Eberhard Arnold

Correspondence, May 1925

[Arnold, Eberhard and Emmy papers - L]

[Draft Translations by Bruderhof Historical Archive]

May 3, 1925

Greatly esteemed, dear Mr. Arnold,

I thank you warmly for your friendly letter. I fully understand that it will be best for all parts concerned that Ferdi comes home, if an inner working together does not prove possible. He would surely have returned home of his own accord if it did not depress him that he had invested all his savings--500 marks of his indemnification (compensation)--in your enterprise. At that time he insisted, in spite of our opposition, on having it transferred, in the hope of being able to remain with you as a coworker. As this hope did not materialize, you will surely see to it that he gets back as much as possible of his property—won’t you?

With my whole heart I am grateful to you for all the kindness and love you have shown to my brother and also for any inward gain he received with you. Why is it that, given your loving activity, and with you and I standing on the same ground of faith: Jesus, our Savior and returning Lord, that we nevertheless do not walk the same path inwardly? Could it be that from everything related to the whole we draw completely different conclusions?

When you sent Ferdi samples of your literature, I was taken aback by finding in the Sonnenlieder side by side with songs to the Lord’s glory, also songs of a worldly character. Isn’t John 12: 24-25 and Luke 14; 26-27 valid also for young people? “Do not love the world”, and “in the world you have fear”! Whether one decides early or late for the Lord, He always wants an undivided heart. If we want to serve our dear young people, should we not help them to receive an undivided heart as quickly as possible? When it’s very clear conversions we have to do with, it’s hardly necessary to point to complete separation from the world. Then the heart so burns for its Lord that a complete turning away from the world is a ma dear young people among ourselves, with them God’s word becomes a daily nourishment. The more healthy a child of God is, the more does its soul hunger for this precious food.

In your devotional meetings, why do you have more regard for Jakob Böhme etc. than for the word of God? Whoever does not understand the word of God is even less apt to understand Jakob Böhme, for his treatises presuppose a knowledge of God’s word. Why do you call it a community of prayer when everybody just subsides into silence and at most prays quietly for himself? If we want to let ourselves be guided by the life of the first Christian congregations, in which spiritual gifts were so abundant, we must also draw together into a community of prayer and must so pray that brothers and sisters can understand and join us in prayer (Matt. 18:19; Acts 4:24-31).

The early Christian congregations still had community of goods (though there were also sad occurrences such as that with Ananias and Sapphira) but no community of work, as far as I can perceive. Paul must have done his carpet weaving in unchristian houses, and so have at all times believers carried on their work wherever they were placed; they became employees of the state as well as of unbelieving firms and businesses. I myself am a postal employee, and my vocation has never yet disturbed my conscience, as long as the Lord gives me strength to always be faithful and conscientious. Community of goods did not continue all through the centuries; it must have ceased fairly soon; otherwise there would have been no need for benevolent taxes to be collected on behalf of indigent congregations; for there would have been the common purse to be dipped into for relief in such cases of need. Still, even if the disciples of Jesus have not kept striving throughout all centuries for brotherly community, for community of goods and of work, I yet find it very good for you to live according to these guidelines there in your settlement, seeing that you consider that the best way in which to wait for the Lord.

But what does worldwide fraternization, such as pacifists keep striving for, have to do with that? We have been placed into our German fatherland in order to be active there, and the more deeply it’s put to shame, the more ardently must we love it. There will be wars as long as Satan still remains the prince of this world, and our struggling against that amounts to striking blows at the air. When we get to work internationally, for the abolition of things not in our power, e.g. for doing away with war, we leave our biblical foundation and try to achieve something on our own.

Where that leads to can be recognized by the forthcoming election. Everyone that, in accordance with God’s Word seeks what is in the country’s best interests, who wants to do all he can so that God’s word can be proclaimed still more clearly and purely in the beloved fatherland, must needs vote for Hindenburg! A believing Christian who is inwardly aware that he ought to do that and yet abstains from voting or even votes for Marx, places himself on the anti-Christian side.

Doesn’t the entire democratic party stand under the influence of the Reform Jews, from whom we expect the anti-Christ, and isn’t it on good terms with Catholicism, from which the false prophet is apt to arise? When faced by the terrible confusions of this end time, I put my whole trust into the judgment of our fathers in Christ, and it’s the brothers of our fellowship movement that I recognize as such. I would do this also if I were a man. Dear Mr. Arnold, couldn’t you once talk about all this, and pray about it, with St. Dallmeyer or another brother? One gains such consolation and peace through bowing below such a judgment born of experience.

The burden of responsibility for all your other works is bound to well-nigh press you to the ground--the responsibility for the many causes you want to serve.

How kind of you to want to once have also me there among you! Then I could also show you that I do not want to assess and judge your work uncharitably, since I am very much aware of all my own imperfection; I just want to reply to your kind letter as best I can and in the love of the Lord.

Now I still want to quickly write to Ferdi, too, and ask him to come home right away. I so look forward to my beloved brother’s arrival! It’s so hard to find another position, and I would be grateful if you could help Ferdi with that—maybe a job in a bookstore?.

With cordial greetings and best wishes for your work

Your Helene Scholl.

- - - - -

Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz

May 4, 1925

Dear Wilhelm Goeters,

Today I have to pester you once again and ask that you now actualize your cooperation with the publishing of Jean de Labadie and Tersteegen. We don’t want to undertake the publication of our books without also presenting two decisive witnesses from the very origins of Pietism. Labadie and Tersteegen are of great importance to me, and I am ready to straightway hasten to you in reply to any telegraph call. I also place myself at your disposal and will serve you as your handyman, your amanuensis. I shall be pleased to play a Franciscan beggar and just stay in your house until I have the manuscripts in my hands. Or do you think you might possibly be able to let us have those books or manuscripts even without such an importunate visit? We would be ever so thankful to you, just as it already made us very happy that your ex -Jesuit-Bethel-pupil Alphons came along and brought us your friendly assurance that our plan would soon become reality.

With cordial greetings to you and your dear wife

In loyal friendship

- - - - -

Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz

May 4, 1925

Friedrich and Anne-Marie Heiler

You dear ones,

You must forgive me for today once again pestering you with our ”books of life” project; however, for the purpose of bringing out the first ten volumes it s of decisive importance that your two contributions: “Simeon, the new theologian” and “Women of German mysticism” do get into print. We presently enjoy reading together the wonderful booklet by Mechthild of Magdeburg, and we plead with you, Anne-Marie, to please comply with our request just as soon as possible, so that we can quite soon have the manuscript of your selection (of German woman mystics) in our hands. Please send us your written consent and let us know by what date you expect to have the manuscript ready.

We have similarly been reading together something by Simeon and have once again been strongly impressed by his book. Years ago already I once quoted a passage by him in a lecture and sensed that the listeners were strongly impressed.. So, please, Friedrich Heiler, do accede to our urgent request and let us have your work real soon. At what date might we possibly reckon with it?

Already now we urgently invite the two of you to our Whitsun conference in Sannerz. Anne-Marie, so many times I do still recall the day when I kept walking back and forth with you on our Sannerz meadow and together discussed many a serious issue. Since then we have had to bury our Otto Herpel, and from among our old circle, apart from Emmy and myself, the only ones present were Will and Hilde Völger and Elisabeth Schultheiß, and they asked me to speak in the name of our old circle of friends. I acceded to this request by speaking in the name of the “community of them that are waiting”. The fact that Otto Herpel had to break off his work while still in his manly vigor is a challenge to affirm our calling and put it into practice more deeply and decisively. Christ lives, and his spirit is alive!

In heartfelt community and friendship

- - - - -

Sannerz, May 4, 1925

Dear Papa,

It has made Emmy and me and all of us ever so happy that Mama has thought of us and our children with such loving-kindness.

The report we sent you about our house tells you how we are getting along. Today our faithful Kurt Breitfeld is going to return to us, after all through the winter recuperating in Switzerland from a catarrh of the lung apex. We are joyfully looking forward to having him back among us..

On behalf of our “books of life” I am presently working, with great enthusiasm, on the period from approximately 80-170 AD. [TN: i.e. work on The Early Christians] I would be very grateful to you for sending me post haste any source writings, translations, and other books of relevance for this work. I promise you to send them back before long and to guard them carefully. I enclose for you a list of the books I have available here, hence do not need sent.

I still have a second big request. We also want to publish a selection of Johann von Staupitz’s writings. I do have his little booklet “About the love of God” and “About the true Christian faith”, published 1862 by Liesching in Stuttgart.. Would you be so kind to let me know, or, still better, to let me have from the library whatever is extant by Staupitz besides these two “exceedingly lovely instructions”.

- - - - -

Bilthoven, May 6. 1925.

[original English]

Dear Eberhard,

I am writing in english, as that is so much easier for me, and I think it will be no difficulty for you. -

We wanted to send you the enclosed greeting from the Quaker-Meeting and now I can at the same time answer your letter, which came yesterday.

Kees is very sorry, but it is quite impossible for him to think of coming to Sannerz for the "Pfingsten" days. In the first place, we have a general conference of the "Bilthovesche Bewegung" here just at "Pfingsten" - and secondly, the journey for Kees on his bicycle would be such a long one and take so much time, that he could not do it now, though he hopes one day that the time will come, when he can come for a longer time to Germany.

He has just been away for three weeks in "het-Huis van Bewaring" in Utrecht. (Prison)! In the not filling in of a Taxpaper - he came last week - just on my birthday, so it was a double day of rejoicing! But the fact of just having been away for three weeks from his lessons etc. makes him feel he cannot be away again so soon.

We often think and talk of you all - and I do hope one day that I too may have the opportunity to visit Sannerz - it is something to look forward to!

- - -

I feel so dreadfully ashamed that we have never written to thank the children for those pretty paper lanterns which they sent our children at Christmastime. They were so pretty, and our children were delighted to get them - but it is dreadful that we did not even let you know that we had received them.

I hope all your family circle is well - how I wish we could once more see you all with us here, like that summer two years ago!

Our warmest greetings to you all - and we are both so sorry that we cannot come to you this time.

Your Betty Boeke

- - - - -

Sannerz

May 6, 1925

Hermann Buddensieg, my friend!

For once, at last, I am given a whole hour in which, undisturbed and without the distraction of the tasks which daily press upon me, I am able to concentrate on you and our joint task in Eisenach, and to clarify with you together what is necessary for the present and for the future.

"The valley opens wide,

Warm sunshine floods the earth with light. . .

Where life is present there dwells he,

Blows over meadows wide,

Is hov'ring over treetops tall;

Is there where life is pulsing free."

Our little flock of sheep, in whose sheep pen I am composing this letter with our faithful fellow worker Else von Hollander, rejoices in the sunshine and in life. Our landscape is a picture of peace, an expression of the harmony and unity of the surrounding creation; yet there is constantly an immense restlessness due to the pressing obligation to lead a holy fight which is not a matter for gregarious animals but for fighters dedicated unto death.

I am very glad [about your powerful tone] which you rightly feel as the only appropriate signal for the fight which is certainly a struggle of the spirits in which are the most powerful demons of all eons, above all the tragic powers which mislead and deceive the weak and halfhearted. Singleness of mind and resoluteness in testimony is ever more urgent, the deeper we know the far reaching significance for the whole of nature and culture. The love, which our one and only leader has shown as the greatest and ultimate foundation, was not hard like cold, destructive steel, but powerfully strong and militant like a glowing protuberance of the sun. We want then to hold faithful to the free German movement with its consequences, so that together with you we become open to this glow of the living fire and we ourselves are consumed like firebrands.

I heartily welcome your idea of a circular letter in this sense. Your choice of names shows me that you are clear that it is not the strong but the most susceptible who will be found; for the pure and receptive are strong as the bearers of the future. Even more essential than the circular letter is a fairly frequent meeting and encounter of those who are on the way.

Now we have one big request of you, to keep free already the days before Whitsun and both of the festival days. Come to us in Sannerz on the Thursday evening before Whitsun to be together in a circle of seeking and open people between thirty and sixty altogether. The spiritual testimony of the century and of the present hour is the theme which will occupy us. We call on you to stand with us in this service.

But, you my friend, I must see you again before that. I wish I could come immediately to you in Dienau, but it is very difficult with my work. The responsibility for the household community and the children's community brings with it many matters which I cannot evade. The "Library of living Christian testimonies through all the centuries" whose all embracing plan I am pursuing, in the moment holds me firmly in the second century, the significance of which, like the first century, is very impressive. We are reading many of the sources of this period, about which I would gladly have a thorough exchange of thoughts with you.

Would it be possible perhaps in conjunction with another task to visit us before Whitsun? Otherwise I will do my utmost to work hard to gain at least two days necessary for a visit to you. Until then I will read again Friedrich Muckles Kulturideal und Sozialismus [Ideal of Culture and Socialism]. Unfortunately I do not have a copy at hand of his history of Judaism.

Hermann, we must both not only stand firmly together but much more than that, we must become two friends and comrades in arms, who, from the invisible center point of all that happens, help each other forward in all things, and can depend on one another in everything, since your trust is founded on the ultimate foundation.

You should reckon on me for the Rufer [Herald], when you need me. In this way you will receive a review of the Eisenach movement, as soon as I can breathe in again. About the other tasks in which I can be at the disposal of the Rufer, it is best that we talk about these as soon as we see each other. We are all very glad that in the fall you will present to us the basic question and objective concern of history.

All we at Sannerz, especially Monika, Trudi, and Emy Margret greet you in great gratitude for the leading that has so brought us so together that we belong together.

At the same time you will receive the Junge Saat [Young Seed].

- - - - -

Sannerz, May 6, 1925

Dear Hans Kupfer,

Now you must at long last mean business and really come for a visit! The enclosed invitation tells you what we have in mind and propose for this year’s Whitsun conference in Sannerz, and it will depend very much on precisely those people coming together here who are really concerned that in Christ’s church community the new Kingdom prove right now its power to be effective and to give shape to things. We want to have faith and go forward!.

Please greet Walter Schumann and tell him from me and all of us that we have been very happy about the fellowship we had with him at the Rochsburg. If at all possible, could he get here by Thursday evening before Whitsun? And we would urge the same for Hannchen (i.e. little Hannah), whom we herewith invite through you..

Trudi told me that there is some violet-colored material that you folks had plans of donating for our house. We could actually do with that very well right now, for within the next few days we want to redo our publishing department--ceiling, walls, everything--turning it into a handsome room that could also be used for celebrations; hence such a donation would be especially dear and welcome to us. Please let us know whether you want to pursue that idea and are able to send us the material, or whether you have found a better use for it?

On your trip to show the play it was a pity you had so much rain. Prince Schönburg wrote us that because of the rain but few people came to watch the play but that it made a deep impression on these few.

Greet your dear parents; it was a great joy for us to see them again! And greet all your dear ones from us all!

In loyal friendship

- - - - -

Marburg, 19 Moltke St.

May 7, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Are you really one of the “waiting ones”—i.e. of those able to wait? [TN: Joking allusion to Eberhard’s reference to the “community of them that wait” in his letter of May 4 to the Heilers.] Please forgive me, but with us that is something you will just have to learn! Granted, I am now straight away going to start work—all that still has to be completed is the correcting of a documentary book about . . .however--don’t you agree?—my first task is husband and children, and only if they still leave me some time am I allowed to do something else. And—yes—I like to do it, but I neither can nor may offer you a definite date of delivery, and my husband Fritz can do so even less. I think he told you right away when you were first here that there are other projects he has in mind (besides himself editing two literary collections!) and that he cannot promise you anything for delivery at a definite date. All this is something you must not hold against us, nor are you doing that, OK? He who takes on new tasks must to begin with not let the old ones come short. Wherever we can work together with you we do it gladly.

As regards your Whitsun conference do not reckon with us; Fritz must travel to Switzerland, and I am going to be visited by my parents. But such days of meeting jointly are important and can be decisive for many a participant. Would that you might find the right word, the right tone for every participant!

It was only through Will Völger, who was with us for an hour last Monday, that we heard of Otto Herpel’s passing. What a painful loss!

Now many greetings to Emmy and to you!

Faithfully bound together with you

Your Friedrich and Anne-Marie Heiler

- - - - -

Zurich, May 6, 1925

Esteemed friend,

Unity severely afflicted (a burden possibly lifted off your folks’ shoulders by my decision to give no more lectures for one year)! [TN: The “severely afflicted unity” remains obscure.]

In addition a sudden and trenchant turn in my brother’s illness has once again taken my breath away for a few weeks so that it is only now that I can reply to your letter.

To the extent that my circumstances allowed it I did send a small sum to Kurt Breitfeld and will do so again in the hope that this might facilitate his journey to Ascona.

As regards the pamphlet, I am very happy about your assessment. At the moment it’s still being considered whether it’s to be published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, in which case it would no longer be at my free disposal; however I have no doubt that after my inquiry in London I shall be in a position to comply with your wish.

Of course, before having the pamphlet printed, I would like to rework it a little, seeing that the present and more recent draft had to be written hurriedly and at a not particularly favorable hour. I shall soon be in a position to report to you.

Affectionately thinking of you and with best wishes

Your L(eonbard) Ragaz

- - - - -

Zurich

May 6, 1925

Very respected Frau Arnold,

I am sorry to be answering you only today. Heavy storms which have passed over my life in form of the sickness and death of close relatives, have exhausted all my time and strength. But even without these experiences I could not have come to Sannerz as I am bound by many other things.

Concerning Kurt Breitfeld, he visited us here, and his whole manner pleased us. Will you pass on friendly greetings to him from us? Twice I gave him a small sum, but I did not hold out to him the prospect of more.

With friendly greetings,

Yours sincerely,

L. Ragaz

- - - - -

Sannerz, May 7, 1925

Dear Maria Adler,

Today we are sending you the invitation to our Sannerz Whitsun gathering. We would gladly have you with us, but if it isn't possible this year, you should at least think of it with us and rejoice about it and what its purpose is, and represent it in your circle, until you are able, as we firmly hope, to join our work in summer.

Greet your parents very warmly from us and tell them about our work; they will then certainly grow into the calling in which we do our work, and will learn to understand us.

We have great joy in our constantly growing work, quite especially in our ever growing, especially also continually inwardly growing and budding, Children's Community in which you also take an especial interest.

Since Easter we have three new children, two siblings [Gerd and Liesel Wegner] and the little step-brother of our little girl from Hanau [Sophie Schwing]. With Emmy-Margret, our school community is now exactly 10 children, who are all taught by Gertrud Dalgas and guided and cared for by her and Monika von Hollander in their small concerns. Unfortunately no male teacher, whom we do miss, has been found during this half year.

It is beautiful all around here now as the woods and meadows are in their fresh green and the fruit trees are in blossom. Grown-ups and children and our quite considerable herd of cows and sheep rejoice in the warmth and sunshine, and are as far as possible, the whole day outside.

Come soon! And in the meantime accept very warm greetings from us all,

The Sannerz household.

- - - - -

Sannerz, May 8, 1925

Dear Johannes Seiz,

You have invited us so many times already to make use of the splendid opportunity provided by your rest center for one or the other of us to gain new strength there. So we would now like to ask you if in June you could there accommodate our Suse Hungar for a fortnight. Suse Hungar first spent ten years in the Salvation Army and after that has for five years been helping us with our children and youth work. This past winter, at her own request, we released her from her obligations, and by giving lectures in school classes and parish meetings she has been engaged in work specially close to her heart: the fight against alcohol. We would be very glad if she could have a brief time of absolute rest and relaxation

in a completely other and different environment; we would see that as really desirable and promising for her. Please do give her a personal invitation—through us, naturally.

At the same time we are sending you an invitation to this year’s Whitsun conference in Sannerz and would be very glad to have you among us. The subject under which we place ourselves and the persons who have promised to come and join in the work will let you conclude that these days will be in the very center of what we are engaged in and are experiencing; in fact they have grown out of that.

We greet you from our hearts together with the whole house community!

- - - - -

Hanau, May 9, 1925

Dear Sophie,

Today I received your small parcel; thanks a lot for it to you as well as to your dear friend Ruth [von Hollander]. It has made me very happy—chiefly because you had thought of my birthday. Today I am 38 years old, so the largest part of my life is now behind me. Up to this day I have been feeling well and healthy, and this is what I hope also for the days to come, so as to be with you children for a long time yet. Since May 1 Gretchen has had a job on the Salis Way in Kasselstadt. She has it very good there, and they include her with the family; unfortunately, though, she is very homesick.

My dear Sophie, in the next days I am going to surprise you and Helmut with a little parcel. We are very happy that you are learning so well, Sophie, and also that you are getting on with the guitar. Before long many a wish may yet be fulfilled. My dear child, I once again enclose Helmut’s certificate of departure; let Trudi (Dalgas) have it. Tomorrow Helmut’s mother may come and visit you all; at least that’s what she said to Father. A fortnight ago Peter was here too.

Now, dear Sophie, do write and tell me how Helmut is getting on there and if he can learn in school like the others, and if Mama and Papa Arnold have joy with him or not. Is he sometimes naughty?

Now I will close and hope that my letter will find you as well and cheerful as it leaves me here! With many heartfelt greetings and kisses I remain

Your mother who loves you.

Also hearty greetings and kisses from your dear daddy!

Also pass on cordial greetings and kisses from me and father to out little Helmut

And many greetings to the whole house community!

- - - - -

Frankfurt on Main, 42 Gwinner St.

May 9, 1925

Dr. Eberhard Arnold

Sannerz near Schlüchtern

From a woman colleague of mine I obtained your address and now take the liberty of giving you an outline of my situation. I am a (female) clerk by profession, but have now been unemployed for five months and unable to find a job in spite of all my efforts. I am fully conversant with any kind of office work and have a good knowledge of language, acquired in the land here, and am in possession of good testimonials. I am 43 years old, a Catholic by religion. My last employments have been here in Frankfurt.

I am single, have no parents nor any property, and and would e most grateful for any advice you might be able to give me on whether and how I might find help. given help. Looking forward in hope to a favorable reply.

Respectfully

Thekla Wissner

- - - - -

Binau, May 10, 1925

My dear Eberhard,

I am going to be with you folks for Whitsun—just to let you know this right away! I am already joyfully looking forward to it, Eberhard, and thank you for your invitation and, quite generally, for your dear letter. True, it’s only just now that I have once again accustomed myself to the Binau solitude, but I will come to you folks nevertheless because I recognize how important these gatherings are and that one has to make the sacrifice.

By plunging me right into the torment and need of present mentality, such conventions always have an effect on me; they painfully convince us of our being pitted against a wall in our struggle, even though they may indeed give two or three persons the certainty that God’s kingdom is growing. Above all, though, it s because of you Sannerz folk that I am coming! Have our Eisenach friends been invited too? [TN: Reference to the co-participants in the pre-Easter conference of the Free-German Work Confederation in Eisenach.]

But now, Eberhard, you must also do your part and find the way to us! I cannot possibly travel far away from here, for lack of time and of money. I am so happy you will come to us still before Whitsun, for there are surely still things to be discussed. Above all, though, you must get to know our Binau, for that provides you with twice as intimate an understanding—just as I on my part must get to know your Sannerz. I enclose for you Dr. Mucher’s book on Nietzsche, and via the publishing house I am going to have the book about the Jews transmitted. The book about socialism will not be sent again; it’s more just a document of how things developed. What we think about socialism you will find in the “Challenger” (cf. the “burning empire” and “concerning faith and science”).

But now, dear friend, let us soon hear of your impending arrival! You had best travel via Würzburg, and don’t come for just a fleeting visit! Receive all our good greetings, you dear one—all our loving wishes for you Sannerzers, including children and sheep! And when at Whitsun I find big-city sultriness too oppressive, I shall make my way to you folks, for it’s then that one often feels even more closely related to all of you.

Now goodbye, Eberhard, till we meet again! Ever faithfully your

Hermann Buddensieg

Many thanks also for the Junge Saat (“Young Seed”)!

- - - - -

Charlottenburg, May 12, 1925

Dear Emmy Arnold,

Since my return from Eisenach at Easter ]TN: i.e. from the pre-Easter convention of the Free-German Work Confederation] it has every day been my intention to send you these things, and now I feel quite ashamed, for meanwhile the summer has arrived, and now you will not find use for everything! Well, then they will just get used later on! But I do hope very much that with so many people to look after you will find use for it.

The day before yesterday my mother did some baking; so I will also send you a bit of that. We call this kind of pastry Hefenklos. I hope you will enjoy it.

For the children I have also put in some picture frames. By the way, I am not the only “culprit” responsible for this shipment; Erich Mohr, who sends greetings to all of you, is also behind it.

How did Trudi, Monika, and Emmi-Ma experience Easter? For me many things in the life of the Confederation (Bund) are so hard to understand that I often wonder how I can still manage to be joyful at times; however, quite unexpected, [TN: at Eisenach] Eberhard, Spira, and Buddensieg brought me much that can give me joy.

It’s now ever so glorious outside, and we Berliners go a lot out on hikes! The other day Ulrich (Wolf) told us that only recently had it dawned on him how very beautiful your Rhön area is. Will Spira or Buddensieg come to visit you soon? For quite some time already I have wanted to write to B(uddensieg) in reply to his letter. I hope Spira will remember me when you greet him from me.

Has Anni Lasnowski by now found her way into your life? Let her have warm greetings from me! In my mind’s eye I have a clear picture of all you Sannerzers and yet cannot remember your names. Please greet them all very warmly from me!

And personal greetings from me to Monika [von Hollander], Trudi [Dalgas], Emmi-Ma [Arnold], and Eberhard [Arnold]! And the children! Please greet them from a woman from Berlin with stern teachers’ eyes that look like undone shoestrings.

And be yourself warmly greeted by

Your Erika [TN: Beck—see H. Buddensieg’s letter to Eberhard of April 27, 1925.]

- - - - -

Delitzsch, 27 Broad St.

May 12, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

So as not to break off the connection with you, I first have to ask your forgiveness for wherever I have manifestly sinned against you and yours. I cannot, with a Homeric smile and the words “ It’s the gods that are at fault” simply push to one side what happened. Translated into Christian language, that would come down to, ”It’s not me that’ s at fault but the demons!´ But with me that would merely push the guilt question one step further back. Why is it that I give way to the demons? I repent for it before God and ask you people to forgive me.

I was too old to fit into your community. In the course of my life’s varying fortunes I developed a craving for self-assertion that sometimes would take on morbid proportions. It seems that you recognized that correctly, Eberhard, for in the testimonial you provided me with and for which I thank you, you included a corresponding acknowledgment. However, y sensitiveness is not a hopeless one, for in the end it always seeks refuge at the Cross, and once I have finally attained a position that accords with me, my sensitivity will no more find nourishment nor will it any longer be tied to the demon. And yet: watch and pray lest you fall into temptation, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

I have now had a good long talk with my little sister [TN: See Helene Scholl’s letter to Eberhard of May 3.] She has the gift of shedding light into all the nooks and crannies of the human heart. On some points she agrees with me; on others she finds me at fault and takes your side; in some other respects I represent your side against her perceptions, when I find them too rigorous. “All joy and pleasure remains unhallowed if the heart has not reached it via the sign of the Cross. We must be conscious of our sinfulness and of grace, must rejoice in Christ the Savior.” Doesn’t she in this sense say what is right? I, too, do not have much confidence in the natural man’s goodness; I even tend to be somewhat bitter and unjust. All the more do I need the citizenship of those persons with whom I am to form a community, and I see that citizenship in the confession brought to expression in the common prayer. At any rate, if one cannot pray oneself, one at least ought to bow in reverence before the joint prayer. There must at least be one soul with power to pray in the community, just ns there is one queen among the bees!

As to the belief in a creator God, my sister regards it as a preliminary stage of the belief in a redeemer. Surely you, Eberhard, do not understand it in the sense that the redeemer God, the Savior, is no longer needed. Without him man after all cannot take any right steps by himself.

I have wronged you folks greatly, in particular by not being able to shut up at the right time, with the result that I kept rooting about in your mountains like a stray boar.

In the not too distant future I would be glad to have good news from you, especially from the dear patients, given that I feel a special responsibility towards them. And as to you, Eberhard, I hope that your steeled faith in the victory of good forms a wall round the wellbeing of your heart.

I affirm once again that the sojourn in your house can have been of greatest blessing to me, and I comfort myself with the thought that you, too, belong to them that love and for whom everything is bound to work out for good. I am thankful for the manifold spiritual stimulation received. With many greetings to young and old

your Ferdinand Scholl

My sister sends cordial greetings.

- - - - -

Société des Amis

20 Avenue Victoria, Paris

May 15, 1925

Dear friends,

It’s a joy these days to hear so much of what you are doing. I was specially glad to receive letters from Emi-Margret (Arnold) and Hardy (Arnold). Yes, Hypatia is a very fine book, even though Kingsley’s scholarly ability as a historian is being hotly contested. After that you ought to read Westward Ho, in which my dear Cornwall is being described. I hope that Cadoux’s book about the early Christians will for peace is of use to you.

Unfortunately it will again not be possible for me to attend your Whitsun meeting. For at Whitsun we are going to have here the first meeting of the French Quakers, at which I as delegate of the English Friends must on all accounts be present. The (Quaker) movement here in France is not as strong as the one in Germany and has great difficulties to struggle against.

To begin with the spiritual need is not as great as with you (in Germany), and there are fewer free religious groups. Besides, our work in Paris still has something of the foreign character of an international aid mission. Very nice, though, is the fact that our (Quaker) center here is very much used by pacifist groups for their meetings and is thus getting known in wider circles as a home for the peace idea, whether on a religious basis or not.

Strangely enough, recently two pacifists, Grillot de Giary (a radical Catholic pacifist) and René Valfort (a Jew) have had their homes searched, apparently on suspicion of harboring communist intrigues. The authorities needed a pretext to find out what these persons might be involved in. On the whole, though, the idea of peace is gaining ground among the people. At the big centenary celebration at the Sorbonne of St. Simon’ death Albert Thomas’ presentation of his own work for peace and for the League of Nations was vigorously applauded.

There is no need for me to tell you that the election of Hindenburg is here seen as most unfortunate for the advance of peace in Europe. However, as time goes on, men’s spirits appear to calm down somewhat. For Germany’s political education it may be necessary for the rightists to learn that the only possible policy is a foreign policy. To me it almost seems as if Hindenburg had grasped that.

At our Whitsun convention we shall have to wage a sharp fight with Leon Revogre; What he wants most of all is to shift the Quakers away from their pacifism; he now seems to be completely gripped by communist ideology: it’s the others that compel us to use force, and we should not try to overcome them by mere gentleness.” His joining the Society of Friends will depend on where we stand on this question.

I have my lodgings with very dear people belonging to Wilfred \Monod’s family circle and represent what is finest in French Protestantism. The other day I visited the widow of well-known Pastor Appia, 94 years old and née Sturfe, hence a cousin of my grandfather. Pastor Appia was born in Frankfurt on Main as the son of the then pastor of the French congregation there. My hostess Madame Holland is related to the Appias.

At the Sorbonne I mainly study history, in particular the French Revolution, which can be studied much better right on the spot. I also pay visits to the various palaces; the other day I was in Fontainebleau with Martin Rang from Braunfels, and there we saw the room where Louis XIV in 1685 revoked the Tolerance Edict of Nantes.

Last Sunday I visited Port Royal, another sad station in France’s religious history. It is situated in a most beautiful valley not far rom Versailles, and in the seventeenth century the devout monastic life there must have contrasted sharply with the pomp of Versailles. It was with a veritable rage of destruction that Louis XIV, under the Jesuits’ influence, tore down that beautiful center of pious devotion, so that now all hat remains to be seen are a few remnants of walls and columns.

May your Whitsun convention this year be u really good one and above all be imbued with a sense of reality as regards the factual situation of present-day Germany!

Greeting you all most warmly, Your faithful

John S. Stephens

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Delitzsch, May 15, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Even before getting a reply from you I must write to you once more. It’s so that I urgently need a new suit of clothes in which to present myself when applying for a job. Please be so kind as to send me 100 marks as soon as you can manage. I just wanted to remind you of this seeing that it would suit me specially well at this moment. Of course I would then deduct this sum from the capital. And you will not hold it against me--will you?—that I pester you like this?

Here in my home town Hindenburg’s entrance into Berlin has been celebrated with great enthusiasm; the fascination with black, white and red has returned;, with black, red, and gold represented just more or less officially. As viewed from here, so far Hindenburg has conducted himself in a sensible and dignified manner.

With many greetings

your Ferdinand Scholl

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Miltenberg, May 16, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

So far I have had no answer to my letter of April 29; so I would like to ask you to let me know soon whether you are in agreement with my visiting you from May 29 to June 1. For I still have another possibility in mind, and in case of a negative reply from you I would like to be in a position to punctually voice my acceptance of that other invitation. With cordial greetings

Edgar Weiß

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Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz

May 15, 1925

Dear Miss Wissner,

Your letter reached us while Dr. Arnold was off on a trip and therefore was left unattended for a few days; so please excuse the consequent delay of our reply. Now Dr. Arnold has asked me to write to you and let you know that we feel deeply sorry for your situation but that unfortunately it is not possible for us to give you practical advice. In spite of the many contacts we have we yet do not have those that we would need for a case like yours. However, since you say that you are a single person and hence do not have to support someone else with your salary, you should be able to find if not a” good job”, at any rate some workplace where you can earn your daily bread.

Can’t you get in touch with the Catholic Station Mission (Bahnhofsmission) or some other social service or office? If you have a good knowledge of languages, couldn’t you give lessons? There are actually all kinds of work, but many will have to switch jobs and find employment of a kind they don’t find so convenient and have no training for. You will surely find a way if you keep your eyes open, if you really look for a way and then are also willing to go it.

Please do not take these few words as an intrusion into your personal affairs they are just an expression, to the best of our ability, of our sympathy with your present situation, which may appear to be so difficult.

With cordial wishes and greetings,

- - - - - -

Wohlau, May 16, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

I was not a little astonished when the day before yesterday I caught sight of Hugi [Suse Hungar] at the main railway station in Breslau. It was such a joy for me to once again meet someone from Sannerz. Unfortunately it was only for a few minutes that we could be together; however, we made full use of them with reports about changes that have taken place since I left you. The fact that you folks saw your Christmas wishes in some way successfully fulfilled will surely be of great importance for you, and I share your joy at that.

The encounter with Suse (Hungar) has really served to remind me of my own stay there with you. As I compare that with my present life, I can truly say that all the romanticism and mysticism that I was then deeply involved in has now quite receded into the distance for me. How in fact can one fail to become practical and sober if one works together with people who for years have been wading through city slush and are up to all the trick of the trade. Before long that makes you lose your belief in miracles and instead reckon quite soberly with the power of heredity, which I have properly come to know here to its most horrible extent. What I mean is that “losing one’s faith in miracles” is actually saying too much; but at any rate one ceases to reckon with them. Computing in advance the boys’ qualities and aptitudes makes it possible to guide them. But when at times the often hard and ugly wraps and covers drop off, I just about come into real community with my boys, and one no longer notices any difference between the educator and the pupil. Then when they lie in their beds in the evening , I sing our songs to them, or read to them a poem or something else, and then it’s all quiet. And wishing them “good night” reconciles all the day’s contrarieties.

The way I carry out my work is wholly satisfying to me so that, if I were to leave this place in the autumn I would look for a similar one at a different locality. And I would like to ask you, “Could you perhaps tell me where I should go? Do you know of an educational institution or children’s home where I could work as a teacher of industrial arts or other subjects? I don’t know, though, to what extent the state would consider me qualified. The reason why I want to go away from here is that I do not regard social welfare education as my ultimate task; I just wanted to get acquainted with it.

I have now done it for nearly a year and would like to switch over to normal children or teenagers. Perhaps you could help me there. If you do have some helpful advice, please write to me quite soon.

Now farewell, Eberhard! Greetings to you and all Sannerzers, young and old! Faithfully remembering you all

Georg Barth

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Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz

District of Kassel

May 18, 1925

To the Office of the Union of German Youth Associations, reg. soc.

Sollstedt near Nordhausen

With reference to your letter of March 19, 1925 we would like to inquire if one of the adolescent girls whose names you then gave to us might still be in a position to come to us. You let us have the following names: Friedl Weiland from Pforzheim-Stadtbad; Martha Fischer from Zielenzig (Neumark), and Esther Kliesser from Zoar (Rothenburg O/L). Today it is no longer our special concern that the adolescent girl in question be specially suitable with children; rather, we are looking for replacements for two persons presently helping us with our kitchen and housekeeping work, who are both in need of some rest and relaxation; we need a young person with a lot of zest and the right vigor for strenuous work in our kitchen, household and garden. It seems that among the girls you named at that time especially Martha Fischer seemed to come into question for work in our house, but also a somewhat younger girl like Friedel Weiland might be suitable for the job presently on offer. Such a girl would simply have to resolve to come to us for a brief time of trial and testing, during which she would replace one of the working strengths we presently have to do without. If she finds her way with us she may quite possibly find a permanent work place in our house. Please be so kind as to write back to us soon and give us a few names. We would then like to get in touch ourselves with the girl in question and to give her, as far as that is possible in writing, a picture of our life and work. It’s always very much easier for both parties if a relationship like this gets built up on the basis of already existing personal relations. Still, ii is also conceivable for a relationship to grow and take shape in other ways, and we would be ever so glad if through your agency we had bestowed on us a person who, lively and a keen worker, would also in her whole being be suited to serving the Christian social task we have taken on in the community of our house and children .

With cordial greetings,

- - - - -

POSTCARD

Binau, May 18, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

As regards the book about Jewish culture, I sent it to you from here just the other day. Don’t you ever believe Nietzsche!

I would like to ask you once again to come and visit us here a lot more! For there are very important matters we should talk about together!

With all good greetings

Your Hermann Buddensieg

I did ask several others to also come to Sannerz for a time; you won’t have any objections, will you?

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Hanau, May 19, 1925

Dear Miss Dalgas,

I herewith send you the dress you requested for Sophie as well as a pair of pants for Helmut. I hope everything will fit. If Sophie’s dress is too long, she could simply shorten it by sewing a fold into it.

I also wanted to inquire if both children could come here for Whitsun. If yes, please let us know when we may expect them. Sophie could surely make the journey from Schlüchtern alone with Helmut.

But now, dear Miss Dalgas, I would really like to know just how little Helmut is getting on and whether or not you are satisfied with him. Could you let us know, please?

I want to come to an end now and hope that everybody is still in good health with you. With many greetings I remain

Your Mrs. Schwing and Jean Breidenstein

Many heartfelt greetings to Sophie, Helmut, and the whole house community!

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Döldissen, May 22, 1925

Dear Elslein (“ little Else”),

I have no idea at all how you are doing; please put a few lines on the enclosed postcard—will you do that? With me ever since Easter things have in the main been good, i.e. going forward inwardly. That whole jumble of piffling thoughts has melted away with the winter snow; it proved possible to live with an awareness of a faithful hand at work cultivating one’s inner land and of some good seed sprouting and growing there. It’s so different from the year before!

Inwardly I am once again totally with you; there is nothing any more that torments me; however, is it really so important to be there with you outwardly? Do I not once again regard myself as too important if I now undertake this long journey specially to be there? You see, I sent you the other day all the money I had and, sad to say, could not sell any books on my last journey. Then the dentist also pocketed 23 marks, so now all I have got left is 20 marks, which means I can go either to Berlin or to Sannerz. In Berlin I am being expected by Fe and Inge, but they would also be happy to have me with them a few days later. Now ought that to become so important a consideration for me? Will it allow me to confidently arrive in Sannerz on Thursday and then to just wait and see what is going to happen? From you I will surely get the same old reply, “That’s something you must know yourself!” Besides, a reply will scarcely still reach me here unless you write back immediately, seeing that the mail service is very poor.

On May 15 I concluded my service at the school here, finding myself too much hindered by weekly attacks of migraine. So I am now free to properly prepare for the Sannerz school. I am reading Jesus as I see him by Johannes Müller and About Discipleship and am so surprised at all the things I find confirmed there. Imperceptively fresh courage keeps growing!

I greet you all!

Your Suse.

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Letter from Ortrud Klette to Trudi Dalgas

May 22, 1925

Dear Trudi,

I thank you most warmly for your letter! You may not consider it right that I do not come to you at Whitsun. It’s not because of lack of time or money it’s because l want to spend the Whitsun days just with Ulrich [Wolf] alone. You might perhaps advise me to weigh one option against the other, but, you see, that is something I am not able to do right now. If I were with you in those days, I would in fact not be wholly with you! Therefore, Trudi, let me do wholeheartedly what I am now doing; you will understand it even though you may not approve of it.

As regards what you write about Tami, I think just as you do. I know it’s not our one or ultimate task to find our ego; it’s a station we indeed have to pass through, but we must not stay there as if it were our final goal. Trudi, I also know that I want to find my way to that power that Eberhard keeps bearing witness to by his words and his actions-- by his whole person, I would say. And I found that power with equal strength at work in Spira. And in my mind’s eye I visualize your Sannerz house community, too, as being deeply rooted in that power.

I myself have as yet no access at all to that power. Everything within me is hazy and unclear. I feel I am knocking at a door but not with sufficient vigor and insistence, and that’s why the door does not open. To me. I am so lukewarm! I think I have never yet prayed at the urging of an inner compulsion; I don’t know if you have ever felt inwardly so empty that you don’t even know where to get the strength needed for the day’s work.

Trudi, I have never yet spoken to anybody about this, perhaps because at my age I still feel so unstable, so unsure and undecided. I would have loved to speak with Eberhard, but I could not find the right beginning when he was in Berlin the last time. Trudi, you have meant such a lot for me in Eisenach, for I could see also in you signs of inward strength; I could speak with you, and you could understand me.

Well, all this is bound to make you think the Whitsun conference would have been just the right thing for me. And yet I cannot come—will you hold it against me? Pass on my warm greetings to Eberhard! And kind regards to you from

Your Ortrud Klette

[TN: “Eisenach” refers to the pre-Easter convention of the Free-German Work Confederation at Eisenach,, attended, among others, by Eberhard, H. Buddensieg, Theodor Spira, and Tami Oehlfken.]

- - - - -

May 22, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Sincere thanks for the invitation to the Whitsun convention! All of you are well aware of my glad readiness to come to you at any time. This time, though, I would like to beg off—for one thing because I am still feeling tired of conventions. Here in Berlin the debates and discussions about Eisenach have of course gone on and on making it possible to shed passionate feelings and to quietly take a distance. But that distance is urgently necessary! If today I were to plunge once again into weighty discussions, I would be incapable of either giving or taking anything. Even Eisenach was already too much!

Then, too, for quite some time already I have had the firm intention to spend a few days quite alone with Ortrud [Klette]. Both of us are longing for it and also think we can do it responsibly.

You will surely understand me, Eberhard!

A joyful Whitsun time to you all and especially to the children!

Yours faithfully,

Ulrich

May 23

Dear Eberhard,

Just when I was about to post the other enclosed letter, your second invitation arrived; so there are one or two things I have to say to you still more clearly. If I want to go off with Ortrud, it ‘s not just for the joy of having a few fine days quite alone with her. Too few people here in Berlin have any idea of Ortrud’s finding life as hard as she actually does. Her rather reserved outward attitude hides her inward insecurity, her deep-seated mistrust of her own way of being and working, Thus she causes herself many very agitated hours and does not attain to a serene and inwardly secure life. With childlike joy she is now looking forward to our outing and can scarcely wait for it to start! For the hours we have together are always full of joy and confidence—a real antidote to her timidity.

When your invitation arrived, she already started to waver again. She would not like to stand in your eyes as someone just looking for fun and oblivious of duty. So it is in fact with a sense of acting wrongly toward you folks that she departs from here. However, by Whitsun Monday she will have got over it!

I am very confident that you will understand us, Eberhard.. And if you are fond of Ortrud, do write her a few lines still before Whitsun to let her know how you feel about our being absent from your Whitsun gathering. That might make her very happy!. We do belong together with you folks in what is deepest and shall stand with you when needed.

These lines are written only for you, Eberhard! Please greet Hermann Buddensieg and tell him that I belong together with you and hence also with him, right across all that is human and apt to separate us.

Yours sincerely,

Ulrich (Wolf)

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Sannerz, May 22,1925

Dear Ferdinand,

You will surely be very much waiting for a letter from Sannerz, seeing that quite a few greetings from you have already fluttered into our house here. So this one will have to be a really long one! And hopefully you are also about to receive, or have received already, 30 marks that a few days ago Else had ordered transmitted to you from the postal check office in Leipzig.,

Especially your first letter has made Eberhard and all of us ever so happy, and we firmly believe that once the obstreperous demons have retreated into their hiding holes, you will become properly aware of the sure inward gain you have derived from Sannerz—maybe you will even sense a victory over those demons that in our eyes would at times give you an almost sinister appearance.

Special thanks to you also for your letter to me! So it was not for nothing that the specter of that immense pack of bedding kept pursuing me all through the day of your journey! If only I had recognized your intention earlier, we would not have let you depart like that! Well, anyhow! Nowadays, dear Ferdinandus, it’s not quite so easy to ”pick up one’s bed” and carry it through the world. There are ever so many obstacles--comical as well as tragic ones--, and with all my heart I wish for you that right across all these obstacles you might find your way and walk it freely and unperturbed but in love to the others (also to the business Jews, who do require so much room in this world).

I am happy to see that you keep coming back more and more to the idea of doing educational work. The Tuifele and all the rest of the Sannerz children’s community with their impertinent guilelessness have definitely left their spell on you—isn’t that so? However, Ferdinand, before tackling that task, one must have got quite away from one’s own self, or even beyond it. Only in Sannerz have I, too, come to really recognize the necessity of this precondition. If there is any occupation that has got to be a “task’, it is that of the educator.

Now I want to tell you briefly about Anni and Rose. Anni has not yet fully recovered; however, for some days she has now been allowed to lie out in the garden, which makes her very happy, and we hope that in a little while she can again do light work. Rosel was not seriously ill, but the doctor does consider her quite anemic, and we hope we can soon help her get a little vacation so she can recuperate. On the card you wrote her you once again present yourself as the Mr. Scholl for whom there is no place in Sannerz. So if you want the individual members of the Sannerz house community to remain “favorably inclined towards you” (“Dir hold bleiben”)—what a horrible way of expressing it!)—then do also write as a friend and comrade and not in so amateurish a style!

I am to pass on to you kind and faithful greetings from all here and to thank you for your greetings. Do keep us informed how you are getting on. Enclosed I am sending you a few handkerchiefs of yours that Lotte (Henze) must still have had in the laundry. Please excuse the bad typing; my ribbon is conking out.

- - - - -

POSTCARD

May 23, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

Thanks for the invitation! As requested, I let you know that I shall come, but no earlier than Friday, because professionally prevented. So long!

Edgar Weiß

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With Dr. Pauselius

Neuseusslitz, Dresden District

May 23, 1925

Dear Trudi,

You must not think that I have forgotten you folks! Many a time—who knows how often?—I have started a letter to you, but it never went beyond the beginning.

I shall not be able to come to you at Whitsun. My sister is going to visit me with a woman friend, and we want to go to Dresden, to the “Saxon Switzerland” and then through the Spreewald (Spree Forest) to Berlin.

Rudolf Steiner has died! He is being mourned by the whole Steiner congregation. Many are traveling to Dornach to take part in the wake by his bier. (To those people) he is the holy, pure, eternally benevolent man. The veneration and cult he receives borders on paganism. It will be interesting to observe the further development of anthroposophy and if it will also lead to the founding of different schools, each of which will claim to possess the lone orthodox interpretation of Steiner’s work.

I have been very happy to receive letters from Heini, Hansmann, and Helle, from Luise, Ruth, and Sophie. Now with the weather so beautiful what a romping ad tearing around the house must be going on there! And the guests! Have there been a lot already? And also some ramblers (Wandervögel), like H. Bauer? Kurt (Breitfeld) must surely be back by now. Have you folks already got a successor for me? Ever again I find myself back in Sannerz in my imagination, even in my dreams! It was a real pity that I could not have another word with Eberhard. In the deepest inner things I know myself one with all of you; it was at the behest of my conscience that I left! And yet I feel guilty, above all towards you Trudi, for failing to fully complete the school winter assignments. Please forgive me!

At the moment I am into Swedish and church history—into Swedish because in the summer I would like to go up north, if possible to the ecumenical council there. And my concern with church history stems from a feeling that we Christians ought to be more at home in the history of God’s kingdom, so as to render better service to educated folk. M am tutoring a nice, bright boy named Klaus. He quickly felt close to me and is receptive for religious matters. He misses his mother, who has for years been living away from the father . The father is a capable country doctor, always receptive for humor and as a former “Corporation” student naturally a rightist and nationalist, though not a fanatic one.

I live a proper gentleman’s life: 7-11 AM instruction, alter which I am free: for expeditions into the area around the Elbe River, at times car outings to Meissen or accompanying the doctor as his rural practice. A few times I was in Dresden, once to attend a Greek Orthodox church service, and the offering of wax candled, the kissing of holy ikons, the kneeling and prostrating, against the background of a reserved, infinitely sorrowful liturgy—I felt moved by it all and came away saddened, for in all that dim and sultry ecclesiastic splendor I could find no trace of adoration in, spirit and in truth.

I had a quiet celebration in front of the Sistine Madonna, being all alone before the mother and the divine child with those eyes that will not let go of me. They exude a wonderful, austere maturity. I could not look at any other paintings in the gallery. Dresden is the most beautiful town I have seen so far; it has something noble and great. I had always been prejudiced against the baroque style; here, though, I had to revise my judgment. All its agitation and restlessness--here it is firmly held in check; it is noble. I had never yet seen the baroque style like that. If possible I’ll send you pictures of the Zwinger (tower or kennel) and the Hofkirche (court church).

Trudi, I will close here for today. I shall soon write to all of you in more detail. Can you please send me:

1. addresses of New Work members in and around Dresden and

2. addresses of J. W. Forster, M. Buber, and the Hutterites;

3. ask Lottchen Henze to send me my pants, and

4. please greet everybody from me! Next time soon I shall also write to Sophie and Ruth.

How is Else getting on? I always have your [New] Testament with me!.

Your Ludwig Wedel

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Leipzig, May 23, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Please excuse my long silence following receipt of your dear letter; it was due to an overload of work. Of the whole Leipzig New-Work circle I am going to be the only one to come to Sannerz! Walter Schumann wants to pass his exam in the fall and thinks he cannot responsibly tear himself away from his work. He argues that it would not just be a question of the few Whitsun days, but that the convention would be sure to occupy him for a long time. Thus there are special circumstances in every single case.

Hanna, too, has a lot to do in preparation for her exam (on eligibility for voting). Hence, with a heavy heart, I have to travel alone and shall arrive in Schlüchtern on Friday morning.

As regards that violet-colored material, you are welcome to it. Perhaps I can bring it with me.

I hope at least a few of you will also come to Rotenberg. At least I have in mind to go there when your convention has come to an end. As regards our play-performing journey, I shall soon be able to give you folks an oral report.

Until then I greet you heartily in the name of us all here. Your Hans Kupfer

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POSTCARD to Emmy Arnold

Alma Square, London N.W.8.\

May 23, 1925

Thank you for the interesting report we received recently. I cannot send more help at present but am glad to hear of progress. I have just returned visiting Mathilde Wrede in Finland and from a two-weeks visit on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, with P. Pitter of Prague, to Estonia and Latvia. Very interesting and much need of reconciling methods and thoughts. I expect my sister back from her world tour in one month from now. We have been now 13 months separated!

Greetings to all!

Lilian Stevenson

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Meiningen, May 24 1925

Dear Dr. Arnold,

Having just returned from a trip lasting several days, I come upon your personal invitation for Whitsun. I am unfortunately not able to come, seeing that I am presently in Switzerland in order to recuperate a bit in the mountains.

I thank you very much for having thought of me. I also thank you warmly for your last letter which I am going to respond to on another occasion. Wishing you good success for the Whitsun gathering, I remain with kind regards to the whole house community

Yours truly

Prince Schönburg

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Lichtenstein, May 24, 1925

Heartfelt greetings to you all!

Can you possibly imagine how happy I am? Just a week ago I quit working in the pit (Schacht) and straightway found work as a gardener in Chemnitz, with weekly earnings of 40 marks at a daily work time of 9½ hours..

I had written a detailed letter to the mine director and will bring it along. He did not fire me! But I could no longer join in with it all; I simply knocked off but only after letting some of the officials know—in quite a friendly way—why I was quitting. With those mining wages I would in no way have managed to come to you! And now I am a gardener~ isn’t that wonderful? I just hope I won’t right away get fired if I now straightway ask for two days off! So I shall have to travel on on Thursday (before Whitsun) I shall still have to work; otherwise Irmgard will not have any money for the following week. I shall have to travel on Thursday night so as to arrive early with the first train in Vollmerz. I will still let you have a more precise schedule. It really doesn’t work out any other way.

Till we meet again!

Roland Keiderling

Heartfelt greetings to you all from Irmgard! I would so like to be among you all, but I look forward to hearing from Roland about everyone and everything. In the next days I am going to write to Emmy.

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Binau, May 25, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Now I must hurriedly drop you a note as regards my arrival. I am so looking forward to meeting you all! I shall arrive at 1:11 PM in Sterbfritz, after departing from here already at 4:50 AM (on Thursday). I cannot come any earlier, unfortunately. But in this way I shall still get there a bit earlier, as befits an “important person”., and we can talk together about what still has to be discussed beforehand. And I can also touch base with Dr. Ulrich.

I was at first surprised to discover myself on the list of speakers, and we still have to consider together what I am expected to offer. Well, it will all turn out all right.

I have written to the friends in Berlin but have mostly got negative replies. From those letters I, too, get the impression that clarity but above all strength is lacking. Something quite horrible is the matter with all those fine guys and nice people! Trying to win them--isn’t it after all just a waste of time and energy?

I am so glad that Karl Sachse will be coming; for him I wish so much that he might for once get pulled right out of his humdrum existence. Lotte Lange sent me a picture of all you people, and that’s made me very happy for now I have you folks with me!

At the moment Willy Hammelrath is here, a former Jesuit, Dr. theol. and Dr. phil., a young man of real consequence with a still open mind, a true Catholic (though of course not in a churchy sense). It’s a pity that I cannot bring him with me to you. He could be of great significance to us there.

Cordial thanks for your dear letter! We already look forward very much to your coming to us. Hammelrath was left quite speechless by the gentle greatness of the Binau landscape. Hopefully one of you will meet me on Thursday at the Sterbfritz station for the train arriving 1:11 PM —please do!

All good wishes to all of you! God protect you all until we see each other again! With heartfelt

greetings

Your Hermann Buddensieg

PS: I have seen to it that Saal (?} will always send to Sannerz 10 copies of each number of the Challenger. Maybe we can in that way render somebody a service. I have not yet received the invitations, by the way. And—woe to me!—I can’t manage to sleep in mass quarters! Formerly, when I was an avid hiker, that was possible; today, though, I simply can’t stand it—especially when I must also still be in a fighting mood. Nor do I still possess a mess kit and am also very short of money. However, you folks shall have all I can spare! Once again best regards! Your H. B.

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Hamburg, May 25, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

We thank you for your letter and do want to come, but unfortunately not yet at Whitsun. Alfred is once again on an extended journey on behalf of agrarian reform, and I am in the middle of a course of fasting, in firm trust of being thereby finally restored to health. It has, of course, a very debilitating effect. On Friday my fortnight of fasting will be over, and the building up will start; thus a fortnight later I shall be ready for traveling—something the children look forward to ever so much.

Alfred wants to try and be freed from school on Wednesday, June 10, so that he can take me and the children to Sannerz. Now come all he wishes. Could you possibly get us a room with three beds, either full size or child size? As to food, I would like to provide that myself, seeing that we try as much as possible to eat uncooked vegetarian food. I can surely get hold of milk, but how is it with fruit and vegetables?

Yet another point: Would it be possible to find a bigger girl who could watch my two children? For at the beginning shall of course still need quite a lot of rest. I do look forward to Sannerz! And it will surely not be all that expensive!

With very warm greetings

Toni Schär

There is ever so much I am hoping for from Sannerz! Toni will be there without me for four weeks! I shall come in July. So long!

Your Alfred [Schär]

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POST CARD

Charlottenburg, Berlinerstr. 81

May 27, 1925

Gertrud Dalgas

Sannerz near Schlüchtern

District of Kassel

Dear Gertrud Dalgas,

I shall come to you early on Saturday , May 30, for a brief stay.

Warm greetings to everybody!

Lene Schulz

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Presently at Bad Kudowa (“Kudowa Spa”) in Silesia)

May 27, 1925

Dear brother Arnold,

My wife has forwarded to me here your Whitsun invitation. How I would love to accept it! I confess very openly: after a year of terrible emotional shocks and bitter struggles I am in special need of having my faith strengthened and my hope and courage revived.

However, my present course of treatment (facilitated by the employees’ insurance) will only terminate after Whitsun; It’s a question of curative treatment for nerves and heart. After all that had gone before my being given notice by my banking firm just about finished me off. As regards my family’s existence, I am facing a totally dark future.

Here, though, in the quiet of beautiful nature, my heart has calmed down, and after that terrible sense of abandonment by God, it newly starts to believe that I, too, will not be left by Him in a state of unending restlessness.

I wish you outstanding success for your convention.. May it grant you a foretaste of the coming great Whitsun feast with its concomitants of universal reconciliation and brotherliness in joy and peace!

Cordial greetings to you, Eberhard, to your dear family and to all your confederates in the love of Christ from

Your Max Fraatz

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Grüneberg, May 28, 1925

Highly esteemed Mr. Arnold,

You will scarcely remember me. In January of this year we experienced in Fleestedt together an evening by the fireplace. For me, far from spoiled as I am as regards spiritual stimulation, those hours remain even now a luminous point in my memory..

Mr. Cordes wrote to me yesterday and asked me, if possible, to send a little flour to the Sannerz settlement for a Whitsun convention taking place there. That is something I would now like to do; I have my doubts, though, as regards such a shipment reaching you still before the festival days, quite apart from the fact that in view of the long distance the cost of shipping would be very high compared to the value of the flour itself. And victuals of any kind are by now readily available everywhere. Thai is why I would like to ask you to accept the 10 marks that Mr. Cordes has handed me to cover the freight charge, and I take the liberty of adding to that 15 marks of my own for the settlement, to be used as you see fit. It would make me happy to thus prove of a little use to the Whitsun conference, which is sure to bringing uplifting hours to all participants.

Would you consider it somewhat forward of me if I now ask you to kindly write to me? Maybe about the content, the essence of your present convention? I live in a world so totally different from yours; only on very rare occasion, such as on that evening in Fleestedt, have I been able to catch a glimpse of that other world yonder--that world of yours.. I have never yet managed to find a bridge!

With the wish that your togetherness with likeminded persons may take a truly worthy course

(Yours truly,)

Eva Ramm

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May 28,1925

Eberhard Arnold,

Sannerz

Esteemed likeminded friend,

as you will gather from the enclosed circular letter, I shall this year receive visitors from America. About ten young Americans are going to pass through not very far from where you are; and so we would like to ask you to kindly host them for one or two days. They are unconditional pacifists (war resisters) and would like to have a look at German youth and the building-up that is going on. Would you be able to prepare for July 20 and 21 something apt to give those friends a good insight into what you folks are standing for? Our party would come from Dortmund, and we would then go on to Schlüchtern. Where exactly is Sannerz located? We would subsequently travel on to France and Switzerland. This is an excellent opportunity to win foreign people’s’ interest and support for our new cultural aspirations.

In confident hope of soon receiving your positive reply we remain

with cordial greetings

International Exchange Office (Internationale Austauschstelle)

(on behalf of) Gustav Böhm.

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INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION

383 Bible House

New York City

May 28,1925

Emmy and Eberhard Arnold

Neuwerkgemeinschaft Sannerz

Post Sterbfritz

Germany

Dear Friends,

Kathleen and I have your letter with description of your work and also the invitation to the “Pfingst-Zusammenkunft” We thank you, but of course we can’t come. We are not able either to send you any love gift at present. There are many other needs that we are trying to meet just now. We won’t be able to come to Germany this summer but I am hoping to get there next year.

With warmest regards to all, not forgetting the cow

Yours ever

Nevin Sayre

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Hamburg, May 28, 1925

Dear Erich (Mohr),

You may well feel once again a sense of despair at hearing nothing from any of our Hamburg confederate. In the meantime, though, you may have learned that only two days after your letter Eberhard Arnold was here with us, and from him we learned that the house had been snatched away right in front of our noses, hence there was no further need for hurry. [TN: This refers to the little house –the subject of previous letters--quite near the Sannerz house community that Eberhard had been keen to buy for joint use by he Free-German Work Confederation and the Sannerz community.] Alwin, Martha, and I have discussed this matter. As things are with Martha and myself, we could of course raise 50 marks In just a few months. Alwin finds himself deeply in debt through his removal, but I am to let you know that it it’s just 50 marks that are still missing, he would try to raise those. On Sunday Eberhard and Alfred (Schär) were still discussing whether it might be possible to buy a piece of land and build on it. I don’t know what the outcome has been; I have not yet managed to see Alfred about it.

We still had a wonderful hour together with Eberhard. He had arrived late, as his letter to Alfred had come back because of a false address. So the time we had together was but a short one. Alwin once again brought up the subject of non-violence and class struggle. What was most essential for me was Eberhard’s strong emphasis that men must act as urged by their inmost being. Thus in the last resort one will always find oneself face to face with one’s own self; when it comes to the ultimate decision, you stand quite alone, with no one to help you.

And what are you now doing in Berlin? Are you working together with Tami Oehlfken (Oelsten) ? I am sorry I did not manage to see her myself. What I heard from Alwin makes me shake my head, given that I have great trust in his judgment.. One naturally gains an impression of a certain person; one fashions an image that one lets oneself be guided by and strives for but that image is for each person a different one. And the image of Tami, as it presents itself in her is in no way the one you folks have formed of her—far from it!

Gymnastics forms and shapes not only the outer but also the inner person, and what it brings about comes to expression in the person’s everyday behavior. I myself am very much aware of what Loheland (gymnastics) has meant for me, not so much in the way of outward skills--those are not essential—but inwardly, as regards my inward attitude to things. Even today I keep harboring doubts as to whether Loheland gymnastics does in fact bring forth the right human type—the type apt to lead us further. It will, of course, never be so that all men make their way to one and the same goal; rather, each will go to where he hopes to get his own being or nature improved. You will answer me: “That is what we find with Tami!” Believe me, though: outward behavior is an integral part of gymnastics; that is something not to be ignored! It’s there that It becomes visible what gymnastics ultimately brings forth. A gymnastics system that fails to mold and shape the whole man is no true gymnastics; it is, at most, an outwardly stuck-on system of fidgeting.

I was unable to find the way to you at Easter. One should never make one’s way right at the end into a circle of people that have gathered round a work project. One does then not find the right connection. That’s also why I now feel reluctant to travel to Sannerz. At the earliest I could get there on Saturday evening, and by that time they will already be be well into their work project, and the newcomer will be left without the basic foundation. I wonder if one of you will make the journey (to Sannerz)? That, of course, is not the only reason for my not going; I am also short of money--the same old trouble!

Otherwise we (Hamburg confederates) continue to meet regularly: Martha, Alwin, myself and Gustav Lenzer. I don’t know if Alwin has already reported Gustav to you as a provisional (?) member (Verkehrsmitglied);Gustav is a nice, quiet boy; he is conscientious and takes life very seriously. We vouch for him, and his address is :Nagelsweg 5/II. We are now into the second part of (Goethe’s) Faust and are presently reading what Obenauer writes about the “Faustian” or “Faust-like” man”; it has a lot to say to us. To end with I send greetings from all of us to all our confederates in Berlin and especially to you, Erich!

Your Käthe Prien

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POSTCARD

Joachim Tabel

Schellingplatz

May 29, 1925

Mr. E. Arnold

Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz, Kassel

Dear Eberhard,

Sorry to be prevented from coming; am going to pop over to you when there is a chance. It’s a great pity, but Heartfelt greetings! Have wonderful days!

Your Joachim Tabel

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Hanau, May 29 1925

Dear Miss Dalgas,

We have received your esteemed letter and want to thank you for it. That the children should this time stay with you is all right with us, very particularly if you consider it good. We are specially happy to hear that Helmut. Is giving you joy; as time goes on he will surely also forget his faults and bad habits.

On the 29th of every month I am going to remit his allowance money; today I enclose for you in this letter 16 marks for the time from April 21 to June 16. I hope you’ll receive it promptly. I

In the hope that all are in good health there with you I wish you and the whole house community a very joyful Whitsun feast.

With. many hearty greetings to Sophie and Helmut

Your Mrs. (Gretel) Schwing and Jean Breidenstein

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Erich Mohr to Käthe Priem

Whitsun, May 1925

It’s not only with the question of the use of force that everyone is brought face to face with his ultimate inward responsibility! People of a different type than our own will always be instinctively rejected by some of us. When we mutually test ourselves, our working together will then always make it clear whether it can develop into a truly confederate relationship or not. That holds equally true for Buddensieg, for Tami and for Dr. Werner. [TN: Cf. Buddensieg’s comment on “Tansi Oelfen” in his letter of March 30 to Eberhard.]

The more our Confederation is able—due to its vitality and clarity of direction-- to accept and also assimilate foreign elements, the more will its effectiveness increase in both width and depth. This is precisely what we are still struggling with the whole time: we don’t have enough vitality nor a clear enough direction, with the result that any strong person is able to derail us –well, maybe not everyone but many!

By the way, Fichte’s statement, “Whatever philosophy a man has, such a person is he” cannot be reversed unqualified! I fully agree with you that gymnastics creates and molds something of ultimate quality, but Buddensieg denies that or declares it irrelevant. We Berlin confederates had to simply declare, “This is precisely what Tami has opened up for us”. An attempt was then made to shift the controversy from the effect produced by Tami to the kind of person she is and to deny the good effect by raising the` doubting question, “How can a good effect emanate from such a person?” This question was put with no knowledge of Tami’s personality and of her fate. By the way, compare this with Goethe’s relationship to Merck and to Herder! Did Goethe ask, “Does he go well together with me?” Or was his question, ”Can I learn from him?”

A final point: at Easter you, (Käthe,) were not in the midst of us all!. Now that is also something we must today learn to see differently! When we were at our youthful stage, not being among all the others caused us deep pain!. Today we know about the unavoidable tension between community as we embrace it in faith and community as a concrete reality. We know that only in a limited sense does the individual and its needs matter when it is a question of the whole and its destiny.

Erich Mohr

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End of May, 75 years before 2000 (1925)

Arriving shortly without doubt

to help you plant more sauerkraut.

[Drawing of/by Hans Fiehler (“Hans in luck”)]

The poet with his fairy bride

will build his castle by your side

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[Berlin] SW. 61 Keuzbergstr. 14111

May 1925

You Sannerz people,

Tomorrow you will start your conference! Thanks for your invitation! However, for various reasons I am not able to come. I greet you, though, and together with my friends I rejoice that there are still people everywhere who, are all on the way to the same goal, even if in part along different routes and with an apparently different view of life,.

When at Whitsun we here will come together at the Uder Lake (Udersee), the red banner with the sign of the Redeemer will, as already years ago at Neudietendorf, be the symbol of our convention. Does that suffice to show you that a like yearning leads also us together? Does it suffice to let you find togetherness and outreaching hands--right across the deep-seated differences fate has saddled us with? I believe it is so, for only this faith gives us the strength to ever again raise up the banner and stride on bravely toward the dawn.

In my mind’s eye I am still hiking your lovely pathways together with you Sannerz folk-- days so brimful of experiences! So I rejoice with you all and bid you goodbye “till we meet again”.

Your Ernst Schenk

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Selka Estate, near Schmölle (Thuringia)

May 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

Today I received your letter, forwarded to me by Peter Klassen. It has anew stirred up In me all my suppressed wishes and hopes, and I become newly, and all the more crassly, aware of all the contradictions surrounding me. I live in a house where I cannot be a true human being, where I cannot let all that lives in me and longs for unfolding come to full fruition. I feel sure you will understand me, Eberhard.

What is very strange, though, is that I feel tied to this place as if by chains, and for the time being I would not dare to break these, even though within a few weeks I shall be of age and also have no further obligations toward my father. But I do know one thing , and that is that God will open up for me the way to the goal toward which I keep striving.

As to my remaining here, there are very weighty reasons why I cannot do that, the most important one being that the little boy I am to educate is the son of a baron and lieutenant in the army, and that I am supposed to train him up for the militarism and all that stuff we so want to stand against. In the long run I simply cannot do that!. At present he is only two years old, and I avoid anything of that kind that his small and still unfolding soul might possibly pick up. There is so much I personally find offensive and have to avoid, but I cannot always manage it. Believe me, Eberhard, I suffer greatly under all that is forced upon me; I am always aware of a burden on my soul, soul, and that is more wearying than standing in an open fight with the world. Nevertheless, God does speak to me also in my loneliness, and I often seem to see before me a bright, luminous streak in my life, and from day to day I keep hoping for the great inward and outward freeing to be given. One thing has become great and important to me: I know it was not I myself that placed me off to one side; rather it is with God’s consent that I now have to struggle through everything by myself.

Regrettably neither I nor Leni will be able to come and join you Sannerz folk—there the old fetter makes itself felt again! May God grant you what you are all waiting for! In spirit I shall be very much with all of you. Many greetings to Emmy and Adolf and the whole house community!

Your Maria Adler