Rudolf Steiner

Born in Austria in 1861, Steiner started as a literary critic and philosopher, publishing The Philosophy of Freedom in the late nineteenth century. Around the turn of the century he broke toward the esoteric, founding anthroposophy - a movement rooted in German idealism, theosophy, and Gnostic threads, claiming to marry Western rationalism with spiritual perception. He called it "spiritual science," arguing that thinking perceives ideas as directly as the eye sees color. After 1907 he turned to the arts, collaborating across drama, dance, and architecture and erecting the Goetheanum as a home for the whole project. Then came World War I, and Steiner pivoted to application: Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine. He died in 1925, leaving systems that outlived the philosophy - and a legacy split between ardent practitioners and critics who point to pseudoscience and invented history.