Herrnhut (Victoria)

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Herrnhut was a German municipality in what is now the administrative area of Southern Grampians Shire in the southwest of the Australian state of Victoria . According to various publications, it is considered to be the first commune on the Australian continent on the basis of the so-called Principles of shared property and fervent prayer (common property and prayer).

history

In 1852 the led from Poznan native German emigrants and preacher John Frederick Krummnow at (1811-1880) a group of German immigrants who about five kilometers together near Mount Rouse northwest of Penshurst 1,584 acres bought land. The cost was one pound per acre. Krummnow, now a naturalized British citizen, handled the purchase.

Since the settlers, although not officially associated with this denomination, felt close to the Moravian Brethren , Herrnhut was chosen as the name for the settlement based on the East Saxon town of the same name . The residents erected a number of stone buildings, including a church, which cost £ 1,800 to build, a house for Krummnow, a communal kitchen, and a dormitory. A mill, a quarry and several dams were also built. In addition, several fields, a garden and a vineyard were created on the site. Mainly sheep, but also cattle and horses were kept. The community traded in the surplus produce that was not needed for living, which meant that the settlement initially flourished and was quite successful for several years.

Herrnhut was open-hearted to the poor and needy. She protected and supported the indigenous people. Up to three hundred Aborigines found shelter in Herrnhut at times and were allowed to hunt kangaroos on the lands. Another condition was that they work and pray in the church.

Since Krummnow, despite the joint acquisition of the land, was entered in the land deeds as the sole owner and he subsequently refused to change this, a dispute soon arose in the settlement. Some settlers then left the community, others stayed in the face of alternatives or were convinced of the goal of the project.

Decline

There was trouble with neighboring Lutherans after Krummnow's troop bought a herd of 200 Queensland cattle. The animals were led to the settlement with a gallop and barking dogs. The cattle were almost fat and the stress caused the whole herd to die by morning. The loss on this action was 2000 pounds. A financial blow that plunged the municipality into large debts and from which Herrnhut and Krummnow never recovered.

In the 1870s the municipality ran into serious economic difficulties. It was decided to take in a group of emigrants around the self-proclaimed prophet Maria Heller († 1909). Maria Heller, originally from Liegnitz in Lower Silesia , actually Dorothea Ernestine Heller, founded a community similar to that of Herrnhut in Hills Plain near Benalla , Victoria, in early 1875 . However, this congregation failed in the first year. Eight of its members, including children, died of famine. Krummnow offered to bring Heller's people to Herrnhut, which he did at the end of the year by means of two car convoys. Krummnow had agreed to "pay all their debts and settle their affairs, on the condition that they would join his congregation and enter the bosom of his church".

Some accounts describe Heller as a wild woman obsessed with an unbalanced temperament. Their followers soon brought unrest and discontent to the strict Moravian community. In August 1876 Heller was finally arrested by the police as a "dangerous madwoman suffering from religious mania" on the basis of a complaint from a Moravian resident. A deep rift went through the communities of the old and new settlers. In the same year, Heller and her supporters left Herrnhut. They settled in not far away Hochkirch, today Tarrington , where Heller married her follower Ernst Scholz.

Krummnow is said to have never fully recovered from Heller's rejection of his faith. He spent his remaining days under the influence of alcohol and died a few years later on October 3, 1880.

Dissolution of the community

After Krummnow's death, the remaining members tried to continue running the congregation for a few more years, but their plan failed. Ultimately, however, it turned out that Krummnow had never properly arranged his estate during his lifetime, so that the remaining residents of the commune had to fight in court for their whereabouts on the site.

After almost 50 years of existence of the municipality, the community property of Herrnhut was divided into several parcels and sold in 1897. Several small farms were built. The church was sold and eventually demolished. At Sylvan Grove it was then rebuilt as a barn.

The town's buildings later fell into disrepair. As historical photographs show, some of them survived until at least the 1930s. In the present, only a few ruins can be seen from Herrnhut. Today they are considered historical evidence of that era. Some of the remains can be assigned to Krummnow's house, others to the former communal dormitory. Furthermore, traces of the church and the adjoining cemetery can still be found here.

Another German foundation in the area was Gnadenthal , which has since declined and was located about two kilometers to the south. Tarrington, about 16 kilometers northwest, was founded in 1853 by Sorbs from Upper Lusatia , initially with the Sorbian name Bukecy (German: Hochkirch ).

literature

  • William James Metcalf, Elizabeth Huf: Herrnhut: Australia's First Utopian Commune . Melbourne University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-522-84993-6 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ often Johann Friedrich Krumnow written
  2. ↑ 6.41 km²

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Entry in Herrnhuts on vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au, accessed on July 6, 2017
  2. ^ A b c David Levinson, Karen Christensen: Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World . tape 1 . SAGE, 2003, p. 708 .
  3. ↑ a b c d J.F. Krummnow and the "Herrnhut" commune, Victoria - In Victoria - Founding of the Herrenhut commune on germanaustralia.com, accessed on July 7, 2017
  4. ↑ a b c d Toby Widdicombe, Andrea Kross: Historical Dictionary of . Rowman & Littlefield, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5381-0217-6 , pp. 204 .
  5. ↑ JF Krummnow and the “Herrnhut” municipality, Victoria - Krummnow in South Australia on germanaustralia.com, accessed on July 7, 2017
  6. ↑ a b c J.F. Krummnow and the municipality “Herrnhut”, Victoria - Hill Plain – Kommune moves to Herrnhut on germanaustralia.com, accessed on July 7, 2017
  7. ↑ a b J.F. Krummnow and the “Herrnhut” commune, Victoria - Krummnow's death on germanaustralia.com, accessed on July 7, 2017

Coordinates: 37 ° 50 ′ 46.9 ″  S , 142 ° 14 ′ 23.4 ″  E