View source for Bräul, Johann J. (1854-1916)

Johann J. Bräul (Braeul), born 8 July 1854, died 1 November 1916, and son of Johann Bräul, was an early teacher of the village school in Orloff, South [[Russia|Russia]]. The father was an advocate of progressive methods in a period of transition in Mennonite education in Russia and the son absorbed these ideas. He attended the [[Halbstadt Zentralschule (Halbstadt, Molotschna Mennonite Settlement, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine)|Halbstadt Zentralschule]] with [[Unruh, Kornelius Benjamin (1849-1910)|Kornelius Unruh]], and continued his education in [[Moscow (Russia) |Moscow]] and [[Odessa (Ukraine)|Odessa]] (1873-1875) with him and with [[Friesen, Peter Martin (1849-1914)|P. M. Friesen]]. He was the first Mennonite of the [[Molotschna Mennonite Settlement (Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine)|Molotschna]] to acquire a state license for teaching elementary schools in the city. In 1874-1875 he was the zemstvo teacher in the two-class Orloff elementary school. In August 1875 he was engaged to teach the Russian language and Russian history and physics at the noted [[Ohrloff Mennonitische Zentralschule (Ohrloff, Molotschna Mennonite Settlement, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine)|Ohrloff Zentralschule]]. To him a whole generation of Mennonite leaders owed the foundation of their intellectual and religious stamp. J. J. Bräul impressed upon all his students, Mennonite or non-Mennonite, a deep understanding of Russia's people, history, and culture. In 1884 while he was teaching at the Zentralschule, he passed with distinction the teacher's examination in Russian language, history, and geography. During the period of extreme tensions between the Russian school boards and the national minorities, which were to be degraded to an inferior position, Bräul rendered the Mennonite colonies a real service by his conciliatory mediation. He was accused of pro-Russian sympathies; but his deathbed declarations made it clear that he had at heart remained true to the brotherhood and its Christian confession of faith. His oldest son was J. J. Bräul, a graduate engineer, who settled in the Warthegau (western [[Poland|Poland]] near [[Poznań Voivodeship (Poland)|Posen]]) with the Mennonite settlers who were removed from Russia by the German army in the latter part of [[World War (1939-1945) - Soviet Union|World War II]].
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