Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
the sermons that Salvation Army General William Booth gave to audiences of as
large as four thousand people at the Busch Circus. On some evenings as many as
a hundred people flocked to the “mercy seat,” publicly set their lives in order, and
committed themselves to Christ.
Eberhard came to Berlin for Emmy’s baptism, which took place on the evening
of December 22, 1908, in the Hohenstaufenstrasse Fellowship. She was baptized
by Pastor Köhler. The engaged couple sent Christmas and welcomed in the new
year of 1909 among their friends in Berlin.
ErlangEn univErSity
Eberhard completed the final phase of his studies at the University of Erlangen.
This was partly a result of Ludwig von Gerdtell’s influence. Von Gerdtell had
received his doctorate there in the spring of 1908. While Eberhard had been
studying in Bebra, he visited von Gerdtell and must have heard a great deal about
the university, the philosophy department, and the professors. Most likely von
Gerdtell also advised him regarding his choice of both a dissertation theme and
an advisor. 7
March 31, 1909, found “candidate Arnold” in Erlangen, Villa Pfaff, Burgberg 9.
Free from the inner responsibility and the numerous obligations he had carried
in Halle, Eberhard was soon accomplishing an almost unbelievable amount of
academic work: “Every day 45–50 pages of Kant; 17–20 pages of the history of
Greek philosophy; about 15 pages of transcendental philosophy, (which compared
with Kant is child’s play); and occasionally literature on Nietzsche as well.” By the
end of April he was also attending two to three hours of lectures per day. He
worked through Kant’s Prolegomena and Critique of Pure Reason two or three times
in preparation for his oral examination. In June he moved on to “the great atheist”
Feuerbach, and blazed through dozens of volumes of secondary literature. During
this period he disciplined himself drastically –even to the point of curtailing his
letters to Emmy. On weekends he relaxed by taking extended bicycle tours through
the Franconian Alps, but always with a textbook stuck in his rucksack.
As the topic for his doctoral thesis he chose “Nietzsche’s Religious Development
and Christianity.” Professor Falckenberg accepted the outline in mid-May. At
this time, only nine years after Nietzsche’s death, a great part of his philosophical
works were still not public or in print. Eberhard traveled repeatedly to Weimar to
send a day or more in the Nietzsche archives, where Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche,
the philosopher’s sister and posthumous publisher, gave him access to original
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