AMANA COLONIES

settlement in Iowa county, east-central Iowa, U.S. It lies near the Iowa River, 20 miles (32 km) west-northwest of Iowa City, and comprises a group of seven small villages: Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana, and Homestead. Amana developed from the Community of True Inspiration, founded in 1714 in the German principality of Hesse by the pietistic mystics Johann Friedrich Rock and Eberhard Ludwig Gruber. The sect disintegrated after Rock's death in 1749, but it was revived in 1817 by Christian Metz and Barbara Heinemann and became centred mainly in Wrttemberg. The sect encountered hostility from the civil authorities because of its members' opposition to war, and in 1842 they migrated to the United States, purchasing land near Buffalo, N.Y., where they established the communal Ebenezer Society. In 1855 about 800 members moved westward to Iowa, where 18,000 acres (7,280 hectares; later expanded to 26,000 acres) had been purchased. This new home was called Amana (a mountain range in Lebanon referred to in Song of Solomon 4:8 and meaning to remain true, or to believe faithfully) and was incorporated in 1859. Members gave up their property to a common fund and in return were promised economic security through life. In addition to communal property and opposition to military service, the citizens of Amana opposed taking oaths, amusement, and a paid ministry. The community prospered at first but began to decline after the American Civil War. Financial disaster caused by the Depression necessitated its reorganization in 1932. Communal property was dissolved, and the villages were organized on the basis of a joint stock corporation, called the Amana Society, with the workers as stockholders. In addition to its farms, the Amana Society operates factories that produce woolens, furniture, wines, bakery goods, and meat specialties. Amana Refrigeration, Inc., formerly a division of the Amana Society, manufactures refrigerators, freezers, and microwave ovens. The Amana Church Society, separately organized in 1932, continues its pietistic emphasis and remains the dominant force in the community. Simple worship services are conducted in German in unadorned village churches. The church society, which is governed by elected elders and has no ordained clergy, reported 600 members in four churches in the late 1970s. Pop. (1980 est.) 1,675.