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Hutterites

Communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists

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The founder of the Hutterites, Jakob Hutter, "established the Hutterite colonies on the basis of the Schleitheim Confession, a classic Anabaptist statement of faith" of 1527. He formed the first communes in 1528 in Tyrol (present-day Italy). Since the death of Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially those espousing a community of goods and nonresistance, have resulted in hundreds of years of diaspora in many countries. The Hutterites embarked on a series of migrations through central and eastern Europe. Nearly extinct by the 18th century, they migrated to Russia in 1770 and about a hundred years later to North America. Over the course of 140 years, their population living in communities of goods recovered from about 400 to around 50,000 at present. Due to the preservation of their original way of life, the Hutterites fall under the larger category of Old Order Anabaptists. Today, almost all Hutterites live in Western Canada, the upper Great Plains of the United States, central Washington State, and northern Oregon.

History

Beginnings

The Anabaptist movement, from which the Hutterites emerged, started in groups that formed after the early Reformation in Switzerland led by Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531). These new groups were part of the Radical Reformation, which departed from the teachings of Zwingli and the Swiss Reformed Church. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel (c. 1498–1526) and Jörg Blaurock (c. 1491–1529) practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. From Switzerland Anabaptism quickly spread northward and eastward in the timespan of one year. Balthasar Hubmaier (c. 1480–1528), a Bavarian from Friedberg, became an Anabaptist in Zürich in 1525 but fled to Nikolsburg in Moravia in May 1526. Other early Anabaptists who became important for the emerging Hutterites were Hans Denck (c. 1500–1527), Hans Hut (1490–1527), Hans Schlaffer († 1528), Leonhard Schiemer (c. 1500–1528), Ambrosius Spittelmayr (1497–1528) and Jakob Widemann († 1536). Most of these early Anabaptists soon became martyrs of their faith.

Tyrol

Anabaptism appears to have come to Tyrol through the labors of Jörg Blaurock. The Gaismair uprising set the stage by producing a hope for social justice in a way that was similar to the German Peasants' War. Michael Gaismair had tried to bring religious, political, and economical reform through a violent peasant uprising, but the movement was squashed. Although little hard evidence exists of a direct connection between Gaismair's uprising and Tyrolian Anabaptism, at least a few of the peasants involved in the uprising later became Anabaptists. While a connection between a violent social revolution and non-resistant Anabaptism may be hard to imagine, the common link was the desire for a radical change in the prevailing social injustices. Disappointed with the failure of armed revolt, Anabaptist ideals of an alternative peaceful, just society probably resonated on the ears of the disappointed peasants.

Before Anabaptism proper was introduced to South Tyrol, Protestant ideas had been propagated in the region by men such as Hans Vischer, a former Dominican. Some of those who participated in conventicles where Protestant ideas were presented later became Anabaptists. As well, the population in general seemed to have a favorable attitude towards reform, be it Protestant or Anabaptist. Jörg Blaurock appears to have preached itinerantly in the Puster Valley region in 1527, which most likely was the first introduction of Anabaptist ideas in the area. Another visit through the area in 1529 reinforced these ideas, but he was captured and burned at the stake in Klausen on September 6, 1529.

Jakob Hutter was one of the early converts in South Tyrol and later became a leader among the Hutterites, who received their name from him. Hutter made several trips between Moravia and Tyrol—most of the Anabaptists in South Tyrol ended up emigrating to Moravia because of the fierce persecution unleashed by Ferdinand I. In November 1535, Hutter was captured near Klausen and taken to Innsbruck, where he was burned at the stake on February 25, 1536. By 1540 Anabaptism in South Tyrol was beginning to die out, largely because of the emigration to Moravia of the converts to escape incessant persecution.

Moravia and Hungary

In the 16th century, there was a considerable degree of religious tolerance in Moravia because in the 15th century there had been several proto-Protestant movements and upheavals (Czech Brethren, Utraquists, Picards, Minor Unity) in Bohemia and Moravia due to the teachings of Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415).

Therefore, Moravia, where Hubmaier had also found refuge, was the land where the persecuted Anabaptist forerunners of the Hutterites fled to, originating mostly from different locations in what is today Southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol. Under the leadership of Jakob Hutter in the years 1530 to 1535, they developed the communal form of living that distinguishes them from other Anabaptists, such as the Mennonites and the Amish. Hutterite communal living is based on the New Testament books of the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 2 (especially verse 44), 4, and 5) and 2 Corinthians.

A basic tenet of Hutterite groups has always been nonresistance, i.e., forbidding its members from taking part in military activities, taking orders from military persons, wearing a formal uniform (such as a soldier's or a police officer's) or paying taxes to be spent on war. This has led to expulsion from or persecution in the several lands in which they have lived.

In Moravia, the Hutterites flourished for several decades; the period between 1554 and 1565 was called "good" and the period between 1565 and 1592 was called "golden". During that time the Hutterites expanded to Upper Hungary, present-day Slovakia. In the time until 1622 some 100 settlements, called Bruderhof, developed in Moravia and Kingdom of Hungary, and the number of Hutterites reached twenty to thirty thousand.

In 1593 the Long Turkish War, which affected the Hutterites severely, broke out. During this war, in 1605, some 240 Hutterites were abducted by the Ottoman Turkish army and their Tatar allies and sold into Ottoman slavery. It lasted until 1606; however, before the Hutterites could rebuild their resources, the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) broke out. It soon developed into a war about religion when in 1620 the mostly Protestant Bohemia and Moravia were invaded by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II, a Catholic, who annihilated and plundered several Hutterite settlements. In 1621 the Bubonic plague followed the war and killed one third of the remaining Hutterites.

Renewed persecution followed the Habsburg takeover of the Czech lands in 1620 and in the end annihilated them there as an Anabaptist group. In 1622 the Hutterites were expelled from Moravia and fled to the Hutterite settlements in Hungary, where overcrowding caused severe hardship. Some Moravian Hutterites converted to Catholicism and retained a separate ethnic identity as the Habans (German: Habaner) until the 19th century (by the end of World War II, the Haban group had become essentially extinct).

Transylvania

In 1621 Gabriel Bethlen, prince of Transylvania and a Calvinist, "invited" Hutterites to come to his country. In fact he forced a group of 186 Hutterites to come to Alvinc (today Vințu de Jos, Romania) in 1622, because he needed craftsmen and agricultural workers to develop his land. In the next two years more Hutterites migrated to Transylvania, in total 690 or 1,089 persons, depending on the sources.

In the second half of the 17th century, the Hutterite community was in decline. It had suffered from Ottoman incursions during which the Bruderhof at Alvinc was burned down in 1661. Towards the end of the century, community of goods was abandoned, when exactly is not known. Johannes Waldner assumes in Das Klein-Geschichtsbuch der Hutterischen Brüder that this happened in 1693 or 1694.

In 1756, a group of Crypto-Protestants from Carinthia who in 1755 were deported to Transylvania by the Habsburg monarchy, met the Hutterian Brethren at Alvinc. These Carinthian Protestants read the "account of the belief of the Hutterian Brethren" written by Peter Riedemann, which was given to them by the Brothers, and then decided to join the Hutterites. This latter group revived the Hutterite religion, became dominant among the Hutterites and replaced the Tyrolean dialect of the old Hutterites by their Carinthian one, both being Southern Bavarian dialects. In 1762 community of goods was reestablished in Alvinc.

Wallachia

In 1767 the Hutterites fled from Transylvania first to Kräbach, that is Ciorogârla in Wallachia, which was at that time some 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from Bucharest. When the Hutterites left Transylvania, their number was down to 67 people.

In Wallachia they encountered much hardship because of lawlessness and the war between Russia and Turkey (1768–1774). The Russians took Bucharest on November 17, 1769. The Hutterites then sought the advice of Russian army commander "Sämetin" (Генерал-майор Александр Гаврилович Замятин, General-Mayor Aleksandr Gavrilovitch Zamyatin) in Bucharest, who proposed that they emigrate to Russia where Count Pyotr Rumyantsev would provide them with land all they need for a new beginning.

Ukraine

On August 1, 1770, after more than three months of traveling, the group of about 60 persons reached their new home, the lands of Count Rumyantsev at Vishenka in Ukraine, which at this time was part of the Russian Empire. In their new home, the Hutterites were joined by a few more Hutterites who could flee from Habsburg lands, as well as a few Mennonites, altogether 55 persons.

When Count Pyotr Rumyantsev died in 1796, his two sons tried to reduce the status of the Hutterites from free peasants (Freibauern) to that of serfs (Leibeigene). The Hutterites appealed to Tsar Paul I, who allowed them to settle on crown land in Radichev, some 12 km (7 miles) from Vishenka, where they would have the same privileged status as the German Mennonite colonists from Prussia.

Around the year 1820 there was significant inner tension: a large faction of the brothers wanted to end the community of goods. The community then divided into two groups that lived as separate communities. The faction with individual ownership moved to the Mennonite colony Chortitza for some time, but soon returned. After a fire destroyed most of the buildings at Radichev, the Hutterites gave up their community of goods.

Because the lands of the Hutterites at Radichev were not very productive, they petitioned to move to better lands. In 1842 they were allowed to relocate to Molotschna, a Mennonite colony, where they founded the village Hutterthal. When they moved, the total Hutterite population was 384 with 185 males and 199 females.

In 1852 a second village was founded, called Johannesruh and, by 1868, three more villages were founded: Hutterdorf (1856), Neu-Huttertal (1856), and Scheromet (1868). In Ukraine, the Hutterites enjoyed relative prosperity. When they lived among German-speaking Mennonites in Molotschna, they adopted the very efficient form of Mennonite agriculture that Johann Cornies had introduced.

In 1845, a small group of Hutterites made plans to renew the community of goods, but was told to wait until the government had approved their plans to buy separate land. A group led by the preacher George Waldner made another attempt but this soon failed. In 1859 Michael Waldner was able to reinstate community of goods at one end of Hutterdorf, thus becoming the founder of the Schmiedeleut.

In 1860, Darius Walter founded another group with community of goods at the other end of Hutterdorf, thus creating the Dariusleut. Trials to establish a communal living in Johannisruh after 1864 did not succeed. It took until 1877, after the Hutterites had already relocated to South Dakota, before a few families from Johannisruh, led by preacher Jacob Wipf, established a third group with communal living, the Lehrerleut.

In 1864, the Primary Schools' Bill made Russian the language of instruction in schools; then in 1871 a law introduced compulsory military service. These led the Mennonites and Hutterites to make plans for emigration.

United States

After sending scouts to North America in 1873 along with a Mennonite delegation, almost all Hutterites, totaling 1,265 individuals, migrated to the United States between 1874 and 1879 in response to the new Russian military service law. Of these, some 800 identified as Eigentümler (literally, "owners") and acquired individual farms according to the Homestead Act of 1862, whereas some 400 identified as Gemeinschaftler (literally, "community people") and started three communities with community of goods.

Most Hutterites are descended from these latter 400. Named for the leader of each group (the Schmiedeleut, Dariusleut and Lehrerleut, leut being based on the German word for people), they settled initially in the Dakota Territory. Here, each group reestablished the traditional Hutterite communal lifestyle.

Over the next decades, the Hutterites who settled on individual farms, the so-called Prärieleut, slowly assimilated first into Mennonite groups and later into the general American population. Until about 1910 there was intermarriage between the Prärieleut and the communally living Hutterites.

Several state laws were enacted seeking to deny Hutterites religious legal status to their communal farms (colonies). Some colonies were disbanded before these decisions were overturned in the Supreme Court. By this time, many Hutterites had already established new colonies in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

During World War I, the pacifist Hutterites suffered persecution in the United States. In the most severe case, four Hutterite men, who were subjected to military draft but refused to comply, were imprisoned and physically abused. Ultimately, two of the four men, the brothers Joseph and Michael Hofer, died at Leavenworth Military Prison after the Armistice had been signed, bringing an end to the war. The Hutterite community said the men died from mistreatment; the U.S. government said the men died of pneumonia.

Canada

The Hutterites responded to this mistreatment of their conscientious objectors by leaving the United States and moving to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. All 18 existing American colonies were abandoned, except the oldest one, Bon Homme, where Hutterites continued to live. Other colonies moved to Canada but did not sell their vacant colonies.

The Second World War reduced the public's acceptance of Hutterites. In 1942, the Province of Alberta passed the Communal Properties Act, severely restricting the expansion of the Dariusleut and Lehrerleut colonies. Although disallowed by the federal government in 1943 – the last time provincial legislation was so disallowed in Canadian history – and eventually repealed in 1973, the act caused new colonies that were founded to be located in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

The Hutterian Brethren Church was recognized by Parliament in 1951.

As of March 2018, approximately 34,000 Hutterites were living in 350 colonies in Canada. This was 75 percent of the Brethren living in North America. About half of them lived in Alberta colonies, with a lesser number in BC and Saskatchewan. During summer 2020, many colonies struggled with outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada because "Hutterite colony members eat, work, and worship together in community settings and share possessions", according to one report. The groups were taking steps to minimize the spread of the virus.

One news report defined the business operations of colonies as "industrial grade farms that produce grains, eggs, meat and vegetables, which are sold to large distributors and at local farmer's markets".

Section 143 of the Income Tax Act of Canada, introduced in 2007 and modified in 2014 with section 108(5), contains special rules to accommodate Hutterite colonies. According to a 2018 Senate report, colonies do not file income tax returns as corporations, but as individual members:

Based on a memorandum of understanding between the Hutterites and the Minister of National Revenue, section 143 creates a fictional trust to which all the property of the Hutterite colony and any associated income belongs. The trust's income may then be allocated to the individual Hutterite members, according to a formula set out in section 143, who can then claim the income on their personal tax returns.

In 2018, the Senate of Canada asked the House of Commons to review the legislation, because Hutterites were not being allowed to claim the Working Income Tax Benefit refundable tax credit (WITB), which was available to other farmers in Canada.

Partial return to the U.S.

During the Great Depression when there was economic pressure on farms, some Schmiedeleut moved back to South Dakota, resettling abandoned property and buying abandoned colonies from the Darius- and the Lehrerleut. After World War II some Darius- and Lehrerleut also went back to the U.S., mainly to Montana.

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