Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
Sannerz days, who had more recently worked as a government lawyer, provided
Eberhard with important information from within the administration, which
now, under the Nazi policy of forced conformity (Gleichschaltung ), had to toe the
party line.
To help prisoners and the destitute proved scarcely pracicable. All the same in
the years after 1933 the Bruderhof became a refuge for several people who could
not have evaded the grasp of the National Socialists in any other way. For example,
Friedel Sondheimer, a young Jew, found his way to the Bruderhof in 1931. For him
and others, Eberhard put his own life on the line.
The dire premonitions of the first months of 1933 were not off base. Already by
September 1933 Eberhard had heard from a university pastor about concentration
camps, arbitrary arrests, mistreatment of innocent people, and denial of basic
human rights. 29 A short while later the state began to show official interest in the
Rhön Bruderhof. The so-called Reich Bishop, Ludwig Müller, tried to sound out
the Bruderhof ’s attitude through a letter of October 11, 1933: 30 “It would interest
the Reich Bishop to know what position you and your community take toward
Christianity and the church.”
Eberhard’s answer was plain and direct: “Never, in four hundred years, have
the brothers named after Jakob Hutter taken part in the power struggles of state
politics, political parties, parliamentarianism, and class distinctions, just as they
have never had personal property and have never used weapons.” In the Hutterian
communities “real community of the people is realized on the basis of community
of faith.” In closing Eberhard wrote: “Our whole brotherhood wishes and prays
that the Reich Bishop of Germany may be granted grace from Jesus Christ and
enlightenment from the Holy Spirit to do the will of God, who wants to reveal
his love and unity to all men.” Müller, a compliant henchman of the Nazis, can
seldom have been admonished in so elegant yet so plain a manner. Enclosed with
the letter was a copy of “Light and Fire.” This was the first and only time that the
“German Christians” sought contact with the Bruderhof. Obviously Eberhard’s
letter had told them everything they needed to know.
a lEttEr to adolf hitlEr
Eberhard wanted very much to meet Hitler face to face. During the brotherhood
meeting on Good Friday 1933 he had actually said, “I believe that this government
would be glad to hear a deepgoing and clear word. If I could have a talk with Adolf
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