Re: Decisive Weeks

Bruderhof wrote:

> Bruderhof Communities wrote:
> 
>> Meanwhile Eberhard’s brother, Hermann, had begun his university
>> studies. Clara was now seventeen, and Eberhard’s sixteenth birthday
>> was approaching. Summer vacations for the whole family were no longer
>> feasible, since Eberhard and his sister would return to school on
>> August 7, around the same time that university lectures ended for
>> their older brother. Consequently, their mother arranged for the two
>> of them to spend their vacation with her cousin Lisbeth and her
>> husband, Ernst (they were simply “aunt” and “uncle” to the Arnold
>> children). 
>> 
> 
> Ernst Ferdinand Klein was a pastor in Lichtenrade, near Berlin. He had
> formerly been a pastor in a Silesian weavers’ village. There he had
> stood up for the interests of these cottage-industry workers far more
> strongly than was customary, and he had publicly denounced their
> exploitation by the textile mill owners. As a result, the Silesian
> Lutheran Church Counsel had transferred him to another district. The
> sixteen-year-old Eberhard naturally admired the militant pastor.
> 

In the summer of 1899, Ernst Ferdinand Klein’s uncompromising love of
truth 
had once again made him enemies. As pastor, he had insisted that the 
choirmaster be dismissed for indecent behavior with several school girls. 
Though the man was removed, a large number of villagers now boycotted the 
church services. So when Eberhard and Clara arrived, they found the 
parsonage resembling a barricaded fortress. From time to time window panes

were shattered and threatening messages thrown through the holes.