Foreword by the Editor of the 1978 (Volume One) and 1983 (Volume Two) German Editions

LECTURE ONE, Dornach, 4 December 1916
Fundamental basis for forming judgements: A sense for the facts. Rudolf Kjellén, Rosa Mayreder. The political situation in Europe since the final third of the nineteenth century. On the outbreak of war in 1914: Jakob Rüchti's pamphlet; Georg Brandes. Alexander von Gleichen-Russwurm on human dignity.

LECTURE TWO, Dornach, 9 December 1916
Inattentiveness and attentiveness. The role of the secret brotherhoods. Alexander III of Russia. H. P. Blavatsky. Moriz Benedikt. The British people and the Slav peoples. The so-called testament of Peter the Great. Parallels between Britain and ancient Rome. Pan-Slavism. The predicted fall of Austria.

LECTURE THREE, Dornach, 10 December 1916
Current events and the spiritual world. Hermann Bahr's novel Himmelfahrt. Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The assassination at Sarajevo. Archduke Rudolf. The ‘Narodna Odbrana’. Contradictions in real life. The betrayal by Judas as a precondition for the Event of Golgotha.

LECTURE FOUR, Dornach, 11 December 1916
The ‘Narodna Odbrana’. Michael Obrenovich. Russian influence in Serbia. The ‘Brotherhood of Ten’. Murder as a political weapon. Rivalry between the Obrenovich and Karageorgevich families. Draga Masin. English and French imperialism. The outbreak of the war.

LECTURE FIVE, Dornach, 16 December 1916
The question of necessity in world events. Brooks Adams on the development of nations. Thomas More's Utopia. Charlemagne, Dante, Venice, Counter-Reformation. The unification of Italy and her relationship to Central Europe and France. The Triple Alliance. The annexation of Bosnia by Austria, the assassination at Sarajevo. 1888 and 1914.

LECTURE SIX, Dornach, 17 December 1916
The nature of the fifth post-Atlantean period. Utopia and Thomas More. The mystery of evolution. The western brotherhoods' knowledge of the development of nations. The decadence of the Latin element and the ascendancy of the English-speaking world as the fifth sub-race. The German language and Grimm's law of sound shifts.

LECTURE SEVEN, Dornach, 18 December 1916
Aversion towards Germany. Central Europe as a reservoir of nations and a theatre of war, especially during the Thirty Years' War. The concept of the state in Germany. The ‘great German’ and ‘little German’ options; the foundation of the Reich in 1871. Sir Edward Grey, Jaurès, Delcassé, Clemenceau. The European alliances. The outbreak of war. Word and thought in the French, English, German and Russian languages. The task of the German nation. Etheric vibrations and machines. The spiritual forces for the future in the different nations: the forces of coming into being and dying away, eugenics, medicine based on spiritual knowledge. Lord Acton, Michael Faraday.

LECTURE EIGHT, Basel, 21 December 1916
Christmas at a time of tragic destiny. Jesus and Christ. The Christ concept of Gnosis and the dogmatic creed. Loss of the Christ concept in the South resulting from the rooting-out and dying-away of Gnosis. The newly-converted heathen in the North at first fail to comprehend Jesus. The northern Mysteries of the Ingaevones. Vanir and Aesir. Worship of Hertha or Nerthus. The Anglo-Saxon rune song. ‘The revelation from on high and peace on earth.’ Shouting down mankind's longing for peace.

LECTURE NINE, Dornach, 24 December 1916
Christmas during wartime. Gnosis. The Mystery wisdom of the Ingaevones. Baldur, Loki and Hödr. The Christmas and the Easter Mystery. Exercising influence over crowds through the misuse of atavistic forces. ‘Delirious’ consciousness. Cola di Rienzi and d'Annunzio, Whitsun 1347 and 1915.

LECTURE TEN, Dornach, 25 December 1916
Flight from the truth. The living connection between word and reality. Christ and Jesus. The year as sacrament. Bringing together Christ-idea and Jesus-feeling. The significance of the constellations for the links between earth and cosmos. Man's angel is now mistaken for ‘God’. The story of Gerhard the Good.

LECTURE ELEVEN, Dornach, 26 December 1916
Spiritual knowledge in recent history. Spiritualism as an attempt to prove the existence of a spiritual world. The destiny of H. P. Blavatsky. Christ and the individual human being. Gerhard the Good in connection with the rise of commerce. The Reformation, the Thirty Years' War. Frederick, Elector Palatine, son-in-law of James I of England. The Seven Years' War and the battle for India and America. Ernst August of Hanover. On the outbreak of war: Racconigi 1909, Ernesto Nathan. Bismarck and Usedom. Austria and Italy. Prezzolini on modern Italy and the benefits of war. Shouting down the idea of peace.

LECTURE TWELVE, Dornach, 30 December 1916
These are not political observations and there is no taking of sides. Knowledge alone is the aim. On the outbreak of war. The violation of Belgian neutrality. The actions of states cannot be judged morally. England and India, England and China. The Opium War.

LECTURE THIRTEEN, Dornach, 31 December 1916
Poisons in the social sphere. No moral judgement of historical necessities. Judgements about history change with time. How can the seeming increase in world population be understood in relation to reincarnation? The spiritual background and the consequences of the Opium War. The ‘Chinesifying’ of Europe. The ‘social carcinoma’. Effect and significance of poisons. Bearer of the ego: metamorphosed poison substances of ancient Moon. Consciousness arises through the forces of decay. The healing powers of poisons: luciferic forces balanced by ahrimanic forces. The Baldur myth as an expression of how poisons work. G. S. Fullerton on Germany.

Notes