How many JW in the 1920's

xaminewt

I'm trying to find out how many JW there were globally in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1928. The Watchtower of 1926 says that there were 25,000 in attendance at the Magdeburg convention for the public address, but the same Watchtower say that one the last day of the convention there were 15,000 present, so I assume at least 10,000 were interested persons - non JW. The Watchtower 1955 says: "For this year of 1927 the number in attendance at the spring Memorial internationally was 88,544, yet of these only some 18,602 were active as house-to-house Kingdom announcers". These statistics would seem to imply that the majority of JW in 1926 were at the Magdeburg convention. I find that really hard to believe. Were almost all JW German? I must be missing something. I know this may sound really uninteresting, but I need the statistics for some research I'm doing at the moment regarding WT interpretation of the 1,335 days. I would like to know how many baptized JW there were globally in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, not how many people were at the memorial, or how many were interested but not baptized. Thanks in advance.

P.S. If anyone has any statistics I would be grateful if you could provide references. Thanks again.

St George of England

I was always under the impression that statistics for this period were never produced due to "the great disappointment".

Nothing happened in 1925 when JFR said all the old prophets would return to rule the earth.

George

BelisemDeBelimakom

I highly recommend you to read the book 30 Years A Watctower Slave written by William J. Schnell. He lived in Germany in those years (1920-30s) and worked in important positions for the Organisation. He explains in detail how the pilot application initiated in Germany was adapted to the USA and from there to the whole world.

dropoffyourkeylee

The published numbers of Bible Student/JW members over the decades since the '20s are not likely to be of much use, as the definition of 'member' has continued to change. JWs have always struggled with defining 'member'. This was one of the things that Rutherford and his seven accomplices got into trouble for during WW1 and found themselves in prison. The Bible Students previously had always said they weren't a religion, didn't have a clergy, etc. and never bothered with defining membership. Then they issued affidavits for men called up under the selective service asserting they were members of a pacifist religion. After WW1 they changed their stance and required people to provide a record of preaching work, which I believe was motivated at the time to create a written record to substantiate 'membership'. It was all about the draft.

In recent decades (post WW2), membership has been defined as 'regular publisher', not attendance at meetings, not baptism, but publisher with a written (now electronic) service record.

blondie

In 1925 I think the number of partakers was about 95,000 (Bible Students then) all considered anointed, so the worldwide membership. After the end did not come in 1925 as predicted by the WTS, the next memorial in 1925 was about 25,000 partakers (members). I don't think membership worldwide, did not reach 1,000,000 until around 1965 "During this past service year of 1965 there were 24,158 congregations in more than 190 lands, and a monthly average of 1,034,268 publishers from among the remnant and the “other sheep.” (WT February 15, 1966 p. 122)

xaminewt

thanks for the reply blondie. So 95,000 partakers in 1925, then the next year 25,000 (may I ask where you're getting the figures for the memorial after 1925 from cos I can't find them anywhere?). Okay. What's confusing me is that there were 25,000 at the 1926 Convention in Magdeburg. Having read the 1926 article discussing that convention it appears 10,000 were interested ones, as on another day of the convention there were only 15,000. So even if we take the 10,000 figure, it would imply that a third of all Bible students globally at that time were at the Magdeburg Convention. Now I know that most Bible Students wont have been able to journey from the States to Germany, and the same would be true for other countries. But these figures seem to imply that 1 out of 3 Bible students worldwide were in Germany at a single convention. I know this may sound a very pointless question, but it's quite relevant to a point I'm researching, but it's quite complex so don't want to go into detail.

blondie

xamnewt "The converse occurred after 1925 came and went without incidence. Memorial attendance dropped by three-quarters, from 88,544 in 1927 to just 17,380 in 1928. (Watchtower 1955 p.366; Yearbook 1929 p.55) (Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose p.313) It is estimated that as many as 75% of publishers left the religion and by 1935 memorial attendance was still only 63,146.3 It took until 1940 to once again reach the same number of Watchtower followers as the pre-1925 era. "https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1925.php

Sorry, my memory is faulty. The above is better.

WT 1955 p.366 "For this year of 1927 the number in attendance at the spring Memorial internationally was 88,544, yet of these only some 18,602 were active as house-to-house Kingdom announcers."

Try searching for this: W 1927, p. 302; 1929 Yearbook, p. 55.

Marcial

ZERO 0 In 1920 Jehovah's Witnesses did not exist, it was not until 1936 that they appeared on the world scene with Rutherford.

Jeffro

The denomination Jehovah’s Witnesses was named in 1931 to distinguish Rutherford’s branch of the Bible Student movement from other Bible Student sects. So there were 0 JWs in the 1920s. See also “… As Jehovah’s Witnesses Were Then Known” (part of review of Pure Worship book).

Aside from the semantic distinction, by the late 1920s many of the original Bible Students from Russell’s time had left for other groups, but there was also an influx of new members from the late 1920s into the 1930s.

Gorb

Big part of the early JW population were white elderly people.

G.

How many JW in the 1920's

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