Rudolf Steiner was born on 27th February 1861 in Donji Kraljevec, Croatia (Austo-Hungarian monarchy at that time), where his father worked for Austrian public railway; his family coming from lower Austria region.
He went to Secondary school in Wiener-Neustadt, and in Viena he started High Technical school, where he was studying mathematics and natural science. At the same time he studied literature, philosophy and history. He has been deeply involved in studying the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He made a doctorat deegre at the University of Rostok, with a thema: „Truth and science, preplay of the Philosophy of freedom“.
In Weimar he worked in Goethe’s and Shiller’s Archive, and he was an editor of „Goethe’s natural scientific work“.
In Berlin he published „Magazin for literature“ and „Drama pages”. He was a regular lecturer in the School for workers’ education.
He started giving lectures all over Europe, first in the Theosophical Society, and from 1913 in Anthroposophical Society, which was renewed for Christmas 1923, under the name of General Anthroposophical Society.
In autumn 1919, he founded Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart.
His whole work was gathered in 380 books, from which 46 books consist of his written works and magazines, and in the other books are most of his lectures (over 6000 lectures, of which 4000 lectures were written down, in which he pointed out and was giving answers regarding problems of our time and of the future. He was a visionar who gave foundation of Waldorf pedagogy, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine, eurithmy, speech formation, religious renewal, architecture, the three fold social order and all other aspects of human working fields.
Rudolf Steiner gave the holistic understanding of the development of a human being as a being of freedom.
He died in Dornach, Switzerland, on 30th March 1925.