MADAM – Graham Kennish in the SNJ of January 21 seeks to refute the accusation that Rudolf Steiner’s teachings are inherently racist on the grounds that Hitler “immediately closed down all the Steiner schools in Germany”.

Besides being a logically invalid argument this is also factually incorrect.

The last Waldorf school in Germany did not close until 1941, having been protected until then by prominent Nazis including Rudolf Hess.

Before then the position was more complicated – despite the Waldorf schools proclaiming the compatibility of their ethos with National Socialism they were included in the general Nazi antipathy towards elitist private education.

In the end it was rivalry rather than different racial views that forced their closure. For the Nazis Hitler was the source of all inspiration. For the Waldorf schools it was Steiner.

Yes, Steiner did foresee the concept of race disappearing but only because he believed the “inferior races” were doomed to disappear as mankind “evolved” over many reincarnations into a pure Aryan population.

His ultimate aim was therefore not so different to Hitler’s – though in his defence I suppose you could at least say he showed greater patience.

But still, Mr Kennish is a science teacher and not a historian.

Steiner’s “spiritual science” teaches amongst other things that the atoms don’t exist, that the function of the heart is not to pump blood and that Darwin got it wrong about evolution.

Jim Watson

Selsley