Templers (religious believers)

Templers in Wilhelma, Palestine

The Temple Society (German: Tempelgesellschaft) was a German Protestant sect with roots in the Pietist movement of the Lutheran Church. Members referred to themselves as Templers.

The Templers were expelled from the Lutheran Church in 1858 because of their millennial beliefs. Their aim was to realize the apocalyptic visions of the prophets of Israel in the Holy Land.[1]

Etymology

The word Templer is derived from the concept of the Christian Community as described in the New Testament, see 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Peter 2:5, where every person and the community are seen as temples in which God's spirit dwells.[2] There is no connected with the Medieval Knights Templar.

History

Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg (1812–1879) founded the Temple Society at Kirschenhardthof near Ludwigsburg in 1861. This religious society has its roots in the Pietist movement within the Lutheran Evangelical State Church in Württemberg. Called "Deutscher Tempel" by its founders, their aim was to promote spiritual cooperation to advance the rebuilding of the Temple in the Holy Land, Palestine, in the belief that this foundation will promote the second coming of Christ.

While the Lutheran state church in Württemberg condemned and fought the Templers as apostates, the Prussian Protestant position was somewhat milder. Their settlement in the Holy Land found a warm support through Wilhelm Hoffmann (1806–1873), who was no apostate from the official church, like his younger brother Christoph.[3]

Wilhelm Hoffmann served as one of the royal Prussian court preachers at the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin and was a co-founder and first president of the Jerusalem Association (German: Jerusalemsverein), a charitable organisation founded on 2 December 1852 to support Samuel Gobat's effort as bishop of the Anglo-Prussian Bishopric of Jerusalem.[4]

Christoph Hoffmann fell out with his fellow leader Hardegg, so that in June 1874 the Temple denomination underwent a schism with Hardegg and about a third of the Templers seceding from the Temple Society. The schismatics around Hardegg searched to join another Christian denomination. To this end they addressed the Lutheran Church of Sweden (1874) and the Anglican Church Missionary Society (1879), but both refused to take care of the schismatics.[5]

In 1878 Hardegg and most of the schismatics founded the Temple Association (Tempelverein), but after Hardegg's death in the following year the cohesion of its adherents faded. Then envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics, gaining most of them.[6] Thus some colonies became places of partisans of two different Christian denominations and their respective congregations (Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Sarona).

While in Germany the Templers were regarded sectarians, the Evangelical proselytes gained major financial and intellectual support from German Lutheran and united church bodies. This created an atmosphere of mistrust and envy among the colonists of different denominational affiliation.[7]

Early settlement in Palestine

The remains of Templer buildings of Sarona in HaKirya, Tel Aviv

Hoffmann and Hardegg purchased land at the foot of Mount Carmel and established a colony there in 1868. At the time, Haifa had a population of 4,000. The Templers are credited today with promoting the development of the city. The colonists built an attractive main street that was much admired by the locals. It was 30 meters wide and planted with trees on both sides. The houses, designed by architect Jacob Schumacher, were built of stone, with red-shingled roofs, instead of the flat or domed roofs common in the region. Hard work, the harsh climate and epidemics claimed the lives of many before the colony became self-sustaining.

Hardegg stayed in Haifa, while Hoffmann established colonies in Sarona near Jaffa a year later, in the Valley of Refaim Jerusalem. The Templers' first agricultural colony was Sarona on the road from Jaffa to Nablus.

The colony's oranges were the first to carry a "Jaffa orange" brand, one of the better known agricultural brands in Europe, used to market Israeli oranges to this day.

The Templers established a regular coach service between Haifa and the other cities, promoting the country's tourist industry, and made an important contribution to road construction.

Templer colonies

Templer Cemetery in the German Colony, Jerusalem

After the 1898 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, one of the Kaiser's traveling companions, Colonel Joseph Freiherr von Ellrichshausen, initiated the formation of a society for the advancement of the German settlements in Palestine, in Stuttgart. It enabled the settlers to acquire land for new settlements by offering them low interest loans.

A second wave of pioneer settlers founded Wilhelma (now Bnei Atarot) in 1902 near Lod, Valhalla (1903) near the original Jaffa colony, followed by Bethlehem of Galilee (1906) and Waldheim (now Alonei Abba) in 1907. At its height, the Templer community in Palestine numbered 2,000.[8]

In July and August 1918 the British sent 850 Templers to an internment camp at Helwan near Cairo in Egypt. In April 1920, 350 of these internees were deported to Germany. All the property of the Templers of enemy nationality (thus except of that of a few US citizens among them) was taken into public custodianship. With the establishment of a regular British administration in 1918 Edward Keith-Roach became the Public Custodian of Enemy Property in Palestine, who rented out the property and collected the rents.[9]

In April 1920 the Allies convened at the Conference of San Remo and agreed on the British rule in Palestine, followed by the official establishment of the civil administration on 1 July 1920.[10] From that date on Keith-Roach transferred the collected rents for property in custodianship to the actual proprietors.[11] On June 29, 1920, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, informed the British Upper House that Great Britain agreed in principle to their return to Palestine.

The League of Nations legitimised the British administration and custodianship by granting a mandate to Britain in 1922, which Turkey, the Ottoman successor, finally ratified by the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on 24 July 1923 and becoming effective on 5 August 1925. [12] Thus the public custodianship ended in the same year and the prior holders achieved the fully protected legal position as proprietors.[13]

The Mandate government and the Public Custodian of Enemy Property paid them 50% restitution for war losses of livestock and other property. The Bank of the Temple Society, formed in 1925 with its head office in Jaffa and branches in Haifa and Jerusalem, became one of the leading credit institutions in Palestine.[14]

Affiliation with the Third Reich

After the Nazi takeover in Germany the new Reich's government streamlined foreign policy according to Nazi ideals, using financial pressure especially. The Nazi emphasis was on creating the image that Germany and Germanness were equal to Nazism. Thus, all non-Nazi aspects of German culture and identity were discriminated against as un-German. All international schools of German language subsidised or fully financed by government funds were obliged to redraw their educational programmes and to solely employ teachers aligned to the Nazi party. The teachers in Bethlehem were financed by the Reich government, so Nazi teachers also took over there.

In 1933 Templer functionaries and other Gentile Germans living in Palestine appealed to Paul von Hindenburg and the Foreign Office not to use swastika symbols for German institutions, without success. Some German Gentiles from Palestine pleaded with the Reich government to drop its plan to boycott shops of Jewish Germans on April 1, 1933.[15] Some Templers enlisted in the German army. By 1938, 17% of the Templers in Palestine were members of the Nazi party. According to historian Yossi Ben-Artzi, "The members of the younger generation to some extent broke away from naive religious belief, and were more receptive to the Nazi German nationalism. The older ones tried to fight it."[16]

At the start of World War II colonists with German citizenship were rounded up by the British and sent, together with Italian and Hungarian enemy aliens, to internment camps in Waldheim and Bethlehem of Galilee.[17] 661 Templers were deported to Australia via Egypt on July 31, 1941, leaving 345 in Palestine.[18]

In 1939, at the start of World War II, the British authorities declared the Templers enemy nationals, placed them under arrest and deported many of them to Australia.[19] During the war the British government brokered the exchange of about 1,000 Templers for 550 Jews under German control. "The swap, Bauer stresses, stemmed primarily from British and German interests: Just as the British wanted to get the Germans out, Germany was happy for the chance to rid itself of a few hundred more Jews. The exchange, however, was not an even one. The number of Germans deported from Palestine was greater than the number of returning Jews."[16]

After its foundation, the State of Israel - with the fresh memory of the Holocaust - was adamant in not permitting any ethnic Germans, of a community which had expressed pro-Nazi sympathies, to remain in or return to its territory. The former Templer colonies were re-settled by Jews. In 1962 the State of Israel paid 54 million Deutsche Marks in compensation to property owners whose assets were nationalized.[19] Sarona was incorporated in Tel Aviv, part of it becoming the compound of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the IDF High Command Headquarters, while the other part housed various civil offices of the Israeli government, using the original German houses. In the early 21st Century the civil offices were evacuated and the area extensively renovated, becoming a new focus of Tel Aviv night life.

Timeline of the Temple Society

Temple Society Australia

Tempelgesellschaft in Germany

Templers' settlements in Palestine

In chronological order of their establishment:

1874: The Temple denomination underwent a schism.

References

  1. ↑ Israel: The Land and the People
  2. ↑ Comprehensive Templer Movement History
  3. ↑ Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל), Die Siedlungen der württembergischen Templer in Palästina (1868–1918) (11973), [התיישבות הגרמנים בארץ ישראל בשלהי השלטון הטורקי: בעיותיה המדיניות, המקומיות והבינלאומיות, ירושלים :חמו"ל, תש"ל; גרמנית], Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 32000, (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg: Reihe B, Forschungen; vol. 77), p. 102. ISBN 3-17-016788-X.
  4. ↑ Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), pp. 45 and 96, ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  5. ↑ Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב אייזלר), Der deutsche Beitrag zum Aufstieg Jaffas 1850-1914: Zur Geschichte Palästinas im 19. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997, (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins; vol. 22), pp. 113seq. ISBN 3-447-03928-0.
  6. ↑ Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב אייזלר), Der deutsche Beitrag zum Aufstieg Jaffas 1850–1914: Zur Geschichte Palästinas im 19. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997, (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins; vol. 22), p. 113. ISBN 3-447-03928-0.
  7. ↑ Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב אייזלר), "«Kirchler» im Heiligen Land: Die evangelischen Gemeinden in den württembergischen Siedlungen Palästinas (1886-1914)", In: Dem Erlöser der Welt zur Ehre: Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Jubiläum der Einweihung der evangelischen Erlöserkirche in Jerusalem, Karl-Heinz Ronecker (ed.) on behalf of 'Jerusalem-Stiftung' and 'Jerusalemsverein', Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 1998, pp. 81–100, here pp. 99seq. ISBN 3-374-01706-1.
  8. ↑ The Templers in Israel and their Place in the Local Society, The National Library of Israel (2017)
  9. ↑ Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852-1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 138, ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  10. ↑ Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 143, ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  11. ↑ Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 143, ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  12. ↑ Roland Löffler, "Die Gemeinden des Jerusalemsvereins in Palästina im Kontext des kirchlichen und politischen Zeitgeschehens in der Mandatszeit", in: Seht, wir gehen hinauf nach Jerusalem! Festschrift zum 150jährigen Jubiläum von Talitha Kumi und des Jerusalemsvereins, Almut Nothnagle (ed.) on behalf of 'Jerusalemsverein' within Berliner Missionswerk, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 2001, pp. 185–212, here p. 189 (ISBN 3-374-01863-7) and Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), p. 150. ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  13. ↑ Frank Foerster, Mission im Heiligen Land: Der Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852–1945, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, 1991, (Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen; [N.S.], 25), pp. 17 and 150. ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  14. ↑ History of the Temple Society Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Ralf Balke, Hakenkreuz im Heiligen Land: Die NSDAP-Landesgruppe Palästina, Erfurt: Sutton, 2001, p. 81. ISBN 3-89702-304-0
  16. 1 2 Nurit Wurgaft and Ran Shapira, A life-saving swap, Haaretz, April 23, 2009.
  17. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946133.html The nine lives of the Lorenz Cafe Haaretz, 20 January 2008
  18. ↑ Nachman Ben-Yehuda 1992 Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice" SUNY Press ISBN 0-7914-1165-6
  19. 1 2 Adi Schwartz, The nine lives of the Lorenz Cafe, Haaretz, January 20, 2008.
  20. ↑ Smith, C. Henry (1981). Smith's Story of the Mennonites. Revised and expanded by Cornelius Krahn. Newton, Kansas: Faith and Life Press. p. 282. ISBN 0-87303-069-9.
  21. ↑ "The Templers: German settlers who left their mark on Palestine". BBC News Magazine. BBC. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  22. ↑ "Meilensteine in der Geschichte der Tempelgesellschaft" [Milestones in the History of the Temple Society] (in German). Retrieved 2013-07-13. Google translation
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