Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
Eberhard was led to the next step by an inspiration. It must have occurred at
a mealtime toward the end of January 1934. 19 He asked for someone to bring a
large atlas, then opened to a map of Austria and Switzerland, and pointed to the
inconspicuous little principality of Liechtenstein – a mere sixteen miles long and
seven miles wide. “That’s the country we are going to move to,” he said. 20
liEChtEnStEin
When Eberhard started out with Emmy on a journey to the Alps on February 26,
1934, he had nothing definite to go on – no fixed destination, no recommendation
in his pocket. His leg was still in a plaster cast. In fact the whole journey was 189
almost beyond his strength.
In a solemn meeting two weeks previously Eberhard had appointed his son-in­
law Hans Zumpe and Hans Boller as servants of the Word through the laying
on of hands. He did not know when he might return, and in the meantime the
Bruderhof must not be left without spiritual guidance.
Time was growing short; Anna Schmidt was expecting the first spring guests
at her children’s home in Switzerland and the Bruderhof children could not
stay there much longer. After visiting a few friends in northern Switzerland the
Arnolds traveled to the principality of Liechtenstein on a hunch. One day in early
March, Eberhard and Emmy were sitting in a village inn at Schaan on the right
bank of the Rhine. They asked whether there was a suitable house in the vicinity
that they could buy or rent and were told of a resort house standing empty on
the Alm mountain pastures known as “Silum,” located above Triesenberg, almost
forty-five hundred feet above sea level and three thousand feet above the Rhine
Valley. After a breakneck ride by sleigh and a few hundred yards of toiling through
knee-deep snow (Eberhard with his cast!), they reached their destination. The
view to the west compensated them at least in part for their trouble: some of the
finest peaks of northwesern Switzerland lay directly before their eyes, and the
Rhine Valley lay at their feet. They soon made a rental arrangement with the
owner. Now all they needed was money.
Returning to Switzerland, Eberhard and Emmy visited a number of friends
including Julia Lerchy. As they were leaving she pressed an envelope into their hands.
Contents: sixty-five hundred Swiss francs – more than enough for the beginning of
the Alm Bruderhof in Silum. 21 That was on March 12. On March 19 the children
and their teachers moved to Silum. Eberhard and Emmy were there to greet them.
Emmy returned to the Rhön Bruderhof in April. Little by little a few experienced