Starting in 2006 the two major publishers of Rudolf Steiner's work in English (Rudolf Steiner Press in the UK and SteinerBooks in the US) collaboratively began the work of issuing an English Complete Works edition that would match the German Gesamtausgabe volume for volume. To date about 100 volumes have been completed, out of an estimated 400. In 2021 Aelzina Books joined the effort.

The Complete Works numbering begins with volume 1 and runs to 354. The works are arranged by type and theme, as detailed below. Along the way some numbers got skipped. And increasingly it happened that there ended up being more than one book's worth of material for an assigned number, resulting in some numbers having a and b versions (such as 70a and 70b, or Roman numeral sub-versions, such as 266/I, 266/II). This makes numbering them in a database a bit of a challenge (but don't worry, we figured it out). It also explains why there are nearly 400 volumes in a set where the numbers only go up to 354.

Reviewing the Complete Works German publishing history is also helpful in understanding the history of the Anthroposophical movement. Today everything available to us tends to exist in a sort of eternal state of being, and we assume that if a lecture was held in 1904, anthroposophists in 1906, 1916, 1930, and 1950 must have been able to be fully aware of it. But some of those 1904 lectures weren't published until 1976, or even 2021! So you can literally chart the growth of "anthroposophy" by the date on which the material became publicly available, a process with is still ongoing even today.

With the links below you can peruse the Complete Works by volume, year of first publication, topic, or as a whole. Which volumes exist in English is also noted. With our handy English Publishing History tool you can also find out about non-Complete Works versions of books and lectures in English where available.