From Waldorf Tobacco

to Waldorf Education:
Emil Molt meets Rudolf Steiner
Public Lecture 9 May 2018
Anthroposophy Society of Tasmania
Tarremah Steiner School
Huntfield, Tasmania
Dr John Paull
Geography & Spatial Sciences
University of Tasmania
j.paull@utas.edu.au
 born 1876
sickly child
other siblings died in infancy
father died age 7
mother died age 13
apprenticeship age 15
met Berta age19
Patras, Greece age 20
Stuttgart cigarette factory age 22
married Berta age 23

bright
thoughtful
determined
it’s 1906
 Johann Jakob Astor
from Walldorf
1763-1848

“At the time of his death

in 1848, Astor was the
wealthiest person in the
United States”

The new cigarette factory, Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik (WAZ), founded in Germany in 1906,
invoked the memory, success, and imagery of Johann Jakob Astor (1763-1848) from Walldorf.

image: ebay.com
Emil meets Rudolf Steiner c.1907
joins Theosophy Society c.1907

charismatic
mesmerising
bewildering
Photo: J Paull
 Emil Molt
built the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory
into a successful enterprise
Beautiful pocket Waldorf Astoria cigarette tin in the rare an
slim 10 size. Condition is very good, minor wear as can b
seen on the pictures. Dates from the 1920s. The size is
indicated by the ruler in inches.

image: ebay.com
Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik (WAZ) building
Stuttgart
Germany
Photo: J Paull
Stuttgart to Dornach

google.com
Rudolf Steiner’s house at Dornach, Switzerland
Photo: J Paull
“Molt’s initiative, the Goetheanum Trust” Rudolf Steiner quoted in Murphy, 2012, p124
“Emil administered the money for the building” Murphy, 2012, p172
Opened 26 September 1920
 vox.com

vox.com

The Great War 1914-1918 redrew the map of Europe

vox.com
WW1: Germany suffered, USA prospered

vox.com
 hockeygods.com
1930s, Zurich, Antique Hockey, Vintage Hockey, Hockey Tin,
Waldorf
“Waldorf Astoria,
Astoria Waldorf
suffered Astoria
least among Cigarettes,
tobacco Blechdose
companies during
this time [WW1].
Zigaretten, We had
Vintage managed Tin,
Cigarette to start anotherCigarette
Antique shareholding
Tin, 50
company in Zurich, and were able to buy tobacco there, on credit
Cigarettes, Waldorf-Astoria Company Zurich, John Jacob
(an impossibility in Germany). This … contributed to our success”
Astor, Antique
Emil Molt, Autobiography, p102
Hockey Tin, Vintage Hockey Tin
Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik
(Molt front, 4th from left)
www.erziehungskunst.de
Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik
1000 employees by 1919
Photo: J Paull
Emil Molt’s 1919
• as good as it gets
• War is over
• CEO of WAZ
• Successfully steered the company thru WW1
• Wealthy
• Confident, capable and bold
• Healthy
• Success with Goetheanum
• Confidante of Rudolf Steiner
Restaurant on the hill purchased
‘Restaurant zur Uhlandshöhe’

www.bernhard-leibelt.de
WAZ contributes 100,000 marks
Emil Molt contributes 450,000 marks
 www.bernhard-leibelt.de
School opened 7 Sept 1919
Waldorf education
• Co-ed
• Years 1 -12
• Collegium of teachers
• Foreign languages
• Stages of development
• For everyone
 https://www.waldorfschule-uhlandshoehe.de
Doctor’s room 1920
 www.erziehungskunst.de
Woodwork
 Fred (Alfredo) Genoni
student from Australia to Stuttgart
Waldorf School 1920s
Photo: J Paull portrait by his uncle, Ernesto Genoni
 The Steiner years 1919-1925
Faculty Meetings at the School 1919-1924

• Cash
• Class sizes
• Homework
• Malnutrition
• Student engagement, capacity, appetite to learn
• Qualified teachers
• Bored and boring teachers
• Disrespectful students
• Expulsions
• Waldorf School not Rudolf Steiner School

Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner, Vols 1 & 2

Waldorf School Stuttgart - rapid growth
784
800

687
640

600
540
Students
Teachers
Classes
420

400

256

200

37 39 47
19 30
13
15 19 21 23
11
0 8
1919-20 1920-21 1921-22 1922-23 1923-24 1924-25

Faculty Meetings 1919-1922, p.xxi

Waldorf School, Stuttgart, 1923, main building
Waldorf School, Stuttgart, main building, looking out towards Stuttgart city vsamerica.com
An idea …
“a group of companies
could achieve much more
than a single venture”
Steiner, Mar 1921, quoted in Murphy, p178
 Kommende Tag (Coming Day):

Headquarters in Stuttgart

Publisher with shipping bookstore, printing and offset printing, Stuttgart

Machine Tool Factory Carl Unger, Stuttgart-Hedelfingen

Cardboard factory José del Monte, Stuttgart

*Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory AG , Stuttgart

General trading company, Stuttgart

Bankhaus Adolf Koch & Co., from 1922 Hans Stammer & Co., Stuttgart

Pension Ruetling, Stuttgart

Slate plant Sondelfingen

Mechanical weaving in front of. G. Wilhelm Tinney, Sondelfingen

Grain mill and sawmill, Guldesmühle Dischingen with Hofgut

Estates Oelhaus, Unterhueb, Lachen, Dorenwaid and Lanzenberg in Württemberg and in the Allgäu

Agricultural machine shop, Gebrüder Gmelin, Reutlingen 

Clinical Therapeutic Institute, Stuttgart, with laboratory and outpatient clinic

Scientific Research Institute (including Biological Department), Stuttgart

*Free Waldorf School, Stuttgart

Chemical department, production of the remedies, Branch Schwäbisch-Gmünd of the Clinical Therapeutic Institute, mill operation

Branch Hamburg: Coming Day AG, Hamburg

String instruments (refining of), Frank-Reiner Kommanditges, Hamburg

Founded 13 Mar 1920

anthrowiki.at
 Kommende Tag (Coming Day):

Headquarters in Stuttgart

Publisher with shipping bookstore, printing and offset printing, Stuttgart

Machine Tool Factory Carl Unger, Stuttgart-Hedelfingen

Cardboard factory José del Monte, Stuttgart

*Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory AG , Stuttgart

General trading company, Stuttgart

Bankhaus Adolf Koch & Co., from 1922 Hans Stammer & Co., Stuttgart

Pension Ruetling, Stuttgart

Slate plant Sondelfingen

Mechanical weaving in front of. G. Wilhelm Tinney, Sondelfingen

Grain mill and sawmill, Guldesmühle Dischingen with Hofgut

Estates Oelhaus, Unterhueb, Lachen, Dorenwaid and Lanzenberg in Württemberg and in the Allgäu

Agricultural machine shop, Gebrüder Gmelin, Reutlingen 

Clinical Therapeutic Institute, Stuttgart, with laboratory and outpatient clinic

Scientific Research Institute (including Biological Department), Stuttgart

*Free Waldorf School, Stuttgart

Chemical department, production of the remedies, Branch Schwäbisch-Gmünd of the Clinical Therapeutic Institute, mill operation

Branch Hamburg: Coming Day AG, Hamburg

String instruments (refining of), Frank-Reiner Kommanditges, Hamburg

Founded 13 Mar 1920

Liquidated early 1925

anthrowiki.at
Worries

“Do I have to worry about Coming Day and

my factory and the under-financed school
and the Goetheanum and now Futurum
too? …how do they expect me to take over
Futurum without moving here? … The
current condition of Futurum seems to be
untenable and catastrophic. The various
enterprises … are in a very unfavourable
state. The finances are … desperate”
Emil Molt, Nov 1921, quoted in Murphy p184
Rudolf Steiner’s Education Conference
@ Manchester College, Oxford, 1922 Photo: J Paull
Realisation

“What have I done? …

All along I assumed I was doing what Steiner wanted.
I relied on him and he relied on me,
but he is not the businessman,
I am”
Emil Molt, 20 Feb 1922, Murphy, p190
Futurum is liquidated

“… on this day in which I saw my fondest hopes,

and with them a fair portion of myself,
carried to the grave …
I shall try to liquidate Futurum”
Emil Molt, Berlin, 11 Mar 1922, Murphy, p.155-6
The Timeline of events…
1876 Emil Molt born 14 April
1906 Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik (WAZ)
1918 WW1 Armistice 11 Nov
1919 Waldorf School Uhlandshöhe (WSU) Opened 7 Sept
1920 Kommende Tag (KT) founded 13 Mar
1920 Futurum founded 16 Jun
1920 Goetheanum opens 26 Sept
1921 WAZ transferred to Coming Day 18 May
1922 WAZ sold by KT to bank 23 March
1922 EM donated 10,200m2 adding land to WSU, May
1923 Hyperinflation
1924 Futurum liquidated
1925 KT liquidated
1925 Steiner dies 30 Mar
1929 Black Thurs 24 Oct recession, depression
1933 Hitler is chancellor 28 Jan
1935 Anthroposophy banned 16 Nov
1935 Goetheanum split & expulsions14 April
1936 Ban on new admissions 12 Mar
1936 Emil Molt died 16 June
1938 WSU Closed 31 Mar
1939 Berta Molt died 20 Aug
1939 WW2 starts 1 Sept
1945 WW2 finishes 2 Sept
1945 WSU reopened
2018 >1000 Waldorf schools
 Hyperinflation
14.8.1923 10Mio.Mark, 1923
1923

21.11.23

1923, overprint
picclick.de
WAZ is liquidated

“This is what I wanted to say …

with a breaking heart …
Waldorf Astoria will be liquidated
and my work comes to an end …
we cannot change the harsh reality”
Emil Molt, April/May 1929, Murphy p.261-263
Future

“We must stand together

with all the force of our souls
for the preservation of our dear Waldorf School,
no matter what the difficulties …
we are all permitted to serve a great cause
which belongs to the future”
Emil Molt, 25 April, 1933, in Murphy 2012
image: Murphy, 2012
Anthroposophy banned in Germany, 1935
“Berta,
we are no longer rich,
I am just an employee”
Emil Molt
 RIP
16 June
Emil Molt 1876-1936
Stuttgart
Teachers at closure of Waldorf School, Stuttgart,1938

image: Murphy, 2012

Berta laments …
“You have closed the Waldorf School by
your decree … As wife of the school’s
founder, I now owe it to the memory of my
late husband to defend one of the greatest
social creations of the post-war era …
Today serious illness ties me to my bed …
my husband … can no longer intercede
for his life’s work”
Berta Molt, 14 Mar 1938 in Murphy, p.323
 image: Murphy, 2012

Most family home, built 1924

Emil’s health faltering from Feb 1923
Bombed flat WW2
image: Murphy, 2012
 www.pinterest.com

Rubble women (Trümerfrauen)

Aftermath of WW2 www.pinterest.com
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
Waldorf School, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
The Cube, Kleiner Schloßplatz, Stuttgart Photo: J Paull
 http://www.haltonwaldorf.com
The legacy of Emil Molt:

Over 1000 Waldorf Schools Worldwide
 Thank you
Questions

Dr John Paull
Geography & Spatial Sciences
University of Tasmania
j.paull@utas.edu.au
Photo: J Paull
Abstract
Emil Molt (1976-1936) founded the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. The school opened on 7
September. Molt was then at the height of his successes. As the CEO of the Waldorf Astoria
Ziggarettenfabrik (cigarette factory) (WAZ), he had steered his company through the Great War
(1914-1918). He was a significant shareholder of WAZ. He had by personal effort carried himself from
poverty to riches. He was a member of the Anthroposophy Society and a personal confidante of Rudolf
Steiner (1861-1925). At Steiner’s request, Molt took control of the finances for building the Goetheanum at
Dornach; it was another success for Molt (the building opened in 1920). In 1919, Molt was implementing
Steiner’s education ideas at a new school, initially for workers of his cigarette factory. WAZ was contributing
some money for the new school, but the bulk was from Molt personally. The school grew rapidly to enrol
students from Stuttgart more broadly, and from wider afield, with even one student from Australia. Following
another of Steiner’s thoughts: “a group of companies could achieve much more than a single venture”, two
companies, Kommende Tag (Coming Day) (in Stuttgart) and Futurum (in Dornach), each an aggregation of
diverse businesses, were founded (both in 1920). Emil placed WAZ into Kommende Tag. This he quickly
regretted: “What have I done? … All along I assumed I was doing what Steiner wanted. I relied on him and
he relied on me, but he is not the businessman, I am”. Both new aggregate enterprises promptly failed and
were liquidated (in 1925 and 1924). Through this period Steiner was promoting Waldorf education, including
at Oxford, and showcasing the Stuttgart school as the prototype. Steiner attended more than seventy faculty
meetings of teachers at the fledgling school at Stuttgart (1919-1924). Anthroposophy was banned by the
Nazi regime in Germany on 16 November 1935. Early the following year, new admissions to the school
were banned. By this stage, Molt’s health was faltering, and he was no longer a factory owner nor a rich
man. Molt died on 16 June 1936. His Waldorf School was closed by Nazi decree on 31 March 1938. The
school suffered bombing damage in WW2. It reopened only after the armistice, in 1945. The Waldorf
School, Stuttgart, is now thriving, and there are now more than 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide.
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