Rudolf Steiner

Austrian philosopher and Goethe scholar; general secretary of the German-Austrian section from 1902, who broke with Adyar over the status of Christ and of Krishnamurti and founded the Anthroposophical Society in 1913.

By far the most materially consequential heir. Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine, eurythmy and the Camphill communities all descend from him and all still operate at scale. ⚠ He also carried the root-race scheme across the split — renaming the periods "epochs" because he judged race no longer adequate — and the racial material in his lectures remains a live and unresolved controversy inside the movements he founded.