The Bruderhof

Movement·Founded 1920 CE·About 3,000 people in roughly two dozen communities as of 2024, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Paraguay, Australia and South Korea. The Bruderhof does not publish an audited membership figure; the count includes children and resident non-members.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → Anabaptism → The Bruderhof

The BruderhofHutterites.org

Branch
Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1Community 1 You × The Bruderhof Discussion
Community of The Bruderhof

The Great Crisis — when the community expelled most of itself.

Between 1959 and 1962 the movement closed Primavera and Wheathill and dismissed or excluded a large share of its members, some put out with nothing. Former members organised, published the Keep In Touch newsletter from 1989, and forced an accounting; the leadership issued apologies and invitations to return from the 1990s.

Add to My Beliefs →
How you joinGuests, then a novitiate, then baptism and a lifetime vow — no one under twenty-one
Who leadsServants of the Word, with a Members Meeting that must be unanimous
The unitThe individual Bruderhof, thirty to three hundred people
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The events of 1959 to 1962, called the Great Crisis inside the movement, saw hundreds of people dismissed or excluded, families divided, and members put out of Primavera and the European communities with minimal resources; some were flown to Europe and left there. The Bruderhof has acknowledged the period, and from the late 1980s a network of former members published Keep In Touch, or KIT, and later the Peregrine Foundation's materials, documenting what had happened and pressing for restitution. Beginning in the 1990s the leadership issued apologies, invited excluded members and their descendants back, and made financial settlements in some cases. The movement also has a documented history of litigation against critics in the 1990s, and separately reconciled with the Schmiedeleut Hutterites in 1974, broke with them again in 1990-95 during the Hutterite schism, and re-established fellowship afterwards. Anyone reading the Bruderhof's own publications should read the KIT archive alongside them.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The Yellow Turbans. Taoism · story Read it in full →
The vultures are gone. Zoroastrianism Go deeper →
Guard the tongue and the brothers. The Druze Faith · precept Go deeper →
A changed heart and a disciplined church — neither alone. The Brethren in Christ · core tenet Go deeper →
Bethesda, 1848 — the division that ended the unity project. The Plymouth Brethren · story Read it in full →
The doorway, the tulsi, and the kitchen. Hinduism · rite Go deeper →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the claim it is about All discussion →

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Where next

The Bruderhof's Community roomback up one layer Propose a change to this passageone button — it routes to the review pool

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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