Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
that Emmy was on the verge of exhaustion and that the household was in a state
of chaos. The housemaids had taken advantage of the new circumstances and now
neglected their proper tasks. Suse Hungar did not let this pass for long. Without
much fanfare or any long discussion she moved in with the Arnolds, took the
children’s education firmly in hand, and became a part of the family. She linked
her future with theirs.
In the summer of 1919 Eberhard made contact with the Berlin pastor Günther
Dehn, who was occupied in social work. 8 The relationship remained somewhat one-
sided. Eberhard tried to win Dehn’s cooperation, but Dehn, who had felt relieved
and freed by Karl Barth’s rejection of everything that appeared even remotely
connected with enthusiasm or fanaticism, was always a little disconcerted by
Eberhard’s zest and preferred to think along conventional lines.
Pastor Heinrich Schultheis was a close friend of Otto Herpel. 9 The two had
studied theology together, and even in those early days Schultheis had been a
convinced socialist. He was considerably more radical than Herpel. Eberhard first
met Schultheis at the Tambach conference, and over a period of three years the
two men grew closer intellectually and spiritually. But, abruptly and painfully,
their ways would part.
Georg Flemmig was another of Otto Herpel’s friends. 10 A bachelor, he lived and
worked as a teacher in his beloved Schlüchtern, where he was highly resected.
Energetic and full of ideas, Flemmig was motivated by a profound love of Christ
and of people. Following the war he gathered a like-minded group in Schlüchtern
and, beginning in the spring of 1919, the Arnolds started receiving their newsletter.
With Georg Flemmig as its moving spirit, this group became the nucleus for the
Neuwerk movement. In September of 1919 he signed on as coeditor of Das Neue
Werk, publishing the magazine from Schlüchtern. He acquired a printing shop and
drew on business contacts and volunteers for distributing the magazine and for
all sorts of incidental tasks. In December of 1919 it was Flemmig who issued a
call for people to esablish an “Early Church” in different places, with spiritual
unity, common aims, and responsibility for people within and without the group.
The underlying concept was to form a kind of open brotherhood. Eberhard and
Emmy took up the idea with enthusiasm, as did Else von Hollander. By January
of 1920 they had already become members of the “Early Church.” 11 To show their
membership the men wore an open ring, the women an open hair band. However,
despite the initial enthusiasm, the brotherhood would last barely three years.
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