Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
1 In 1933 about twenty adults joined the brotherhood, about ten in 1934, and about fifteen more in
1935.
2 One customer was the last Hohenzollern emperor, who lived in exile near Utrecht, Holland. He had
ordered books and writings from the Eberhard Arnold Publishing House ever since the early twenties.
3 Transcript of a brotherhood meeting, end of July 1934, BA.
4 Karl Keiderling to Alfred Gneiting, July 5, 1935, BA. The sales and fundraising trips were as problematic
as they were necessary. Several Swiss cantons refused to issue entry permits for the traveling brothers.
And among fellow Christians in Switzerland, there was at times a failure to grasp the deserate plight
of the Bruderhof. Typical of this is Leonhard Ragaz’s totally exaggerated criticism in March 1935:
“His aim”– meaning Eberhard’s – “is the ruthless financial exploitation of the whole religious-socialist
movement in Switzerland…It is simply a fact that Arnold’s community would have collapsed long ago if
we had not again and again supported it.”
5 Eberhard Arnold to Ellen and Gerbrand Dekker, February 21, 1933, BA. 232
6 “Die schwierige Lage der Christen in der Krisis Mitteleuropas” [The difficult situation of the Christians
in the crisis in central Europe], lecture in Edinburgh, April 23, 1935, BA.
7 Eberhard Arnold, “Werbeschrift für den Almbruderhof Silum” [Appeals for the Alm Bruderhof, Silum],
May 1934, BA.
8 Eberhard Arnold, “Weihnachtsbrief ” [Christmas letter] from the Rhön to the Alm Bruderhof,
(December 1934), BA; cf. transcript of brotherhood meeting, December 5, 1934, BA.
9 According to Hans Meier in Solange das Licht brennt, 50. According to Gertrud Dalgas, the young men
did not leave the country until March 18; cf. Entscheidende Schritte.
10 Gutenberg is a castle on a prominent cliff in the Rhine valley at the southern extremity of the principality
of Liechtenstein.
11 “Die schwierige Lage der Christen in der Krisis Mitteleuropas,” op. cit.
12 Reported by Hardy Arnold, May 1, 1935, BA.
13 Eberhard Arnold to Hans Zumpe, April 18, 1935, BA.
14 It was from the circle associated with Leyton Richards that Arnold and Gladys Mason came to the
Bruderhof. Richards had visited the Rhön Bruderhof at the end of February and the Alm Bruderhof at
the beginning of March 1935.
15 The Dutch Mennonites gave the community seedy and generous aid after the Rhön Bruderhof was
dissolved by the National Socialists in 1937.
16 Transcript of brotherhood meeting, October 22, 1935, BA.
17 Later known as the Cotswold Bruderhof in Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire.
18 Eberhard Arnold to Emmy Arnold, December 25, 1930, BA; cf. Brothers Unite, 186.
19 “Werbeschrift für den Almbruderhof Silum,” op. cit.
20 Shorthand notes of a report of a journey, November 1, 1934, BA.
21 From letters during the England journey; cf. Eberhard Arnold to Hans Zumpe, April 1935, BA.
22 Eberhard Arnold to Hans Zumpe, April 20, 1935, BA.
23 E.g., In a letter to Alfred Gneiting written on July 5, 1935, BA, Karl Keiderling reported that Eberhard
had made jokes throughout the midday meal.