Amana Colonies
The Amana Colonies are a settlement comprised of seven small villages (Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana, and Homestead) located in the Iowa River valley in Iowa County, in east-central Iowa.
They were founded by the Amana Society in Iowa in 1855. The society’s origins date back to an early eighteenth-century religious sect with congregations predominantly in southern and central Germany. The Amana people successfully practiced communal living in Iowa for almost eighty years. Today Amana residents (about 1,650 people), especially the younger generation, embrace a more secular, individualistic lifestyle strongly influenced by American mainstream culture. Traces of the German culture can still be found in architecture, customs, crafts, and food preparation. Other German traditions, such as the Oktoberfest and Fachwerk (half-timbering construction) architecture, have only recently been introduced. Current membership in the Amana Church is around 400. One of the Sunday church services is still held in German. Over the years, residents’ use of Amana German (Kolonie-Deutsch) has steadily declined. In 1965 the seven villages of Amana were designated a National Historic Landmark. The Amana Heritage Society, founded in 1968, aims at collecting, preserving, and interpreting the heritage of the Amana community.The history of the Amana people is rooted in the Community of True Inspiration (Wahre Inspirations-Gemeinde), a religious movement strongly influenced by German pietism and mysticism. The former Lutheran clergyman Eberhard Ludwig Gruber (1655—1728) and saddle maker Johann Friedrich Rock (1678—1749), both originally from Wurttemberg, are regarded as the primary founders of this religious society. Like the pietists, the two men and their followers were dissatisfied with the dogmatic practices of the orthodox Lutheran Church.
As a result, in 1714 they established their own religious movement in Himbach (Hessen), which had a more liberal government. Although most of the members of the Community of True Inspiration settled in central and southern Germany, a number of smaller communities could also be found in other European countries, such as Holland and Switzerland.Central to the inspirationist’s belief system is the idea that God would reveal his wishes and guide his people through the divine inspiration of the Bible and through messages transmitted by specially endowed individuals, called Werkzeuge (instruments). During the state of divine inspiration, these instruments or prophets would violently shake while delivering Bezeugungen (testimonies). The Schreiber (scribe) recorded their inspired testimonies to provide guidance for the community on their journey through life in the true spirit of God. Many Bezeugungen have been preserved in collections, such as the Diarium, the Tagebucher of the Congregations of Inspiration, the Sammlungen, and the yearbooks entitled Jahrbucher der Wahren Inspi- rations-Gemeinden oder Bezeugungen des Geistes des Herrn (Yearbooks of the Community of True Inspiration or Testimonies of the Spirit of God). Rock and Christian Metz (1794—1867) were among the first documented Werkzeuge, and Barbara Heinemann (married name: Landmann), who died in 1883, was the last. Several documents can be considered the foundation for the community’s religious practices: Der Glauben (The Faith), The Twenty-four Rules of True Godliness, The Twenty-one Rules for the Examination of Our Daily Lives, The Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. These materials promote a simple, pietist faith, inward devotion, and avoidance of secular celebrations and amusements.
After the death of Gruber in 1728 and Rock in 1749, the membership of the in- spirationist communities started to decline drastically, and the movement was on the wane. In 1817, a tailor journeyman from Straβburg, Michael Krausert, a devoted follower of Gruber and Rock’s preachings, declared himself a Werkzeuge and revived the movement.
As a result, inspirationist communities were established in the German region of Palatinate (Zweibrucken, Edenkoben, Bergzabern, Hambach), in Al- satia (Straβburg, Bischweiler), in Hessen (Lieblos), and in Switzerland (Zurich). Taking advantage of the more liberal political climate in Hessen, Krausert settled with his followers in the Ronneburg Castle (northeast of Hanau, Hessen), which soon became the center of the inspirationist movement.Due to the inspirationists’ continued refusal to perform military duty, take the legal oath, and send their children to public schools grounded in orthodox Lutheranism, they came into conflict with the Lutheran Church and political authorities. Metz, a carpenter from Neuwied, took over leadership of the sect and leased four estates near Ronneburg in Marienborn, Herrnhaag, Arnsburg (called Armen- burg by the inspirationists), and Engelthal, where the inspirationists could—at least temporarily—seek refuge from growing government hostility and persecution. When economic conditions became increasingly severe, and following Metz’s inspired testimonies, the community emigrated to the United States to lead their lives in peace and liberty.
On October 26, 1842, Christian Metz and three other members of the community reached New York. From the Ogden Land Company they purchased the Seneca Indian Reservation, a tract of 5,000 acres near Buffalo, Erie County, in New York State. By 1845 more than 800 inspira- tionists, mostly craftsmen and peasants, had come from Germany. The first village they built on Erie County land was named “Ebenezer,” (“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us”), a biblical term that can be found in 1 Samuel 7:12. Within seven years from the founding of Ebenezer (later called Middle Ebenezer), three additional, self-sustaining villages (Upper Ebenezer, Lower Ebenezer, and New Ebenezer) were laid out, each with its own school, store, and church. Later two small outposts, Canada Ebenezer and Kenneberg, were constructed across the Canadian border.
The community prospered due to its successful farming practices and its operation of a large woolen mill, saw mills, flour mills, and tanneries, as well as other branches of industry.In 1843 the group legally organized as the Ebenezer Society. The society adopted a constitution that united its members by religion and its communal economic system of property sharing (except for clothing and some household items). The thirteen members of a board of trustees, the Bruderrath (Council of Brethren), took leadership of the society, making all church and secular decisions. The New York State Assembly incorporated the community under the name “Community of True Inspiration” in 1846. Yet in order to find more affordable territory for expansion and to gain greater distance from the secular world, the community decided to leave New York for the Midwest.
In 1855 the Ebenezer Society, under Metz’s guidance, purchased a tract of 18,000 acres (later expanded to 26,000 acres) in the Iowa River valley, Iowa County, in the new state of Iowa. At the same time, the group started to sell their land in New York. Over a period of ten years, the entire community (approximately 1,200 people) moved from Ebenezer to Iowa to realize their religious ideals and goals in greater seclusion and on expanded territory. They built six villages and purchased the already existing town of Homestead to gain access to its railroad station (Mississippi and Missouri Railroad). The settlers named their first village Bleibtreu (remain faithful) but soon changed it to the biblical name “Amana.” Amana (a mountain range in Lebanon), referred to in the Song of Solomon 4:8, signifies “glaub treu” (believe faithfully). In 1859 the group became a legal corporation under the name Amana Society and adopted a new constitution and bylaws.
People in the Amana Colonies enjoyed a simple lifestyle filled with communal work, religious activities, and time spent with family. The villages featured churches, schools, general stores, craft shops, bakeries, meat markets, locksmiths, basket makers, cabinet shops, and so on.
To this day, outsiders consider Amana craftsmanship (e.g., fine needlework, furniture making) to be quality work. Profits from agricultural and industrial enterprises (such as woolen, calico, and flour mills) were shared to sustain the community. Food was prepared and eaten in communal kitchens. Amana residents also embraced modern technologies, such as electric lights, a society-owned telephone system, and society- owned cars and trucks.Members of the Amana Society attended eleven church services each week. Apart from praying and singing a cappella hymns from the hymn collection PsalterSpiel, worship included readings from the Bible and from the testimonies of the Werkzeuge. One of the most solemn religious ceremonies, which lasted for several days, was the biannual Liebesmahl (Love Feast), or celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
In 1932, strong external influences and internal changes forced the Amana people to reorganize their economic system. The main reasons for the implementation of this “Great Change” are regarded to be the loss of charismatic religious leadership, reduced isolation and increased secularism, a youth revolt against “outdated” Amana traditions, and severe financial problems aggravated by the Great Depression. The Amana Society separated its business interests from religious affairs by establishing two separate bodies, the Amana Society and the Amana Church Society. The Amana Society was transformed into a joint-stock company and introduced profit-seeking business ventures with an increased emphasis on external markets. Residents started to manufacture on a large scale electric appliances such as freezers and air-conditioning systems for homes. After changing hands several times, today Amana Appliances, with headquarters in Middle Amana, is a division of the Maytag Corporation. Next to the successful marketing of agricultural and industrial products, tourism has become a profitable major business enterprise for the people in the Amana Colonies.
Siegrun Wildner
See also Buffalo; Iowa, German Dialects in; Pietism
References and Further Reading
Barthel, Diane L. Amana: From Pietist Sect to American Community. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Hoehnle, Peter. The Amana People: The History of a Religious Community. N.p.: Penfield Books, 2003.
Shambaugh, Bertha M. Amana That Was and Amana That Is. Iowa City: Torch Press, for the State Historical Society of Iowa, 1932.
Webber, Philip E. Kolonie-Deutsch: Life and Language in Amana. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1993.