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Templers (religious believers)

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Templers are members of the Temple Society (Tempelgesellschaft). It is a name they use in referring to themselves and their religious denomination. The word Temple here is derived from the concept of the Christian Community as described in the New Testament, see 1 Cor. 3:16 and 1 Peter 2:5, where every person is seen as a temple in which God's spirit dwells.

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Temple Society

Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg founded the Temple Society (not to be confused with the Knights of the Templars) at Kirschenhardthof near Ludwigsburg in 1861. This religious society has its roots in the Pietism within the Lutheran Church in the State of Württemberg. Called "Deutscher Tempel" by its founders, their aim was to promote spiritual cooperation to advance the rebuild of the Temple in the Holy Land (Palestine of the time) In the belief that their foundation promotes the second coming of Christ. On their course to achieve that goal, their contributions towards raising the standards of agriculture, crafts, scientific research, business and building in an undeveloped province under Turkish rule were significant. Many see them as an indispensable helping force in the early establishment of the Yishuv, and perhaps a role model for the Zionist Movement of the time.

Beginning of Palestine settlement

Hoffmann and Hardegg proceeded to purchase lands at the base of Mount Carmel, the downtown of today's Haifa, and in 1868 broke ground and started building a colony. At the time, Haifa was a town of 4,000 people. The Templers are just one of the groups credited with Haifa's development at the time. It was around this time that the Bahá'u'lláh, (founder of the Bahá'í Faith) arrived in Haifa. The colony's main street was one of the most beautiful streets built during that era and was cause for much admiration. The street was 30 meters wide and had trees on both sides. The houses were built of stone, under the supervision of the architect Jakob Schumacher and boasted red-shingled roofs, a rare combination of style and color for the area at the time. The work of those pioneering settlers took a high toll, harsh mideastern weather and epidemics claimed the lives of many of them before the examplary colony was erect and self-sustaining.

The Templers purchased land that was far from the city and set out to build the first planned agricultural community in the Holy Land. Hardegg stayed and established the community in Haifa, while Hoffmann established the second Templar community in Jaffa a year later, Followed by the German Colony of Jerusalem.

The Jaffa Orange Brand
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The Jaffa Orange Brand
The first agricultural colony was Sarona (commonly pronounced Sharona, est. 1871) on the road from Jaffa to Nablus, The colony's oranges where the first to carry a "Jaffa orange" brand, one of the better known agricultural brand in Europe, used to market the fruits to this day (though no longer connected to Jaffa for over a century, at times not even originating from Israel!). From the beginning though, trades played also an important role for the Templers. Building construction and road transport became a significant source of income. Coaches as a means of road transport and travel were virtually unknown. The Templers established a regular coach service between Haifa and the other cities, and by 1870 there was a thriving tourist industry, especially in the pilgrim traffic between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Theodor Sandel, an engineer from Jaffa, took control of road construction.

Second wave of settlers

After the 1899 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, one of the Kaiser's traveling companions, Colonel Joseph Freiherr von Ellrichshausen, initiated the formation of the society for the advancement of the German settlements in Palestine, in Stuttgart in 1899. 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)(1902) near Lod, Valhalla (1903) near the original Jaffa colony, followed by Bethlehem, Galilee (1906) and Waldheim (1907). At its height, the Templer community in Palestine was 2,200 people strong. 
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In July and August 1918 the British deported the inhabitants of the southern settlements to an internment camp at Helouan near Cairo in Egypt. The 850 people (mainly women and children and old men) petitioned after the war to be allowed to return to Palestine. In April 1920 though 350 internees were transported to Germany. Then on 29 June that year the Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, declared before the British Upper House that Great Britain agreed in principle to the return of the German internees to Palestine. The Mandate government showed understanding of the needs and problems of re-settlement, and with the support of the Public Custodian of Enemy Property, E. Keith Roach, the Mandate government paid the settlers approximately 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 at that time one of the leading credit institutions in Palestine.

Affiliation with the Third Reich

During the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi party to power, the colonies were also registered as supporters of the new rule. Nazi youth movement activities were popular and the plans to open schools based on Nazi ideologies turned the once-friendly Jewish Yishuv away and the Templers' produces were boycotted.

As all male German citizens, the Templars too enlisted with the German army. With the break of World War II, some of the colonies were turned by the British authorities into concentration camps and in 1939 many of the settlers were deported by the authorities to Australia under charges of aiding the enemy, though a few were exchanged for Jewish prisoners from the death camp of Bergen-Belsen. In 1947, the rest of the community was deported to Australia as well, via Cyprus. The saga came to an end, when in 1962, the State of Israel payed 54 million Deutsche Marks in severance fees to the deportees.

Timeline of the Temple Society

The Temple Society Australia

Tempelgesellschaft in Germany

The combined Membership of the Temple Society today is about 1000 members. In its 145 year history the Society has at no stage had more than 3000 members.

See also

 

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