Templers (Radical Pietist sect)
Hoffmann's thinking was inspired by the 1st-century Christian community and based on Matthew's Gospel in regard to Old Testament prophecies and their relevance to the coming of Jesus Christ.
Here they built a thriving community, suffered a devastating typhoid fever epidemic, began planning their move to Palestine, and changed their name to the Temple Society.
Their settlement in the Holy Land found a warm support through Wilhelm Hoffmann (1806–1873), who was no apostate from the official church, like his younger brother Christoph.
Despite this setback Hoffmann wrote, "we have not given up hope for the recovery of the King of Prussia", but unfortunately Frederick had become unwell, and his "illness prevented him from offering any support to the Templers.
"[8] Unperturbed by objections from the Evangelical State Church and the Catholic sector, and the resignation of some members from the Society, Hoffmann and Hardegg left for a fact-finding trip to Palestine on 9 February 1858, along with agriculturist J. Bubeck.
[10] They had already come to the conclusion that basing themselves in Jerusalem would not be practical, planning to settle nearby, close to Nazareth, but during their journey they were advised that Haifa would be more suitable, due to its good harbour and climate.
[12] He asked his son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to build, on the alignment of the Templer Colony road (Carmel Avenue) but halfway up the mountain, the shrine to the forerunner of the religion (who was known as "the Bab").
The Templers established a regular coach service between Haifa and the other cities, promoting the country's tourist industry, and made an important contribution to road construction.
A second wave of pioneer settlers founded Wilhelma (now Bnei Atarot) in 1902 near Lod, (1903) near the original Jaffa colony, followed by Bethlehem of Galilee (1906) and Waldheim (now Alonei Abba) in 1907.
[15] In April 1920 the Allies convened at the Conference of San Remo and agreed on the British rule in Palestine, followed by the official establishment of the civil administration on 1 July 1920.
The League of Nations legitimised the British administration and custodianship by granting a mandate to Britain in 1922, which Turkey, the Ottoman successor, finally ratified by the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on 24 July 1923 and becoming effective on 5 August 1925.
The Bank of the Temple Society, formed in 1925 with its head office in Jaffa and branches in Haifa and Jerusalem, became one of the leading credit institutions in Palestine.
All international schools of German language subsidised or fully financed by government funds were obliged to redraw their educational programmes and to solely employ teachers aligned to the Nazi party.
According to historian Yossi Ben-Artzi, "The members of the younger generation to some extent broke away from naive religious belief, and were more receptive to the Nazi German nationalism.
"[21] At the start of World War II colonists with German citizenship were rounded up by the British and sent, together with Italian and Hungarian enemy aliens, to internment camps in Waldheim and Bethlehem of Galilee.
[23] In 1939, at the start of World War II, the British authorities declared the Templers enemy nationals, placed them under arrest and deported many of them to Australia.
[citation needed] After its foundation, the State of Israel—with the fresh memory of the Holocaust—was adamant in not permitting any ethnic Germans, of a community which had expressed pro-Nazi sympathies, to remain in or return to its territory.
