Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Windjourney also bore fruit. In it he applied for permission to make a fundraisingjourney through all the Mennonite churches in the Netherlands, and while it istrue that he was never able to make the journey, his appeal for generous help andsupport was favorably received and rewarded two years later. 15 In October of 1935Eberhard would still have time to speak personally with the Masons and WinifredBridgwater to prepare them for a return to England to look for a suitable locationfor the community. 16 A year later the new place would actually exist. 17ConSumEd by hiS taSk“I would not find it too hard to give both eyes and more for the sake of insuring 198the inner and outer life of our Bruderhof for the next fifty to a hundred years.”Eberhard had written these words in a letter home from Canada at Christmas1930. 18 In fact, he would sacrifice more than his eyes for the survival of thecommunity. When he broke his leg in October of 1933 the conflicts between theBruderhof and the violent National Socialist state allowed him no time for recovery.In January of 1934 he still felt weak and was struggling with heart trouble. Butin February of 1934 he limped through the Alps, leaning on two sticks, with hisleg in a walking cast, on the journey that would lead to the esablishment of theAlm Bruderhof. “The call to freedom is the call to a spiritual campaign that neverslackens, to a spiritual battle that allows no one time to recuperate,” he wrotein May 1934. 19 How true! And the brothers and sisters in the brotherhood, inparticular the young ones, were not always especially considerate of his physicalcondition. Consequently, Eberhard remained responsible for many tasks thatcould have been spared him, and he had to deal with petty daily concerns to thevery end.But some of his tasks could only be done by him. At age fifty-two, a grandfatherseveral times over, handicapped and weakened, he covered as much ground ashe had in the two previous decades of evangelizing and lecturing. Now, however,it was begging journeys to Brandenburg, Breslau, and Switzerland. Thesewere emergency missions – for fire fighting and disaster service, as it were – tonegotiate, to patch up, to piece together, and to clear away misunderstandings. Topersuade officials, to talk to deaf ears. He grew well acquainted with the insideof administrative offices in Fulda, Kassel, and Berlin. In late October of 1934he visited half a dozen Reich ministries, trying to induce them to recognize theBruderhof as a charitable institution for the public benefit. He attempted to gainexemption from agricultural taxes. He limped straight into the lions’ den – into