Editing Templers (Radical Pietist sect) (section)

==Templer colonies==
[[File:Templer Cemetery Jerusalem.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Templer Cemetery in the [[German Colony, Jerusalem|German Colony]], [[Jerusalem]]]]
After the 1898 visit of Kaiser [[Wilhelm II of Germany]], one of the Kaiser's traveling companions, Colonel Joseph Freiherr von Ellrichshausen, initiated the formation of a society for the advancement of the German settlements in Palestine, in [[Stuttgart]]. It enabled the settlers to acquire land for new settlements by offering them low interest loans.

A second wave of pioneer settlers founded [[Wilhelma (village)|Wilhelma]] (now [[Bnei Atarot]]) in 1902 near [[Lod]] (1903), also near the original [[American–German Colony|Jaffa colony]], followed by [[Bethlehem of Galilee]] (1906) and [[Waldheim, Palestine|Waldheim]] (now [[Alonei Abba]]) in 1907. At its height, the Templer community in Palestine numbered 2,000.<ref>[http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/personalsites/Israel-Germany/Weimar-Republic/Pages/Templers.aspx The Templers in Israel and their Place in the Local Society, The National Library of Israel (2017)]</ref>

In July and August 1918 the British sent 850 Templers to an internment camp at [[Helwan]] near [[Cairo]] in [[Egypt]]. In April 1920, 350 of these internees were deported to Germany. All the property of the Templers of enemy nationality (thus except of that of a few US citizens among them) was taken into public custodianship. With the establishment of a regular British administration in 1918 [[Edward Keith-Roach]] became the ''Public Custodian of Enemy Property in Palestine'', who rented out the property and collected the rents.<ref>Frank Foerster, ''Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852-1945'', Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 138, {{ISBN|3-579-00245-7}}</ref>

In April 1920 the Allies convened at the [[Conference of San Remo]] and agreed on the British rule in Palestine, followed by the official establishment of the civil administration on 1 July 1920.<ref name="Frank Foerster 1991, p. 143">Frank Foerster, ''Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945'', Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 143, {{ISBN|3-579-00245-7}}</ref> From that date on Keith-Roach transferred the collected rents for property in custodianship to the actual proprietors.<ref name="Frank Foerster 1991, p. 143"/> On 29 June 1920, the British Foreign Secretary, [[George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]], informed the [[House of Lords|British Upper House]] that [[Great Britain]] agreed in principle to their return to Palestine.

The [[League of Nations]] legitimised the British administration and custodianship by granting a [[Mandate for Palestine|mandate]] to Britain in 1922, which [[Turkey]], the Ottoman successor, finally ratified by the [[Treaty of Lausanne]], signed on 24 July 1923 and becoming effective on 6 August 1924.<ref>Jay Winter, ''The Day the Great War Ended, 24 July 1923: The Civilianization of War'' (Oxford University Press, 2022) p.174</ref><ref>Roland Löffler, "Die Gemeinden des Jerusalemsvereins in Palästina im Kontext des kirchlichen und politischen Zeitgeschehens in der Mandatszeit", in: ''Seht, wir gehen hinauf nach Jerusalem! Festschrift zum 150jährigen Jubiläum von Talitha Kumi und des Jerusalemsvereins'', Almut Nothnagle (ed.) on behalf of 'Jerusalemsverein' within Berliner Missionswerk, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 2001, pp. 185–212, here p. 189 ({{ISBN|3-374-01863-7}}) and Frank Foerster, ''Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945'', Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 150. {{ISBN|3-579-00245-7}}</ref> Thus the public custodianship ended in the same year and the prior holders achieved the fully protected legal position as proprietors.<ref>Frank Foerster, ''Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945'', Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), pp. 17 and 150. {{ISBN|3-579-00245-7}}</ref>

The [[Mandatory Palestine|Mandate]] government and the Public Custodian of Enemy Property paid them 50% restitution for war losses of livestock and other property. The Bank of the Temple Society, formed in 1925 with its head office in Jaffa and branches in Haifa and Jerusalem, became one of the leading credit institutions in Palestine.<ref>[http://home.vicnet.net.au/~tempsoc/webdoc3.htm History of the Temple Society] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604231949/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~tempsoc/webdoc3.htm |date=2011-06-04 }}</ref>