Friedensthal

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Friedenthal is a former German Quakers - colony , which from 1792 to 1870 in what is now Pyrmont Bad district Löwensen existed.

history

Friedensthal was the only Quaker colony in Germany. The settlement was founded by American and British Quakers in 1792 near Bad Pyrmont. By 1800 several residential buildings, a knife factory, a linen factory, mills and a printing press were built. From 1799 the meeting house of the Quakers was built in Pyrmont, which still serves as a center and conference venue for the German annual meeting of Quakers.

Ludwig Seebohm

The German Quaker Ludwig Seebohm played a key role in the development of this utopian settlement, but was excluded from the Quaker community around 1806 for embezzling aid funds and his dictatorial behavior.

The settlement flourished until the coalition wars, up to 70 people lived here. Theodor Marschhausen taught here at his own Quaker school, and Seebohm had a large number of Quaker writings printed. Only Quakers were allowed to settle in Friedensthal, but important personalities visited the settlement, including Matthias Claudius , the Prussian Queen Luise and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .

The German Quakers had very limited contact with Pyrmont social life. Everyday life in Friedensthal was in sharp contrast to the “outer world” of the surrounding Westphalian cities and villages. The Quakers' social behavior was strictly standardized and their religious life followed the tradition of radical pietism . The turning away from sin, the importance of rebirth and chiliasm , the emphasis on a direct inspirational and personal relationship with God or Christian perfectionism shaped the lives of the residents. Alcohol, making music and going to the theater were prohibited. Members of the community were only allowed to marry one another, they rarely left the settlement and were buried in their own Quaker cemetery next to the meeting house.

After the wars of freedom , the Quakers did not succeed in expanding the settlement any further. Financially they remained dependent on aid from Philadelphia or London . The residents emigrated, new members could not be won. The last highlights were the missionary visits of the evangelists Thomas Shillitoe and Elisabeth Fry in 1840/41. The last Quakers left Friedensthal around 1870. Today Friedensthal belongs to Löwensen, a district of Bad Pyrmont.

Personalities

  • Johann Seebohm (born December 30, 1793 in Friedensthal; † December 28, 1866 there), German businessman and politician

literature

  • Harry W. Pfund: Goethe and the Quakers , in: The Germanic Review , Volume 14, 1939, pp. 258-269.
  • Leonhard Friedrich: Friends around Pyrmont in the early nineteenth century , in: The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society , Volume 47, 1958, pp. 260-266.
  • Margarethe Tinnappel-Becker: The Quakers in Bad Pyrmont , Bad Pyrmont 1997.
  • Claus Bernet : The Radical Pietist Settlement Friedensthal. In: Yearbook for Westphalian Church History. Volume 103, 2007, pp. 131-155.
  • Claus Bernet: The foundation of Friedensthal 1792. In: Barbara Stambolis (Hrsg.): Denominational cultures in Westphalia. Münster 2006, pp. 117–141.
  • Claus Bernet: Quaker Missionary Work in Germany from 1790 until 1899 , in: The Journal of the Friends Historical Society , Volume 62, 1, 2009, pp. 25-41.