European thought and culture has had an enduring impact worldwide, but Europe has also been a focus of conflict and world wars. With its international influence, Europe bears a responsibility, in both example and practice, for humanity's continued development.

First published in English in 1975, this timely reprint of Maria Schindler's classic work provides valuable spiritual insight into Europe's contribution to human civilization--its past as well as its future tasks--at a critical time in the continent's destiny. Based on decades of first-hand experience and multilingual study, the author weaves a pictorial tapestry of Europe's biographical history in all its human, earthly, and cosmic content.

In past centuries, says Schindler, world-changing events were centered on the destinies of individual countries and nations. Today, the individual needs of nations must be brought into harmony with the needs of humankind as a whole. The enormity of humanity's problems demand fresh insights based on new solutions with firm foundations. The author presents her intimate knowledge of European folklore and languages in connection with Willi Sucher's "star wisdom," the research of Walter Johannes Stein and Eugen Kolisko, and the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner and his cosmological and Spiritual Science of the cosmos and humanity.