Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

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Against the Wind
Matters did not improve in the following months. During the winter of 1915–
1916, the people of the Central Powers began to feel the full effects of the Allied
blockade. The menu grew monotonous: skim milk, turnips, potatoes, stale bread,
and everything else measured out in minute quantities in exchange for food
stamps. Under these conditions on December 10, 1915, Emmy brought her fourth
child into the world. He was named Hans-Hermann after Eberhard’s brother.
“Hansemann,” as the other children found it easiest to call him, was a giant among
dwarfs. At birth he weighed ten pounds – astonishing under the circumstances, and
a strain for his mother. A nanny now had to be employed in addition to the hired
help for cooking and housework. Hans-Hermann developed slowly and learned to
walk late. In spite of extra rations for mothers and babies the nourishing food he
needed was simply not available.
The Arnolds resorted to self-help methods. They rented a garden plot with
a shed about a quarter of an hour’s walk from Landauerstrasse and managed to
acquire two milk goats. Eberhard tried his hand at gardening, planting radishes,
carrots, potatoes, and even tomatoes, which at that time were regarded as exotic
fruit. The plot was big enough to provide a small paradise for the children. Hardy
and Emy-Margret, at four and five years old, could already help. The weekends
and long summer evenings provided free time for the family, but at other times
Eberhard and Else had to send more hours than they wished at the publishing
house.
Even had anyone in the SCM wished to escape from the prevalent atmosphere
of war fever, it would hardly have been possible. In his September 1915 report on
the annual student conference at Wernigerode Eberhard wrote: “It is certain that
in the future, even after the war, the SCM conference will place more emphasis on
the German element in its name and characer and so form a strong and lasting
counterweight to the English type of Christian acivity.”
During the summer of 1916 he addressed “a few words to fellow students” in
the name of the SCM executive committee: “The great war, which we have now
lived through for four semesers, is a German war for freedom.” In this sense he
demanded “freedom and lordship of the Spirit.”
The main seech at the 1916 Wernigerode conference was delivered by a
Professor Schaeder from Kiel. The ranks of the conference members were far
thinner than in previous years; nearly all those born between 1880 and 1899 were
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