Founding of the Herrnhut Settlement by the Bohemian Brethren
- When
- 1722
- Where
- Berthelsdorf estate; Hutberg hill area
- Episodes
- 2
In 1722, Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf granted asylum to persecuted Bohemian Brethren on his Berthelsdorf estate in Saxony. They established the village of Herrnhut, creating a community that would become the center of the Moravian Church's renewal.
Episodes
- Granting of Asylum
Count Zinzendorf offered asylum to persecuted Moravian and Bohemian wanderers in 1722.
- Naming of the Settlement
The settlement was named Herrnhut after the local Hutberg hill.
Background and detail
Background. The Bohemian Brethren, known as the Hidden Seed, had survived as an underground remnant in the Habsburg Empire for nearly a century. Facing Counter-Reformation suppression, they sought refuge in Saxony, where the pietist Count Zinzendorf was willing to provide shelter for these German-speaking exiles.
Settlement at Herrnhut. Zinzendorf permitted the group to build a village on a corner of his Berthelsdorf estate. The settlement was named Herrnhut, derived from the local Hutberg hill. This act of asylum allowed the community to escape persecution and establish a stable base for their religious life in Upper Lusatia.
People involved
- Bohemian Brethren (Hidden Seed) · Settlers
Sources
- Nicolaus Zinzendorf Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-08
- Moravian Church Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
- Herrnhut Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-26
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.