THE BRUDERHOF

The Bruderhof was founded in Sannerz, Germany, in 1920, and is now an international movement, with around 2,000–2,500 members living in ten communities. Seven of these are in the northeast United States (New York state and Pennsylvania), two are in England (Kent and East Sussex) and one is in Australia. These bruderhofs are based upon absolute community of goods and work. Full members give over all their worldly goods at the time of joining (baptism). The members mainly work within the community either on domestic tasks (cleaning the ‘hof’, washing the clothes of the inhabitants, cooking for the inhabitants, mending and making clothes; all these tasks are performed by the women) or in the factory that produces the wooden school equipment (Community Playthings) or equipment for the disabled (Rifton products) that are important sources of the communities’ income. (The factory workforce is overwhelmingly male.) There are some other smaller ‘branches’ in which people can work; bookselling would be an example. A small number of bruderhofers might work off-site.

Although there are ten communities, the Bruderhof is one body, presided over by an Elder. From 1983 until April 2001 the founder's grandson, Johann Christoph Arnold, was clearly the holder of this role. Reports appeared in the bulletin Keep in Touch, a journal produced by disaffected former members of the Bruderhof, and a hostile source on Bruderhof issues, in its April–May 2001 issue, indicating that Arnold had stepped down and that Richard Scott had replaced him. The Bruderhof continues, however, as of March 2002 to call Arnold its ‘lead pastor’. Each community's full members form a ‘Brotherhood’ (in which women can be members), and there are ministers called Servants of the Word, a position only tenable by males, in each community. However, there is a common purse shared between all the communities of the movement. The basis for the Bruderhof's way of life is a shared understanding that Christianity requires this form of life, the biblical roots of which are to be found especially in the Acts of the Apostles, with its description of the early Jerusalem Church, and the Sermon on the Mount, a central text for the community. The co-founder and main ideologist of the Bruderhof, Eberhard Arnold (1883–1935), laid down the Bruderhof's understanding of the demands of Christianity, and his life and work represent a continuing inspiration to the Bruderhof.