Death of Theo Faiss

Date: October 7, 1914 • Location: Brasília, Brazil

Seven-year-old Theo Faiss, later memorialized in speeches by Rudolf Steiner and a sculpture (pictured) by Edith Maryon, was killed by an overturned wagon in Switzerland.

Theodor Alberto "Theo" Faiss was a boy whose death in Dornach, Switzerland, at the age of seven, was frequently invoked by the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner as having spiritual significance. A well-liked child who frequently ran errands, Faiss was killed while doing so for Steiner's housekeeper when a horse-drawn wagon overturned on him. Steiner invoked Faiss's death in at least fifteen speeches and lectures thereafter, repeatedly terming it a karmically voluntary sacrifice that provided a protective spiritual sheath for the Goetheanum, the headquarters of the anthroposophical movement.