Our history is important to us, both as an inspiration and a guide. Click through the images on the timeline below to follow the Bruderhof’s history, from its start in the small town of Sannerz, Germany in 1920 to the present.
Our history in Pictures
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1920
The Beginning
The Bruderhof was founded in 1920 in Germany by the Protestant theologian Eberhard Arnold, his wife Emmy, and her sister Else von Hollander.
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1937
Exile
The German Nazi government believed that the Bruderhof “represented a worldview totally opposed to National Socialism” and they were ordered to leave Germany.
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1938
Relocation
Fortunately, because the Bruderhof had a handful of British members, emigration to England was possible. In 1938, a farm was purchased in the Cotswolds and the community flourished.
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1941
Across the Ocean
The British government offered a choice: accept internment of all German nationals, or leave the country as a group. So in 1941 the community, committed to staying together, decided to seek refuge abroad. The Bruderhof set out to build community in the jungles of Paraguay.
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1941 to 1961
In Paraguay
Over the next twenty years, three Paraguayan locations were established, as well as a hospital, which served the community and tens of thousands of indigenous Paraguayans. Life in Paraguay was difficult, with a harsh, unfamiliar climate, tropical diseases, and isolation from the wider world.
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1954
First NY Community
The Woodcrest community was founded in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley.
Eventually all members from the Bruderhof in Paraguay moved to the United States and England. From that point, the Bruderhof has continued to grow and spread out.
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1963
Plough Publishing
The Bruderhof’s publishing efforts are restarted under the Plough Publishing imprint in the US.
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1971
Darvell in England
Beginning of the Darvell community in England.
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1985
Another Community in NY
Beginning of the Pleasant View community in New York - renamed Maple Ridge in 1997.
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1990
In the Catskills
Beginning of the Platte Clove community in New York (formerly known as Catskill) and the Spring Valley community in Pennsylvania.
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1999
Bruderhof goes Down Under
The Danthonia community was started in 1999 in New South Wales, Australia.
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2002
Back to our Beginnings
The original community house in Sannerz, Germany was repurchased.
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2003
Helping Camden
A house community was founded in urban Camden, NJ in an effort to reach out to the broader community.
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2009
Going Back to Asuncion
Most recently, in 2009, we started a small community in the city of Asuncion in Paraguay, returning to the country that welcomed us in the 1940s and 50s.
