Leaving a Hutterite Colony (And Why They Come Back)

There is no fence around a Hutterite colony. Nobody is stopped at the road. A young man who wants to leave simply leaves — and he leaves with no savings, no bank account, no credit history, no résumé, and an eighth-grade education. He has worked full days since he was fifteen and cannot prove a single hour of it. My name is Andreas Wurz. I keep the books on a colony in southern Alberta. In this video: what a person actually walks out with, what happens on the telephone in the first week — which is the real reason most of them stay — what the ones who left say about us, and what happens when somebody comes back. Because a good number of them do, and the reception is not what you would expect. I also correct a mistake I made in the first video on this channel. I said something flatly that was not true of everyone, and it should not have gone unchallenged. SOURCES · battlefordsNOW (January 2026) — ex-Hutterites on leaving; the Colony to Society Association; parents calling daily and hourly · The Western Producer, "FAQs about Hutterites" — a Hutterite on children being free to return at any time; young men leaving for oil-industry work · Mary-Ann Kirkby — left Fairholme Colony, Manitoba, 1969 · Hutterites.org — adult baptism as a vow, required before marriage and full membership · Hutterite population census 2024 — 58,392 people, 544 colonies If you find an error, put it in the comments and I will pin the correction. I would rather be right than look right.