The Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots back to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Their name comes from early leader Jakob Hutter. There are about 45,000 Hutterites living in several hundred colonies, called “Bruderhofs,” mostly on the North American plains.
Hutterites practice a lifestyle of total community of goods – everything is shared and held in common, from food and housing to vehicles and labor. They strive for self-sufficiency through agriculture, raising crops and livestock. Most Hutterite colonies consist of about 15 to 20 families, with a population of around 60 to 150 people. When a colony grows too large, daughter colonies are formed.
Hutterites believe in adult baptism and reject military service and participation in government or the swearing of oaths. They adhere to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, including Jesus’ teaching on nonresistance. Hutterites practice pacifism and generally avoid lawsuits. They do not evangelize but focus on their own communities.
The central tenets of Hutterite theology include:
- Believer’s baptism – Baptism is reserved for professing believers in Christ. Infant baptism is rejected.
- Pacifism and nonresistance – Hutterites refuse to serve in the military or bear arms. They avoid politics and do not participate in government.
- Communal living – Hutterites live in tightly-knit, self-sufficient, egalitarian communities where all property is held in common.
- Separation from the world – Although generally welcoming to visitors at their colonies, Hutterites tend to stay within their communities and limit interaction with mainstream society.
- Self-sufficiency through agriculture – Farming, especially livestock, gardening, and crafts such as carpentry provide their income. Each colony is economically autonomous.
- Literal interpretation of the Bible – Hutterites take a fundamentalist approach to Scripture, including teachings such as head coverings for women.
- Clergy leadership – Each Bruderhof is led by a pastor, elders, minister, and steward. This leadership manages colony affairs.
- Traditional dress – Women wear modest, plain dresses and head coverings. Men often wear beard without mustache in traditional German fashion.
- Plain living – Television, radio, and the internet are banned in colonies. Lifestyle focuses on hard work, simplicity, discipline, and conformity to community values.
- German language – Originally immigrants from Tyrol region, Hutterites traditionally spoke a southern German dialect and some colonies still use this extensively.
The roots of Hutterites date back to 1528 in Tyrol (now South Tyrol in northern Italy) where small groups began to fellowship around the teachings of reformer Jacob Hutter. Persecuted for their Anabaptist beliefs, his followers migrated across Eastern Europe over the next 200 years before settling in Ukraine and developing a thriving community of over 5,000 people on hundreds of colonies.
But persecution followed them here as well. In 1755, Empress Maria Theresa ordered Hutterites to convert to Catholicism or else be expelled. When most refused to comply, hundreds were imprisoned and their colonies destroyed. Over the next 50 years, Hutterites fled this pressure, with some migrating back to Eastern Europe and even to Russia where they were granted religious freedom.
In the 1870s, 1,265 Hutterites from Russia made the journey to America, settling initially in the Dakota territories. Seeking freedom to practice their beliefs, other Hutterites soon followed from both Russia and Europe. Over time, as communities grew and branched off across the Great Plains, colonies spread into Montana, Minnesota, and throughout the western provinces of Canada.
World War I brought severe pressure to conform to nationalism and patriotism. Due to their pacifism, Hutterites suffered persecution in both the United States and Canada during this time period. Some of their colonies were closed down and property confiscated as a result of their refusal to enter the military draft.
During World War II, conditions improved somewhat as Hutterites worked cooperatively with authorities and focused on increasing desperately needed food production. Still, in the U.S. alone nearly two dozen Hutterite men were imprisoned for refusing military service on the basis of their nonresistant beliefs.
Since the World Wars, Hutterites have largely been left alone and allowed to practice their philosophy and culture of communal separatism. Colonies function independently but do maintain connections with one another through conferences, circular letters, and paper publications.
The typical Hutterite colony is a multi-family community organized around agricultural and manufacturing endeavors. Governed by a council of elders, the Bruderhof is almost entirely self-supporting through farming and various cottage industries. They generally avoid commercial enterprises with those outside their community.
Within a Hutterite colony, you may find these elements:
- Dormitory housing – Separate dorms for single men and women. Married couples have small homes.
- Dining hall – Where members gather for communal meals prepared and served by the women.
- Farm buildings – For dairy, hogs, poultry, and other livestock. Barns for equipment.
- Workshops – For carpentry, vehicles, quilting, hat and glove making.
- Gardens – Large vegetable gardens for canning and preserving food.
- Schoolhouse – Where all the children are educated together in German and English.
- Churches – Usually one for worship services and a smaller one for social events.
- Elders’ homes – Residences for theelected male leaders and ministers.
- Common laundry – Where washing and sewing is done by the women.
Hutterites have a patriarchal culture structured around a strict division of roles between men and women. Beginning at age 15, boys and girls take on specific responsibilities in line with their gender and in service to the larger community.
Men take on tasks such as:
- Overseeing and participating in farming, construction, mechanical work.
- Serving as leaders and decision makers for the colony.
- Preaching during worship services.
- Teaching German language classes.
Women are responsible for:
- Cooking, sewing, laundry and household duties.
- Working in the gardens, making preserves, and crafts.
- Caring for children in the nursery.
- Teaching English language classes.
Socialization between unrelated men and women, especially teens and young adults, is discouraged in Hutterite colonies. Marriages are arranged by the parents when a young man and woman are between the ages of 20 and 23. Courtship lasts from a few months to a year before the couple weds. Newly married couples move into a small home of their own.
Meals are eaten communally, with men sitting apart from women and children. Worship services are held every morning and evening. The Ordnungen, a written set of rules for the colony, outlines expected standards for dress, moral conduct, and marriage.
Hutterite communities can be classified into four categories based on how strictly they adhere to traditional practices. From most to least conservative, they are:
- Lehrerleut – The “teachers’ people” originate in Ukraine and are the largest group today, making up about 60% of Hutterites. They permit some limited innovations like the use of some technology or a relaxed dress code.
- Dariusleut – The “Darius people” named after elder Darius Walter are concentrated in Alberta and Saskatchewan. They tend to uphold traditional ways most closely.
- Schmiedeleut One – The “wheelwrights’ people” are open to modest reform, founded by Michael Waldner. They reside mostly in South and North Dakota.
- Schmiedeleut Two – The least conservative branch, originating from Jacob Kleinsasser, they live mainly in Montana. They use more progressive farming methods and are more open to outsiders.
Across these different groups, however, all Hutterites share the same Anabaptist theological roots. They seek to live out the radical teachings of Jesus on community, nonviolence, and discipleship. Their way of life reflects a literal interpretation of passages such as Acts 2:42-47:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. (Acts 2:42, 44-46)
Other key Bible passages which shape Hutterite practices include:
On Community of Goods
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. (Acts 4:32)
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (John 17:16)
On Nonresistance
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (Matthew 5:38-39)
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:17-18)
On Separation from the World
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you. (2 Corinthians 6:17)
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)
Hutterites see in the Gospels and Epistles a clear call to radically separate themselves from mainstream society in order to follow Jesus fully. Their colonies are intended as Christian communities set apart, based on New Testament principles rather than Protestant denominations.
Certainly, Hutterite cultural practices and religious beliefs remain quite unique and unfamiliar to most of modern Christianity. Yet they serve as thought-provoking examples of dedicated discipleship, simple living, and community interdependence.
In a fragmented world torn by individualism and consumerism, perhaps Hutterites still have something to teach the 21st century church. Their countercultural witness challenges us to examine our own worldliness and level of conviction. Do we cling tightly to our comfortable private lives and possessions? Or are we willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of belonging to true Christian community?
Ultimately, Hutterites strive to build intentional, Bible-based communities governed by the teachings of Jesus and the earliest apostles. Within their colonies, separated from the distraction of the world, they work, worship, and break bread together daily. By God’s grace, despite their flaws and shortcomings, the Hutterites have achieved a rare level of discipleship, love, and unity:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:42, 44)