Homage to a Broken Man: The Life of J. Heinrich Arnold - Plough

Revolution18work among the urban poor.” “In the country,” insisted the urban workingclassradicals, “so that the workers’ children can grow up in a healthy environment,away from the slums.”In the end, it was the family pediatrician who had the final word on thesubject. Heiner’s younger brother Hermann, who was four, had once run energeticallyaround the house. Now, because of inadequate nutrition, he hadlost the ability to walk, and dragged himself around using his arms. As forthe other four Arnold children, especially the youngest, Monika, their healthwas also poor. “Your children are in danger,” the doctor warned Emmy. “Takethem out of the city. They need clean air and a wholesome farm diet.”And so it was that by the early summer of 1920, astonished friends foundthe Arnolds packing up their house in order to leave what Eberhard had recentlytaken to calling “the dying metropolis.” Their destination was said tobe a tiny village near Schlüchtern, in a rural area whose landscape was dottedwith Siedlungen (communal settlements), folk schools, and other similarventures. Schlüchtern was known as a mecca for the “new German youth.”Moreover, it was the home of Georg Flemmig, a kindred spirit who had invitedEberhard to join him in forming an independent publishing house.“What about the children? Where will you stay?” relatives asked. Theyknew the Arnolds had found an empty villa for sale, but now the owner washedging. And as for the temporary lodging Eberhard had arranged, it wasalmost laughable: three small, unfurnished rooms at the back of a countryinn across the road. But the Arnolds were undaunted. They were bound anddetermined to throw away everything. Rumor had it that they were even surrenderingtheir life insurance policy for cash.His Excellency Michaelis’s wife visited Emmy to dissuade her from joiningEberhard in the event that he really took this “unusual step.” Her missionfailed. As Frau Michaelis later told a mutual friend, “She is even more fanaticalthan he is! There is nothing we can do.”Homage to a Broken Man