From the beginning, the Bruderhof was intended to be an “educational community” – everyone was to support the education of the children, and adults were expected to continue learning, taking an interest in the natural world, history, and the ideas and events of the day. The goal of children’s education was to guide each of them to full use of their gifts and talents, to think independently, and to be curious about the surrounding world. Training in manual skills was as important as academic learning: “The variety of talents must be respected,” wrote Eberhard Arnold, “for in a true educational community, all gifts and all abilities are of equal value.”

Faced with a Nazi takeover, the first Bruderhof school took refuge in Liechtenstein.