Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Windthe sermons that Salvation Army General William Booth gave to audiences of aslarge as four thousand people at the Busch Circus. On some evenings as many asa hundred people flocked to the “mercy seat,” publicly set their lives in order, andcommitted themselves to Christ.Eberhard came to Berlin for Emmy’s baptism, which took place on the eveningof December 22, 1908, in the Hohenstaufenstrasse Fellowship. She was baptizedby Pastor Köhler. The engaged couple spent Christmas and welcomed in the newyear of 1909 among their friends in Berlin.ErlangEn univErSityEberhard 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 hadreceived his doctorate there in the spring of 1908. While Eberhard had beenstudying in Bebra, he visited von Gerdtell and must have heard a great deal aboutthe university, the philosophy department, and the professors. Most likely vonGerdtell also advised him regarding his choice of both a dissertation theme andan advisor. 7March 31, 1909, found “candidate Arnold” in Erlangen, Villa Pfaff, Burgberg 9.Free from the inner responsibility and the numerous obligations he had carriedin Halle, Eberhard was soon accomplishing an almost unbelievable amount ofacademic work: “Every day 45–50 pages of Kant; 17–20 pages of the history ofGreek philosophy; about 15 pages of transcendental philosophy, (which comparedwith Kant is child’s play); and occasionally literature on Nietzsche as well.” By theend of April he was also attending two to three hours of lectures per day. Heworked through Kant’s Prolegomena and Critique of Pure Reason two or three timesin preparation for his oral examination. In June he moved on to “the great atheist”Feuerbach, and blazed through dozens of volumes of secondary literature. Duringthis period he disciplined himself drastically –even to the point of curtailing hisletters to Emmy. On weekends he relaxed by taking extended bicycle tours throughthe Franconian Alps, but always with a textbook stuck in his rucksack.As the topic for his doctoral thesis he chose “Nietzsche’s Religious Developmentand Christianity.” Professor Falckenberg accepted the outline in mid-May. Atthis time, only nine years after Nietzsche’s death, a great part of his philosophicalworks were still not public or in print. Eberhard traveled repeatedly to Weimar tospend a day or more in the Nietzsche archives, where Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche,the philosopher’s sister and posthumous publisher, gave him access to original42