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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 - Ärmel
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.
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