The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785. Due to religious persecution by the Lutheran Church and the government in Württemberg, the Harmony Society moved to the United States in 1803–1804, initially purchasing 3,000 acres (12 km²) of land in Butler County, Pennsylvania. On February 15, 1805, they, together with about 400 followers, formally organized the Harmony Society, placing all their goods in common.
The Society was founded and led by Johann Georg Rapp (1757–1847) and his adopted son, Frederick (Reichert) Rapp (1775–1834), and lasted for 100 years – roughly from 1805 until 1905. Members of the society were sometimes called Harmonists, Harmonites, or Rappites. The Harmony Society is best known for its worldly successes, eventually building three successive communities, first at Harmony, Pennsylvania (1804–1814), then New Harmony, Indiana (1814–1824), finally settling in Economy (now Ambridge, Pennsylvania).
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Famous quotes containing the words harmony and/or society:
“And yet it is a kind of inward feast,
A harmony that sounds within the breast,
An odour, light, embrace, in which the soul doth rest,”
—Giles Fletcher, The Younger (1585–1623)
“I’m afraid for all those who’ll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines.... What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)