Berlin

Berlin was the site of a permanent Quaker center established during Thomas Kelly and his wife’s postwar service in Germany, giving an emerging Quaker movement a lasting institutional presence in the country. The account presents the center as a concrete response to interest in pacifism after the First World War, though it gives little detail about the center’s activities or later history.

Postwar Quaker Work

After receiving an appointment to teach at Earlham College, Kelly accepted a delay of a year so he and his wife could undertake foreign service with the American Friends Service Committee. The committee asked them to nurture an infant Quaker movement in Germany. They encountered Germans drawn to pacifism in the wake of the war’s horrors, and a permanent center was established in Berlin.

A Foothold for the Movement

The Berlin center marks the institutional outcome of the Kellys’ work: an effort to nurture a new religious movement acquired a permanent base. After fifteen months in Germany, the couple returned to Indiana, where Kelly began his teaching career at Earlham. The account identifies Berlin as the location of the center but does not describe its organization, subsequent development, or continuing presence.