Eberhard Arnold

Correspondence, September 1925

[Arnold, Eberhard and Emmy papers - L]

[Draft Translations by Bruderhof Historical Archive]

Sannerz, September 3, 1925

Dear Brother Ende,

We thank you very much for your dear letter. We are especially thankful to you for the great understanding that you have had for our Roland Keiderling. Since last Saturday Roland is once more with us. Here a calm and peaceful time of work will begin for him. The same week we are still expecting Irmgard with little Roland. We would be ever so thankful to you if, for the sake of our task in Sannerz, you could provide the 20 marks that Irmgard [Keiderling] would need for the journey. If you cannot manage this we would like to ask you to lend the money so that we can then send it back to you as quickly as possible.

With very hearty greetings to you and yours from our whole house community,

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September 1, 1925

To Prince Schönburg

Waldenburg Castle

Dear Prince Schönburg,

On behalf of the whole house community we thank you for the very punctual transmission of 400 marks.

At a decisive point in our development, your donation of 1000 marks has brought us precisely the help which had to come for the continued existence of our work.

With very cordial greetings from all of us,

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Nostiz, September 4, 1925

To the house community of Eberhard Arnold,

Cordial thanks for the letter of August 4, 1925. Unfortunately the agricultural coworker, Adolf Braun, has not yet replied to my two letters of July 12 and August 2; I regret this very much. I still keep hoping that some kind of cooperation might still become possible. That is why today I would remind you about the two above mentioned letters. I hope that you can understand my feelings for I have to know what the situation is so that I can look around elsewhere however difficult I might find this.

In the hope of receiving an answer quite soon, I remain, with cordial greetings,

Erich Teichert

Stuttgart Nostiz, PO Weißenberg

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[POSTCARD]

September 5, 1925

To the Neuwerk Community Sannerz

Dear all at Sannerz,

Cordial greetings from Weimar! I plan to be with you on Sunday, September 6. I shall leave Schlüchtern with the 2:33 train which will mean arriving there as early as 8:32. I cannot find a better train.

Could somebody please come to the station with a little wagon; I have quite a bit of luggage.

Until we meet again,

Georg B[arth]

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[Translator’s Note : the following letter was written in English by a member of the Tolles family, North American relations of the Arnold family whose impending European visit to their German relations has been the subject of several earlier letters in this collection.]

Pension des Tourelles

2 Boulevard James Fazy

Geneve, Switzerland.

5. Sept. 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Mother and I read with great pleasure your kind letter, inviting us to visit you on our way through Germany. Both of us would like very much to do so.

I do not think mother will be able to come back through Germany as she expects to sail in October. She is very sorry that her trip could not be arranged otherwise.

For myself, I have been especially counting on seeing you on my way to Berlin from Geneva. This will probably be early in November. I have work here that will keep me both September and October. I do not know exactly when I will arrive, but I will write to you of my plans sometime in advance and will try to suit your convenience - as I know your time is well occupied.

We had a very lovely week in Breslau and we wished that your family could also have been there.

Looking forward to the few days I shall be able to spend with you in Sannerz.

With much love,

Arnold Tolles.

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Paderborn, September 10, 1925

Greatly esteemed Dr. Arnold,

Greatly esteemed Mrs. Arnold,

After the several weeks my son spent in your house and felt so well and happy, I feel urged to express to you my most cordial thanks for the kindness shown to him.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to your esteemed sister in law respectively sister [Else von Hollander] for her efforts and loving care on Hans’s behalf. Hans still lives and keeps telling daily about his fine memories of Sannerz.

Most cordial greetings from my wife.

Yours sincerely,

Voigt, district attorney (resp. public prosecutor) in R[uhestand] i.e. in retirement.

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[POSTCARD]

September 9, 1925

To Ms. Dalgas in Sannerz

Dear esteemed Ms. Dalgas,

How would it be for you to send us the children here over Sunday? We are having my sister and brother in law visiting us here and after some long years they would really like to see Sophie [Schwing Löber and her younger brother Helmut] again. They could come here at midday on Saturday and travel back to you early on Monday. If you do not yet consider it a good thing for Helmut, Sophie could also come by herself. I would like it best of course if both could come.

Please let us know right away by letter what you think about this. The children, especially Sophie, are longingly awaited here in the large circle of our relatives who don’t all have a chance to come to you there.

Hoping for a speedy answer and we remain with many greetings to you all,

Mrs. Schwing and J. Breidenstein

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[Letter from Alfred Schär to Eberhard]

Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel

September 10, 1925

Dear Eberhard

You will surely already be waiting for news from me. I would have written earlier if I had been able to send you better news. I want to start with the unpleasant things. I have not found it possible to obtain the money for the publishing house and yet I have tried very hard but the business situation is too bad all together. It is not only in the sphere of business that things look this bad. I wonder how this winter will turn out. Maybe in addition to all this the potato and turnip harvest will also fail? But the government does have a remedy—the police! So we can feel reassured. In a speech he made in the area now freed of foreign troops, the Social-Democratic minister of the interior has expressed that the fact of its existence would be likely to deter people from desperate actions—how awful! As regards the question of sponsoring children, I do not regard it as so hopeless as Toni seems to express it in her letter. Toni is right about the great need in our close neighborhood. There are some friends who believe they had a secure job and have been laid off. We have to help them. But I have meanwhile spoken with other people about you and your work and I feel confident that many of us will succeed in providing help by obtaining a letter from each of the many out of work. There is just one thing I still have to ask of you: do still have a bit of patience.

And now concerning the real estate question; the enclosed card gives a little information also about the long waste of time—has the man in the heath there felt fit to write. There is a lot that your writing helps to explain. The whole setup seems to be good for you people. It’s just a pity that he is not interested in a lease. To me the price does not seem exorbitant, but most likely, also about that, the last word has not been spoken. Even if you had to pay fifty percent interest on the total amount, you would still get a better deal than presently in Sannerz. If you do decide in favor of a purchase, the decisive thing would be obtaining the amount needed or at least the down payment. I am going to write to Erich [Mohr] about it right away. Maybe this time the Free-German Work Confederation would be able to do something. I am now going to go into this with him and in October might find an opportunity to really take a good look at the property.

A little further information about the location: Lüneburg and Soltau are stops for fast trains from Lüneburg to Hamburg and Hannover, from Soltau to Bremen and Berlin.

For the time being I am not using the Oppenheimer volume [TN: see letter from Alfred of August 18, 1925]. If it serves you well, it makes me happy. I would like to use this opportunity to remind you of an earlier request namely to urge the authors of the various “living library” to also bring out the different attitudes toward the soil represented there and to make them available to me.

Greet all the dear Sannerz folk from me. Maybe there will be a joyful reunion here in the heath-country with all of you.

A hearty greeting to you,

Your Alfred

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[Letter by Eberhard to Adolf Spamer]

Sannerz, September 10, 1925

Dear Adolf Spamer,

Our whole house had so looked forward to your dear visit in particular after your joyful greetings with which you made us very happy. Unfortunately, though we have until now looked out for you in vain, as I will now have to go to a book-seller’s conference on Saturday evening and so will have to be away on a journey, I ask you very cordially whether you could somehow make it possible to come to us right away. If your work does not make it possible—something our whole house community would be very sorry about—my sister in law, Else von Hollander, the general secretary of our publishing house, is going to come to Frankfurt at the beginning of next week. For this case she asks you to kindly let her know at which library or other place she could meet you on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday at noon, and if 12:00, 1:00, or 2:00 would be the most opportune time for you to meet her. As a mark to be recognized by, she will bear, in her hand, the Diederichs volume: Texts from the German Mystics of the 14th and 15th Century. She herself is going to recognize you since she has seen you and spoken to you at the Quaker conference in Gießen.

We ask you very cordially for permission to regard your consent to work together with us as so firm that in the prospectus of our “Living library” we may announce your contribution. Please send us the title of this book. For the time being we have simply put down the general title: Mystical Excerpts from the Circles of Eckenhardt, Tauler, and Suso. I told you in Frankfurt that the honorarium for a little volume of between 150 and 200 pages will be 600 marks. From the enclosed register of our plan, and from the likewise enclosed brief word about the meaning of our “Living Library”/ “Books of Life” (Lebensbucherei), you will be able to recognize how the “Books” joint task fits together.

It’s such a great joy for me that I was able to get to know you and that we may count on your so decisive collaboration in particular in regard to that mighty moment in the spiritual history of Germany. We shall gladly accept it that you are so tied down by your great work of bringing out a complete edition of Master Eckehardt that for us merely some nourishing morsels are left over from your rich table, but please let these morsels find their way in time to the waiting doggies lest they starve to death spiritually.

With all good greetings,

With heartfelt closeness,

Eberhard Arnold

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[Letter from Adolf Braun to Erich Teichert]

Sannerz, September 10, 1925

Dear Erich Teichert,

Your repeated requests of September 4th have caused me to once more go into what you wrote in your earlier letters.

At present we are preparing to have published, in a monthly paper which we edit, an essay from which you will be able to gain, better than from any letter, full information about the character and the extent of our communal life. We should have that paper available in about a fortnight and then will be able to send it to you.

At the moment our house community consists of thirty persons including children. These are all accommodated in one single building. We are now using the house to the utmost extent for accommodation.

Our soil conditions are rough as can be expected in the areas in front of the Rhön. Our fields, geologically presenting soils of very different kinds, are almost all situated on slopes. It is only in the spring of this year, through a lease, that the larger part has come cultivated by us. Then, too, the lessors have let us have those areas they regarded as unprofitable or too laborious. So this will give you a good idea of how hard we have to work here. From this point of view, of course, it is of great value to us that we gain the cooperation of a practical farmer. We believe, though, that it is at present neither required nor necessary to increase our agricultural workforce. Because of the high ground rent, the difficult economic conditions and poor soil quality, but also because of our community’s remoteness from the need of the towns, we have in mind, as Eberhard Arnold would already have informed you earlier on, is resettlement and enlargement. However, at present the prospects for doing this are very weak.

We feel sorry for being unable, at this time, to offer you the possibility of working with us all the more because we gather from what you write that you are deeply interested in our task. We would like to encourage you to nevertheless remain in contact with us.

In the forthcoming essay mentioned earlier in this letter you will find the answer to most of the questions that you have for us. Because this inner meaning of our living together is being presented there from the very midst of our life’s inmost aim, there is no need presently of our going into the details about your inquires, but we are gladly ready to provide any further elucidations if they are required. It’s just a great pity that we so often have to decline the expressed wish of friends of our conviction to work together with us, and this mainly for reasons of our spatial and economic limitations. Anyhow, it can only be good for both you and us if you bear in mind the possibility of a visit, either during the holidays or when hiking.

By reason of our elevated and mountainous location, our harvest is unfortunately not yet completed and is considerably endangered by the constant wet weather. Especially for us agriculturists, this barometric back and forth between sunshine and rain is a painful story. You in your favorable location there will surely have long since come to a conclusion? We here are still threshing our wheat using an older model of hand-operated threshing machine. But in spite of the unfavorable weather we are hoping to have a wonderful harvest festival.

From the later printed matter you are going to receive you will recognize the deeper reason for our living together as something that is more than just convenient and suitable, that the step into our communal life, which excludes any other way, may not be taken without a clear, unequivocal inmost calling,—this is a recognition we would like to lay on your heart with our best wishes and feeling faithfully close to you.

We greet you warmly,

Yours truly, Adolf Braun

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Nauheim Spa (Hesse)

25 Ludwig St.

September 14, 1925

My dear Eberhard,

Being here for medical treatment, I have many times already reminded myself that I have come so close to your home. Wouldn’t you once like to pay me a visit? I will gladly reimburse your traveling expenses. You will just have to announce your coming beforehand. If a return on the same day would too greatly shorten our being together, you can also spend the night here. It would be such a joy for me to once again hear about your dear wife and children from yourself and to share common interests.

My medical treatment, of course, does tie me down a bit and obliges me to be very cautious.

Heartfelt greetings to you, your dear Emmy and to all your loved ones from your faithful uncle Heinrich.

Because of the treatment I may not be able to pick you up at the station. But you will easily find your way to my house. You just follow the street going straight out from behind the station where already from far away you can catch sight of the beautiful fountain and shortly before reaching that you must take the street to the right.

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[Letter by Curt Breitfeld to Eberhard]

Münchberg, September 14, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

In the meantime you will already have concluded your work. I shall always remember with joy the two days on which we could work together. I hope that when the books do appear you will have no difficulties with their distribution. I am keenly looking forward to the first volume.

Do you already have your corn safely under cover? Here with us a lot is still standing outside, in particular oats and it keeps raining the whole time.

I’ve unfortunately not yet managed to see the doctor since he is not here. Have you already received news of some kind in reply to the inserts in the Börsenblatt [exchange bulletin for advertisements and announcements]? Unfortunately I am unable to obtain this paper from any of the local booksellers. To judge from the momentary situation here, it is absolutely necessary for me to get a job by the first of the month that will allow me to live in material independence from my parents. Through a cousin of mine I could now get a well funded job, according to bourgeois concepts, at a big piano firm in Leibzig. For the time being I shall scarcely be able to obtain a salary of this kind (180-200 marks) in the book trade. But I consider it important to remain in the book trade in order to finally master one particular trade.

I have often thought of you folks and also of the short time I could spend among all of you at the end. Thanks to God, community is not identical with equality of outlook. Rather it is the outgrowth of communal struggle and experience. It is strange that in spite of firmly established differences of opinion when sharing with other people, I do represent the Sannerz opinion—something I only became aware of when, afterwards perusing everything once more; in Sannerz, though, I would always put on the brakes. Some of these differences on both sides sometimes appear to me constructed by an awareness of the momentary inward form [situation?]. After all, we can always find differences when we look for them. This clear awareness of the mutual alienation had an oppressive effect on me and made me even more passive than I am in any case, especially since the events of the last months in Switzerland still remained a heavy burden on me.

Please give heartfelt greetings to everybody and also to Dr. Ulrich, but in a special way to Trudy [Dalgas, Hüssy]. Would she please send me one print each of the Whitsun photos; I would be very thankful to her.

Many greetings to you. [Eberhard]

From your Curt. The loom will be sent off tomorrow. You will have to get a hand weaver to set it up.

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[Letter by Curt Breitfeld to Emi-Ma]

Münchberg, September 14,1925

Dear Emi-Ma,

Many thanks again for the lovely garland. You know well how much joy you have given me by it. Who is now giving piano lessons to you folks? Has Adolf [Braun] already managed to get the grand piano back in order? The repair will surely still cost him a great deal of time, but he has made a beginning so he will also have to complete it.

When the weather here gets nice again I shall be off by myself for a few days hike in the Fichtel Mountains (Fichtelgebirge). I am already looking forward to that very much and will also tell you at length about it. Even though I am very familiar with everything around here, it is as distant to me as if all these images, which I’ve known since my childhood, kept only rising up into remembrance from the subconscious. For me the Sannerz area had something brim-full of life—something completely missing here. There everything was flooded through by a spirit which is no longer alive here. A graveyard peace, a sense of having done with life, speaks out of the black fir woods of the Fichtel Mountains. It is as though one could see that this area has been presenting this appearance already thousands of years longer than the volcanic Rhön Mountains have borne theirs. As in Romanesque churches, the light appears to flood the whole structure as a vivifying element, so it is also in the Rhön. The everlasting silence and mystical twilight which merges upward into timelessness is something that gothic cathedrals have in common with the woods of the Fichtel Mountains. That is what I am looking forward to on my hike and in which alone I still feel at home in this homeland of mine.

Please give many greetings to all members of the children’s band especially to super-fidgety Mö [Monika Arnold].

With most cordial greetings,

your Curt

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Sannerz, September 14, 1925

Dear Curt [Breitfeld],

We are thinking of you a great deal. We find it a bit disconcerting that you have not yet written to us at all about how you arrived home and what your health is like. We have put an announcement regarding you into the Börsenblatt and have written to Kocher in Reutlingen. On Saturday the Börsenblatt featured some announcements of “sortiment”[assortment?] in Freudenstadt, and we inquired there about you. Unfortunately there is a negative answer from Stuttgart; we have opened the letter as you had asked us to.

Roland and Irmgard [Keiderling] are now both here and have found accomodation in the upper kitchen which has been made quite cozy and comfy. In the early evening Eberhard and Emmy [Arnold] left in a car (!) for the conference at Stollberg; Martha [Braun] has left for Nordhausen with her two children, and the two of us, Else [von Hollander] and Ilse [von Seckendorf], will probably go to Frankfurt in one of the next days with the typewriter and a lot books. In the house there is a lot of repair work going on. Georg Barth is busy putting up a wall right trough the “three girls’ room,” and Alfred Hesse, who has recently come here, is scraping the wall so that it can be newly and colorfully repainted. Helle and Gerhard are his apprentices. That is why there was a great moving about on Saturday until we had all evacuated our rooms and managed to find interim sleeping quarters somewhere. Otherwise we are doing very well. That is, we are recovering from the hustle and bustle of last week because during this week we had to cope with jam making, harvesting oats and the second crop of hay, and dispatching work. Today was mushroom day and Moni [von Hollander, Barth], with the children, has brought home many baskets of mushrooms from Möttgers!

But now do write to us really soon and accept many very hearty greetings from us all.

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[Letter from Hermann Buddensieg to Eberhard]

Binau, September 15, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

You good fellow, your dear, dear letter has given me so much joy! All manner of thanks for all your loving care! God grant that we lead our joint work to a fruitful goal!

Today just a few brief remarks:

As regard the book on Spee, you can depend on me. I will tackle it immediately after the Eucken conference. I am looking forward with special joy to writing the introduction about the history of that time. Sad to say, his poetic works are nothing much to write about.

I shall arrive at Sterbfritz at 4:05 PM on September 25. You can definitely reckon on me coming. I am so looking forward to seeing all of you. In order to wait for your own arrangements, I have not yet offered my manuscript of the books (?der Buche) to Eucken. The title is now to be: “The Young Generation’s Struggle for the Breaking Through of the True Christ Spirit.” I am enclosing for you the table of contents. The manuscript will reach you even before I get there. Sorry to say, it will probably not be in your hands before your meeting with Naumann [TN: more likely “Neumann” of the Hochweg Publishing House]. It would be so nice to have it in the publishing house there with you, for that is where it actually belongs. There is no need for any kind of recommendations otherwise FWF, Eucken Lorengo, and Muckle would see to that right away. I know that the manuscript is wholly in your sense; it deals comprehensively with the effect of the Christian perception of life in various areas. Dr. Muckle is especially pleased by the sections about Christianity, philosophy, and man and wife. The latter is lifted out of the erotic problematic and seen from the Christian-metaphysical perspective. If I send you the manuscript today, please confirm the arrival by return of mail. For at the moment I have but one copy.

The “Challenger to a Change” must also be got out even if I have to bring it out myself.

I am so glad that you will be coming with me to Jena. We are going to have wonderful days together there.

And now until we meet again in eight days on Friday, September 25.

All good things to you and yours! Always your faithful,

Herman Buddensieg

Saal [?] has written that we should sell the “Challenger.” He can’t cope anymore. So this completely clears the way. We already have enough essays for the next numbers.

Cordial greetings from me to Dr. Ulrich. I thank you also for sending the Wegwarte [TN: English: “chicory,” bereft of any poetic connotation such as “waiting by the roadside.” Name of the Sannerz magazine]. It gives me great joy. I would be glad to help you with putting it together. You may be glad for smaller reflective pieces, for example, on “the creative power of sin” and Luke 2:14 (the people of “good will”). I am presently engaged in a study on “the present situation of Catholicism and the crisis of the Catholic Youth Movement.” I am going to bring this study along with me to Sannerz; it will be of great interest to you. My new book would be equivalent to [gibt?] ten sheets in your Innerland book. [TN: meaning?] Tomorrow, two thirds of the manuscripts will come with the same post. Please read it through and note right away what ought to be improved or still added. Edgar Weiß was here for two days. The closer you come to him the more pleasant he becomes. We had lots of joy together. He took wonderful photos of Binau.

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Sannerz, September 15, 1925

Dear Brother Kleemann,

We often think of you with heartfelt gratitude, especially when we go out for journeys in our wagon. Once Eberhard returns from his conference with the Evangelical Booksellers in Stollberg, where he has given the keynote address, the real lecture journeys will start. By then the harvest will have been brought under cover and only then the trips out to the villages are to begin. The wagon has proved itself to our entire satisfaction and it will be a joy for us to pretty soon send you some photos of the wagon together with the team all ready to set off. In the same way we have gone out already many times and are going to sally forth properly in the future.

We would also be very grateful to you if could kindly agree to release us from having to pay the second installment of 120 marks. Even though you have not promised it to us, it may perhaps yet be possible.

We would also be very thankful for letting us know what books and writings you would consider best suited for distribution and which you feel are especially close to your heart. We would be very happy to help distribute passages from the New Testament; could you possibly mention to us suitable additions for that purpose? We have already been considering making the covers ourselves. For our children we now have a teacher with a good training in handy crafts who could teach us how to do it. [TN: Georg Barth]

In the hope that, as so many times already, you will not deny us your help, we greet you in particular from Eberhard who had actually intended to write to you before his departure.

On behalf of the Sannerz house community,

- - - - -

POSTCARD

Binau, September 16, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

Here comes, with the same post, the first half of the manuscript, and there is no one to whom I would rather send, for you to scrutinize most thoroughly. Anyhow, I do believe this book will after all prove an aid on the way for many a seeker and will bear witness to a life for which we fight jointly and alone.

Greet for me all the friends for whom it is meant. Even before I arrive in Sannerz you will also get the other half which deals with sub specie aeterni quite practical matters. Please do confirm the arrival of this shipment by return of mail for I only properly looked through that one copy; so it must not incur any bad luck. Please give the [illegible] to Dr. Ulrich; I had promised to send it to him. The [publication? (illegible)] of the Eucken Association is also included. Also read the other essays; they are very interesting.

With all good wishes,

Your Hermann Buddensieg

The whole book must be thoroughly looked through one more time!

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Berlinickestraße 7

Phone: 188f

Wednesday, September 16, 1925

Greatly esteemed Dr. Arnold,

Several weeks ago I sent a letter to your address with the inquiry whether three of my children could find accommodation with you until further notice. Being until now left without a reply from you, the matter should, if at all possible, be worked out by October. I would like to now make an urgent request that, if possible, you to kindly let me have a reply by return of mail.

Thanking you warmly in advance,

Very truly yours,

Walter Scharwenka

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Wittenberg, September 16, 1925

Home for Apprentices

Dear Else,

Many thanks to you all for sending me the Wegwarte, and for not forgetting me. Eberhard has probably given up on writing me a personal answer to my essay. I would be happy if you would at least accede to my request to send it back. I do find a reference to it in the enclosed open letter: “To all from Sannerz.” You people have made excellent use of my essay as a means of propaganda. However, for me, “the humor of chased piety” is something completely alien to me because it fails to represent my critique, deeply earnest as it is meant, which you have managed to refurbished into praise. If the author is inquired about, you have left the way of escape open by laughing heartily at his being so strange and lacking in understanding. The out-of-context statement: “one of the songs contain the words ‘hard men’ et cetera,” presents me the unknown author as a kind of Karlchen Miesnick[?]. I have already had a feeling of what was going to come. I cannot understand the conclusion of your letter: “we thank you for your zu erstaunenden (all too astounding).” Perhaps you can still explain it to me.

At times your whole religious atmosphere strikes me as so terribly doctrinaire, that I would have to see your culture as a youth movement grown rigid in which one simply has to remain. I am being thrown hither and thither between praise and criticism and then I get the terribly oppressive thought that I had believed to have found true humanity but in the end might have, nevertheless, gone astray.

Now about the money question. I did not ask for any salary when I came to you and I am ready to forgo it even though I can surely use money. So just deduct 100 marks from my account with you so that I still have about 400 marks left. I do believe that you have the honest intention to let me have that money back and I have the hearty request that you do so. Will Ilse [von Seckendorf] keep to her promise to write to me about how all of you are getting on? I am doing fine. Thanks be to God. I feel that I am at the right place; it’s just that I could still have more freedom of movement. It is not sufficient that already for the third time I get sent on journeys to far away places (to Berlin, Mückenberg, Halle). For the sake of junge Burschen einzuholen [possible meaning: to catch up with, or get hold of, apprentices or bring them home (maybe heimzuholen)]. What I mean is freedom of movement also in my work.

With cordial greetings to all of you,

Ferdinand Scholl.

- - - - -

September 17, 1925

Dear Dr. Arnold,

I thank you heartily for your friendly lines of August 25 and September 1. It is only today that I managed to answer you as I had been away on a journey for a long time.

What made me especially happy was the information that you are going to come to the new conference in March. As I heard from [pastor] Kirchbach, who preached here last Sunday, more or less the same gentlemen will turn up who also attended the first conference.

It is a great joy for me that I was able to help them somewhat in your work and it is my wholehearted hope that you will continue to weather these difficult times.

I also still thank you very much for the little brochure about your work which I have read with great joy.

I request to warmly thank Mrs. Keiderling for her lines which I found here after my return. I am very happy that she felt at home in Lichtenstein.

With sincere greetings to you and yours,

I remain yours very truly,

Prince Schönburg

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Langenöls near Lauborn

District of Liegnitz, Silesia

September 18, 1925

Greatly esteemed Dr. Arnold,

Your address was given to me by my daughter, Mrs. Hedwig Droste, Frankfurt on Main, Nirmsteinerstr. No.1. I am looking for accommodation for a gentleman of 58 years. I would appreciate information concerning conditions of acceptance into your home. The person in question is a well educated gentleman with a wide range of knowledge.

The undersigned would be very glad for a kindly answer. I include 20 pfennig for postage.

With best greetings,

Wife of Pastor A. Wernicke

Née Langer

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Sannerz, September 19, 1925

Dear Emmy,

If this greeting still reaches you [at Stolberg] we are all looking forward ever so much to your return and whether you may arrive already on Monday—especially me!

Yesterday there arrived for you a fine old Zinzendorf book. It will give you great joy.

We are doing very well. There is a lot of work going on everywhere and we keep moving from one room to another but soon it will all be done and everything will be ever so nice! Alfred [Gneiting] and Georg [Barth] will move in on the one side and Moni on the other. Alfred Gosse left us again this morning. It’s going well with Roland and also with Georg. Roland [Keiderling] has become a particularly “carrying” person.

I am now going to pick up Else [von Hollander] and Emmy Ma [Arnold, Zumpe] in Schlüchtern, therefore only this much and with many dear greetings to you and Eberhard.

Ilse [von Seckendorff]

- - - - -

POSTCARD

Binau, September 18, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

So here comes the second part of the manuscript. I brought it to a provisional conclusion so that you can still get an overview of the whole thing before speaking with the printer. So please read it through, and if need be please make appropriate notes, for which I would be very grateful to you. By the way, I have not sent Eucken the whole thing as I would like to wait for your comments and as I actually don’t want to let him have it at all—you must have it! Please immediately confirm the arrival. You know that I have only the one properly checked copy that nothing must happen to.

I am going to write once more before my arrival; a detailed table of contents is still to come.

With all heartfelt greetings to all of you dear ones,

Soon in Holidays,

Herman Buddensieg

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POSTCARD

Binau, September 24, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

So I shall arrive at Sterbfritz tomorrow on Friday, September 25, at 4:05. Herbert, Dr. Muckle’s oldest son, will also be coming along; he is so looking forward to it and I hope it will be convenient for you. He is a good boy and will not cause much of trouble.

Just look what lies between Whitsun and this get-together—a whole book and much, much pondering and new experiences! I hope you bring good results home from this present journey.

So we shall see each other tomorrow. I am so happy! As always greeting everybody faithfully,

Your Hermann Buddensieg

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[Letter from Peter Bultmann to Eberhard]

Leipzig, September 22, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

Cordial thanks for the various things you sent me! The enclosed two marks are the subscription money for the Wegwarte and above all your letters from Sannerz. I would be happy to send more but, as I am going to move to Dresden on October 1 and there I will have to furnish and equip my own apartment (even if just a small one on Dornblüthstrasse 25), at the moment I find myself in a very difficult financial situation.

In vain I looked for you and Else at the autumn fair in Bugra, but I hope the two of you will sometime also pass through Dresden and I would like to ask you to call on us then.

Now I still have to write to you on behalf of Mrs. Bräutigam, a professor. Through a relative with whom I am lodging at present, this woman had turned to me with the question if I could not procure for her a job at the Urban Book Halls [Städtischen Bücherhallen]. Unfortunately at this moment where I myself move away from Leibzig, a recommendation on my part is quite purposeless, and all I could do was to give her advice on how to approach Walter Hofmann himself lest her application be completely hopeless from the very beginning. However, I have but little hope for her in this respect. But I felt free to recommend for her to turn to you. In the meantime she may have already done this and given to you the picture of her situation and need. This need consists, on the one hand, in her unhappy situation between two nations but also—and this may less come to the fore in her letter to you—in the collapse of all her ideas and above all the faith she had in those people who pretended to represent these ideals. I told myself that you and your circle could perhaps be helpful to her in this outer and inner need. At any rate, she is as genuine and valuable as she is unhappy and needy.

Perhaps she could be of use to you in your publishing by translating and editing older and contemporaneous works of religious-poetic French literature. For she is on the one hand highly educated and well versed in literature and on the other hand would surely make herself very useful in many ways by helping to publish valuable products of this kind of literature and also, as I believe, would be useful particularly in the business and publishing aspects. But if she were even led in such a way that she would join your circle and fit into it, she would surely become valuable to you also in other respects. At any rate I believe I am justified in recommending her to you to the extent that you might possibly be able to do something for her.

I shall be very happy—and so will be Fridel—to hear regularly about you folks through those open letters. I often think of you all and greet you with most cordial wishes.

Your Peter Bultmann

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[Letter from Curt Breitfeld to everyone at Sannerz]

Münchberg, September 24, 1925

You dear ones in Sannerz,

I hope the loom has arrived safely. You will have to get a weaver to put it together for you. Don’t put it into the barn or the summer kitchen or into any damp place as it is liable to swell up and you would then scarcely manage to put together the individual parts. As regards the chain, if possible, get the Herolz factory to prepare it for you, so that you will only have to draw the threads from the beam [Baum] through the shafts and the reed [Webblatt]. So don’t try to undertake the initial preparations yourselves, for that requires a lot of room and many don’t manage it to begin with. Then, of course, such a chain usually cannot be interwoven at all; then all the flax is liable to go to waste all at once.

I am so looking forward to Christmas. If my financial means allow it, I am surely going to come. I hope the steps you have undertaken will be successful. I wait everyday for news that will put an end to the uncertainty.

Tomorrow I am going to send back Else’s book. It has been of good service to me. Now I am busy revising all the book keeping. At the same time I am reading Henry Ford and I wrestle with his ideas of economic policy. He is a revolutionary of entrepreneurism. His maxim is: “service to the general public.” I will send the book along for Adolf [Braun]; he will surely find it very interesting. He can then send it back to me when there is an opportunity. Eberhard will also be pleased to read it.

How is the publishing house getting along? You will surely have a great deal to do.

Has Adolf already plowed the two meadows on the Langen Berg [“Long Mountain”]? With the horse-and-cow team this will be quite difficult seeing that the soil is so stony.

What are the children doing? Hearty greetings to all of them and many greetings to you all!

Your, Curt

Would Trudi please send me a print each of the Whitsun photos when there is a chance?

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[Letter from Marthel Lange to all at Sannerz]

Stuttgart, Ed. Pfeiferheim

Geiseichstrasse 25

September 25, 1925

A hearty “God Bless!” to all of you,

Now it is already Friday again but I hope you were not cross with me because of my somewhat “tempestuous” request of last week. You see the Neulandkreis (New Land Circle) here, with which I have no connection otherwise, suddenly asked me whether I might know a female theologian who might work together with him. I don’t know how and why I suddenly thought of Eva Oelke; well you know I never think too long about anything so I simply wrote to her and am now waiting to see what might develop. Did you folks actually still have her address? Are you still in touch with her?

But now about something else! I have no idea when I might have my holidays, however, the money needed for the journey to you and the Habertshof is lying ready and sometimes I think I just cannot wait any longer.

Since the middle of May, I am here with children suffering from heart and kidney ailments (83 children and 4 nurses and one head nurse and one female kindergarten teacher). We have a wonderful place here. The home is situated on a hill near Stuttgart. It is very large and spacious and excellently equipped. The nurses are Methodist deaconesses but in part with no religious association, and the working together with the former is considerably more pleasant. My activity all day long actually consists only of providing brine baths—carbonic acid baths, Kohlensäure, ultraviolet and x-ray irradiation treatments, and to make embrocations and in between going for an hours walk with those children who are not bedridden. But when you yourself feel like just frolicking about despite the long skirt and kerchief, then you just have to tell yourself over and over again that this is not allowed. One has to remind oneself quite often all through the day, but at the same time present to the children that romping about is such a good and beautiful thing.

Suse [Hungar], don’t you think that it is after all better to have healthy children? I would like to stay here for one year, after that four weeks of holiday and then off to the midwifery school in Frankfurt on Main (Monika watch out for me competing with you!). The young mother’s ward was without question the nicest during my stint in the clinic, and in Frankfurt I would, at least be quite near to you! Whether I manage to come over to you many times—I scarcely think so. Perhaps, though, one of you might come to see me, don’t you think?

But now let’s come to the end. It is 7:00 o’clock and I must go to my ward. Warmest greetings to the children and to all of you especially to Emmy, Else, and Moni!

Your, Marthel

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[Picture postcard showing the Tiergärtnertor and Albrecht Dürer’s house]

[Würzburg]

September 26, 1925

To the Neuwerk Community

Sannerz near Schlüchtern

PO Sterbfritz

To all of you a joyful hiker’s greeting,

At the end of October I am going to be with you if only for a few days to be sure. I am looking forward to it.

Your, Hans Kupfer

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September 25, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

You ought to have received news from me long ago but how many times is it only in thought that one writes—in reality one does not get to it. There would be so much to discuss and to clarify and I keep hoping that your work might once again lead you to Berlin. I am unable to engage in written discussion and I also know that you have no time for them.

So today I send only a heartfelt greeting to you, to your little daughter, to Trudi and Monika whom I know from the time in Eisenach. Sad to say, I have not yet come to know your Sannerz but keep hoping that this will, after all, take place soon. I am doing much better now but must still be very cautious in every respect.

Say, Eberhard, can you possibly send the Adler books back or do you still have great need of them? We would like to work here together a bit with the help those books; or send at least one of the two.

For today hearty greetings,

Eva Sachs

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September 26, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

For a long time we have heard nothing from each other. Maybe this present invitation will provide the impetus for our getting once more personally in touch with each other. Rattlar is situated about in the middle between you and us. We hope very much that one or the other of you can come. If there is somebody who would like to come but does not have the means for it, please write to us. As soon as the number of participants is definite and we are able to survey the means at our disposal, we shall let you know if and to what extent we are able to contribute.

I don’t know if our writing shows the character of the conference as clearly as we would like. It is not meant to increase the usual non-committal commonplace conferences by one more. We want to get out of the chaos of opinions and find again a clear course. But not a course back into some past—however beautiful or holy —but a forward course which fully confirms the powers of spirit, of science, and of the norms of our evolution in which for us the spirit has either taken shape or at least can take shape.

For the orientation about our last year’s conference, I include a report by Else Bramesfeld (Schwarzerden).

With warmest greetings from circle to circle,

Artur Jacobs

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[Letter by Eberhard’s father to Eberhard]

Breslau, September 30, 1925

My dear Eberhard,

Since your last detailed letter I have it on my heart to learn something about how Hardy [Arnold] is getting on. Has he properly recovered from the accident and its consequences? Has his cough come to an end and how about his progress in learning Latin? I find it wonderful when a father can himself thus instruct his children, but in view of your professional work it seems to be well nigh impossible to muster the regularity and steadiness required for such instruction. At any rate the main thing is that Hardy himself has an inkling of the tremendous importance of the alternative: to either lay a solid ground of true education or to miss the opportunity. In other words: that early on the joy in intellectual values is awakened and that in good time this fresh mountain stream is guided in to the bed of humanistic education.

Unfortunately I am much too old and decrepit to give him personal guidance toward this. All we can do is to invoke daily for him the blessing of his creator and his redeemer.

But as you wished to obtain for him the Ellendt-Seiffert grammar and a German-Latin dictionary, dear Eberhard, you must ponder this wish and whether you can spare the time necessary for this. I have a precise knowledge of the Ellent-Seiffert grammar having used it when teaching at a Königsberg grammar school; but today? Is this grammar still in use in present-day Hesse? Anyhow, Here in Silesia it is no longer. The methods have changed. As early as 1877, gifted teachers used Ellendt-Seiffert according to the method currently being used, that is to say, first vigorously getting accustomed to the actual practical text and only then theories! This must be so understood that the rules are being developed by using practical examples; then light breaks into the students’ intellects and the joy of recognition and understanding is wedded to the spirit of the language, with the feeling for the language only gained through practice.

This method is applied in the textbooks of Ostermann—that philosophically trained school inspector who so skillfully applied Lotz’s psychology in his method of teaching. It is then been supplemented by Georg Michaelis. Here in Breslau grammar schools, the textbooks which are used are those of Ostermann-Michaelis. Here you have, combined in one little book:

1.Latin pieces and sentences

2.German pieces and sentences with explanatory interjections

3.Vocabularies

4.Latin proverbs

I have had a look at addition A meant for the second grade of grammar school [Quinta]. Shall I send it? If Hardy has already gotten further he may nevertheless find joy and energy for revision of what he has already learned. How I wish I could do it with him! But, as said before, that is totally impossible.

Sad to say, Mama has had to spend her birthday in bed. It was probably an attack of the flu. She greets all of you very warmly and is now again so sprite that her aged lifelong comrade can lean on her: physically in the street as she walks more securely and sees better, and mentally on her assistance and council. So please write soon which book I am to send.

Many greetings to you, Emmy, and all the children,

Your loving father,

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[Letter by Eberhard to Erich Mohr]

Sannerz, September 30, 1925

My dear Erich Mohr,

You are right: my long silence was due to a hopeful but wait-and-see attitude which caused the delay—an attitude I expressed to you by the urgent request that you please come to Sannerz. There is a great deal I have on my heart, and I would have greatly preferred to express it all in a heart to heart talk between the two of us, and I attempted to bring this about toward the end of the days in Eisenach.

Your last postcard, however, was apt to discourage me as it gave the impression that you were inaccessible to a true word from a friend. The Eisenach gathering provided an opportunity to reach a decision that might have led to the very recourse to, [or turn to] life which you were seeking. I hoped that you would find the quietness for a deep immersion in that which, in your best hours earlier on, had become great and luminous to you and which thus could also give light to others. This awareness of the Cause and of the true content of the life we have in mind is something I painfully miss in everything that comes to me from the Free-German Work Confederation. The uncertainty in your attitude, which you also recognized yourself during our discussion after the conference, comes to fatal expression in the third circular letter that has now reached us. Just as in Eisenach you did not find it possible to evaluate the greater over the smaller—or the event of truth over that age-old gymnastic-religiosity—so this same lack of insight between what is decisive and determinative, and for what is indifferent and ineffective comes to horrifying expression in your present circular letter. What good is the enlargement and improved organization of a Confederation devoid of content and life? Is it not true that help would only be possible if we recognize the nothingness of the Confederation so that, through the smashing of the empty shell, we come to the possibility of an implement fitting to be filled with the Cause? [TN: the “Cause” being that of the youth movement]

What your circular letter suffers from is an objective untruth at the decisive point. You people maintain that our Confederation has its basis in the Ludwigstein resolution of 1924. However, one main point in that resolution is the recognition that the old Meißner formula must be given content! You people, though, set against this sole possible basis the nonsense that not so much the content but above all the depth, the purity and the earnestness of our conviction must be what unites us! But, there can be no conviction without meaning! Depth without content is a hellish, empty abyss. On the Ludwigstein in1924 it was clearly expressed that not the presumed depth, the presumed purity and the presumed earnestness of unpurified men are able to provide the longed- for molding shaping, and fulfillment, but only the Cause, as is made clear by the great heralds and shapers of the eternal powers.

The first draft of your present letter contains just a hint of your turning away from this foundation. But I still regard as erroneous the expression you and the others had found for the tension between the objective opposites, because joining the strongest personalities in our circle of that time could not provide the direction of the way we should go. Only that which constitutes the strength of such personalities, only the Cause motivating them, can provide a direction!

What you people presently writing confirms that depressing fact and reveals its causes; namely that in this year the situation of our confederation has become ever bleaker. The lack of personal loyalty, the offenses against mutual respect and the brotherly spirit, which are known to you just as much as to me, are as an expression of immorality within the Confederation, the consequence of a deeper sickness at the very core of its life. The shameless slandering of responsible brothers by unauthorized persons, the insensitivity towards a woman’s honor, the feeble, unmanly conduct of the confederate leadership versus these intolerable wrongs, the erotic atmosphere of jealousy in Berlin, the wrongs committed against individuals, the [leadership’s] inability to lead—out of such breakdowns toward the Cause, the preponderance of the psychosomatic, of the purely psychic, over the objective spirit with is ability to discern spirits and, by overcoming them, to unite them- all this points to the inmost cause of this frightful degeneration. It can only be sought in the very core of all devoutness— hence by facing the content of faith.

The poison of this core-sickness already showed itself in your publication about the Eisenach conference, even though at the same time words of acknowledgement in the letter you, Erich, wrote to Nelly Schwabacher gave hopes of recuperation. Your present letter, however, shows the very opposite of a recovery. To mention as an example just one fact, it was your degrading remark about Herman Buddensieg’s assumed motive, said to be governed by his attitude toward Tani Oelfken, was a serious blunder. Above all, this remark is objectively untrue. I assure you that Hermann Buddensiegs’ truthfulness, objectivity, and loyalty would have opposed Tani Oelfken’s influence just as sharply if she had not uttered one single word about him. In the second place you ought to have prevented Tani Oelfken from making a remark about a speaker and brother whom you and we had invited. In the third place you should have, under no circumstances, let your own assessment of Hermann Buddensieg get into print.

As regards my involvement in this, you had obviously not remained aware of the task I had received from the Confederation as regard Hermann Buddensieg. Going in the direction of your remarks, Ulrich Wolf, in his remarks to Edgar Weiß, has sown dirty accusations against Hermann Buddensieg. I herewith ask you to at least do away with all the inhuman unbrotherlyness which destroys community and to get Ulrich Wolf to retract these statements seeing that they render any brotherly relationship with him impossible.

You know, Erich, this sad affair is but one example among others showing how confederate brothers and sisters have become terribly unfaithful towards each other; and yet the Confederation failed to come to a radical recognition, leading to a turn around. Our Confederation has long since arrived at the same degradation you rightly fought against in the case of the Free-German Confederation (Freideutschen Bund) and in general. Our Confederation lacks any justification for its existence, in particular no justification for new paragraphs, an increase of members, and for specification of work areas as called for as in your circular letter.

In this situation there is but one possibility of existence and that is to recognize the desperate situation, to acknowledge the ultimate ground for it and to now get together around the content of faith through which alone in our own determination, out of our own responsibility, with inward truthfulness, in depth, purity and seriousness there can be but one conviction that is able to shape life.

With all the confidence I have in the light of truth, also in you, that you would want to seek, in all earnestness, a radical change of attitude without which the task of our Confederation would have to remain finally lost and destroyed. Without this return to the Cause we are destined for the same hopeless doom that is now threatening all that have been part of the youth movement.

You will feel with me that only love to your faithful adherence to the Free-German awakening, hence true confederate friendship was able to urge me to this adjuration. When it’s a question of everything among us all, only the love of unrestricted openness can be the answer, for it is the ultimate expression of hope and trust.

For the Confederation as organization, I enclose the two corresponding applications.

Eberhard

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[Letter by Eberhard to Erich Mohr]

Sannerz, September 30, 1925

My dear Erich Mohr,

You are right: my long silence was due to an expectant hope which caused the delay and which I expressed to you by the urgent request that you please come to Sannerz. There is ever so much I have on my heart, and I would have greatly preferred to express it all in a heart to heart talk between the two of us, and I had sought to bring this about toward the end of the days in Eisenach.

Your last postcard, however, was apt to discourage me as it gave the impression that you were inaccessible to a true word from a friend. The Eisenach gathering provided an opportunity to reach a decision that might have led to the turning towards, or embracing of, Life (Einkehr zum Leben). I hoped that you would find the quietness for a deep immersion in that which, in your best hours earlier on, had become great and luminous to you and which thus could also give light to others. This awareness of the Cause, and of the true content of the life we have in mind, is something I painfully miss in everything that comes to me from the Free-German Work Confederation. The uncertainty in your attitude, which you also recognized yourself during in the talk we had after the conference, comes to fatal expression in the third circular letter that has now reached us. Just as in Eisenach you did not find it possible to value the greater more than the smaller—or take hold of the word of truth in contrast to that well known cult of religious gymnastics-—so this same lack of discernment between what is decisive and determinative, and that which is indifferent and ineffective comes to terrifying expression in you people’s present second circular letter. What good is any enlargement and improved organization of a Confederation devoid of content and life? Is it not true that help would only be possible if we recognize the nothingness of the Confederation so that, through the smashing of the empty shell, we come to the possibility of obtaining an implement fit to be filled with the Cause?

What you people write suffers from is an objective untruth at the decisive point. You maintain that our Confederation has its basis in the Ludwigstein resolution of 1924. However, one main point in that resolution is the recognition that the old Meißner formula must be given content. You people, however, let this sole possible basis be replaced by the nonsense that not so much the content but above all the depth, the purity and the earnestness of our conviction must be what unites us! But, there can be no conviction without sense and meaning! Depth without content is a hellish, empty abyss! On the Ludwigstein in1924 it was clearly expressed that not the presumed depth, the presumed purity and the presumed earnestness of unpurified men are able to provide the longed for shaping and fulfillment, but only the Cause, as is made clear by the great heralds and shapers of the eternal powers.

The first draft of the present letter you people have now written contains just a hint of your turning away from this foundation. But I did regard as erroneous the expression you had found for the tension between the objective opposites, because joining with the presently strongest personalities in our circle cannot provide the direction in which we should go. Only that which constitutes the strength of such personalities, only the Cause motivating them, can provide a direction!

What you people are now writing confirms that depressing fact and reveals its causes; namely that in this year the situation of our Confederation has become ever bleaker. The lack of personal loyalty, the offenses against mutual respect and the brotherly spirit, which are known to you just as much as to me, are as an expression of immorality within the Confederation, but actually are the consequence of a deeper sickness at the very core of its life. The brazen insulting of responsible brothers by unbidden persons (unberüfene), the insensitivity towards a woman’s honor, the feeble, unmanly conduct of the confederate leadership in face of these intolerable wrongs, the erotic atmosphere of jealousy in Berlin, the wrongs committed against individuals, the [leadership’s] inability to lead out of such breakdowns and toward the Cause, the preponderance of the psychosomatic—of the purely psychic—over the spirit of the Cause (who is able to distinguish spirits and, by gaining victory, to unite them) , all this points to the inmost cause of this frightful degeneration. It can only be sought in the very core of all devoutness—hence by facing the content of faith.

The poison of this core-sickness already showed itself in what you, Erich, published about the Eisenach conference, even though at the same time words of acknowledgement—in the letter that you wrote to Nelly Schwabacher—gave hopes of recuperation. Your present letter, however, shows the very opposite of a recovery. To mention, as an example, just one fact, your degrading remark about Herman Buddensieg’s assumed motive, said to be governed by his attitude toward Tani Oelfken, was a serious blunder. First of all, this remark is objectively untrue. I assure you that Hermann Buddensieg’s truthfulness, objectivity, and loyalty would have opposed Tani Oelfken’s influence just as sharply even if she had not uttered a single word about him. In the second place you ought to have prevented Tani Oelfken from making a remark about a speaker and brother whom you and we had invited. In the third place you should under no circumstances have let your own assessment of Hermann Buddensieg get into print.

As regards my involvement in this, you had obviously not remained aware of the task I had received from the Confederation regarding Hermann Buddensieg. Continuing in the direction of your remarks, Ulrich Wolf, in what he wrote to Edgar Weiß, sowed dirty accusations against Hermann Buddensieg. I herewith ask you to at least do away with all this inhuman unbrotherlyness which destroys community, and to get Ulrich Wolf to retract these statements seeing that they render any brotherly relationship with him impossible.

You know, Erich, that this sad affair is but one example among others showing how confederate brothers and sisters have become terribly unfaithful towards each other; and yet the Confederation failed to come to a radical recognition, leading to a turn around. Our Confederation has long since arrived at the same degradation you rightly fought against both in the Free-German Confederation (Freideutschen Bund) and in our Free-German Work Confederation. Our Confederation lacks any justification for its existence, in particular for new paragraphs, an increase of members, and specification of work areas as called for in your circular letter.

In this situation there is but one possibility for continued existence and that is to recognize the desperate situation, to acknowledge the ultimate ground for it, and to now gather together around the content of faith which alone our own determination, and our own responsibility, with inward truthfulness, purity, and earnestness can bring forth a conviction strong enough to mold and shape life.

Given the great trust I have in the light of truth, also in you, Erich, I ask you to seek earnestly for a change of mind and heart without which the task of our confederation would ultimately have to remain lost and ruined. Without such a return to the Cause we are destined for the same hopeless doom that is now threatening all that have been part of the youth movement.

You will feel with me that only love to you, faithful adherence to the Free-German awakening (Wachwerden), hence true confederate friendship, could make me compose this adjuration (beschwörung). When it’s a matter of everything and among all of us, only the love that comes to expression in unrestricted openness can be the answer, for it is the ultimate expression of hope and trust.

For the Confederation as an organization, I enclose the two corresponding applications.

Eberhard

[Translator’s Note: It is obvious that Eberhard tries to avoid religious language because of the widespread opposition to official Christianity among the Free-Germans. Thus he uses the term Sache (“Cause”) to denote the spiritual direction we give ourselves to and which “determines us” (“Die Sache, die Uns bestimmt”), i.e. the cause of God, or God himself. By extension, der sachliche Geist stands for the divine or God’s spirit. Inhalt des Glaubens (content of faith), refers to the full Christian message. ]

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