The glass windows of the first Goetheanum

The violet north window of the second Goetheanum.

For the glass windows of the first Goetheanum, with which the large domed hall was equipped, a special form of glass art was developed according to Rudolf Steiner, namely a form of glass etching in which motifs designed on single-coloured glass panes were etched in with a carborundum grinder using the so-called slash method. The resulting difference in glass thickness made the motifs stand out particularly clearly in the incident sunlight. The coloured glass windows of the Goetheanum were produced in the so-called glass house. Assia Turgenieff was entrusted with the production. She worked under the guidance of the Polish painter and anthroposophist Thaddäus Rychter.

The motifs of the nine stained glass windows of the large domed hall depicted, starting from the red west window, a path of initiation leading through the entire micro- and macrocosmic world to the knowledge of Christ. The individual stages of the path were to be walked through in the following order:

1. The red west window shows the path to imaginative knowledge.
2. The green south window shows the path to inspired knowledge.
3. The green north window shows the path to intuition.
4. The blue north window shows the initiation into the world of the spirit, into the Devachan.
5. The blue south window shows the initiation into the astral world.
6. The violet south window shows the initiation into the cosmic etheric world.
7. The violet north window shows the initiation into the earthly physical world.
8. The pink north window depicts the experiences that the human soul goes through when the etheric vision is directed towards the human interior.
9. The pink south window shows the experiences that the soul goes through when the etheric vision is directed towards the cosmic world.

This brought one to the threshold of the small domed hall in which the statue of the Representative of Humanity was to be erected, as a symbol of the knowledge of Christ to be attained with the crossing of the threshold as the tenth initiation step. This is the initiation into the work of the Christ in the microcosm and macrocosm. The Christ stands as the Representative of Humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman, both of whom, however, appear twice each. One Lucifer-Ahriman pair works within man, the other outside in the cosmos. The Christ proves to be the Greater Guardian of the Threshold.

• The glass windows of the first Goetheanum
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  Red west window (imagination)

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  Green south window (inspiration)

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  Green north window (intuition)

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  Blue north window (Devachan)

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  Blue south window (astral world)

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  Violet south window (etheric world)

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  Violet north window (physical world)

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  Pink north window (etheric vision)

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  Pink south window (cosmic world)

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  Representative of Humanity

The glass windows of the second Goetheanum

Since the glass windows had been destroyed in the fire of the first Goetheanum on New Year's Eve 1922/23, Assia Turgenieff re-engraved them for the second Goetheanum, which was built of concrete. Because of the changed architecture, however, the original arrangement with two narrow side windows and a large central window could only be retained for the red west window. For the other eight windows, the narrow side motifs were arranged below the wide main motif.

Literature

• Georg Hartmann: Goetheanum-Glasfenster, Verlag Am Goetheanum, Dornach 2002, ISBN 3-7235-0049-8