Reimer family name
Reimer is a Mennonite family name that probably originated in the Netherlands and was brought to West Prussia by religious refugees. At any rate, members of the Reimer family took part in the reclaiming of the land north of Tiegenhof in the great Marienburg Werder.
In 1626 Michel Reimer is mentioned in Glabitsch north of the Vistula at Elbing. Two decades later he became a councilor of this village, an area that had just emerged from the fresh-water lake about 1600. In the neighboring Poppau, Isebrandt Reimer took part in the draining of this land which is below sea level. The Reimers were also active settlers in the Scharpau. Franz Reimer on the "Polish Hube" passed his land on to a Wiens about 1640, and Wilm Reimer was living on the Schröderskampe near Altebabke ca. 1650. Johann Reimer was one of the founders of the village called Reinland, whose lands did not become arable until 1725.
Over the course of several centuries the Reimers in the Werder moved to the south. In 1936 there were 14 Reimers in the Fürstenwerder congregation, 5 in Tiegenhagen, 28 in Ladekopp, 18 in Rosenort, 76 in Heubuden, 15 in the Danzig congregation, 1 in Elbing-Ellerwald, 2 in Thiensdorf-Preussisch Rosengart, 5 in Tragheimerweide, and 1 in the Ludwigshafen congregation in the Palatinate. This makes a total of 165. There were also Reimers among the West Prussian Mennonites who chose to immigrate to Russia. Gustav Reimer (1884-1955), a deacon in the Heubuden congregation, was prominent figure in the West Prussian Conference; he moved to Uruguay in 1950.
Many leaders emerged from the Reimer family among the Mennonites of Russia. Klaas Reimer (1770-1837) was the founder of the Kleine Gemeinde in 1812. Ever since then Reimer has been a prominent name among ministers and family heads in this group, both in Russia and in Canada. Jakob Reimer (1817-91) was one of the founders of the Mennonite Brethren (MB) in the Molotschna Mennonite settlement in 1860. Jacob W. Reimer (1860-1948) was an outstanding preacher and Bible teacher in the MB group both in Russia and in Canada. Jakob A. Reimer (1843-1917) was an outstanding layman in the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCM), sharing in the founding of the Zagradovka settlement in the Ukraine, and serving as the leader (1908) and Oberschulze of the Slavgorod settlement in Siberia. The Reimer family name has become most commonly found among Mennonites (GCM and Manitoba, Canada) in the United States, Canada, and South America.
Bibliography
Crous, Franz. "Mennonitenfamilien in Zahlen." Mennonitische Geschichtesblätter 5 (1940): 26-45.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 454.
Penner, Horst. Ansiedlung mennonitischer Niederländer im Weichselmündungsgebiet von der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Weierhof, 1940.
Reimer, Gustav E. Die Familiennamen der westpreussischen Mennoniten. Weierhof, 1940.
| Author(s) | Horst Penner |
|---|---|
| Ernst Crous | |
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Penner, Horst and Ernst Crous. "Reimer family name." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Reimer_family_name&oldid=106640.
APA style
Penner, Horst and Ernst Crous. (1959). Reimer family name. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Reimer_family_name&oldid=106640.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 276-277. All rights reserved.
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