Referat The Amish

The Amish

Origins:

- Anabaptist movement in the early 16th century

- After 1536: They are called the 'Mennonites', because of the leadership of Menno Simons

- 1693 the Amish are founded by Jacob Amman

- Early 18th century: first amish settlers in Pennsylvania

- Today live approximately 150 000 Amish people in 22 states of the USA and Ontario, Canada

- Best known amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Amish way of life:

- Completely secluded from the non-Amish world

- Plain lifestyle:

- Tractors and cars are forbidden

- No telephones allowed, only commonly used pay-phones

- Electricity only from batteries

- Computers are forbidden

 very hard work

- Community as a family

- Amish rules of dressing:

- Women and girls: long sleeves, full skirt, hair as a bun, bonnet

- Men and boys: dark suits, broad trousers with suspenders, beard, no mustache

- Rules are written down in the 'Ordnung'

- Amish school system

- Importance of the family

Vocabularies: infant - Säugling baptize - taufen worship - Gottesdienst seclude - absondern plain - schlicht

sleeve - Armel

bun - (Haar-)Knoten bonnet - Haube mustache - Schnurrbart

The Amish

- Origin: Amish, religious group, who have their roots from the anabaptist movement in Europe in the early 16th century

- In this time it was usual, that only infants get baptized. But the Amish believed, that only Adults should be baptized, because they can confess their belief. Infants can not choose , they got baptized if they want or not.

- Because adult-baptism was forbidden, they were persecuted and killed by Protestants and Catholics. => they had to flee to the mountains of switzerland and the Alsace

- From this time on, they were called the 'Anabaptists'

- In 1536 a man, called Menno Simons, joined the anabaptist-movement and became their leader. So the group was called the 'Mennonites'

- In 1693 the swiss bishop Jacob Amman broke away from the mennonite church.

His followers were called the 'Amish'

- The Amish and the Mennonites have still the same beliefs concerning baptism and basic bible doctrines. But they differ in their clothes, language and their form of worship

- In the early 18th century the first Amish people settled to Pennsylvania. Today there live about 150000 Amish people in 22 States of the USA and in Ontario, Canada.

- The probably best known city is Lancaster County, where about 18000 Amish people live

- In Europe, there are no Amish people any more

- Amish can be categorized in two groups, the New Order and the Old Order

Amish:

The New Order are not as strict as the Old Order. They are allowed to use electricity and other many technological things. For the Old Order it is forbidden.

- The Old Order Amish live completely secluded from the non-Amish world.

They have their own towns and communities, where only amish people live.

- They live without electricity and other modern things:

- Tractors for example are only allowed on their farms for transportation, but not on their fields. Cars are also forbidden.

- They mustn't have telephones at home. Only commonly used pay-phones are allowed

- They get their Electricity only from batteries, not from the public utility companies

- Computers are completely forbidden

 Because of this plain lifestyle they are called 'Plain People'

- So they have to work very hard:

- work on fields is very hard, because they have to do the whole work only with the help of horses

- building houses and barns: without cranes

- because no cars, they have to use buggies, that are pulled by horses

- Buggies are typical for Amish

- But without the help of their neighbours and friends, life wasn't possible for them:

- If a barn burns for example, the community helps to rebuild it.

(No Businesses who make it for them)

- If a person is ill, the neighbours make his work on the fields

=> The community is like a big family

- They have their own rules of dressing:

- Women and girls have to wear long sleeves and a full skirt.

They never cut their hair. They wear their hair as a bun on the back of the head

On the bun, they wear a bonnet, that is white if they are married and black if they are not married

- Men and boys have to wear dark suits, broad trousers with suspenders, black socks and shoes and a broad hat. After marriage, they have to have a beard, but no mustache

- All the rules are written down in the 'Ordnung'

- An other typical attribute for the Amish is, that they worship at home and not at a church. They do this, because they want to honor their forefathers, who had to worship in secret, because of the persecution in Europe

- The Amish have their own schools. The pupils have to go to school for only 8 years. They are taught humility, quietness and shunning of technological things. It seems, that their education isn't, but in a test by the U.S. Office of Education the Amish pupils were above the norm, when they were compared to non-Amish pupils.

- Amish children grow up bilingual, at home they speak German and at school they learn English. After finishing school, they learn to work on their farm and on the fields.

- Most important element in the life of an Amish is the family

- They live together in one community.

- Family-members are always in contact with each other.

- They are also in contact with relatives who don't live in their community.

- The reason, why these people live like that is, that they esteem the beliefs and way of life of their ancestors.