Schwarzenauer brothers

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The Schwarzenauer Brothers prayer house in Germantown from 1770

The Schwarzenauer brothers , Tunker or English Schwarzenau Brethren are a beginning of the 18th century by Alexander Mack founded pietistic - Anabaptist movement, among others, the baptism creditors practiced by triple immersion. Some of them are also referred to as Schwarzenauer New Baptists , Dunkers , Dunkards or German Baptists . The Schwarzenauer Brothers' movement today consists of several Brethren Churches in North America.

history

The movement emerged at the beginning of the 18th century in the context of radical pietism . Its actual founding moment was when eight adults were baptized by immersion in the Eder near Schwarzenau in August 1708 . The newly formed group called themselves brothers . Among them was Alexander Mack, who assumed the leading role within the group. Under him, the movement soon spread to other parts of the country such as the Palatinate and Wetterau after 1708 . Missionaries were sent as far as Württemberg and Switzerland . In its theology, the movement was strongly influenced by Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau , who as a representative of mystical-spiritual pietism had founded a Christian household in Schwarzenau around 1704. There were also contacts with the Anabaptist Mennonites .

Due to a lack of political acceptance, a group of Tunkers from Krefeld emigrated to North American Pennsylvania for the first time in 1719 under the leadership of Peter Becker . A year later, around 40 families around Alexander Mack moved to the Mennonites in Friesland, the Netherlands . From the Netherlands, Alexander Mack followed in 1729 with around 120 people from the first group to Pennsylvania. In the following years, almost the entire movement of the Schwarzenau brothers moved to North America. Here, however, a break occurred in 1728 when a group under the leadership of Johann Conrad Beissel split off under the name Siebentägner-Tunker, which advocated the celebration of the Sabbath on Saturday and increasingly also for celibate ideas . In 1732, the Siebentägner-Tunker founded the Ephrata Cloister . The remaining community was nevertheless able to establish itself and expand further. Among them was Johann Christoph Sauer , who in 1743 printed the first Bible in German in North America. Today the Schwarzenauer brothers are widespread in several US states.

In the early 1880s, the Schwarzenau brothers split into conservatives, progressives and a middle group in between. In 1881 the Old German Baptist Brethren formed as an independent church because, among other things, they rejected higher education, modern clothing and changes in the washing of feet. Under the leadership of Henry Holsinger, the progressive wing separated in 1883, which campaigned among other things for paid pastors who were trained at theological seminaries, as well as for modern clothing and the then popular non-denominational revival events of the third great revival movement in the United States. The progressives called themselves Brethren Church . The remaining middle group, the largest of the three factions, called itself German Baptist Brethren, but changed the name to Church of the Brethren in 1908 .

Seal of the early church in Germantown / Deitscheschteddel, the abbreviation AM probably stands for Last Supper, possibly also for Alexander Mack as the founder of the Schwarzenau Brethren

Teaching and lifestyle

The Schwarzenau brothers have a lot in common with the Mennonites. Like them, they reject infant baptism , the oath and military service . They also largely agree with the Mennonites in their way of life, church constitution and worship , but like the Baptists they practice baptism by immersion. Accordingly, the Schwarzenauer brothers were also referred to as German Baptists . There were already connections to the Anabaptist Mennonites when they were founded in Germany and the Netherlands. There were agreements in particular with the Mennonite Dompelaars , some of whom joined the Tunkers. Nevertheless, the roots of the Schwarzenau brothers can mainly be found in radical pietism. Schwarzenau and the Wittgensteiner Land had already become a center of Pietist separatists around 1700, in whose milieu the Tunkers were able to develop. Along with the inspired, you are one of the two denominations that still exist today, stemming from radical Pietism.

Today's churches in the Schwarzenau tradition

Today there are several American churches that trace their tradition back to the Tunkers from Schwarzenau:

  • The Brethren Church (Ashland): A major progressive split from 1883, see above.
  • Brethren Reformed Church
  • Church of the Brethren : The main group of German Baptists who took this name in 1908.
  • Conservative Grace Brethren
  • Dunkard Brethren
  • Grace Brethren
  • Old Brethren : A more conservative split from the Old German Baptist Brethren that formed between 1913 and 1915.
  • Old Brethren German Baptists : A more conservative split from the Old Brethren that formed in 1939. This most conservative group of all the Schwarzenau brothers continues to use both carriages and horses for field work. As an old order group, it resembles the Amish in many ways .
  • Old German Baptist Brethren : A major conservative split from 1881, see above.
  • Old Order German Baptist Brethren : A more conservative split from the Old German Baptist Brethren that formed in 1921. This group of old order holds on to the use of carriages to this day, but allows the use of tractors for field work. This group is also similar to the Amish.
  • Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference: A more progressive split from the Old Order German Baptist Brethren from 2009.

The River Brethren (also River Mennonites ), which today are mainly known as Brethren in Christ , are also heavily influenced by the Tunkers . The churches resulting directly from the movement of Tunker work today in the world Brethren World Assembly ( Brothers World Assembly together). In 2008, the meeting took place for the first time at the place where the movement was founded in Schwarzenau, Westphalia. The Schwarzenau brothers and Tunkers are also very active in diaconal activities today. Due to their pacifist basic convictions, they are counted together with Quakers and Mennonites in the historical peace churches .

literature

  • Marcus Meier: The Schwarzenau new baptists. Genesis of a church formation between Pietism and Anabaptism. AGP 53. Göttingen 2008.
  • Martin Brecht : History of Pietism , Volume 2: Pietism in the eighteenth century , Göttingen 1995.
  • Hans-Jürgen Goertz : Religious Movements in the Early Modern Age , Munich 1993.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Church of the Brethren. Church of the Brethren, accessed July 25, 2010 .
  2. ↑ a b c Mennonite Lexicon: Church of the Brethren (Church of the Brethren)
  3. ^ Christian Neff and Nanne van der Zijpp: Dompelaars . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
  4. ↑ Brethren World Assembly 300th Anniversary. Church of the Brethren, accessed March 14, 2011 .