Information AboutGeorge Rapp |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GEORGE RAPP | |
| people from baden-württemberg | |
| rapp, george | |
| german religious leaders | |
| 1757 births | |
| 1847 deaths | |
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George Rapp founder of the sect of Harmonists, or Harmonites was born in Iptingen, Germany on November 1, 1757. He was inspired by the philosophy of Jakob Boehme , who had lived during the 17th century. In the 1780's George Rapp began to gather a group of followers. His group officially split with the Church in 1785 and was promptly banned from meeting. Many of the beliefs that Rapp had were shared with the Anabaptist movement. By 1798 Rapp and his group of followers had already begun to distance themselves from normal society. In the Lomersheimer Declaration, written in 1798, Rapp's followers refused to serve in the military and attend Lutheran schools. In 1803 the government began to persecute Rapp's followers with new found enthusiasm. Rapp decided to move the entire group to the United States. The initial move to the United States scattered the followers and reduced Rapp's original group of 20,000 to many fewer men. In 1804 Rapp was able to secure a large tract of land in Pennsylvania and started his first communal there. This first communal soon grew to a population of about 800, and was highly profitable. In 1814 the first town was sold for 10 times the amount originally paid for the land, and the entire communal moved to out west to Indiana where it became known as Harmony. Ten years after the move to Indiana the communal moved again, this time it returned to Pennsylvania and became known as Economie. The Indiana settlement was sold to Robert Owen, at which point it was renamed to New Harmony, Indiana . George Rapp lived out his remaining days in the city of Economie, PA until Aug. 7, 1847 when he died at the age of 90. The communal ultimately failed because the policy of celibacy prevented new members from within, and the majority of the outside world had absolutely no desire to give up so much to live in a communal. The society officially disbanded in 1904. SEE ALSO
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