Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
the Rhön Bruderhof: diaries and letters from the dungeons of the Inquisition,
catechisms, sermons and bible interpretations, and songs that had originated in
times of severe persecution. The Bruderhof received gifts of valuable documents
from a variety of sources. On one occasion the community even purchased a
number of original manuscripts, despite the fact that they lacked the money for
absolute necessities. (But what are necessities to a community that relies on Jesus
and witnesses to outsiders that “man does not live by bread alone?”)
Early in 1928 Eberhard commenced an all-out search for old “Hutterian
Orders,” guidelines pertaining to schools and to craftsmen. This was primarily
dictated by circumstances: it was essential to organize the common life and work
of fifty adults and children. But it also came from Eberhard’s childlike curiosity:
if he could compare the daily life on the Rhön Bruderhof to the old Hutterian
traditions, would he find the same astonishing similarities he had discovered in
the great spiritual concepts of community of goods, baptism of faith, and refusal
to bear arms?
Issues of Die Wegwarte from that time period provide quite a few glimpses into
the communal life at the Rhön and its involvement with historical Hutterian
writings. Two of the finest gleanings were printed there: The December 1927 issue
carried a poem from Vogler’s catechism of 1625; and, beginning in January 1928
and continuing in several later issues, a pastoral letter “On Brotherly Community:
The Highest Command of Love,” written in 1652 by Andreas Ehrenpreis. 20
diStinguiShEd friEndS
Among Eberhard’s hundreds of friends and correspondents during the 1920s,
several are worthy of mention. Prince Günther von Schönburg-Waldenburg was
well-known in his day. When Eberhard first made his acquaintance the prince
was still young but already a widower. In October of 1923 he allowed the National
Union of the YMCA to use his Waldenburg Castle for a youth leaders’ conference.
Wearing corduroy knee britches, Eberhard stood out as a bizarre figure among
the middle-class gentlemen (many were friends from his prewar student days) in
their formal black suits. Perhaps it was for this very reason that the prince singled
him out. Shortly after the conference Prince Günther visited Sannerz. Eberhard
took great pains to prepare Konrad Paul’s villa to welcome the guest, not because
he wanted to appear better off than they really were – there was really no way
to hide the poverty – but out of consideration for the prince. Eberhard said that
the prince was not accustomed to such crowded living conditions or such scanty
145