of, and started to build a general Anthroposophical Society and a School of Spiritual Science. During 1924, his lecturing activity reached a climax, and he held 330 lectures from the beginning of the year to September 29, when he became exhausted and had to stop all public activity. He died six months later, on 30 March 1925 in Dornach.
News of Steiner's death spread quickly. An obituary appeared in the New York Times the next day, focusing on Steiner's contributions to social theory,