Die Brüder und der Branntwein

Das UAC-Schreiben an sämtliche Abendmahlsgeschwister über den Missbrauch starker Getränke vom 13. Oktober 1783

Abstract

The letter of the Unity Elders’ Conference (Unitätsältestenkonferenz – UAC) of 13 October 1783 is the first and probably the only document of its kind to describe the consumption of alcohol and its dangers in the Moravian community in a form corresponding to a pastoral letter in episcopal churches. Before this letter appeared, there had already been synodal recommendations on the dangers of alcohol in 1775 and 1782. However, it was not the conditions in Europe that led the UAC to look more closely at alcoholics among the brethren, but difficulties that had arisen far away in the mission areas. Drunkenness among missionaries was a problem that began soon after the start of missionary activity and was not limited to tropical regions. As early as 1771, Johann Nitschmann wrote an urgent report to Johannes von Wattewille in which he vividly described alcoholism among the missionaries in Tranquebar. In the present study, however, it can be shown that the real cause for the UAC’s action was the extraordinary abuse of alcohol by the missionaries in the West Indies, which had assumed such proportions that it called the work there into question. This can be proved on the basis of correspondence and the UAC minutes on the subject. The letter itself comprises a first part, in which the development into an alcoholic is vividly described, and a second part in which the dangers of drunkenness are substantiated with biblical quotations. The alcohol problem did not become an issue again until 1888, when the provincial synod banned the sale of spirits.