Penned in August 1925, Eberhard Arnold’s “First Law of Sannerz” is the oldest written rule of the community now known as the Bruderhof, and members have been attempting to practice it ever since. It is no exaggeration to say that without it, the community probably would have succumbed by now to one of the many crises it has weathered over the last one hundred years.

After a century, does the Bruderhof’s rule about gossip still work?