In the second lecture of the Course on Education for Special Needs, Rudolf Steiner strongly distanced himself from the views on criminal psychology held by Erich Wulffen (1862–1936), a public prosecutor who had already retired by that time (Steiner 2014, CW 317, pp . 12–16, discussed in Edlund 2024, pp. 35 and 38ff.). At the heart of the criticism was Erich Wulffen’s view that human ingenuity arises through the sublimation of criminal drives. In this regard, Rudolf Steiner quoted at length from an article in the Neue Züricher Zeitung [Zurich news], which satirically addressed a lecture by Wulffen on the criminal roots of Friedrich Schiller’s (1759–1805) creative work. Here is not the place to address why this particular article was cited, nor why Rudolf Steiner decided not to simply describe the views of the retired public prosecutor directly. Instead, I am interested in two questions:
- What prompted Rudolf Steiner to take such a keen interest in Erich Wulffen’s views in the first place, and why did he want to distance himself so sharply from them?
- What do the views of a former prosecutor have to do with our work in supportive education
1. Erich Wulffen and his work
Erich Wulffen was gifted in the fields of scholarship, literature, and law. He worked as a public prosecutor in Dresden, later as a judge in Zwickau, and finally as a ministry official – again in Dresden. In these roles, he advocated for a humane prison system (Muhrer 2024, p. 53). Wulffen
also fought for the integration of scientific methods into investigative work. He was convinced that medical, psychological, and sociological aspects should be taken into account when assessing defendants, thereby enabling a comprehensive image of their delinquency to be formed. Wulffen positively influenced many trials in the interest of establishing the truth. In this context, he sought an aesthetic – he called it ‹artistic› – integration into the rules of procedure. This endeavor applied to both the treatment of delinquent individuals and to the structure of the trial proceedings, which he comprehended as a total work of art (Wulffen 1908, p. 19, and Muhrer 2024, p. 66).
In addition to his activity as a judicial official, Wulffen authored books on criminal psychology in which he offered astute analyses of criminal behavior while advocating theories that seem abstruse by today’s standards – such as the notion that women have a psychological inclination toward prostitution. In addition, he wrote plays and novels; he performed as an actor and appeared in silent films for which he had written the screenplays (Muhrer 2024, p. 54).
In the early phase of the Weimar Republic, Wulffen was active in the German Democratic Party [German: Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP], at that time still a left-liberal party that formed a coalition government with, among others, the Social Democratic Party of Germany [German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD] (Seul 2007, 153, p. 14).
2. Are human beings predisposed to crime?
Drawing on the work of, among others, the psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) and the criminal psychologist Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909), Erich Wulffen proceeded on the basis that human beings possess an instinctual predisposition. He believed that a propensity for crime is
inherent in everyone. However, this propensity could be sublimated or ennobled and thereby adapted to social norms. This is most effectively achieved through artistic activity. Thus, Erich Wulffen believed he could demonstrate a fundamental criminal motif in the works of many writers. He focused with especial intensity on Friedrich Schiller, whom he attested had a propensity for violence running through his work, but that in his later creations this had already been sublimated in a more artistically sophisticated manner than in his early works (Seul 2007,
153, p. 12). Wulffen condensed his views into a psychological law, which he formulated as follows in 1925:
«Ingenious creativity and monstrous deeds can mutually exclude one another, or they can alternate one after the other, which readily explains the well-known aberrations in the private lives of ingenious natures. This leads to the psychological principle: poems, dramas, harmonies and melodies, sculptures, paintings, performative and musical achievements, technical, commercial, and social feats, and heroic deeds can take the place of suppressed and repressed crimes in the soul life of the creator.» (Wulffen 1925, p. 15).
Accordingly, the sublimation described by Wulffen does not lead to the lasting development of the human individual through education and self-education, but rather to a process of adaptation brought about by external factors – norms, constraints, and laws – which, while transforming what was originally destructive into something socially acceptable, may eventually, as the case may be, cause it to revert to its destructive state.
In contrast to Erich Wulffen, Rudolf Steiner attributed a person’s ingenuity to the core of their spiritual being. This core progresses through incarnations and builds up (in collaboration with cosmic forces, that is, cosmic beings) in each of its successive earthly lives, an individual organization of the members of its being. This organization is the bearer of a soul life that, from one side, opens itself to the external world and, from the other, manifests itself through thinking, feeling, and willing. In the Course on Education for Special Needs, this is referred to as the
superficial, surface-level, or ‹symptomatic› inner life of the soul. Underlying this surface layer of the soul life, there is a deeper inner life directed toward continuously advancing or further developing the human being’s evolution from a purely corporeal orientation to a spiritual orientation through the interaction of the members of its being and the impulses of this superficial soul life. Steiner calls this underlying soul life the genuine or real inner life (Steiner
2024, CW 317, p. 17ff.).
A person can act freely through their superficial soul life when the genuine soul life forms – or has formed – the foundations that ensure the smooth functioning of thinking, feeling, and willing (ibid., p. 32). Rudolf Steiner’s works point to ways in which human beings, by virtue of their consciousness soul, can succeed in developing their own inner life to such an extent that they become open to ideas and ideals and, at the same time, are ready to manifest them (Klünker 2024, p. 439ff.). This readiness is based on free choice and not on necessity, such as, for example, conformity to social norms (Steiner 1993, GA 10, p. 96ff.).
For children and young people, the basis for deciding for or against this path is offered through education – specifically through the pedagogical law – in which, among other things, the enthusiasm of the teachers awakens the children’s and young people’s interest in ideas and ideals (Steiner 2024, GA 317, p. 75ff.)
3. An example from the Course on Education for Special Needs
In the third lecture of the Course on Education for Special Needs, on the topic of kleptomania, Rudolf Steiner made the following statement concerning the difference between sublimation brought about by social conventions and a transformation of uncontrolled will impulses brought about by the core of the human being:
Kleptomaniac tendencies are sublimated and thus socially sanctioned when they are expressed, for example, in the form of a passion for stamp collecting or the accumulation of scientific facts. Kleptomania still persists but is directed toward socially acceptable objects. (Ibid., 40f. and 97ff.).
Consequently, social norms and the sublimation they provide are not reliable ‹instruments› for personal development toward freedom.
However, reference is also made to the poet Johann Peter Hebel. Through self-education, he transformed his kleptomania into a productive literary endeavor and, moreover, articulated formative moral principles in his short stories that demonstrate his ability to grasp ideas and express them in literature (ibid., 40f.).
4. Kleptomania in light of the anthroposophical knowledge of the human being
Now, anthroposophical knowledge of the human being does not deny the possibility that the human soul life can be distorted by an uncontrolled will, which can also manifest itself in the form of criminal tendencies. But this is not derived from an irreversible imprint inscribed in the
physical body. The focus is, instead, on causes found in the real, genuine life of the soul.
For example, kleptomania is attributed to an impairment of consciousness caused by a blockage of the astral body in the region of the head. As described in the Course on Education for Special Needs, this blockage can be caused, for example, by neurocompression resulting from a forceps delivery. In this case, the nerve tissue is compressed at the temples to such an extent that the astral body cannot pass through there to generate a resonance in the rhythmic system as well as in the limbs. Instead, it diverts to the periphery of the head (Ibid., Plate 11). The impeded influence of the astral body on the rhythmic system and the limb region results in the following:
The waking consciousness generated by the astral body in the head finds no resonance in the astral body that is in the limbs. «Left to its own devices,» the astral body in the limbs is unable to unfold waking consciousness. Consequently, actions cannot be properly conceptualized and can only be perceived in hindsight through the individual’s perception of their own actions. This leads, among other things, to the uncontrolled pocketing of objects. The affected person can either not remember the act at all or can do so only after it has been committed. As a result, they feel that they are not responsible for the respective act (ibid., 97ff.).
However, the congestion of the astral body in the head means that those affected face difficult conditions when trying to acquire the necessary concepts in regard to their behavior, including moral principles, and sometimes cannot acquire them at all. Though concepts are perceived
through auditory impulses or through the process of recollection, they are not experienced as real, because for this to happen, the astral body would have to generate a corresponding resonance within the rhythmic system.
This results in the situation where an impulse is grasped but not taken to heart. Instead, the urge to internalize ideas or conceptions bypasses the rhythmic system and flows directly down into the limbs, where it triggers uncontrollable impulses to act – and, indeed, in accordance with
impulses that were not grasped consciously. Thus, the affected individual, Richard, was at times prone to unreflective destructive actions that went beyond mere stealing.
By disconnecting the soul life from ideals and moral principles, the pedagogical law cannot take effect. The affected children are ‹resistant to education.› Instead of being able to connect with the ideals represented by an educator, the children’s illusory conceptions unfold, among other
things, as a striving for power or fantasies of omnipotence (Uhlenhoff 2007, pp. 107–122).
5. The approach to the education and therapy of two boys with kleptomania
The young boys examined in the Course on Education for Special Needs, Richard and Karl-Heinz, twelve and sixteen years old, respectively, had been treated for kleptomania at various institutions over a period of years with no lasting success. The educators and doctors proceeded from the assumption that the boys exhibited a predisposition toward kleptomania and amorality that could not be cured but might perhaps be sublimated. They tried to achieve this through strict behavioral conditioning, including draconian punishments. Yet both Karl-Heinz and Richard
resisted this pressure and, instead, intensified their misbehavior. This can be explained solely by the fact that they could not establish a real connection between their actions and the imposed sanctions. How can one be held accountable for something one does not perform consciously or, at least, does so uncontrollably? The descent into criminality seemed inevitable (Uhlenhoff 2007, p. 107ff.).
5.1. Goals of education and treatment
After a thorough analysis of the developmental disorder (see above), Rudolf Steiner developed a concept for a multi-year program of work with the boys that was oriented toward supportive education as well as therapy and medicine. One of the main goals was to foster self-regulation of
behavior by intensifying the resonance of the astral body between the head and metabolic-limb poles as well as the rhythmic system. The other main goal was to introduce Karl-Heinz and Richard to moral principles to such an extent that they could not only understand them but also
follow them out of their own motivation. To this end, the following specific measures were taken.
5.2. Supportive education treatment
Richard was accompanied around the clock by an adult caregiver. Karl-Heinz received intensive care from various caregivers at the Lauenstein home. The aim of these measures was both to establish constant supervision and to ensure the continual influence of the pedagogical law. This
focused primarily on the effect of the caregivers’ I-organizations upon the boys’ astral bodies:
- Activity-based education, particularly craftwork guided by educators, intended to strengthen the boys’ self-regulation and allow them to experience their own sense of self-efficacy.
- The regular evening retrospective of the day’s events, facilitated by the caregivers, helped maintain the boys’ continuity of consciousness. This continuity, however, continued to be interrupted by episodes of kleptomania.
- In addition, every day the caregivers devised so-called ‹moral stories.› These described stealing as something reprehensible in the form of parables that did not directly refer to Karl-Heinz or Richard. The stories always ended with the consequence that the thief isolated himself socially through his misconduct. Since the stories sprang from the caregivers’ fantasy guided by the I – that is, were drawn from the spirit self – their content affected not only the boys’ faculty of conceptualization but also their sense of the value of moral principles.
5.3. Therapeutic and medical treatments
The supportive education work was supplemented by the administration of constitutional medicaments – such as hypophysis cerebri – and by therapeutic eurythmy, which aimed to enhance awareness of one’s own movements, particularly those of the lower limbs, through the execution of vowels with the legs.
5.4. Evaluation
Richard began to show lasting results from these efforts after five years. For Karl-Heinz, the duration of the interventions was designed for a maximum of three years. This made the development of both personalities in adulthood all the more remarkable. After graduating from high school and completing his studies, Richard became involved in adult education, the Anthroposophical Society, and workers’ representative bodies. Karl-Heinz later worked as
a nurse (Hallen 2024, pp. 321–324).
What Johann Peter Hebel was able to achieve on his own as an adult, educators, doctors, and therapists had to accomplish on behalf of the young boys whose personalities had not yet matured.
5.5. Conclusion
The way these two boys were treated highlights the contrast between Erich Wulffen’s views on criminal psychology and Rudolf Steiner’s approach to supportive education. The retired prosecutor would likely have handled Richard and Karl-Heinz with kindness, perhaps encouraging them to pursue artistic and craft-based activities; yet, in his eyes, they would remain the criminals they were assumed to have been since birth. In contrast, the educators, therapists, and medical professionals who worked under Rudolf Steiner’s guidance succeeded in overcoming the two boys’ kleptomania through the measures described above.
6. The Wulffen in me
What do Erich Wulffen’s views on criminal psychology have to do with us? Are we not far removed from the idea that supposed psychological deficits might also manifest themselves irreversibly in a person’s physical being? Still, we do continue to encounter students who challenge us not only to become more aware of our own tendency to look for deficits but also to overcome this habit through self-reflection. Here is an example from my own teaching experience:
6.1. A student therapy conference on Adrian*
As a homeroom teacher at a Waldorf school, I once taught a student named Adrian. In first grade, when it came to drawing shapes and writing, he was unable to inwardly process what he perceived through his visual, motor, and tactile senses and to translate this onto paper. This frustrated him so much that he would rage, rant, and storm out of the class early. A conversation with his parents revealed that Adrian also had difficulties at home orienting himself in space and imitating movement cues. Since I suspected that Adrian would receive more appropriate instruction at a supportive education school, I promptly invited them to a student therapy conference. Prior to the conference, the school doctor had examined Adrian, and the eurythmy
therapist had also worked with the child.
Based on their findings and the conference, it was concluded that Adrian’s astral body had not sufficiently penetrated the limb region and that he therefore had only limited comprehension and impulse control. The school physician was thus referring to the Course on Education for Special
Needs. I, however, had not yet read this at the time, but I understood from his diagnosis that Adrian had supportive educational needs that I, as a standard school teacher, could only address with the assistance of colleagues who had prior experience in supportive education. This assistance was promised to me, and so we agreed on the following measures:
- A course of therapeutic eurythmy was scheduled to intensify the resonance between the head and limb poles.
- The doctor prescribed medicaments to facilitate the astral body’s penetration into the metabolic-limb region by strengthening the life processes.
- In addition, I was advised to have Adrian perform manual tasks and to do memory exercises with him – including reciting words and verses both forwards and backwards.
The therapeutic eurythmy began shortly thereafter, but Adrian was not personally invested and only participated in order to please the therapist. As a result, his problems with spatial orientation persisted for another four years. During the rhythmic portion of the main lesson, I introduced practices in which number sequences, verses, and melodies were spoken or sung both forward and backward. As they did so, the children moved in rhythm to the syllables, numbers, or sounds. This brought everyone great joy and pleasure. Only Adrian stood apart from the activity and observed, feeling completely alienated. I had the impression that Adrian was held back by the high standards he set for himself.
I tried to help him form letters and numbers out of modeling clay during recess. I explained to him that these were the materials we used to learn how to write and do arithmetic. We used the writing on the blackboard as a model. Adrian then made a sincere effort to produce something,
but he consistently formed the letters and numbers backwards. When he compared his creations with the writing on the blackboard, he was immensely disappointed, but I explained to him, with the help of a mirror, that his ‹numbers and sounds› were very nicely done when mirrored. This amused him, and he cheerfully continued working. However, the work in the classroom remained difficult for him, as the many impressions there confused him and triggered severe mood swings.
6.2. Moral stories
The medications prescribed by the school doctor had a positive effect on Adrian’s bodily functions, particularly his digestion and circulation. Nevertheless, Adrian was still only able to maintain his attention for short periods of time. As he was now feeling better, but his performance remained poor, his outbursts of anger became even more intense. Consequently, toward the end of the first school year, I asked a colleague for suggestions on how to address
Adrian’s aggressive behavior. She pointed out the therapeutic value of moral stories. This advice was also based on the Course on Education for Special Needs. My colleague advised me to observe Adrian’s movements so that I could weave them into the stories.
I then watched Adrian as he walked and gestured. And I noticed how his limbs seemed to have a life of their own. Their movements were angular and puppet-like. I wove these movements into my stories as accompanying gestures . The content of my stories revolved around a certain
rowdy goblin. He was extremely clumsy and caused quite a stir in the realm of the dwarves. Whenever his behavior caused offense, he would fly into rages of enormously large proportions. That is why the other dwarves shunned him.
Adrian listened to these stories with great interest. And every morning, when we greeted each other before class, he would ask me if the rowdy goblin had had any new adventures. So, day after day, I had to come up with another story. The parents told me that Adrian gave them a detailed lecture on the adventures of the rowdy goblin. He also found this strange goblin amusing – without giving a thought to the fact that this creature was a reflection of his
own unruliness.
As a result, Adrian’s tantrums subsided, and after four weeks they stopped altogether. From this, I concluded that channeling aggressive tendencies through artistic expression can have positive effects. However, I doubted whether this had actually changed anything about Adrian’s constitution. He still moved awkwardly and clumsily in his second year of school, and his cognitive performance remained weak. The Erich Wulffen inside me declared, «You may be able to sublimate the misbehavior, but nothing will change regarding his poor performance.»
6.3. Action-based education
Eight other children in the class had trouble grasping the material and applying it. Even though their need for support was not as great as Adrian’s, I had to come up with a way to intensify the maturation of their life processes – among other things, through sensory experiences – and make learning so vivid that they would continue to enjoy class. I decided to intensify my use of action-based education and to create the learning materials for all subjects of the main lessons together with the children. We sculpted letters and combined them into words and sentences on a large scale. We also sculpted numbers to represent the multiplication tables in the form of number sequences. We dyed wool for finger crocheting with plant-based dyes that we made ourselves, and we collected materials for the seasonal table from the natural surroundings outside the school. Adrian was the only one who did not participate in the activities at first, but he observed everything intently. After a month, he joined in with cautious movements, and
his classmates supported him with a special attentiveness. Eventually, Adrian did begin to read and do arithmetic. It was still a very slow process, and he often made mistakes, but his joy grew steadily. «You see,» the Erich Wulffen in me observed, «this is how one can artfully sublimate deficits and thereby make them bearable. But don’t succumb to the illusion that you have now overcome Adrian’s problems.»
6.4. We are a moral story
Over the next three years, Adrian remained sociable and open, but I couldn’t expect much from him intellectually . As a result, he was unable to grasp the laws of grammar during the language instruction unit in fifth grade, let alone apply them . While I was still thinking about how
I might approach the material differently, I learned from Adrian’s parents that their son had started stealing. They were familiar with Rudolf Steiner’s relevant statements in the Course on Education for Special Needs and explained to me that Adrian’s problems stemmed from his inability to connect with thoughts (Kummer 2014, pp. 6ff.) . Adrian found his behavior distressing because he could no longer control it.
I asked a colleague who had studied the Course on Education for Special Needs in depth for indications on how to deal with kleptomania. He recommended that I study the first three lectures myself. When I read the passages about Erich Wulffen, I realized who it was who had repeatedly been speaking within me. Although I had achieved quite a bit for Adrian, I had always done so with the expectation that nothing fundamental could be changed regarding his deficits. Rudolf Steiner’s statements on the two aspects of the soul life and kleptomania now revealed to me the possibility of helping Adrian in a more lasting way (Steiner, 2024, CW 317, p. 40f.).
So, as recommended in the Course on Education for Special Needs, I began telling moral stories again – specifically about stealing. Once again, Adrian was deeply interested in them. After a week of stories, he approached me to talk about his problems with stealing. I assured him of my support but had to admit to myself that while the moral stories had had an effect, they hadn’t yet helped him overcome his kleptomania. Things continued to disappear from the supermarket Adrian frequented. It became clear to me that the Course on Education for Special Needs wasn’t meant solely as a set of instructions, but rather as a source of inspiration and ideas.
So I thought deeply about how the impact of the moral stories could be amplified, and I came up with the idea that Adrian should not only hear the moral stories and observe the accompanying gestures but also act them out himself. I was convinced that only active participation – especially making the gestures himself – could lead to a deeper identification with the ideals in these stories (ibid., 40). So, I told a moral story about stealing and asked individual students to improvise the roles of the thief and the victims. Right from the start, Adrian volunteered for the role of the thief. He played it perfectly and – something he had never managed before – with delightful wit. His voice, previously hoarse and raspy, was clear and free. He also executed his gestures consciously and deliberately. It seemed to me as though he had been waiting five years to free himself from a heavy burden. So for four weeks, every other day, we staged a dramatized moral tale about stealing, boasting, and denial, and Adrian played along enthusiastically. During this time, he was only seen sporadically in ‹his› supermarket. As the store manager told me, however, Adrian would just wander through the entrance area and quickly make his way out again.
6.5. The power of Schiller's poetry to awaken the conscience
Now I thought it a good idea to try to consolidate all our achievements. I looked for a piece of literature that could help the students reflect on the moral force of their conscience. Schiller’s ballad The Cranes of Ibycus (Schiller 1798) provided me with this opportunity (Zur pädagogischen Bedeutung Schillers [engl.: On Schiller’s pedagogical significance]: Göschel 2024, pp. 68ff.). The ballad describes how, in the early days of Greek civilization, the conscience was still only manifested externally, namely in the form of the Erinyes (goddesses of fate). They appear in the ballad, portrayed by actors, as part of a mystery play. Two criminals, who come to attend the play, had murdered a singer the day before. The Erinyes tell the murderers that their deed will not go unpunished. Upon hearing this, the conscience spontaneously awakens in one of the two murderers. This shows how what had previously been conveyed externally through moral instruction, by the Erinyes, spontaneously takes root as conscience within the murderer’s soul. As a result, he confesses during the mystery play, and is led directly to the place of execution along with his accomplice.
For our performance, I did the following: First, I had the students recite the lines in unison. Then, I rehearsed them with the students as a, albeit quite brief, ‹fifth-grade play.› The class chorus, which took up the role of narrator, alternated with the individual spoken parts of the protagonists:
Ibycus (the victim), the Erinyes, and the two murderers. Adrian shied away from taking on a leading role. But, as a member of the chorus, he recited and gestured along with the others – joyfully and energetically. I noticed as early as the first rehearsal that the idea inherent in this ballad came across far more intensely through the acting than through simple recitation. Driven by their own motivation, all the students developed a dynamic that grew from one rehearsal to the next and reached its climax during the performance.
The day after the performance, Adrian told me that he resolved to stop stealing and that he knew he could follow through on his resolve. He said the ballad had shown him that his inner voice was stronger than the urge to steal. I asked him who this inner voice was. He replied that it
was himself, specifically, the better part of him. Adrian not only kept his promise but also steadily improved his academic performance over the following years, particularly in cognitive subjects. He now works as a businessman. The same happened with the three other students who had stolen things at times. They stopped stealing and asked me to help them and their parents make amends for the damage they had caused at the stores where they had stolen.
7. Conclusion
Through this work, I transformed my belief in Adrian’s impulsive predisposition into the certainty that I could address constitutional obstacles through targeted interventions – and, in certain cases, with success. I initially acquired the ‹tools› for this through specific indications provided by colleagues, as well as Adrian’s parents, from the Course on Education for Special Needs. These stimulated my creativity and fantasy but did not lead to a change in my deficit-oriented posture until I had personally taken up a study of the Course on Education for Special Needs.
Once I did, I found it liberating that Rudolf Steiner’s statements did not come across as a recipe book promoting a general feeling of some common ‹we,› but rather acted as an inspiring guide (Pichler 2024, p. 423ff.). This process, which I initiated myself, later led to my move to Waldorf
schools for children and adolescents with special needs. My thanks go out to Adrian, his parents, my colleagues, and Rudolf Steiner.
In light of Erich Wulffen’s assessment of Schiller, the successful performance of The Cranes of Ibycus helped this poet – highly esteemed by both Erich Wulffen and myself – achieve a rehabilitation, albeit a belated one. After all, his ballad not only led to the sublimation of kleptomaniac tendencies among the students in question but also strengthened their conscience, which has since been grounded in a deepened connection to moral ideals.
Translation from German: Joshua Kelberman
*Name changed by the editors.
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