Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
with a student named Paul Tillich. Though their ways parted, their paths crossed
again many years later. 9
thE SilESian SEminary
At the beginning of the 1906 summer term, Eberhard’s cloistered life in his uncle’s
house ended. His parents understood from the few visits their son made to Breslau
that he craved younger and more lively company. Eberhard found it in the seminary
of the Lutheran Church of Silesia, Wilhelmstrasse 10. The massive edifice still
greets visitors and passersby with a quotation from Psalm 27:11 chiseled in its
stone: “Teach me thy way, O Lord; and lead me on a level path.” Several theology
students from Silesia roomed in the seminary, including a few from the SCM
ranks. Some of them felt cramped by the rules of the institution and by what they
considered to be a bourgeois ambience. For Eberhard, however, life in the Silesian
seminary brought a measure of freedom. Moreover, the housefather was Dr. Karl
Heim.
Karl Heim, hardly ten years older than the students, was regarded by many
of them as a quasi-father figure. This was esecially true of SCM members, who
found in him a spiritual kinship and common language. Until 1898 Dr. Heim
had served on the executive committee of the SCM chapter in Halle, and from
1899 until 1902 he had made the circuit as full-time traveling secretary for the
movement. His spiritual authority was unquestionable.
The seminary offered ample opportunities for the exchange of ideas. Here,
Eberhard and Karl Heim laid the foundation for a lasting (if not particularly close)
friendship. In the years to come, the two would hold many discussions. They would
argue over the consequences stemming from their shared spiritual recognitions.
They would draw entirely different conclusions and move in completely different
directions. Yet, right until the end of Eberhard’s life, Karl Heim always took an
interest in him.
growing rESponSibility in thE SCm
On April 26, 1906, as the summer term opened, Eberhard was elected chairman
of the SCM chapter in Halle. “Honor to Jesus, to our King, is what we want to
represent in the student world,” he announced in his inaugural address:
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