The Christian Community Hirt und Herde: The Development of a Religious Community from the German Empire to the Present Day

In 1894, a Christian revelation occurred in western Saxony through the weaver August Hermann Hain, who founded the Christliche Gemeinschaft Hirt und Herde (Christian Community Shepherd and Flock). In the 1910s, church and state authorities became aware of the new religious community and attempted to prevent its meetings. As a result of the pacifist and labor movement-inspired social attitudes of Hain and his followers, state authorities banned the public activities of Hirt und Herde in parts of the German Empire in 1916/17. Despite the ban, the community continued to grow and by 1925 was already the third-largest religious community in Saxony. In addition to the former kingdom of Saxony, people in Thuringia, northern Bavaria, and Czechoslovakia also professed their belief in the new doctrine at that time. With the death of August Hermann Hain in 1927 and the ban on the community by the National Socialists in 1933, the members of Hirt und Herde increasingly withdrew from public life into internal emigration. Despite being recognized as an official religious community in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hirt und Herde remained below the radar of public perception. In recent years, however, the community has begun—albeit slowly—to open up to the new social realities of a modern, pluralistic society. Using the pluralism paradigm of Peter L. Berger, this article traces the genesis of the generally unknown religious community over the last 125 years. In addition to the historical development of the community, it provides an explanatory approach to the changes in its teachings and public appearance.