The lectures on the Fifth Gospel given in various places in 1913 and 1914 occupy a very special place for spiritual research. Rudolf Steiner himself described the effort it took for him to speak about this material. He did so out of a deep sense of responsibility, and in his awareness of the great necessity for these facts to infuse the development of the world at this very moment.

In the year 1948, the decision was made to publish the first five Oslo lectures in German. This arose from an insight and conviction that the world of that day virtually demanded that these messages be made accessible and entrusted to a wider circle of searching individuals. May they treat the secrets of the Fifth Gospel in the right way, as did Rudolf Steiner!