Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland. Professor Fritz Carl August Koelln (1901) was born in Hamburg, Germany, He received his PhD magna cum laude in 1927 from Hasmburg University. After immigrating to the US, he taught German for many years at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he gained a devoted following as an inspired teacher. The Koelln Room, where most German classes are taught at Bowdoin today, was dedicated in 1972 in his honor. He was also much-loved as the leader of an anthroposophic study group there for a number of years. He wrote articles and translated (with James Pettegrove) the classic The Philosophy of the Enlightment (1951). David W. Wood researches in the field of the history of philosophy and, since 2015, has been a member of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Leuven in Belgium. In 1993/94, he attended the Anthroposophisches Studienjahr at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. In 2009, he obtained his PhD jointly from the Sorbonne (Universite Paris IV) in France and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich, Germany. Among others, he is the author of the monograph "Mathesis of the Mind" A Study of Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and Geometry (2012), and has translated texts by Fichte, Schelling, Novalis, Karl Julius Schroeer, and Rudolf Steiner. He recently edited "The Enigma of Fichte's First Principles" for the journal Fichte-Studien (vol. 49, 2020).
