Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the WindThough life in the mountains removed the family from the demands of theirformer city life, the Arnolds were in no way cut off from the rest of the worldduring their stay in Tirol. Letters from and to Germany were constant. So werevisitors. Clara Arnold, mother Elisabeth Arnold from Breslau, Monika (“Mimi”)von Hollander, cousins from Hamburg, and a number of friends came to visitfor several days or weeks at a time. The guests rented rooms at a nearby farmbecause the Pichler cottage was too small to accommodate them all. A visit meanteven more singing than usual, which was always accompanied by Emmy on thepiano. Spurred on by Mimi, Eberhard learned to take photographs and preserveda variety of family scenes on his camera plates. The St. Bernards presented thefamily with a litter in the spring of 1914. Eberhard would enjoy romping aroundwith the puppies, totally carefree, after which he would sit down to work on hisarticles again, completely engrossed in spiritual matters. A greater contrast is hardto imagine.61mapping out innEr land 14In the spring and summer of 1914 Eberhard’s thoughts began turning back hometo Germany. He felt sufficiently recovered and, despite the doctors’ urgings thathe spend a second winter in Tirol, he wondered if he could resume his preachingand ministering in the fall. But first and foremost in his thoughts was a seriesof articles he was writing, articles intended to summarize his spiritual insights.Two of these appeared in print in the newspaper Auf der Warte (On Guard): “Sinand Pride,” in May 1914, and “Soul and Spirit,” in August. Eight more articleswere printed in the Evangelical Alliance Magazine. The first of these appeared onMay 3, 1914, under the title “Inner Experiences.” It picked up almost word forword where Living Churches had left off – with the kingdom of God. 15 The otherarticles followed at two-week intervals: “Peace and Moods”; “The Inward Life”(once again, an example of Kutter’s influence); “The Conscience: Its Origin andActivity”; “The Conscience: Its Healing in God”; “The Inner Light”; “The LivingWord within Us”; and finally, “The Temple of the Spirit and Our Inner Heart.”Alongside this last article, in July of 1914, the Evangelical Alliance Magazineannounced the publication of Eberhard’s book Inward Life. But everything turnedout differently.On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne,was assassinated in Sarajevo. Then, on July 28, two days after Eberhard’s thirtyfirstbirthday, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized on July