In memory of Manfred Klett, 1933-2025
Ueli Hurter, Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum
Manfred Klett passed away peacefully on 2 April 2025 in the early hours of the dawning day – on ‘his’ Dottenfelderhof, accompanied by his family. He is laid out in the old hall, where the funeral service will also take place on Saturday, 5 April, towards the end of the morning. The memorial service for his farewell from this world, with commemorative speeches about his life and work, will take place on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m at the Dottenfelderhof.
Manfred Klett was the doyen of the biodynamic movement. He was a practitioner — initially in agriculture and in the development of the farm at Dottenfelderhof, then as head of the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum with the large annual Agriculture Conference and worldwide networking, and finally as a project developer, particularly in the village project Juchowo in Poland. At the same time, he travelled the world for decades as a speaker, lecturer and discussion partner. He had the gift of finding words and images for the biodynamic impulse that opened up great worlds for his listeners. The biodynamic impulse appeared great because he presented it as a sustainable continuation of the epoch-spanning cultural impulse of agriculture – an impulse that means partnership with the Earth and with nature. It was Manfred Klett's destiny to encounter the magnitude of this development at decisive points in his life.
Read the full piece on the Goetheanum's site. (link is external)
Community Memories
Manfred Klett with Harald Hoven, in California circa 1994
"Remembering Manfred Klett," by Will Brinton
I have some distinct memories of Manfred. He came to America several times for biodynamic conferences, and on a few of those occasions, I shared the program with him. One was the 1994 BD conference in Oak View, California, and another in 1999 in Fair Oaks. An earlier event, also in California, took place in 1988. I also recall his visit to an Anthroposophical gathering in Ann Arbor in 1997, not long after the Society moved into its new headquarters. He and I shared the stage there for a memorable conversation.
At one of the California events—during the time the late Alan York was president—I had volunteered to serve as Manfred’s driver. I took him along for farm tours and later down the California coast toward Ojai. Alan had insisted I take the scenic route, so we cruised through Ventura, past Malibu Beach, and along the classic sights—an eye opener for him! It gave us time for some wide-ranging and engaging conversation.
Hugh Williams
Manfred was on our farm three times, and we became quite close over the past 30 years. We stayed in touch through Gita Dyer who told me that he always asked about us and our farm. He was perhaps the only person from the European biodynamic movement with whom I felt a genuine connection.
In the 90’s he visited as we scrambled to harvest 100 CSA shares for delivery, he graciously harvested peas ; when I apologized for giving him such a lowly task he replied: ‘O no, I feel I can breathe for the first time in ages.’
His last book ‘From Agricultural Technology to the Art of Farming’ is crying out for an English translation, and I hope someone’s on to it!
A truly great soul!
Patricia Kaminski
What strikes me most profoundly about Dr. Manfred Klett is the luminous and lucid quality of his insights about the Agricultural Course. In the closing chapter of his life and already gravely ill, Dr. Steiner was able to impart an essential scaffold of practical and cosmic wisdom for the development of a New Agriculture. Dr. Klett devoted himself so completely to these nascent concepts of Dr. Steiner, as to create a fully fleshed edifice of imaginative and inspired insight about Biodynamic Agriculture.
To appreciate the nature of Dr. Klett’s contribution, it is good to call to mind what Steiner said about his own illumination of Goethe’s work: “Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the etheric body is now preserved to some extent; it is not completely dissolved…Goethe is “risen” in an etheric body and if we begin to meditate upon him, then his concepts and ideas become alive in us… We can then say that we believe not only in ideas that belong to the past, but also in the living continuity of ideas. This is connected with a profound mystery of modern times….Remember that the form in which ideas first arise in us is not their final form. Believe therefore in the resurrection of ideas!” (GA 175, Lecture 8).
In all that I have personally read or directly heard from Dr. Klett, — for example, in his deeply penetrating expositions about each of the compost plants and their accompanying sheaths — is how inwardly alive and dynamic are his ideas arising from the springboard of the Agricultural Course. One wrestles with them first in the thinking sphere until they can be understood beyond the superficial intellect. Then they can anchor as potent realities in the moral realm of the heart, becoming an etheric substance that travels directly into the will. This fully developed “Being of Biodynamics” incarnated in thinking, feeling and willing, was exemplified in Dr Klett’s own life. Since 1968, he was a dedicated founder and practitioner in the Dottenfelderhof Biodynamic farming community outside Frankfurt, Germany, accompanied by decades of selfless service as leader for the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum and extensive travel throughout the world to teach and create enduring social and research networks throughout the international community of Biodynamic practitioners.
I would hope that Dr. Klett’s numerous essays and lectures (many still only available in German) and his culminating book, Von der Agrartechnologie zur Landbaukunst released in 2021, might be published in English as well as many other languages. Thus, we may all have the opportunity to follow the living continuity of his ideas as they resurrect themselves within his ether body, much as he himself lived so thoroughly and completely within the etheric substance of Dr. Steiner’s Agricultural Course.
In closing I would like to share a core meditative activity that Dr. Klett recommended for all practitioners of Biodynamics. This is imparted in my own words as it as taken hold in me over the years:
Walk regularly on your land in a free and open-hearted way without an outer agenda. Remember that as a human being living on Earth, you stand in the middle. You do not live below in the subterranean depths of Earth, nor do you live in the Cosmic Heights. Your task is to receive and perceive all that weaves between both spheres. Standing in the middle as a Biodynamic practitioner, you create a living, moral reality that unites earthly substance with the cosmos and guides spiritual thought into earthly matter. Take this core imagination into yourself as you stroll upon your land. Then ask: What is my task, what is given to me to do in service to my land?
Sherry Wildfeuer
I remember standing with Manfred, I believe it was at the Goetheanum, and him saying to me that it is no longer correct for us to look to the Goetheanum for leadership. He felt that the cutting edge was now in the periphery, on the farms all over the world, and that it was upon us to communicate what we were learning to the Goetheanum.
I also remember wanting an article for the Stella Natura describing what the etheric was, and asking Manfred to write it. He generously did so. And 20 years later, when I felt it was time to share on this subject again, I re-read Manfred's article and found it to be perfectly timely -- so I re-published it (with his permission of course) exactly as he had written it.
Most recently, I was completely re-inspired by the layers of wisdom inherent in the Preparations in reading his book, The Foundations and Principles of Biodynamic Preparations.
What a wise and good man!
Alice Groh
When I was searching for the 'farmer meditations' given in Koberwitz on June 8, 1924, I wrote to Manfred and he very kindly wrote me a two page letter in English in longhand. It was very dear of him. He was of the opinion that the Agriculture Course IS the meditation. I can agree with him on a certain level, but I continue my search despite, in that there is evidence of such meditations being given, just not found again.
Manfred also traveled to England to Emerson College to give talks and he was very much appreciated there.
Blessings on him.
Mac Mead
Manfred came to some of the early Ag. Section meetings and his presence was always very special - an amazing human being! Cheers, Mac
Beth Corymb
In 1992, Manfred spoke to the International Biodynamic conference: What stood out at the conference was Manfred saying:
Rudolf Steiner penetrated Darwin's theory of evolution, lifted it up to the Spirit World and what came back was Occult Science.
Rudolf Steiner penetrated the periodic table, lifted it up to Spirit World; what returned was the Agriculture Course.
Nathan was training for Biodynamic seed work at Sativa.
Still in 1992, I was also able to go to an agriculture gathering in England. Nathan and I were seeing reports of efforts in genetic engineering both in the plant world, and the human genome. Also reading in European reports about how the US vice president, Dan Quayle, was colluding with the genetic engineering industry.
At the England conference, I asked Manfred Klett what we as individuals could do. He came back with the suggestion:
In the morning look with deep intention at something in Nature, for instance a leaf, then In the evening draw it.
If you would like to contribute to this commemoration page, please email rebecca@biodynamics.com so we can add your memories.
Articles & Books by Manfred Klett
"The Farm Between Earth and Cosmos," Biodynamics (Autumn 2005, No. 254)
"How does the farmer reconcile freedom of action with the demands of nature? These days, farmers and gardeners feel they have no freedom, no room for maneuver. Globalization, biotechnology, the internationalization of legislative frameworks and production oriented to the world market force the producer into total spiritual, legal and economic dependence. Is there a way out of this?
If we refer to anthroposophy and the Agricultural Course, then the way out of our plight is dearly marked, but only if we arc determined to dear it ourselves. This resolve to clear the way ourselves is an impulse out of our freedom, which is a fundamental pan of biodynamic cultivation. This becomes evident when we look at the relationship between earth and cosmos and how the farm, managed by the farmer, sits in this polarity. What is the farmer's task and what opportunities open up for free action? The answer to these questions releases the poer of new ideas and forces of courage, for which there are no more barriers, no insurmountable obstacles or hard necessities."
"Biodynamic Preparations and Future Evolution," Biodynamics (January/February 1995, No. 197)
"Now we want to deal with the question of evolution and how the preparations refer to it. Evolution, is a concept which is nowadays a bit deteriorated in the consciousness of the people. What does it actually mean, evolution? You see, there are two fundamental aspects or two fundamental laws of all evolution. The one fundamental aspect is that all future—that is to say, the reality that has not yet come into being—develops out of a transformation of the past. Future is nothing else than transforming past. That's the one fundamental law. You haven't got to expect in the future something completely new, that never happened before. It always relates to the past and how the past can be transformed into the future. The future is the transformed past."
"Thoughts on a Spiritual History of Agriculture," Biodynamics (Fall 1986, No. 160)
"Imagine yourself walking on a hill overlooking familiar native countryside. You rest your senses on this landscape. Perhaps you notice your feelings. One impression that is so immediate, especially in Europe, is that all of what you see, the whole structure, the village, the trees, the single trees, the hedges, the islands of fields and forest — all is in a complete harmony. Nothing is separated. That is one fundamental impression, especially in Europe.
A second impression has to be found deeper in yourself. If you travel over many landscapes in Europe, for example in Sweden, you might notice that in Sweden you find what appears to be a moral sensitivity — which you also find in the Swedish people themselves. In Holland also you find this identity between the land and its people."
The Foundations and Principles of Biodynamics Preparations (link is external), by Manfred Klett (2023)
Eight preparations are at the heart of the biodynamic method. Horn manure, horn silica, yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion, and valerian are the used to enhance the health and vitality of the soil. In this deeply insightful book, renowned biodynamic expert Manfred Klett explores the principles behind these preparations. He explores in detail each preparation, discussing their various properties, how their substances are enhanced and transformed through the stages of preparation, and the effect of each preparation on the soil and plants.
Throughout, Klett advocates a holistic approach that views farms and gardens as wholly integrated living organisms, with the preparations playing a key role in the improvement of soil quality and the production of healthy plants.