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How to Live Together

True Inspirationists (Amanas) 


Middle Amana, Iowa, USA
Religious, Christian
Multi-Family 
Communal Property 
1842-1932 (transitioned to join stock company) 



1 Family 1, 2 Family 2, 3 Family 3, Family 4, 5 Woodshed 6 Wash House, 7 Latrine

The religious beliefs of the Amanas emphasized simplicity, plainness, and uniformity. Dwellings, and most buildings, were unadorned but well proportioned with pitched roof.  Central hallways divides the dwelling into four, two-bedroom apartments. Three or four families shared the same entrance. A rabatt was built along the foundation for herbs and flowers with attached washhouse and woodshed.

In 1931, after almost one hundred years of communal living the Amanas underwent “The Great Change.” The Amanas transitioned from a system of common property into a joint-stock corporation and the rule of the church was replaced by a board of directors. The Amana Corporation is still operational today and produces refrigerators, fabrics, and furniture. The community has maintained certain features of the old social structure and traditions; such as free health care, care for the elderly and infirm.


Map of the Amana Colonies. Courtesty of the Ungers Archive 1890s Amana Children at play. Photo: Bertha Shambaugh. From Picturing Utopia: Bertha Shambaugh and the Amana Photographers by Abigail Foerstner 1970s Aamana Women. Photo: Couresty of the Ungers Archive 1908 Amana Women. Photo: John H. Richmond. Museum of Amana History, gift of Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret 1908 Amana Women Being Photographed. Photo: John H. Richmond. Museum of Amana History, gift of Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret

Amanas End Notes

Kellenberger, Gordon, and Jean Kellenberger. Architecture of the Amana Colonies. Amana, IA: Amana Artists Guild, 1987. Page 2.

Land and Community Associates. Culture and Environment: A Challenge for the Amana Colonies. Charlottesville, Virgina: Amana Historic Landmark Committee , 1977. Page 18.

Kellenberger, Gordon, and Jean Kellenberger. Architecture of the Amana Colonies. Amana, IA: Amana Artists Guild, 1987. Page 3

Ungers, Liselotte, and Oswald Mathias Ungers. Kommunen in Der Neuen Welt: 1740-1971. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1972.


Annie Schneider

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Communes in the New World

The question of how to live together—of how best to live together—is the foundation of any society. The last few years have exposed the fault lines in our current system: climatic catastrophe, economic crisis, supply chain collapse, civil unrest, rampant inequality, and a global pandemic. We live in congested cities and in potentially dangerous proximity, yet remain isolated. In light of these mounting pressures, it’s time to revisit the fundamentals. How to Live Together offers alternative ways of being, thinking, dwelling, and living. It calls into question every basic assumption and prevailing social norm: belief, sex, the nuclear family, property ownership, our relationship to land, production, and consumption. It is both a critique and a roadmap.