58 Chapter 8
Chapter 8 Anthroposophy in Sweden
Håkan Lejon
The Beginnings of Anthroposophy in Sweden
The Anthroposophical movement in Sweden has its origin in the conflicts that existed within the Theosophical movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When Rudolf Steiner broke with the Anglo-Indian branch in the last days of 1912, a small group of Swedish Theosophists a few days later followed his exam- ple. In Stockholm, the first Anthroposophical lodge, Rosenkorset, was formed in January 1913, and was initially led by officers Gustaf Kinell and Gustaf Ljungqvist. On 23 February of the same year a new lodge, Balder, was founded in Norrköping, with Anna Wager Gunnarsson as the leader and in Lund a pro fessor’s wife, Clara Wahlberg, also started a lodge. The new ideas often spread via publications. In January 1913 Anna Wager Gunnarsson founded a publishing house devoted to this purpose, Förlagsföre ningen AS u.p.a., located in the city of Norrköping. When the First World War broke out, members were unable to arrange lodge meetings and publishing translations of books by Steiner became a key activity for the new movement. Already during the first year of operation, seven translations into Swedish were published; six of works by Rudolf Steiner and one work by the German pastor Max Seiling. Journals followed: at first in Norway with the magazine Vidar, launched in 1915, while in Sweden, the first Anthroposophical journal, Antroposofisk Tidskrift (Anthroposophical Journal), only appeared in 1923. These journals followed international developments closely, and many articles were translations of German originals. Translations and articles in journals made the movement increasingly known, and the number of supporters slowly grew. On 18 December 1919 the total number of members had increased to 162. Despite the modest number of members, the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden was debated in the media and in books. The attention that the budding movement attracted from outsid- ers can be gauged by the fact that the University chancellor in Uppsala and later Swedish Archbishop, Nathan Söderblom (1861–1931), made it possible in April 1919 for one of the founders of The Christian Community, a Christian- Anthroposophical church, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, to be invited to Stockholm and Uppsala to hold public lectures. One reason for this sympathetic reception
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/9789004325968_010 Anthroposophy in Sweden 59 was the fact that Swedish Anthroposophists during these first years stressed their links to the broader Christian family, as opposed to the Orientalizing trend in Adyar-based Theosophy.
The Next Generation
On the European continent, the Anthroposophical movement was affected by the two world wars and their consequences. During the First World War, nearly all activity came to an end in the German-speaking countries, and the head- quarters were moved from Germany to Dornach near Basel in neutral Switzerland. During World War II the Anthroposophical institutions in Germany were closed or dissolved. Sweden remained a neutral country and stayed out of both wars, and the Anthroposophical movement continued to flourish. In the 1940s, refugees from the war came to Sweden and helped to create and develop Anthroposophical institutions. Conversely, Swedish Anthroposophists supported the activities at the Goetheanum in Dornach, and made efforts to rebuild Anthroposophical institutions in Central Europe after the war. In the spring of 1935, Edith Knaffl-Granström took over the presidency of the Swedish Society from Anna Wager Gunnarsson, who in turn had replaced Gustaf Kinell in 1930. The new chairman was not only a dedicated member of the Society, but was also strongly linked with Central European Anthropo sophical culture. The board of the Swedish Society began to take an increasing interest in international matters. In April 1945 the Swedish board became aware that Marie Steiner, Rudolf Steiner’s widow, had demanded compensa- tion from the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach for having released Rudolf Steiner’s lectures and books without having the legal rights to these works. The dispute led to schisms between different groups within the Society. For the Swedish Anthroposophists the conflict between Marie Steiner and the Dornach Anthroposophists was extremely problematic, because both parties in the conflict had close ties to Swedish members. As noted above, many activities of the society had in the first years been directed toward reading texts by Steiner, attending lectures, and assimilating the esoteric Christian world view associated with Anthroposophy. Under Edith Knaffl-Granström’s leadership, the Swedish Society continued to see the study of esoteric doctrines in lodge meetings as the society’s main function. In the 1930s and 1940s, various practical aspects of Anthroposophy, such as Waldorf schools and biodynamic farming, nevertheless gained an increasingly strong foothold in Sweden. These activities were, however, often kept organisationally