Hof
Hof, a German term with various applications used to designate (1) a farm, (2) a farmyard, (3) a court, (4) a courtyard, (5) a country house or manor house, the household of a sovereign. In Anabaptist history it appears in the word Bruderhof to refer to a Hutterite household with its buildings and acreage. In German areas it is used to refer to a farm or large estate which may be occupied by one family (e.g., Althof) or by several with individually owned tracts (e.g., Branchweilerhof). Numerous congregations have been named after such Hofs (e.g., Kohlhof, Weierhof), and in South Germany many congregations began as household (Hof) meetings.
Bibliography
Hein, Gerhard. "The Development of the Mennonite 'Hot' of the Seventeenth Century Palatinate into the Mennonite Church of Pfalz-Rheinland Today." Mennonite Quarterly Review XXIX (1955): 188-96.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1092. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.
©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.
MLA style: Bender, Harold S. "Hof." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 25 May 2013. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/hof.
APA style: Bender, Harold S. (1959). Hof. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 May 2013, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/hof.
