Editing Bruderhof Communities (section)

=== Beginnings in Germany (1920–1937) ===
{{See also|Nazi Dissolution of the Bruderhof}}
[[File:Youth Movement Conference in Germany 1920.jpg|thumb|A gathering of the Youth Movement in 1920]]
The Bruderhof was founded in Germany in 1920 by [[Eberhard Arnold]], a philosophy student and intellectual inspired by the [[German Youth Movement]] and his wife Emmy, ''née'' von Hollander.<ref name="Tyldesley2003">{{cite book|first=Mike|last=Tyldesley|title=No Heavenly Delusion?: A Comparative Study of Three Communal Movements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvRwG1ahKc0C|year=2003|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0853236085 }}</ref> In 1920, the young family with five children rented a house in [[Sinntal|Sannerz]], Hesse, and founded a Christian community.

When the group outgrew the house at Sannerz, they moved to the nearby [[Rhön Mountains]]. While there, Arnold discovered that the Hutterites (an Anabaptist movement he had studied with great interest) were still in existence in North America. In 1930, he traveled to meet the Hutterites and was ordained as a Hutterian minister.

With the rise of [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Nazism]], the Rhön community moved its draft-age men and children to Liechtenstein around 1934 because of their [[conscientious objection|conscientious refusal]] to serve in the armed forces and to accept Nazi teachings. This community became known as the ''Alm Bruderhof''. Continuing pressure from the Nazi government caused others to move to England and found the Cotswold Bruderhof in 1936.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Christian Peace Experiment: The Bruderhof Community in Britain, 1933–1942|last1=Randall|first1=Ian M.|last2=Wright|first2=Nigel G.|date= 2018|publisher=Cascade Books|isbn=978-1532639982}}</ref> On 14 April 1937 secret police surrounded the Rhön Bruderhof, confiscated the property, and gave the remaining community members forty-eight hours to flee the country. By 1938, all the Bruderhof members had reassembled in England.