The sect was created by members of the Philadelphian Society, who were a group of Christian dissenters and mystics based in England.
The Zionites were founded at Elberfeld in Wuppertal, Germany in 1726 by Elias Eller and the pastor Daniel Schleiermacher.
He had read the writings of ancient and modern visionaries and then formed an apocalyptic, millenarian system of his own.
The newlyweds were known as "the mother and father of Zion" and prophesied that Anna would bear the male saviour of the world.
[1] The theology became centralised around Eller, and the "Christian morality" which the Zionites were founded upon was replaced by the craving for coarse and sensual pleasures.