Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
and fought against to the point of insanity. Nietzsche can claim the honor of being
a unique philosopher and a linguistic genius, as well as a self-proclaimed prophet.
Eberhard had only one purpose: to understand and obey Jesus Christ.
By the conclusion of his university studies, Eberhard’s thinking had taken on
a new quality. In his dissertation he had grappled with the great thinkers of his
time, whether their positions were good or evil. He set out to prove that faith in
Jesus Christ brought convincing answers to the questions of modern humanity.
Nietzsche had provoked such questions, as had Rudolf Steiner, Karl Marx, Leo
Tolstoy, Stefan George, Peter Kropotkin, and in later years the propagators of
National Socialism. Before all was said and done, Eberhard would face each of
them, one after the other.
But Nietzsche came first. For an entire decade Eberhard used slogans and
illustrations from Nietzsche’s works to draw to his lectures both the critics of the
church and the “born-again” Christians. These themes included: “The Bankruptcy
of the Religious Systems,” “The New Aristocracy,” “Jesus and the Fight against
Moralism,” “The Overman,” “The Will to Power and Submission to God,” “The
New Humanity,” “The Modern Antichrist and His Defeat,” “Nietzsche in the
Present-Day Struggle,” and finally, in 1920, Eberhard’s lecture “The Descendants
of Man and the Coming Order.”
However much these writings and lectures may have differed in detail, the
basic theme remained the same: Jesus Christ surpasses Nietzsche in every resect.
Jesus fulfills what Nietzsche could at best only long for. Nietzsche’s ideas were
not altogether bad, but Jesus far outclasses them. If a person desires “to set the
stamp of eternity on his own life,” to use Nietzsche’s expression, there is no need to
wait for an “eternal recurrence.” The best course is to hold to Jesus. Eberhard did
not shrink from presenting this message loudly and clearly, even in his doctoral
thesis.
in lEipZig
Life in Leipzig was by no means quiet. In a very short time a weekly bible study
meeting had begun in the Arnolds’ little house. Sometimes as many as twenty
people participated. Eberhard sent one day a week in Halle working for the Alte
Promenade Fellowship. He would catch the night train home. He performed
pastoral tasks and gave sermons and lectures to the groups associated with Dr.
Gotthelf Müller, the man who had baptized him. In the spring Eberhard resumed
his work in the Erfurt Gallery Fellowship, but this time he was working together
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