Talk:Theo Faiss

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Theo Faiss/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Usernameunique (talk · contribs) 05:54, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: RandFreeman (talk · contribs) 06:59, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

My review should be up by the end of the week. Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 06:59, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

I note belatedly that this review is part of the pledge given with my GA nomination of The Marion Star.

Some preliminary comments. If you cannot find solid answers to any or some of the open-ended questions, that is fine and will not affect this review's outcome:

1. Born in Brazil to German expats who ran a nursery there "expats" is too colloquial and should be changed to "expatriates".

• Done. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:14, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. The phrase "well liked" appears twice, in relation to Theo. By whom was he well-liked?

• Added in Dornach. My understanding is that he was generally well liked in the town—not surprising given that he was a 7 year old with a sunny disposition. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:44, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. Maria Magdalena ("Magda," b. 1909), Arno (b. 1911), and Hansi (b. March 1914) would follow When did these siblings die?

• Unfortunately there's not much information here. According to this article, Hans was cremated in December 1980, at which point Magda was still alive. I've added the year of death for Hans (but not the month, in case he died at the end of November and was cremated in early December). If I'm ever able to track down contact information for the family, I'll see if they might be able to provide obituaries of the others. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:36, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. What is the name of Steiner's housekeeper?

• It may have been Helene Lehmann, who appears to have been a longtime housekeeper for the Steiners. The sources don't give the person by name, however, so it is probably too far a leap to add it here. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:42, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. It may be worth specifying, at least at the first use of the word "nursery", that the nurseries Theo's parents ran were plant nurseries.

• Good point; done. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:16, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. More than 70 years after Faiss died, in 1987, the anthroposophist Lex Bos tracked down Faiss's surviving family and published a biography Include the biography's title inline?

• It was just "Theo Faiss", which is perhaps simple enough that it's not worth adding. In responding, however, I realized that I had the title wrong in the article (probably due to copying and pasting the {{cite journal}} template from another article), so I've fixed that. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:25, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

More later. The prose and sourcing are, from a cursory looking-over, passable. Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 09:45, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, RandFreeman. Responses above. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:52, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

The sources are almost wholly published books and journal articles, and thus reliable. Steiner's works are acceptable as a primary source on Faiss's life. The images are relevant, and either public domain or tagged appropriately. Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 19:01, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

1. Judith von Halle, by contrast, explains the fire by stating that Faiss's protective sheath had come to an end in October 2021 Did you mean October 1921 here?

• Whoops, fixed. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:23, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

1. I would reorganise the lead to bring the reader more naturally from Faiss's life to his death and then to his legacy. Starting with his cause of death, going into his life and then going to the aftermath of his death is jarring to read. Something to this effect flows better:

“ Theodor Alberto Faiss (1 July 1907 – 7 October 1914) was a boy whose death in Dornach, at the age of seven, was frequently invoked by the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner as having spiritual significance. Born in Brazil to German expatriates who ran a plant nursery there, Faiss left for Europe when he was around four, his family having decided to seek their return; they soon reconnected with Steiner, whom they had known previously, and purchased another nursery next to the Goetheanum. When his father was called up to fight for Germany in the First World War, Faiss declared that "Now that our father has been called away, I must work especially hard and diligently so I can be a support for my mother".

A well-liked child who frequently ran errands, Faiss was killed when, picking up groceries for Steiner's housekeeper, a horse-drawn wagon overturned on him. In at least fifteen speeches and lectures thereafter, Steiner invoked Faiss's death as what he termed a karmically voluntary sacrifice that provided a protective spiritual sheath for the Goetheanum, the headquarters of the anthroposophical movement. Steiner eulogized Faiss at his funeral, and—after the elder Faiss died two months later in a hospital—did the same for the father. In 1921, the English sculptor Edith Maryon, a close collaborator of Steiner, created a relief titled In Memory of Theo Faiss, and in 1987, the anthroposophist Lex Bos tracked down Faiss's surviving family and published a biography. The relief and biographer, wrote Maryon's biographer Rex Raab, constitute the enduring memorials to Faiss. ”

• When writing lead sections of biographies, I normally try to put the significance in the first paragraph, then the (distilled) biography in the second and/or third paragraphs, and then (in possible) have a final paragraph focusing on the person's legacy. Here, Faiss was unfortunate in that his significance is directly tied to his death—if Steiner hadn't spoken at length about how Faiss provided a protective sheath to the Goetheanum, we likely wouldn't have the article here. I get that it's a big jarring to start with a death, but I think it makes sense here. --Usernameunique (talk) 12:31, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

1. Maryon created two reliefs titled In Memory of Theo Faiss in 1921 (they are separate physical works, even if similar versions of the same concept), so it is erroneous to refer to only one "relief" in the lead's sentence In 1921, the English sculptor Edith Maryon, a close collaborator of Steiner, created a relief titled In Memory of Theo Faiss.

• Now two versions of a relief titled. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:27, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

1. Most readers of the anthroposophical journal in which it was published, he wrote, though not all, were already familiar with the story. would be less clunky if rearranged to Bos wrote that most, though not all, readers of the anthroposophical journal in which it was published were already familiar with the story.

• Done. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:30, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 03:19, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, RandFreeman. Replied above. --Usernameunique (talk) 12:32, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

• The article is, relative to what information is published about Faiss, broad; and there are no tangents.
• The article is laid out sensibly, has a lead section that adequately summarises its contents and contains no words to watch that are not from attributed theories/opinions.
• The theory about Faiss's having protected the Goetheanum after his death is described appropriately as the speculation of Steiner and other anthrosophists.

Source spot-checks coming soon. Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 17:28, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

Source spot checks

Revision numbers as of this revision.

• 2:Did not access
• 6:OK
• 10:OK
• 12:Did not access
• 13:Did not access
• 14:OK
• 16:Did not access
• 40:Did not access
• 78:OK

I could not access the offline sources, but my checks of the online sources give me confidence in your ability to paraphrase information distantly enough while still staying with what the source states.

Passing. Rand Freeman _{talk ⬩ in solidarity} 22:55, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that after Theo Faiss died, he was remembered by Rudolf Steiner as "You dear Sun-Boy, you"?

• Source: Raab 1993, p. 247: Er wurde in einer Ecke des Kantinengebäudes aufgebahrt, wo ihn Rudolf Steiner täglich besuchte, und jedesmal mit den Worten ansprach: «Du lieber Sonnenknabe, du.» (He was laid out in a corner of the canteen building, where Rudolf Steiner visited him daily, addressing him each time with the words: "You dear sun-boy, you.")

• • ALT1: ... that seven-year-old Theo Faiss was eulogized by Rudolf Steiner in 1914, memorialized by Edith Maryon in 1921, and biographied by Lex Bos in 1987? Source: The eulogy is in Steiner 2011. The memorial is In Memory of Theo Faiss. The biography is Bos 1987.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Abdullah Suriosubroto; Template:Did you know nominations/Scarlett Archer

Improved to Good Article status by Usernameunique (talk). Number of QPQs required: 2. DYK is currently in unreviewed backlog mode and nominator has 95 past nominations.

Usernameunique (talk) 14:08, 14 June 2026 (UTC).