Abstract
Ehmer provides a new European and American history of the Harmony Society, the radical German Pietist association led by George Rapp, which relocated from Württemberg to western Pennsylvania and Indiana in the early nineteenth century. Ehmer places Harmonist theology within the context of Württemberg Pietism, showing how Rapp developed his own distinctive interpretation of an apocalyptic timetable familiar to Pietists. Ehmer argues that the Harmony Society’s trans-Atlantic emigration and adoption of communal property may only be understood in light of their millennial beliefs, though communal practices at Harmony, New Harmony and Economy, also represented the transporting of some inherited forms of communal behaviour from the German village to the American frontier.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Karl J. R. Arndt, an American professor of German (and 1945–1950 member of the US Military Government in Württemberg-Baden), devoted much of his life to researching the Harmony Society. His key works, utilized for elements of this article, are: George Rapp’s Harmony Society 1785–1847, second edn (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1972); George Rapp’s Successors and Material Heirs 1847–1916 (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1971). To this history Arndt added bilingual editions and translations into English of pertinent source material: Karl J.R. Arndt (ed.), George Rapp’s Separatists—Georg Rapps Separatisten 1700–1803. The German Prelude to Rapp’s American Harmony Society. Die deutsche Vorgeschichte von Rapps amerikanischer Harmonie-Gesellschaft. A Documentary History (Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press, 1980); Harmony on the Connoquenessing 1803–1815. George Rapp’s First American Harmony. Harmonie am Connoquenessing. Georg Rapps erste amerikanische Harmonie (Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press, 1980); A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society 1814–1824, 2 vols (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society 1975–78); Harmony on the Wabash in Transition to Rapp’s Divine Economy on the Ohio and Owen’s New Moral World at New Harmony on the Wabash 1824–1826 (Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press, 1982); Economy on the Ohio 1826–1834. The Harmony Society during the Period of Its Greatest Power and Influence and Its Messianic Crisis (Worcester MA: Harmony Society Press, 1984); George Rapp’s Years of Glory. Economy on the Ohio 1834–1847. Ökonomie am Ohio (New York: Peter Lang,1987); George Rapp’s Re-Established Harmony Society, Georg Rapps erneuerte Harmonie-Gesellschaft. Letters and Documents of the Baker–Henrici Trusteeship 1848–1868. Briefe und Dokumente zur Geschichte von Ökonomie am Ohio 1848–1868 (New York: Peter Lang, 1993).
- 2.
For this time period see Dieter Mertens, ‘Württemberg’, in Handbuch der Baden-Württembergischen Geschichte (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1995), 2:1–163, esp. pp. 137ff.
- 3.
See especially, Hermann Ehmer, Kleine Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche in Württemberg (Leinfelden-Echterdingen: DRW Verlag, 2008). A short overview for the English reader is available in Hermann Ehmer, ‘The History of Johannes Brenz’s Territorial Church. An Overview of the Organization of the Württemberg Church’, in Konrad Eisenbichler (ed.), Collaboration, Conflict, and Continuity in the Reformation. Essays in Honour of James M. Estes on His Eightieth Birthday (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014), pp. 175–93.
- 4.
On Pietism as a worldwide movement see now: Martin Brecht, Klaus Deppermannt, Ulrich Gäbler and Hartmut Lehmann (eds), Geschichte des Pietismus, 4 vols (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1993–2004).
- 5.
See especially Martin Brecht, ‘Der württembergische Pietismus’, in Geschichte des Pietismus, 2:225–95.
- 6.
Hartmut Lehmann, Pietismus und weltliche Ordnung in Württemberg vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1969), pp. 82–94.
- 7.
Gottfried Mälzer, Johann Albrecht Bengel. Leben und Werk (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1970). For Bengel’s calculations, see Geschichte des Pietismus, 2:254–6. Hermann Ehmer, ‘Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752)’, in Carter Lindberg (ed.), The Pietist Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Seventeenth and Eightheenth Centuries (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 224–38.
- 8.
For a description and photographs of one of these clocks see Philipp Matthäus Hahn 1739–1790. Quellen und Schriften zu Philipp Matthäus Hahn, ed. Christian Väterlein (Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, 1989), pp. 396–7.
- 9.
An in-depth study of family relations in a village in Southwestern Germany is David Warren Sabean, Property, Production and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), and idem, Kinship in Neckarhausen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
- 10.
For the following see Eberhard Fritz, ‘Die Kirche im Dorf: Studien und Beobachtungen zur kirchlichen Situation in der ländlichen Gemeinde des Herzogtums Württemberg’, Zeitschrift für württembergische Landesgeschichte, 52 (1993), 155–78.
- 11.
Hermann Ehmer and Sabine Holtz (eds), Der Kirchenkonvent in Württemberg (Epfendorf and Neckar: Bibliotheca Academica, 2009).
- 12.
Hermann Ehmer, ‘Der ausgewanderte Pietismus. Pietistische Gemeinschaftsprojekte in Nordamerika’, in Rainer Lächele (ed.), Das Echo Halles: Kulturelle Wirkungen des Pietismus (Tübingen: Bibliotheca Academica, 2001), pp. 315–57, esp. pp. 326–44; Eberhard Fritz, Radikaler Pietismus in Württemberg. Religiöse Ideale im Konflikt mit gesellschaftlichen Realitäten (Quellen und Forschungen zur württembergischen Kirchengeschichte 18; Epfendorf am Neckar: Bibliotheca Academica, 2002), pp. 122–63.
- 13.
For a comprehensive presentation of Böhme and his followers see, Martin Brecht, ‘Die deutschen Spiritualisten des 17. Jahrhunderts’, in Geschichte des Pietismus, 1:205–40, esp. pp. 205–14.
- 14.
Hartmut Lehmann, Pietismus und weltliche Ordnung, pp. 117–34.
- 15.
Joachim Trautwein, Die Theosophie Michael Hahns und ihre Quellen. Quellen und Forschungen zur württembergischen Kirchengeschichte (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1969), pp. 73–4.
- 16.
Hermann Ehmer, ‘Die pietistische Rußlandwanderung und der fromme Zar Alexander I’, in Zar Alexander I. von Russland und das Königreich Württemberg. Familienbande, Staatspolitik und Auswanderung vor 200 Jahren (Stuttgart: Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg, 2006), pp. 64–74.
- 17.
On discussion of emigration in Württemberg in this time, see Eberhard Fritz, Radikaler Pietismus, pp. 203–8.
- 18.
Melish’s description has been reprinted as John Melish, Harmony in 1811 from Travels in the United States of America (Harmony, PA: Historic Harmony, 2003).
- 19.
Eberhard Fritz, Separatistinnen und Separatisten in Württemberg und in angrenzenden Territorien. Ein biographisches Verzeichnis (Stuttgart: Verein für Familien- und Wappenkunde in Württemberg und Baden, 2005).
- 20.
A recent overview of the Harmonist settlements in America is given in Eberhard Fritz, Radikaler Pietismus, pp. 208–30.
- 21.
See pp. 22 and 47<Author-Query><!----></Author-Query>.
- 22.
John Melish, Harmony in 1811.
- 23.
This 1815 map survives in the Old Economy Archives, Ambridge, Pennsylvania.
- 24.
This 1832 map is also stored in the Old Economy Archives, Ambridge, Pennsylvania.
- 25.
Bernhard Mann, ‘Württemberg 1800 bis 1866’, in Handbuch der Baden-Württembergischen Geschichte, 3:235–331, esp. pp. 235–62.
- 26.
Eberhard Fritz, Radikaler Pietismus, pp. 164–86, 233–8.
- 27.
For more on these German communities, see Johannes Hesse, Korntal einst und jetzt (Stuttgart: Gundert, 1910); Andreas Bühler (ed.), 175 Jahre Wilhelmsdorf. Festschrift. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Gegenwart (Wilhelmsdorf: Gemeinde Wilhelmsdorf, 1999); Eberhard Fritz, Radikaler Pietismus, pp. 247–54.
- 28.
The most recent study on this topic is Eileen Aiken English, ‘The Life and Legacy of Count Leon—the Man who Cleft the Harmonie’, Communal Societies: The Journal of the Communal Studies Association, 34 (2013), 45–82.
- 29.
The classic description of Economy in its later years was by Charles Nordhoff, first published in 1875, reprinted as Charles Nordhoff, The Communistic Societies of the United States from Personal Visit and Observation (New York: Dover, 1966), pp. 63–95.
- 30.
A meritorious magnum opus is Eileen Aiken English, Demographic Directory of the Harmony Society (American Communal Societies Series 4; Clinton, NY: Richard W. Couper Press, 2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ehmer, H. (2016). The Harmony Society in Württemberg, Pennsylvania and Indiana. In: Lockley, P. (eds) Protestant Communalism in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1650–1850. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1500-1800. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48487-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48487-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-48486-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48487-1
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)