Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE:
THE JOURNEY FROM KOBERWITZ
TO THE WORLD, 1924-1938
John Paull
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford,
51-53 Banbury Rd, Oxford OX2 6PE, UK.
Telephone: +44 1865 589 113, Email: john.paull@anthro.ox.ac.uk
whatever is done in pursuance of Dr. Steiners agricultural impulses has its origins in the idea of
the farm as an organism Carl Mirbt (1930, p.93).

Abstract
In the last year of his life, the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner challenged the direction and practice of
contemporary agriculture. This was an early response to the proliferation of chemical agriculture. Steiner
laid the foundation for an alternative agriculture, one that would heal the earth, in the agriculture course 1, a
series of eight lectures at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce, Poland) in 1924. Steiner set in train a process that led
to the development, articulation, and naming of biodynamic agriculture, culminating in the publication of BioDynamic Farming and Gardening by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer in 1938.
Keywords: Biodynamic farming, bio-dynamic agriculture, biodynamics, biodynamic gardening, Rudolf
Steiner, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Kobierzyce, Poland, agriculture course, agricultural course, organic agriculture.

Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher and mystic. He was a leading Goethean scholar of
his time. At the age of 22 he had been given the task of editing Goethes scientific writings (Wilson, 1985).
This was simultaneously, a great challenge, privilege, and opportunity. As Wilson puts it, in Austria and
Germany, a man who has edited Goethe has established his intellectual credentials, and can never
thereafter be dismissed as a nonentity (p.52).
Steiner completed his PhD at the University of Rostock (established 1419) in 1891. His thesis was
published the following year as: Truth and Science2 (Hemleben, 1963). In the following few years he
published The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), and Goethes World Philosophy (1897). In 1901 Steiner
delivered a series of 25 lectures, Christianity as a fact of mystical experience, and a 24 lecture series,
From Buddha to Christ (Hemleben, 1963).
Steiner joined the Theosophical Society in 1902. For the following decade he delivered lecture series
throughout Germany, as well as in Holland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, and
Switzerland. In 1913 he broke with the Theosophists, and founded the Anthroposophical Society
(Hemleben, 1963).
Colin Wilson (1985, p.170) has described Steiner as one of the greatest men of the twentieth century, and it
would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of what he had to say. The editors of Alchemy of the
Everyday, the catalogue of the retrospective exhibition of Steiners work, describe Steiner as one of the
most influential - yet also controversial - reformers of the 20th century (Kries & Vegesack, 2010, p.16).
Steiner was a product of home-schooling (Lachman, 2007), and he was a vegetarian (Hemleben, 1963). In
his unfinished autobiography, he wrote that: I bore a content of spiritual impressions within me. I gave form
to these in lectures, articles, and books. What I did was done out of spiritual impulses (1928, p.316).
Those lectures, articles, and books of Steiners run to more than 300 volumes (Turgeniev, 2003). Wilson
(1985, p.163) suggests that the sheer volume of his work must run to nearly a million pages. Yet, as
well as prolific, Steiners work has been described by biographers variously as: tough going and
impenetrable (Lachman, 2007, p.xvii; p.114); difficult (Turgeniev, 2003, p.60); daunting, confusing and
bewildering (Wilson, 1985, p.9; p.170); and irritatingly incomprehensible (Childs, 1981, p.2). Boeschoten
(Afterword in Lissau, 2005, p.174) writes of the challenge in understanding Rudolf Steiner.

1 The first appearance of the course text appeared in print in English as the Agriculture Course (Steiner, 1929). In 1924 Steiner wrote
of it as the agricultural course (Steiner, 1924c, p.9).
2 German title: Wahrheit und Wissenschaft; published in German.

ISSN 1177-4258

27

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Whatever the challenges of Steiner-in-print, Steiner-in-person was clearly an entirely different experience.
Loftus Hare (1922) attended Steiners 1922 Oxford Education Conference, and reported his first hand
account of listening to Steiner (Box 1).
Box 1. Loftus Hares account of Steiner at the 1922 Oxford Education Conference.

A First Hand Account of Steiner

When he spoke it was clear that he possessed the qualities of expositor and preacher to a
matchless degree. Also, being an artist to his finger tips, it was obvious why he spoke in his
own tongue, of which he has an absolute mastery a large part of an English audience is
unable to understand German Ordinarily, it would be something of a strain on an audience to
listen to three addresses and three translations covering a period of two and a half hours, but
Dr. Steiner soon holds his listeners under the spell of his power there is no artifice of
irony, nor rebuke, no criticism, and what is perhaps more remarkable, no appeal Dr. Steiner
does not shrink from that thoroughgoing formality which gives to his address absolute clarity.
Words, phrases and formulae and rhythmical cascades of eloquence, which sometimes
reach the rapidity and force of a torrent (Hare, 1922, p.212-213).

Russian artist Assya Turgeniev (2003, p.1) worked with Steiner and warned that: It is a hazardous
undertaking to convey a picture of Rudolf Steiner. Biographer Colin Wilson (1985, p.11) confessed that:
Steiner simply infuriated me. Elsewhere he records that Steiner was charismatic (p.153), and a man
possessed of immense charm, and remarkable insights (p.157).
Who can say why, whether because of the charm, or despite the predilection for the impenetrable turn of
phrase, Rudolf Steiners insights bore some remarkable memetic trait for bearing fruit. These fruits include:
the Goetheanum, which is the international headquarters of Anthroposophy in Dornach, Switzerland; the
Camphill schools for those with developmental disabilities; Eurythmy dance and movement; Anthroposophic
medicine and therapies; the global Waldorf school network; and biodynamic 3 agriculture.
Longtime associate and Steiner biographer, Guenther Wachsmuth (1989, p.547), wrote of a clear path from
Goethe to Steiners new agriculture:
A straight line through the life of Rudolf Steiner leads from the lonely spiritual research in the
eighties, through the editing of Goethes natural-scientific writings, to the development of spiritual
research as Anthroposophy, to the unfolding and testing of the natural-scientific work in the School
at the Goetheanum, and to the agricultural course in the year 1924 and the biological-dynamic
agriculture methods.

The Agriculture Course, 1924

Search outside of you for what is within
And search within for what is outside
(Steiner, 1922, in Keyserlingk guest book; cited in von Keyserlingk, 1999, p.viv).
Steiner delivered his Agriculture Course (7-16 June 1924), at Koberwitz in Silesia 4 (Steiner, 1924c, p.9). The
published text of Steiners Agriculture Course was derived from the notes of participants. The official
stenographer for the course was Kurt Walther, and his shorthand transcription was supplemented by that of
Lili Kolisko, and possibly other participants. Additionally, there are Steiners own brief preparatory notes
(Gardner, 1993). What has been generally, perhaps entirely, overlooked is that Steiner wrote a two-part
account of the event for Anthroposophical Movement, which was published immediately after the course
(Steiner, 1924b, 1924c). He also delivered a lecture report to colleagues in Dornach (Steiner, 1924a).
Steiners account of his agriculture course in the Anthroposophical Movement is both lucid and illuminating
regarding both the content and his intentions (Box 2). He referred to the event variously as the agricultural
course (Steiner, 1924b, p.17; 1924c, p.9) and the Course (Steiner, 1924b, p.17). He described it as a
course of lectures containing what there is to be said about agriculture from an anthroposophical point of
view (Steiner, 1924c, p.9).

3 Modern usage often has biodynamic without a hyphen. Where authors have it hyphenated, or variously capitalised, I replicate their
usage.
4 It is now Kobierzyce, Poland, and has also been known as Rosslingen; it has a current population of 17,080 (Falling Rain Genomics,
2004). Kobierzyce is close to the city of Wrocaw (aka Breslau).

ISSN 1177-4258

28

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Box 2. Rudolf Steiners personal commentary on the Agriculture Course.

Steiners Account of Koberwitz

T h e Ven ue: Koberwitz, near Breslau, where Count Carl Keyserlingk manages a large
agricultural estate on model lines It seemed only natural to speak about agriculture just
there, where those who had assembled for the meetings were surrounded on every hand with
the things and processes to which allusion was being made. This gives tone and colour to
such a gathering (Steiner, 1924c, p. 9).
T h e A t t e n d e e s: a large number of our fellow-members in anthroposophical work had
come together at this time The larger number of those invited by Count and Countess
Keyserlingk to meet at this time in their home at Koberwitz were farmers. But it had been
arranged that a smaller number of people, interested but not actually engaged in farming,
should also be present (1924c, p. 9).
T h e Subj e c t: My subject was the nature of the products supplied by agriculture and the
conditions under which these products grow. The aim of these lectures was to arrive at such
practical ideas concerning agriculture as should combine with what has already been gained
through practical insight and modern scientific experiment with the spiritually scientific
considerations of the subject (1924c, p. 9).
T h e H i n t s : the lectures should be considered first of all as hints, which for the present
should not be spoken of outside this circle, but looked upon as the foundation for experiments
and thus gradually brought into a form suitable for publication (p.10).

According to Steiner (1924a, p.2), the Koberwitz estate is one of the largest in the region and
comprised 7500 hectares. He reported that there were: more than a hundred conference guests every day
(1924a, p.1). Attendees included: A number of the younger members of our Society (1924b, p.18). Carl
Meyer (1929) stated that the number of guests at the Koberwitz course exceeded 100. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer
(1899-1961) was not present: I myself had to forgo attendance at the course, as Dr. Steiner had asked me
to stay at home [at Dornach] to help take care of someone who was seriously ill (Pfeiffer, 1958, p.7).
Steiner emphasised that the course was practical and not prescriptive. He wrote that things are intended
from the beginning for practical application (Steiner, 1924c, p. 9). He made it clear that the ideas presented
should all be tested experimentally under the co-ordination of the Section for Natural Science at the
Goetheanum (1924b, 1924c).
Steiner reported that practical experiments were already under way by Ernst Stgemann 5 on the basis of a
prior conversation that they had had (Steiner, 1924c, p.10). The then director of the Natural Science Section
at the Goetheanum, Guenther Wachsmuth (1989), states that Steiner had already given directives to him
and Pfeiffer, in 1921 and 1922, for conducting agricultural experiments. Pfeiffer (1958) states that it was in
1923 that Steiner first gave instructions to him and Wachsmuth for making the biodynamic preparations.
Participants at Koberwitz were given to understand that the Agriculture Course was subject to, in current
terminology, commercial-in-confidence. It was a version of measure twice, cut once and in the context of
developing a new agriculture, Steiner was aware that some start-up investment of time, observation, and
experiment was necessary
The seeds planted at the agriculture course came to fruition fourteen years later with the publication of
Ehrenfried Pfeiffers Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, published simultaneously in at least five
languages, English, German, Dutch, French, and Italian (1938a, 1938b, 1938c, 1938d, 1938e).

The Experimental Circle, 1924

An immediate outcome of the Agriculture Course was that:
a Farmers Association [was] founded at a meeting of farmers held immediately afterwards
the Association was declared to be a union of persons attaching themselves to the Natural
Science Section of the Goetheanum; its meetings were to be presided over alternately by Count
Keyserlingk and Herr Stgemann. The experimental work should be given definite aim and be
continuously guided by this Section of the Goetheanum (Steiner, 1924c, p. 10).

5 Spelling of this name varies in source material; often rendered as Stegemann.

ISSN 1177-4258

29

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

A year after the course, Erhard Bartsch (1925, p.197) reported that the Group of Anthroposophical
Agriculturists [sic] were putting Steiners impulses into practice. He referred to Dr. Steiners Course on
Agriculture. He reiterated our high aims, and referred to the opposition which is already showing itself.
Bartsch identified Count Keyserlingk as the leader of our Experimental Group.
That same year, the Natural Science Section (NSS, 1925) of the Goetheanum announced in an issue of the
Anthroposophical Movement, an Agricultural Session, scheduled at Dornach for 7-9 January 1926. Count
Keyserlingk was to preside, and that reports on the first years research, results of the first years
experiments, and further tasks of the experimental group were to be presented. Lectures scheduled
included:

The Anthroposophical View of the Earth and its Significance for Agriculture by Guenther

Wachsmuth; and
The Anthroposophical View of the Nutrition of Plants, Animals and Man, as it concerns the
Agriculturalist by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer.

A few months later, by the time of the advertised January 1926 agriculture meeting, there appears the first
reference to: the Association of Anthroposophical Farmers (in Ritter, 1926, p.52). Walter Ritters account
identifies this January 1926 meeting of farmers as the third such meeting, with Koberwitz (June 1924) being
the first, and Berlin, (January 1925) as the second.
Walter Ritter (1926) wrote reverentially of the Koberwitz course as a time when spiritual treasures of the
greatest significance were entrusted to our care by Rudolf Steiner (p.52). Ritter stated that the farmers
strove to be: worthy pupils and guardians of his high spiritual gift, for the well being of the Earth and her
creatures (p.54). He reported the establishment of Experimental Centres and that the work being done
by them justifies our hopes for further progress (p.52).
Of Dr. Lili Kolisko, Ritter (1926) reported that:
she showed us the ideal of the anthroposophical investigator of the future: the synthesis of
Occultist, Mystic and Scholar, - these three types of investigator, which have developed
successively in the course of human evolution up to the present time (p.53).
Ritter reported that Ehrenfried Pfeiffer brought to our consciousness the fact that the farmer seeks to
become a healer for Earth, plant and animal, and can finally become, by this activity, a healer of men
(p.53).
Already in Ritters 1926 account there is a recognition that what was proposed was a clash of cultures. He
wrote that this knowledge would give us the force to begin the fight against the greediness of agribusiness, which he lamented was turning the individual farms into mere mechanical means of production
and the whole economic life into a business (p.52). Ehrenfried Pfeiffer commented on this clash of agriphilosophies: At the time of the Agriculture Course the bio-dynamic direction of thought, and agricultural
chemistry, stood opposed (Pfeiffer, 1956b, p.6).
Ritter (1926, p.52) lauded the righteousness of the anthroposophic agricultural quest, and he foresaw
challenges ahead: For great and sacred are the tasks imposed upon us, and mighty is the foe and
treacherous are his weapons. In the meantime, gardening lessons were becoming an entrenched facet of
the Waldorf School curriculum (FWS, 1926), and were, thereby, enjoining anthroposophic thoughts on both
education and land care.
Later in 1926, at the Goetheanum, a name more or less unpronounceable for English readers according to
Wilson (1985, p.145), the Section for Natural Science issued its first Year Book, Ga-Sophia. That first year
book included two articles under the heading of Agriculture:

Agriculture in the sense of Rudolf Steiner, and

The Development of Agriculture through Anthroposophy (Wachsmuth, 1926, p.137).
What is clear is that, two years on from the Koberwitz course, agricultures place within anthroposophy was
still being explored, and a distinctive anthroposophical agriculture was yet to be defined or named.
Adalbert Keyserlingk, on the death of his father, Count Carl Keyserlingk, wrote of the hostility that his father
had endured pursuing his anthroposophic agricultural goals:
In the years that followed the course, the firms IG-Farben and Kali-Syndikat had grown more and
more hostile towards Count Keyserlingk He died suddenly at the end of December 1928 when

ISSN 1177-4258

30

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

on his way to a conference in Dornach, one might say from a broken heart because of the way
things were going (Keyserlingk, 1993, p.13-14).
At that time, IG-Farben and Kali-Syndikat were leading, as well as commercially aggressive, German
fertilizer companies (Lamer, 1957).
In a requiem to Count Carl von Keyserlingk, Meyer (1929, p.38) wrote of the Count, and of another
recently departed Anthroposophist, that:
the heart of each had broken as day by day they must suffer the pain of all that, out of the
spirit of our times, must stand opposed to the ideals they set before them.
Keyserlingk had been the driving force behind the agriculture course (Vreede, 1929). He was described by
Vreede as one to whom farming itself was a priestly office (p.38). According to Meyer (1929, p.29): Count
Keyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods.
By 1929, the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum could report the positive news that the work of
translating Steiners hints was now a global enterprise:
Dr. Steiners new methods for Agriculture have been investigated and applied on a practical and
on an experimental basis. The Experimental Circle now has its stations in most countries of
Europe and in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, America and Africa. Agricultural Conferences have
been arranged in Dornach and elsewhere (Steffen, Steiner, Wegman, Vreede & Wachsmuth,
1929, p.19).

Biological-Dynamic Methods, 1928

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer refers to Dr. Steiners biological-dynamic methods (1928, p.34) and this appears to be
the earliest characterisation of anthroposophic agriculture as biological-dynamic. The term is used once
only in that article. Pfeiffer reports that: the indications given by Dr. Steiner have been utilised with the
utmost success. Pfeiffers account is a report of a meeting of practical agriculturists, who met at
Marienstein6, from December 10th to 12th, 1927, at Herr Stegemanns delightful house for the
discussion which dealt in particular with experiments made according to Dr. Steiners biological-dynamic
methods (p.34).
Pfeiffer has elsewhere stated that: The name Bio-Dynamic Method of Agriculture was not given by Rudolf
Steiner but arose from the circle of those at the start who concerned themselves with the practical
application of this new direction of thought (Pfeiffer, 1956b, p.5). The December 1927 Marienstein
(Germany) meeting is a candidate for the origin of the term biological-dynamic.
Six months after the Marienstein 1927 meeting, Baron Senfft von Pilsach (1928, p.267) declared a new
development: We are at a turning point. He reported that farmers: have begun to experiment with our
biological-dynamic methods on their own estates, though they are not members of the Anthroposophical
Society.
It was this Marienstein Farmers Conference of 8-10 July 1928 that signalled the decoupling of the evolving
biological-dynamic farming methodology from its esoteric anthroposophic origins. It also identified a growing
consumer awareness of differentiated produce. Von Pilsach (1928, p.268) recorded that:
The non-anthroposophical farmers were evidently much impressed by the conference, and
encouraged to go on working with us. They will now take their share in meeting the urgent needs
of the consumer for the improvement of the quality of our foodstuffs.
Pfeiffer had already reported that: in the course of the year 1927 it was necessary to found a company,
which has undertaken the collection, preparation and distribution of the land produce obtained by biological
methods (Pfeiffer, 1928, p.34). Bartsch referred to the work of the Selling Department, founded September
1927, by members of our Experimental Circle (1929, p.58).
Bartsch (1929) refers to: our biological-dynamic agricultural methods (p.57); anthroposophical farmers
(p.56); and out-side farmers (p.58). Of this latter group, he relates that: it was also here rather difficult to
explain to the interested farmers the action of etheric upbuilding forces in cosmos, earth and man (p.57).
Despite such challenges, and reported Humorous incidents (p.57), Bartsch could nevertheless report, of
our new agricultural methods (p.57), that their Steinerian anthroposophical underpinnings were being
successfully decoupled, and the new agriculture methods were being formulated in their own sovereignty.
6 In Germany, east of Stuttgart and north of Munich.

ISSN 1177-4258

31

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

As Pfeiffer (1956b, p.5) later declared, the new methods: are for all, for all farmers, and they can be
employed by every farmer. Contemporary newspaper accounts of lectures to farmers referred to: new
biological-dynamic agricultural methods (Deutsche Bodenseezeitung, 1928b, p.397). The newspaper
correctly identified that here was something that was new and potentially revolutionary:
Though the title Biological-dynamic methods was somewhat new to the majority of the audience,
the lecturers remarks were all the more startling inasmuch as the possibility of their realisation
indicates a revolution in the agricultural world (Deutsche Bodenseezeitung, 1928a, p.396).

Anthroposophic Agricultural Foundation, UK, 1928

In London, the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation (AAF) was founded on 24 November 1928 (Pease,
1929). The 1928 annual report of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain reported the important news
that: Dr. Steiners Agricultural Course has been translated into English (Executive Council, 1929, p.31).
The translation of the Koberwitz course was by George Kaufmann and was dated 1929 (Steiner, 1929). It
was issued as a typescript document, printed on one side only. Copies were individually inscribed with a
copy number and the name of the recipient. It was titled Agriculture Course. It stated that it was: Issued
on behalf of the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum. The title page stated: Printed for private
circulation only. This copy is intended for the sole use of the person above-named (Steiner, 1929, title
page).
At the AAFs Bradford Weekend Conference, 15-17 February 1929, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer lectured in Britain possibly for the first time - and on the work of the Research Laboratory at the Goetheanum (London
Headquarters, 1929, p.27). The 1928 annual report also recorded that: Dr. Carl Alexander Mirbt, a German
trained agriculturist is coming to England as an expert assistant and adviser in the Anthroposophical
farming methods (Executive Council, 1929, p.32). That 1929 entry may be the earliest usage of the term
Anthroposophical farming - it was a term that did not gain any wide currency and was superceded by
biodynamic farming.
The first Annual Report of the AAF recorded that: Experimental stations are developing in Yorkshire,
Lancashire, Northumberland, Hertfordshire and Kent (Executive Council, 1929, p.32).

Truly, The Farm Is A Living Organism

In delivering his Agriculture Course Rudolf Steiner did not use any of the terms: organic farming, biodynamic farming, or biological-dynamic farming. All these descriptors came later. It took time for Steiners
agricultural hints to evolve into a coherent new agriculture.
Steiner had urged experimentation and patience:
These guiding lines are only the foundation for manifold experiments, which will extend, no doubt,
over a long period of time. Splendid results will emerge if you work out in thorough-going tests and
experiments what I have given here (Steiner, 1929, lecture VIII, p.18).
Woven throughout the days and lectures of the Agriculture Course is the recurring concept of organism. A
central concept for biodynamics is Steiners declaration that: Truly, the farm is a living organism (Steiner,
1929, lecture VIII, p.7). In the 1938 translation this was rendered as: The farm is truly an organism
(Steiner, 1938, p.85). The 1993 translation rendered this foundational concept as: A farm of this kind is truly
a living organism (Steiner, 1993). This was later taken up as the nominative motif for organic farming by
Northbourne (1940) in Look to the Land.
Steiner instructed the audience gathered at Koberwitz that:
if we wish to do things in a proper and natural way, we need to have this ideal concept of the
necessary self-containedness of any farm (Steiner, 1929, lecture II, p.1).
Steiner was advocating an attitude of approaching a farm holistically:
A farm is true to its essential nature, in the best sense of the word, if it is conceived as a kind of
individual entity in itself - a self-contained individuality. Every farm should approximate to this
condition whatever you need for agricultural production, you should try to possess it within the
farm itself (Steiner, 1929, lecture II, p.1).

ISSN 1177-4258

32

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Guenther Wachsmuth, writing in the first English rendition of the Agriculture Course, declared that these
were: Impulses of far-reaching importance for the future (Wachsmuth, 1929, p.2). He foresaw that: A new
foundation for Agriculture is therefore undoubtedly a turning-point of historic import (p.3).
At the close of the course, Steiners instruction for attendees was that the basis for the new Anthroposophic
agriculture needed to be based on experiment not dogma, that the new agriculture was to rely on the
practical demonstration of results, and that the course was effectively commercial-in-confidence until there
were proven replicable results (Box 3).
With these provisos in place, Steiner shared his macro view of this project: What we have here been doing
is a piece of real hard work, work which is tending to great and fruitful results for all humanity (1929, lecture
VIII, p.19).
Box 3. Steiners instructions at the final Agriculture Course lecture.
Steiners Three Injunctions to Agriculture Course Attendees
Experiment not Dogma: enhance it and develop it by actual experiments and tests. The
farmers society - the Experimental Circle that has been formed - will fix the point of time when
in its judgement the tests and experiments are far enough advanced to allow these things to
be published (Steiner, 1929, lecture VIII, p.19).
Demonstrate: As to the farmers - well, if they hear of these things from a fellow-farmer, they
will say, What a pity he has suddenly gone crazy! But eventually when he sees a really
good result, he will not feel a very easy conscience in rejecting it outright (Steiner, 1929,
lecture VIII, p.19).
Commercial-in-Confidence: If on the other hand the farmers hear of these things from
unauthorised persons - from persons who are merely interested - then indeed, the game is
up. If that were to happen, the whole thing would be discredited, its influence would be
undermined. Therefore it is most necessary: those of our friends who have only been allowed
to take part owing to their general interest and who are not in the Agricultural Circle, must
exercise the necessary self-constraint. They must keep it to themselves and not go carrying it
in all directions as people are so fond of doing with anthroposophical things (Steiner, 1929,
lecture VIII, p.19).

Rendering The Agriculture Course Into English, 1929

George Kaufmann (1894-1963) was uniquely qualified and an inspired choice to render Steiners Agriculture
Course into English. He was by all accounts a remarkable linguist. He was born in Poland of an Australian
father, George von Kaufmann, and an English mother, Kate Adams. The family had moved from Melbourne
to Poland just before George was born. His schooling was in England (Adams, 1958; Whicher, 1977).
Kaufmann was a Cambridge University graduate in mathematics and chemistry. He had a history of
championing unpopular ideas. During WWI in Britain he was in prison twice as a conscientious objector
and he went on a hunger strike (Whicher, 1977, p.16).
Kaufmann travelled to Dornach and met Steiner in 1919. He was in Dornach when the First Goetheanum
building was opened in 1920. He was first called upon to translate Steiners lectures into English at the 1921
Christmas Teachers Course at the Goetheanum. He had spent a great deal of his time with Steiner in
Dornach (Whicher, 1977, p.20). He was there, as was Steiner, on the night of New Years Eve 1922/23
when the first Goetheanum building burned to the ground (Whicher, 1977).
Kaufmann has given his own account of translating Steiner (Box 4). Olive Whicher (1977, p.20) praised
Kaufmanns extemporaneous rendering into English of Steiners lectures. Steiner paid tribute to Kaufmann
at the concluding address of the International Summer School, 22 August 1924, in Torquay (Box 4).
George Kaufmann made the Agriculture Course accessible to an English-speaking audience. The first
release in English was in 1929 (Steiner, 1929). That Kaufmanns credentials were impeccable for rendering
a veridical account is particularly important given that Steiners work was in German, that the written
account was assembled from the notes of participants, and that Steiner makes for somewhat tortuous
reading at times.
The agriculture course was delivered once only, in German, in an obscure Polish village, and to an audience
of about 100 people. Steiner's death early the following year on 30 March 1925 at Dornach, Switzerland
ISSN 1177-4258

33

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

(Collison, 1925) meant that the opportunity for consulting, and clarifications regarding any rendition or
translation, were dashed. Kaufmanns previous experience of translating Steiner from 1921 to 1925 at
Dornach, London, Oxford, Kings Langley, Stratford, Ilkley, Bingley, Penmaenmawr, Tintagel, and Torquay
(Villeneuve, 2004a, 2004b), stood him in good stead for rendering an account of Steiners anthroposophic
perspectives on agriculture into English.
During WWII Kaufmann volunteered for non-combatant duties. He worked briefly as Captain Kaufmann as
an interpreter at a British POW camp. Kaufmann was British, under the provisions prevailing at the time, by
dint of his father being Australian, however, bearing an overtly Germanic name was not an asset in WWII
Britain. These circumstances led to him resigning his commission as well as adopting his mothers maiden
name of Adams from 1940 onwards. He spent the rest of the WWII years in London as a monitor for the
BBC, and learned several Slavonic languages in that period (Adams, 1958; Whicher, 1977, p.29).
Box 4. George Kaufmann was the first translator of Steiners Agriculture Course.
George Kaufmann: Translator to Rudolf Steiner
Olive Whi c h e r o n K a u f m a n n: he would stand up, so young a man, at intervals in a
lecture divided into three parts, and repeat again in beautiful English and with utmost
devotion, almost word for word what Rudolf Steiner had just spoken in German in a lecture of
vast spiritual content. He made a few pictorial notes of his own creation and for the rest relied
on his prodigious memory and spoke with great vitality and confidence. In all he interpreted
about 110 lectures, besides many conferences and conversations. For him and for those
present it was an unforgettable experience, and Rudolf Steiner never failed to express his
great gratitude (Whicher, 1977, p.20).
Geo r g e K a u f m a n n o n K a u f m a n n: Dr. Steiner would nearly always divide the lecture
into three parts, speaking for 20 to 25 minutes at a time. The lecture was then completed in
three stages I was rather shy and diffident in Dr. Steiners presence But when
interpreting his lectures I was never shy. I went all out, there was adventure in it, and all the
time, whether he were speaking or listening, I felt quiet encouragement in his presence
(Adams, 1958, p.11-12).
Rudo l f St e i n e r o n K a u f m a n n: Most especially I thank our dear friend Kaufmann, who
has been so visible beside me all the time in making sure in the most self-effacing and
accurate way that what I have had to say could be adequately understood. So I thank Mr
Kaufmann very specially this evening (22 August, Torquay, 1922, in Steiner, 1998, p.280).

The Agriculture Course was republished in 1958, with Kaufmann erased and stating: translated by George
Adams (Steiner, 1958). A fresh rendering of the agriculture course translated into English by Catherine
Creeger and Malcolm Gardner appeared in 1993 (Steiner, 1993) more than six decades after Kaufmanns
original. Both these translations remain currently in print.

Evolving Bio-Dynamic
Unlike organic farming, which appeared fully formed in Look to the Land and within a coherent manifesto
(Paull, 2006), bio-dynamic farming evolved over 14 years. Although Rudolf Steiner is credited as the
originator of bio-dynamic agriculture (Pfeiffer, 1938a, p.vi), the term bio-dynamic would have been entirely
unfamiliar to him. The first English translation of Rudolf Steiners Agriculture Course of 1924, included, in the
Editors Preface, the freshly coined phrase: the biological-dynamic methods (Wachsmuth, 1929, p.F/4).
Two pamphlets authored by Pfeiffer in a series: The Biological-Dynamic Method of Rudolf Steiner reflect
the increasing adoption of the term biological-dynamic(1934a, 1934b) 7.
After a decade of use biological-dynamic was contracted to bio-dynamic, with this new contraction
appearing in Pfeiffers 1938 publications: Practical Guide to the Use of the Bio-Dynamic Preparations
(1938f) (Plate 1); and Bio-dynamic Farming and Gardening (1938a) (Plate 1; Figure 1).
7 Note: these works are undated, and l brary catalogues vary in the dates they attribute to these publications. I attribute the date 1934
to them both on the basis that they are companion publications as evidenced by their common printer, Morrison and Gibb Ltd., and by
their shared physical attributes including matching size, binding, cover, paper and font. New Methods (Pfeiffer, 1934b) was based on
Pfeiffers lecture presented in London on 31 May 1934 (p.2), and Pfeiffer himself dates this particular publication as 1934 in a later
bibliography (Pfeiffer, 1938a, p.218).

ISSN 1177-4258

34

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

The year after Pfeiffers two biological-dynamic pamphlets of 1934, Pfeiffers first book in English appeared:
Short Practical Instructions in the Use of the Biological-Dynamic Methods of Agriculture (1935). Three years
later a Revised Edition appeared (1938f) (Plate 1). These books are a codification and formulation of what
had been learned, by trial and experiment, from twelve years of practical work (1935, p.10); and, for the
revised edition, from fifteen years of practical work (1938f, p. 8).

Figure 1. Evolution from Agriculture Course to Bio-Dynamic Farming.

A comparison of these two books (Box 5) reveals a growing confidence, openness, and the evolution of the
terminology:

the name: Biological-Dynamic (1935) is shortened to Bio-Dynamic (1938);

the term: Anthroposophical Farmers and Gardeners is scrapped in the revised edition;
the term: Methods becomes Method;
the instructions: are not available to the public is softened to: are not written for;
the promise: can lead to full results is strengthened to: cannot fail of success.

Pfeiffers (1938a, 1938f) use of the term bio-dynamic in two book titles in 1938 are the first use of the
contraction bio-dynamic that I have identified. Pfeiffer's book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening (1938a)
appears to be the first usage to move beyond method and/or methods to employ the term bio-dynamic
directly as a qualifier of farming, and added to that was gardening as well.
The 1938 book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening appeared in at least four other languages. The
German language edition (1938c) uses the term Biologisch-Dynamische, with the preface signed
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Dornach, Mrz 1937 (p.5). The Italian language edition (1938e) uses the term
biologico-dinamico, and the Prefazione is dated Decembre 1937 (p.17). The Dutch edition (1938b) uses
the term Biologisch-Dynamische with the preface dated Maart 1937 (p.4). The French edition (1938d)
carries the sub-title Le principe bio-dynamique dans la nature; the Introduction is signed E.P. but is
undated. In the English language edition biological-dynamic takes the shortened form of bio-dynamic and
is used as an adjective to differentiate a style of farming and gardening.

ISSN 1177-4258

35

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Plate 1. Ehrenfried Pfeiffers 1935 and 1938 publications show the evolution from Biological
Dynamic to Bio-Dynamic (Photo: J. Paull).
The English language edition of Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening is a translation by Frederick Heckel
(Pfeiffer, 1938a, p.vi). The Preface, by Pfeiffer, is dated and placed as Dornach, February 1938 (p.vii). The
dates of the five language editions indicate that the short-form bio-dynamic was developed between
December 1937 and February 1938, that is, between signing off the Italian version and signing off the
English version.
Box 5. The transition from Biological-Dynamic (Pfeiffer, 1935) to Bio-Dynamic (Pfeiffer, 1938f)
[underlining added].
Pfeiffers Biological-Dynamic (1935) to Bio-Dynamic (1938)
Da t e: October 1935.
Ti t l e: Short Practical Instructions in the Use of the Biological-Dynamic Methods of Agriculture.
Ti t l e p a g e l e g e n d: Written at the request of the General Circle of Anthroposophical Farmers and
Gardeners.
End n o t e: These practical instructions are not available to the public (p.65).
Con t a c t d e t a i l s: Bureau for the Biological-Dynamic Methods of Farming (Switzerland).
Open i n g s e n t e n c e s: The practical application of the biological-dynamic method of agriculture
consists in carrying out a series of measures which can lead to full results if exact and conscientious
care is give. It is true that these methods demand a finely perceptive penetration into the life of all
growing things.
Da t e: 1938.
Ti t l e: Practical Instructions in the Use of the Bio-Dynamic Preparations.
Ti t l e p a g e l e g e n d: Revised Edition.
End n o t e : These practical instructions are not intended for the general public (p.64).
Con t a c t d e t a i l s: Bureau for the Bio-Dynamic Method of Agriculture (Switzerland).
Open i n g s e n t e n c e s: The bio-dynamic method of husbandry requires for its practical application the
use of many measures, the careful and conscientious application of which cannot fail of success. It is
true that these measures require close observation and attention on the part of the husbandman.

ISSN 1177-4258

36

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Pfeiffers 1938 Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening represented the fruits of the practice, the experiments,
and the developments of Steiners 1924 hints for a new direction for agriculture. The 240 page book,
available to the public, was the reification of Steiners initial injunction to test, experiment, improve and
develop on his initial hints revealed to Anthroposophically-inclined farmers and others, and to develop
them to a stage suitable for publication (Steiner, 1924b, 1924c).
Pfeiffers book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening was an important milestone. Here was a popular book,
readable, readily available, practical, and although philosophical, neither mystical nor mystifying. The book
crystallized a decade and a half of discussions, practical work and experimentation by Anthroposophists and
others in many countries. It was an enterprise that had been co-ordinated from the Natural Science Section
of the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. The book represented the culmination of the homework set
Anthroposophists by Rudolf Steiner a decade and a half previously, and it was now the public and
international proclamation of the envisaged new agriculture.
Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening clearly and unequivocally adopted bio-dynamic as a qualifier of both
farming and gardening, thereby eliminating the previously intervening verbiage methods of, as in BioDynamic methods of Agriculture. In Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, Anthroposophy only makes an
appearance as the publisher, Anthroposophic Press, New York, on the title and verso pages. Steiner
appears as Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., London on the title page. The book was co-published by these
two publishers. In the Preface, Pfeiffer paid the following tribute: Its originator, Rudolf Steiner, gave the
basis on which this book rests (Pfeiffer, 1938a, p.vi) (Plate 2).

Plate 2. Pfeiffers 1938 Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening (Photo: J. Paull).

The first English language edition stated: Translated from the German by Fred Heckel (1938a, p. 1). The
second edition, two years later, acknowledged Mr. Frederick Heckel as the Secretary of the Bio-dynamic
Farmers and Gardeners Association Spring Valley, New York (1940, p.ix), but the title page now omitted
any reference to translated or to German. At this point, Britain and Germany, although not the USA, were
at war.
The release of Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening squared the agriculture of the Anthroposophists with
the Statutes of the Anthroposophical Society. The eighth statute states that: All publications of the Society
will be open to the public (Steiner et al., 1923, p.3). On the other hand there had been Steiners injunction:
No kind of communication was to be made about the contents of the [agriculture] Course until
such time as the members of the Association felt impelled to speak out of the results of their own
experimental work (Steiner, 1924b, p.17).
Pfeiffers role could be characterised as having carried forward Anthroposophical thoughts of agriculture
from mystery to muck. Pfeiffer had steered the development of Steiners new agriculture through to the point
where it was now sufficiently coherent and developed in both theory and practice to be offered to the public,
and to be differentiated in the agri-market with its own distinctive branding.

ISSN 1177-4258

37

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

In chapter one of Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, Pfeiffer declared that: The ways and means for the
regeneration of the farm can be found only in a comprehensive view of the earth as an organism, as a
living entity (1938a, p.5). Chapter four is titled: The Soil, A Living Organism (1938a, p.ix). That chapter
concludes with the declaration that the cultivated field is a living organism, a living entity in the totality of its
processes (p.35).
This theme of the farm-as-organism was not new to members of the UKs Anthroposophical Agricultural
Foundation. Their journal Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation Notes and Correspondence had
presented articles making this point, but to the very restricted audience of members. Articles that the
Foundation had published in their journal included:

Farm as a Living Organism (Mirbt & Pease, 1933, p.216);

Poultry in the Farm Organism (Wood, 1935, p.262); and
The Farm - Organism (Wood, 1936, p.315).
Herbert Koepf states that Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening was to become the textbook on the
biodynamic method in agriculture (1991, p.14). The book was subsequently republished, in 1947, by Faber
and Faber, London with the original title and subtitle interchanged, and appeared as: Soil Fertility, Renewal
& Preservation: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening (Pfeiffer, 1947). Publishing with Faber took Pfeiffers
book into the agri-book mainstream, and provided a distribution network far beyond what any
Anthroposophic publisher, then or since, could achieve.
Faber & Faber were at the time a major mainstream UK agri-book publisher. Their stable of agrarian writers
included: George Stapleton (1935); Eve Balfour (1943); Rolf Gardiner (1943); Viscount Lymington (1943);
Albert Howard (1945); and Louise Howard (1947). Publishing with Faber, and in this company of writers,
was a coup for Pfeiffer personally and biodynamics generally.
The 1947 Faber edition, Soil Fertility, Renewal & Preservation, added Northbourne's Look to the Land
(1940) into the Bibliography as an asterisked entry: Publications bearing especially on our subject are
marked with an asterix [sic] (Pfeiffer, 1947). The most recent English language edition, published in 1983
with an Introduction by Eve Balfour (1899-1990), has retained the title inversion (Pfeiffer, 1983). Koepf
reports that there have been at least six German editions (1991, p.14).
Of biodynamics, Pfeiffer put the time of creation of the method as during the years 1922-24 and
afterwards during the years of experimental and empirical trials (from 1924 to about 1930) (Pfeiffer, 1956a,
p.3). These events in Switzerland, Poland, and Germany, initiated the foundational stirrings of a worldembracing agricultural movement (Pfeiffer, 1956b, p.3).
Pfeiffer had moved to Dornach at the age of 21 years in 1920 (Selawry, 1992, p.8). He was in Dornach
during the final six years of Rudolf Steiners life, his first duties being working on the design and installation
of stage lighting (Selawry, 1992). His earliest book is a co-authored handbook on the installation and
maintenance of high voltage electrical systems (von Gaisberg, Lux, Michalke & Pfeiffer, 1927). Working in
the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum, he had created the vehicle to carry biodynamics to a broad
audience.
In the USA the first Anthroposophical Summer School was held at Threefold Farm, Spring Valley, New York
State, 8-23 July 1933. This had been Pfeiffers first visit to the US, and he delivered two lectures on the
topic: Dr. Steiners Biologic Dynamic Agricultural Methods Practically Applied in Farming [sic] (Day, 2008).
Pfeiffer founded the North American Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association in 1938 (Lorand,
2006, p.36).

Concluding Remarks
Rudolf Steiners agriculture course of 1924 came of age with the publication of Ehrenfried Pfeiffers book,
Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, in 1938. This book was the culmination of a fourteen year gestation.
Rudolf Steiner had shared his thoughts and ideas, on how Anthroposophy could inform farming practice, in
a ten day course of lectures and discussions in the small and obscure town in Koberwitz in Silesia, in what
is now Poland, to an audience of about 100 attendees.
Steiner had urged that his agricultural hints should be tested experimentally, that the efficacy of proven
methods should be both demonstrable and demonstrated, and eventually should be published. Pfeiffer's
book was the reification of these three injunctions.Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening was
contemporaneously published in German, Italian, French, and Dutch editions, as well as, in both London

ISSN 1177-4258

38

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

and New York, in English. Pfeiffers book brought the practices, philosophy, and nomenclature of this
alternative agriculture to a worldwide audience.
Pfeiffer was a credible, dedicated and articulate advocate for biodynamics as a viable and differentiated
form of agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture had evolved out of Steiners course, but Steiner had died in 1925
and so he witnessed none of this fruit of his agriculture course.
In the period of evolution, from the Steiner course in 1924, to the Pfeiffer book in 1938, biodynamic
agriculture had been clearly differentiated from chemical farming, and had developed its independence from
Anthroposophy, while maintaining its anthroposophic association, in particular via the Goetheanum, in
Dornach, Switzerland.
Rudolf Steiner was a prime exemplar of the dictum, attributed to Goethe (Murray, 1951, p.282), that:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Within the
family of organic agricultural practices, biodynamic farming continues to grow and evolve, to successfully
contribute to the organic agriculture discourse, and to maintain its distinct identity.

References
Adams, G. (1958). Rudolf Steiner in England. In A. Freeman & C. Waterman (Eds.). Rudolf Steiner:
Recollections by Some of his Pupils (pp. 1-21). London: The Golden Blade.
Balfour, E. B. (1943). The Living Soil: Evidence of the importance to human health of soil vitality, with special
reference to post-war planning (7th edn. 1947). London: Faber and Faber.
Barnes, H. (1997). A Life for the Spirit: Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time. Hudson, NY:
Anthroposophic Press.
Bartsch, E. (1925). In Memory of the Agricultural Course. Anthroposophical Movement, 2(24), 197.
Bartsch, E. (1929). On the work done by the Experimental Circle of Agriculturalists in Germany.
Anthroposophical Movement, 6(7), 56-58.
Collison, H. (1925). Rudolf Steiner. X a.m. 30th March, 1925, R.I.P. Anthroposophical Movement, 2(13), 101.
Day, B. (2008). Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, the Threefold Community, and the Birth of Biodynamics in America.
Biodynamics(Fall), 41-43.
Deutsche Bodenseezeitung. (1928a). [Reprint from] Deutsche Bodenseezeitung, October 27th.
Anthroposophical Movement, 5(50), 396.
Deutsche Bodenseezeitung. (1928b). [Reprint from] Deutsche Bodenseezeitung, October 31st.
Anthroposophical Movement, 5(50), 396-397.
Executive Council. (1929). Anthoposphical Society in Great Britain, Annual Report for the Year 1928.
Anthroposophical Movement, 6(4A), 29-35.
Falling Rain Genomics. (2004). Kobierzyce, Poland Page: available at: <www.fallingrain.com>.
FWS. (1926). The Free Waldorf School. Anthroposopical Movement, 3(6), 41-43.
Gardiner, R. (1943). England Herself: Ventures in Rural Restoration. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.
Gardner, M. (1993). Editorial Notes. In M. Gardner, Spititual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture by
Rudolf Steiner (pp. 263-282). Kimberton, PA: Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association.
Hare, W. L. (1922). An Impression of Dr Rudolf Steiner. In A Man Before Others: Rudolf Steiner
Remembered (1993; pp. 211-213; reprinted from Occult Review, October 1922). Bristol: Rudolf
Steiner Press.
Hemleben, J. (1963). Rudolf Steiner: A Documentary Biography (1975, first English language edition; Leo
Twyman trans). East Grinstead, Sussex: Henry Goulden.
Howard, A., & Howard, L. E. (1945). Farming and Gardening for Health and Disease. London: Faber and
Faber.
Howard, L. E. (1947). The Earth's Green Carpet. London: Faber and Faber.
Keyserlingk, A. C. (1993). Developing Biodynamic Agriculture: Reflections on Early Research (1999 First
English Edition; trans. A. R. Meuss). London: Temple Lodge.
Koepf, H. H. (1991). Ehrenfried Pfeiffer: Pioneer in Agriculture and Natural Sciences. Kimberton, USA: BioDynamic Farming and Gardening Association Inc.
Kries, M., & Vegesack, A. v. (Eds.). (2010). Rudolf Steiner - Alchemy of the Everyday, English. Weil am
Rhein: Vitra Design Museum.
Lachman, G. (2007). Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work. New York: Jeremy P.Tarcher/
Penguin.
Lamer, M. (1957). The World Fertilizer Economy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Lissau, R. (2005). Rudolf Steiner: His life, work, inner path and social initiatives. Stroud, Gloucestershire,
UK: Hawthorn Press.
London Headquarters. (1929). Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain: Notices to Members.
Anthroposophical Movement, 6(3&4), 26-27.
ISSN 1177-4258

39

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Lorand, A. (2006). Biodynamics Between Myth and Reality. In J. Peterson, Frmer John's Cookbook: The
Real Dirt on Vegetables (pp. 34-39). Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publishers.
Lymington, Viscount (1943). Alternative to Death: The Relationship between Soil, Family and Community.
London: Faber and Faber.
Meyer, C. (1929). Requiem. Anthroposophical Movement, 6(5), 38-40.
Mirbt, C. A. (1930). The Application of the Biological Dynamic Methods in Gardens. Anthroposophical
Movement, 7(12), 93-95.
Mirbt, C. A., & Pease, M. (1933). Farm as a Living Organism. Huby Experiments. Anthropsophical Methods
on Animals and Produce. Anthroposopical Agricultural Foundation Notes and Correspondence, 3(8),
216-217.
Murray, W. H. (1951). The Scottish Himalayan Expedition. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.
Northbourne, Lord. (1940). Look to the Land. London: Dent.
NSS. (1925). Natural Science Section: Agricultural Session at Dornach, 7th to 10th January, 1926.
Anthroposophical Movement, 2(50), 406.
Paull, J. (2006). The farm as organism: the foundational idea of organic agriculture. Journal of Bio-Dynamics
Tasmania, (80), 14-18.
Pease, M. (1929). Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain. Anthroposophical Movement, 6(40), 346-348.
Pfeiffer, E. (1928). The Work of the Agricultural Experimental Group. Anthroposophical Movement, 5(5), 3435.
Pfeiffer, E. (1934a). Does Bread Nourish. London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.
Pfeiffer, E. (1934b). New Methods in Agriculture and Their Effects on Food-stuffs. London: Rudolf Steiner
Publishing Co.
Pfeiffer, E. (1935). Short Practical Instructions in the Use of the Biological-Dynamic Methods of Agriculture.
London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938a). Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening: Soil Fertility Renewal and Preservation (F.
Heckel, Trans.). New York: Anthroposophic Press.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938b). De Vruchtbaardheid der Aarde: Haar Behoud en Haar Vernieuwing het BiologischDynamische Principe in de Natuur. Deventer, Netherlands: N.V. Uitgevers-Maatschappij & E.
Kluwer.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938c). Die Fruchtbarkeit der Erde Ihre Erhaltung and Erneuerung: Das Biologisch-Dynamische
Prinzip in der Natur. Basle, Switzerland: Verlag Zbinden & Hugin.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938d). Fcondit de la Terre, Mthode pour conserver ou rtablir la fertilit du sol: Le principe
bio-dynamique dans la nature. Paris: Editions de La Science Spirituelle.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938e). La Fertilita della Terra come Restaurarla e come Conservarla. Milano, Italy: La Prora.
Pfeiffer, E. (1938f). Practical Guide to the Use of the Bio-Dynamic Preparations (Revised Edition). London:
Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.
Pfeiffer, E. (1940). Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening: Soil Fertility Renewal and Preservation (second
revised and enlarged ). New York: Anthroposophic Press.
Pfeiffer, E. (1947). Soil Fertility, Renewal & Preservation: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening (1947 edition
of 1938 publication; first thus with the original title and subtitle interchanged). London: Faber and
Faber.
Pfeiffer, E. (1956a). Bio-Dynamics: A Short, Practical Introduction. Bio-Dynamics(41), 2-9.
Pfeiffer, E. (1956b). Rudolf Steiner's Impulse to Agriculture. Bio-Dynamics(40), 2-15.
Pfeiffer, E. (1958). Preface. In R. Steiner (Ed.), Agriculture Course: The Birth of the Biodynamic Method,
EIght lectures given in Koberwitz, Silesia, between 7 and 16 June 1924, (George Adams Trans, first
published thus 1958, 2004 ed (pp. 5-16). Forest Row, UK: Rudolf Steiner Press.
Pfeiffer, E. (1983). Soil Fertility, Renewal & Preservation: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening (1983 edition;
1938 original title and subtitle interchanged; plus new introduction). East Grinstead, Sussex: The
Lanthorn Press.
Pfeiffer, E. E. (1958). New Directions in Agriculture. In A. Freeman & C. Waterman (Eds.). Rudolf Steiner:
Recollections by Some of his Pupils (pp. 118-129). London: The Golden Blade.
Ritter, W. (1926). On the Work of the Anthroposophical Farmers and their Meeting at Dornach in January,
1926. Anthroposophical Movement, 3(7), 52-54.
Selawry, A. (1992). Ehrenfried Pfeiffer: Pioneer of Spiritual Research and Practice. Spring Valley, NY:
Mercury Press.
Stapleton, G. (1935). The Land, Now and To-morrow. London: Faber & Faber.
Steffen, A., Steiner, M., Wegman, I., Vreede, E., & Wachsmuth, G. (1929). The Goetheanum at Dornach.
Anthroposophical Movement, 6(3&4), 17-24.
Steiner, R. (1924a). Report to members of the Anthroposophical Society after the Agriculture Course,
Dornach, Switzerland, June 20, 1924 (C. E. Creeger & M. Gardner, Trans.). In M. Gardner, Spititual
Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture by Rudolf Steiner (1993, pp. 1-12). Kimberton, PA: BioDynamic Farming and Gardening Association.

ISSN 1177-4258

40

Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011

Steiner, R. (1924b). To All Members: The Meetings at Breslau and Koberwitz; the Waldorf School; the
longings of the Youth. Anthroposophical Movement, 1, 17-18.
Steiner, R. (1924c). To All Members: The Meetings at Koberwitz and Breslau. Anthroposophical Movement,
1, 9-11.
Steiner, R. (1928). The Story of My Life. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co.
Steiner, R. (1929). Agriculture Course ("Printed for private circulation only"; first English language edition;
George Kaufmann Trans). Dornach, Switzerland: Geotheanum.
Steiner, R. (1938). The Agricultural Course ("Printed for private circulation only", 1938 ed. of 1924 course,
new translation, translator not identified). London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing.
Steiner, R. (1958). Agriculture: A Course of Eight Lectures (George Adams Trans, 1958 ed. of 1924 course).
London: Bio-Dynamic Agricultural Association.
Steiner, R. (1993). Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture: A course of lectures held at
Koberwitz, Silesia, June 7 to 16, 1924 (C. Creeger & M. Gardner, Trans. This translation first
published 1993). Kimberton, PA: Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association Inc.
Steiner, R. (1998). Rudolf Steiner Speaks to the British: Letters and Addresses in England and Wales (J.
Collis, Trans.). London: Rudolf Steiner Press.
Steiner, R., Steffen, A., Wegmann, I., Steiner, M., Vreede, E., & Wachsmuth, G. (1923). Statutes of the
Anthropsophical Society. Dornach: Anthroposophical Society.
Turgeniev, A. (2003). Reminisces of Rudolf Steiner and Work on the First Goetheanum (M. Wood & J.
Wood, Trans.). Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
Villeneuve, C. (2004a). Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of his Ten Visits, Volume 1, 1902-1921.
Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
Villeneuve, C. (2004b). Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of his Ten Visits, Volume 11, 1922-1925.
Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
von Gaisberg, S. F., Lux, G., Michalke, C., & Pfeiffer, E. (1927). Taschenbuch fur Monteure Elekrischer
Starkstromanlage Bearbeitet und Herausgegeben ((Handbook for Mecanic). Munchen, Germany:
Druck und Verlag von R. Oldenbourg.
von Keyserlingk, A. G. (Ed.). (1999). The Birth of a New Agriculture. London: Temple Lodge.
von Pilasch, Baron Senfft. (1928). Farmer's Conference. Anthroposophical Movement, 5(34), 267-268.
Vreede, E. (1929). Count Carl von Keyserlingk: A New Years Eve Memory. Anthroposophical Movement,
6(5), 37-38.
Wachsmuth, G. (1926). Anthroposophical Movement. Anthroposophical Movement, 3(29), 135-137.
Wachsmuth, G. (1929). Editor's Preface. In R. Steiner (Ed.), Agriculture Course (first English language
edition; George Kaufmann Trans ed., pp. F/1-F/4). Dornach, Switzerland: Natural Science Section,
Goetheanum.
Wachsmuth, G. (1989). The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner (O. D. Wannamaker & R. E. Raab, Trans. 2nd
edition; first published in German 1941). Blauvert, NY: Spiritual Science Library.
Whicher, O. (1977). George Adams: Interpreter of Rudolf Steiner. East Grinstead, Sussex, UK: Henry
Goulden.
Wilson, C. (1985). Rudolf Steiner: The Man and His Vision. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: The
Aquarian Press.
Wood, E. M. (1935). Poultry in the Farm Organism. Anthroposopical Agricultural Foundation Notes and
Correspondence, 4(10), 262-264.
Wood, E. M. (1936). The Farm - Organism. Anthroposopical Agricultural Foundation Notes and
Correspondence, 4(5), 315-319.

ISSN 1177-4258

41