Marie Steiner

Marie von Sivers

Marie Steiner

Marie and Rudolf Steiner (1908)

Marie Steiner also Marie Steiner-von Sivers, née Marie von Sivers or Sievers, Siebers (* 14 March 1867 in Wloclawek, Poland; † 27 December 1948 in Beatenberg, Switzerland) was a Russian/German actress, theosophist, anthroposophist and the second wife of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy.

Life and work

Childhood and youth

Marie Steiner was born on 14 March 1867 in Wloclawek, then part of Russia, now part of Poland, as one of eight children. Her father Jacob von Sievers, who came from a Livonian family, was a military officer in Russian service with the rank of lieutenant general and was the town's commander. The mother Caroline Baum came from a Rhenish family that had settled in Archangelsk in northern Russia. Around 1874/75, the family moved to Riga due to a service transfer of the father, and around 1877, after the father's retirement, another move to Saint Petersburg followed. There Marie attended a German public school, after which she followed one of her brothers to a run-down farm near Novgorod, where she worked as a teacher. In 1894/95, the brother died and Marie had to return to St Petersburg.

Turning to art

With the financial support of her family, she studied recitation and acting at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1895 to 1897, the latter studies she continued after her return to St. Petersburg. In 1899 she received an offer to play at the Schiller Theater in Berlin, whereupon she moved to Germany. However, the confines of the stage did not suit her and she left the theatre in the same year. After becoming acquainted with and appreciating the works of Eduard Schuré, she contacted him in October 1900, whereupon a lively correspondence developed and she translated several of Schuré's works from French into German.

In the Theosophical Society

Having been alerted by a hint from Schuré, she joined the German Theosophical Society (D.T.G.) in Berlin in November 1900. There, in the same month, she met in the library of Cay Lorenz Graf von Brockdorff and his wife Sophie Gräfin von Brockdorff as well as Rudolf Steiner, who had been giving lectures in these rooms since the end of September 1900. This encounter shaped their lives from then on until her death in 1948. After Count Brockdorff had resigned from his position as leader of the Berlin D.T.G. Lodge for reasons of age, Steiner became both a member of the D.T.G. and the new leader of the Berlin Lodge on 17 January 1902, with Marie as his secretary and right-hand woman. At the foundation of the German Section of the Theosophical Society (DSdTG), which followed on 19 October 1902, Steiner took over the post of General Secretary, continuing with Marie as his secretary.

From the beginning, Sivers worked closely with Steiner and it was she who was largely responsible for the administrative and organisational work of the DSdTG. In addition, she organised Steiner's increasingly extensive lecturing activities, conducted the correspondence that became necessary, accompanied him on many of his journeys and also acted as his interpreter abroad. In order to be able to publish Steiner's numerous writings more easily, she founded the Philosophical-Theosophical Publishing House in Berlin in 1908. A major reason for this was that Steiner's works were becoming increasingly esoteric and therefore fewer and fewer publishers were prepared to publish them because of feared low sales figures. In 1913 the institution was renamed Philosophical Anthroposophical Publishing House and in 1923 moved to Dornach in Switzerland.

Works (selection)

• Aphoristisches zur Rezitationskunst. Der kommende Tag, Stuttgart 1922
• Rudolf Steiner und die Künste, Ein Aufsatz aus dem Jahr 1927. Rudolf-Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach 1961
• Rudolf Steiner und die redenden Künste, Eurythmie, Sprachgestaltung und dramatische Kunst, gesammelte Aufsätze und Berichte. Rudolf-Steiner-Verlag, Dornach 1974; ISBN 3-7274-5169-6
• Aus dem Wirken von Marie Steiner, Gesammelte Aufsätze. Rudolf-Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach 1951

As translator:

• Schuré, Eduouard: Das heilige Drama von Eleusis, Rekonstruiert von Edouard Schuré, In freie Rhythmen gebracht durch Rudolf Steiner. Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1939
• Schuré, Edouard: Die großen Eingeweihten, Geheimlehren der Religionen. Barth, München 1992; ISBN 3-502-65542-1
• Die Heiligtümer des Orients, Ägypten - Griechenland - Palästina. Engel und Seefels, Stuttgart 1991; ISBN 3-927118-02-8
• Solov'ev, Vladimir Sergeevich: Gedichte. Rudolf-Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach 1969

Literature

• Hammacher, Wilfried: Marie Steiner, Lebensspuren einer Individualität. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 1998; ISBN 3-7725-1798-6
• Poeppig, Fred: Marie Steiner, ein Leben im Dienst der Wiedergeburt des Wortes. Lohengrin-Verlag, Rendsburg 1990
• Rudolf-Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung (Hrsg.): Marie Steiner- von Sivers, ein Leben für die Anthroposophie , eine biografische Dokumentation in Briefen und Dokumenten, Zeugnissen von Rudolf Steiner, Maria Strauch, Edouard Schuré und anderen. Rudolf-Steiner-Verlag, Dornach 1988; ISBN 3-7274-5321-4
• Samweber, Anna: Aus meinem Leben, Erinnerungen an Rudolf Steiner und Marie Steiner- von Sivers. Verlag Die Pforte, Basel 1983; ISBN 3-85636-063-8
• Schubert, Ilona: Selbsterlebtes im Zusammensein mit Rudolf Steiner und Marie Steiner. Zbinden, Basel 1977; ISBN 3-85989-383-1

Weblinks

• Detailed biography and pictures