|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | === Introduction ===
| |
| − | <p>Modern Germany, established as a nation in 1871 by the Treaty of Versailles
| |
| − | following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, suffered considerable territorial
| |
| − | loss in the East as a result of defeats in [[World_War_(1914-1918)|World Wars
| |
| − | I]] (area 180,999 sq. mi. in 1919) and [[World_War_(1939-1945)_-_Germany|World War II]] (136,462
| |
| − | sq. mi. in 1946) and in mid-20th century had no territory east of the Oder-Neisse
| |
| − | River line. All the German population, with small exceptions, living east of
| |
| − | that line was evacuated or expelled westward and was added to the population
| |
| − | of the truncated Republic of Germany, with a (1946) population of 65,151,019
| |
| − | excluding the Saar. All the Mennonites who had lived in [[Danzig_(Poland)|Danzig]] and [[East Prussia|East]] and [[West Prussia]], as well as those in the three congregations in [[Poland]], were
| |
| − | transported westward in this action, some of them later emigrating to [[Canada]] and [[Uruguay]].
| |
| − | In 1956 the country was still divided into East Germany (Russian
| |
| − | Zone) with a population of some 18,000,000, in which there were possibly a
| |
| − | maximum of 800 Mennonites of former West Prussian residence, but no
| |
| − | organized congregations or ordained ministers, and West
| |
| − | Germany with about 47,000,000 and some 15,000 Mennonites (souls). The total
| |
| − | number of baptized Mennonites in 1955 in Germany was about 11,500 in 60 congregations.
| |
| − | Of these, 18 congregations with some 7,200 baptized members (total 8,700 souls)
| |
| − | were in North Germany (above [[Frankfurt_am_Main_(Hesse,_Germany)|Frankfurt]]), 36 congregations were in South Germany
| |
| − | with about 4,500 baptized members (5,400 souls), of which 18 are in the [[Palatinate_(Rheinland-Pfalz,_Germany)|Palatinate]] and
| |
| − | Hesse with 2,400 members, 9 were in Baden, 6 were in [[Württemberg_(Germany)|Württemberg]], 8 were in
| |
| − | [[Bavaria]], and one in Frankfurt, these last 24 congregations having a total of
| |
| − | 2,100 members. Of the congregations in North Germany 9 were refugee congregations
| |
| − | of former Danzig-West Prussian origin established since 1945. Many such refugees
| |
| − | also became members of the old established congregations in both North and
| |
| − | South Germany.</p>
| |
| | | | |
| − | [[File:BRD.png|300px|thumb|right|<br />
| |
| − | ''Source: [http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bild:BRD.png&filetimestamp=20071008121208 Wikipedia Commons]'']]
| |
| − |
| |
| − | <p>The German Mennonite congregations were all (except Frankfurt) members of
| |
| − | one of two conferences: (1) [[Vereinigung_der_deutschen_Mennonitengemeinden_(Union_of_German_Mennonite_Congregations)|Vereinigung der Deutschen
| |
| − | Mennonitengemeinden]], mostly North Germany with the Palatinate and Hesse,
| |
| − | and (2) the [[Verband_deutscher_Mennonitengemeinden_(Federation_of_Mennonite_Churches)|Verband Badisch-Württembergisch-Bayrischer
| |
| − | Mennonitengemeinden]], almost all of whose congregations were in the three
| |
| − | last indicated territories. In addition, the [[Konferenz_süddeutscher_Mennonitengemeinden|Süddeutsche Konferenz}} included
| |
| − | practically all the congregations in the Palatinate and Hesse and in the Verband,
| |
| − | although this conference was not quite the same in character as the other two.
| |
| − | Most of the congregations of the Palatinate and Hesse were members also of
| |
| − | a local conference called the Pfälzisch-Hessische Konferenz. The refugee congregations
| |
| − | of the former Danzig-West Prussia area were represented in a ministerial committee
| |
| − | called "Aeltestenausschuss der Konferenz der west- und ostpreussischen
| |
| − | Mennonitengemeinden." A committee for cooperation in North Germany (Gemeinden-Ausschuss
| |
| − | in Nord-deutschland) was formed to help the nine old North German congregations
| |
| − | and the nine new North German refugee congregations to work together. A "Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Zentral-Ausschuss" served as liaison between the German conferences and
| |
| − | the [[Mennonite_Central_Committee_(International)|Mennonite Central Committee]] (MCC) of North America,
| |
| − | which conducted relief work in Germany after 1946 and in 1956 had permanent
| |
| − | German and European headquarters in Frankfurt (Eysseneckstrasse 54). Four other
| |
| − | organizations formed which represented or served all Mennonites in Germany
| |
| − | regardless of conference affiliation: (1) [[Mennonitischer_Geschichtsverein_(Germany)|Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Geschichtsverein]],
| |
| − | (2) Mennonitisches Altersheim, (3) [[Mennonitische_Siedlungshilfe_e.V.|Mennonitische Siedlungshilfe]], (4) Deutsches
| |
| − | Mennonitisches Missionskommittee.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The only German Mennonite church paper in 1956 was the <em>[[Gemeindeblatt_der_Mennoniten_(Periodical)|Gemeindeblatt der
| |
| − | Mennoniten]], </em>published since 1870 by the Verband. <em>Der Mennonit </em>(founded
| |
| − | in 1948), though printed (at Karlsruhe) and edited in Germany, was published
| |
| − | as an international European Mennonite journal by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Full information
| |
| − | about the German Mennonite congregations, organizations, and institutions
| |
| − | was found in the yearbook, <em>Mennonitischer </em><em>Gemeinde-Kalender, </em>published
| |
| − | since 1892 by the South German Conference. The <em>[[Mennonitische
| |
| − | Geschichtsblätter]], </em>founded
| |
| − | in 1936, was the organ of the Mennonite Historical Society ([[Mennonitischer_Geschichtsverein_(Germany)|Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Geschichtsverein]]).</p>
| |
| − |
| |
| − | [[File:GermanyW1.jpg|272px|thumb|left|]]
| |
| − | [[File:GermanyW2.jpg|272px|thumb|left|<br />
| |
| − | ''Source: Wikipedia Commons'']]
| |
| − |
| |
| − | <p>German Mennonite institutions included four old people's homes in Germany—Leutesdorf,
| |
| − | Enkenbach, Pinneberg, and [[Burgweinting_Home_for_the_Aged_(Regensburg,_Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany)|Burgweinting]]; two relief agencies, [[Mennonitisches
| |
| − | Hilfswerk "Christenpflicht"]] founded in 1924, and Hilfswerk der Vereinigung
| |
| − | der Deutschen Mennonitengemeinden founded in 1947. There was also a Genossenschaftliches
| |
| − | Flüchtlingswerk to aid in resettlement of refugees in Germany. Only the Verband
| |
| − | has a [[deaconess]] work. The Mennonite board of directors of the former Weierhof
| |
| − | school (Verein für die Anstalt am Donnersberg) operated a student house (Schülerheim)
| |
| − | connected with the public high school (Gymnasium) at Kirchheimbolanden near [[Weierhof_(Rheinland-Pfalz,_Germany)|Weierhof]].
| |
| − | The Verband had a significant institution in the Bibelheim [[Thomashof_(Baden-Württemberg,_Germany)|Thomashof]], founded
| |
| − | in 1920, a spiritual retreat center.</p>
| |
| − | === Anabaptism in Germany, 1525-1650 ===
| |
| − | <p>At the time of the rise of [[Anabaptism]] (1525-1535)
| |
| − | what is now called Germany was a collection of 256 autonomous political units
| |
| − | within a loosely organized Empire, called the Holy Roman Empire. Although [[Switzerland]],
| |
| − | the [[Netherlands]], and North [[Italy]] were technically within
| |
| − | the empire, they were actually independent, and the [[Hapsburg,_House_of|Hapsburg]] dominions, including
| |
| − | [[Bohemia_(Czech_Republic)|Bohemia]], [[Moravia_(Czech_Republic)|Moravia]], Silesia, and Lusatia, were outside the orbit of Germany proper.
| |
| − | The account of the Anabaptist movement in this article will therefore exclude
| |
| − | all these territories. The area "Germany" in the 16th century as
| |
| − | it is used here had therefore much the same boundaries as modern Germany 1871-1914,
| |
| − | although, not having a unified government, it was broken up into many separate
| |
| − | governments with varying religious policies.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The soil in Germany had gradually become rather well prepared for a new religious
| |
| − | movement. Already in the late Middle Ages sectarian tendencies had entered
| |
| − | Germany ([[Waldenses]], 1211-1480; [[Brethren_of_the_Common_Life|Brethren
| |
| − | of the Common Life]] since 1401; etc.).
| |
| − | Erasmus and [[Luther,_Martin_(1483-1546)|Luther]], each in his way, were outstanding advocates of church reform.
| |
| − | In the early twenties of the 16th century [[Karlstadt,_Andreas_Rudolff-Bodenstein_von_(1486-1541)|Karlstadt]], [[Müntzer,_Thomas_(1488/9-1525)|Müntzer]],
| |
| − | and the [[Zwickau_Prophets|Zwickau Prophets]] (Storch, etc.) each propagated
| |
| − | a reform of his own, which were often wrongly called Anabaptist. Yet it was
| |
| − | not the criticism of [[Infant_Baptism|infant baptism]] which was decisive, but the introduction
| |
| − | of adult baptism. So Anabaptism proper, arising out of Zwingli's reform, was
| |
| − | part of the original Reformation movement.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>South and Middle Germany</h4>
| |
| − | <p>Anabaptism entered Germany first from the South (Switzerland, where it began
| |
| − | in [[Zürich_(Switzerland)|Zürich]] in January 1525. [[Reublin,_Wilhelm_(1480/84-after_1559)|Wilhelm
| |
| − | Reublin]], appearing in [[Waldshut_(Baden-Württemberg,_Germany)|Waldshut]] from Zürich in April 1525, baptized Dr. [[Hubmaier,_Balthasar_(1480%3F-1528)|Balthasar
| |
| − | Hubmaier]], the pastor of the Lutheran Church there, and they together baptized
| |
| − | most of the congregation, some 360 persons in all. In July Hubmaier published
| |
| − | his <em>Von dem Christlichen Tauff der Gläubigen</em>. Other pamphlets by him
| |
| − | followed. But in December of that year the Austrians conquered the city and
| |
| − | forced Hubmaier to flee, practically ending the Anabaptist congregation. Hubmaier
| |
| − | went to [[Augsburg_(Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany)|Augsburg]] next, where early in 1526 he established an Anabaptist congregation
| |
| − | which became very large and influential, but he went on to [[Moravia_(Czech_Republic)|Moravia]], leaving
| |
| − | Augsburg in the hands of [[Denck,_Hans_(ca._1500-1527)|Hans Denck]], whom he had baptized in May 1526.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Augsburg and [[Strasbourg_(Alsace,_France)|Strasbourg]] now displaced Zürich and Switzerland as the centers
| |
| − | of the growing Anabaptist movement, remaining so for some years. [[Sattler,_Michael_(d._1527)|Michael
| |
| − | Sattler]], a noble man of God, became the chief leader in this area of southwest
| |
| − | Germany until his execution at [[Rottenburg_am_Neckar_(Baden-Württemberg,_Germany)|Rottenburg]] in May 1527. He was no doubt the
| |
| − | leader of the [[Schleitheim_(Schaffhausen,_Switzerland)|Schleitheim]] conference, the first Anabaptist conference, of February
| |
| − | 1527, and the author of the notable confession which it produced, the <em>[[Brüderliche_Vereinigung_zwischen_uns_und_etlichen_Brüdern_am_Rheinstrom|Brüderliche
| |
| − | Vereinigung]]. </em> Hans Denck, who moved about in the area Augsburg-Basel-Strasbourg-Worms,
| |
| − | was the leader of a somewhat more mystical-spiritualist wing, but died at Basel
| |
| − | in November 1527. He was related in spirit to men like [[Bünderlin,_Johannes_(1499-1533)|Johannes Bünderlin]] of [[Linz_(Oberösterreich,_Austria)|Linz]], a more radical spiritualist and only for a short time an Anabaptist (1527-1529), [[Entfelder,_Christian_(16th_century)|Christian Entfelder]], likewise only briefly in the movement, and [[Kautz,_Jakob_(1500-1532%3F)|Jakob Kautz]] of Worms. The Sattler and Denck groups remained separate at Strasbourg,
| |
| − | and probably constituted two distinct bodies. Denck preferred the "Inner
| |
| − | Word" to the "Outer Word," and taught Christ as a teacher to
| |
| − | follow and imitate rather than as a redeemer whose atonement saves men. Jakob
| |
| − | Kautz's <em>Seven Theses </em>of 7 June 1527 at Worms also carry this position.
| |
| − | Sattler was a full Biblicist and a thorough evangelical.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Meanwhile in 1526-1527 [[Hut,_Hans_(d._1527)|Hans Hut]], (d.
| |
| − | December 1527 in prison in [[Augsburg_(Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany)|Augsburg]] where he had been arrested in September)
| |
| − | had become a most effective evangelist for the Anabaptist cause, winning many
| |
| − | converts in Swabia, Franconia, Bavaria, Salzburg, and [[Tyrol_(Austria)|Tyrol]]. In Augsburg men
| |
| − | of note became leaders of the Anabaptist congregation in 1527-1530, like <a title="Salminger, Sigmund (16th century)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/S24693.html">Sigmund
| |
| − | Salminger</a> and the patrician <a title="Langenmantel, Eitelhans (d. 1528)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/langenmantel_eitelhans_d._1528">Hans Langenmantel</a><em>. </em>A noted conference
| |
| − | was held here 20 August 1527, often called the "<a href="M378595.html">Martyrs'
| |
| − | Synod</a>" because
| |
| − | so many of the missioners sent out from there lost their lives as martyrs within
| |
| − | the following years.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Another early center of Anabaptism was found in Hesse, <a href="T5957.html">Thuringia</a>, and Franconia,
| |
| − | where <a href="M858.html">Thomas Müntzer</a> had had some influence in 1523-1525.
| |
| − | Melchior Rinck was the first Anabaptist leader here in 1528-1531 (in prison
| |
| − | 1531-1551, where he died) near Hersfeld and Sorga, where there was a congregation.
| |
| − | Moravian Anabaptist (<a href="H888ME.html">Hutterite</a>) influences were strong
| |
| − | here for a time, numerous missioners coming here from the base in <a title="Moravia (Czech Republic)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/M6692.html">Moravia</a>,
| |
| − | including the noted Peter Riedemann, who wrote his great <em>Rechenschaft</em>, in
| |
| − | prison near <a href="M3713.html">Marburg</a> (Wolkersdorf) in 1540-1541. Anabaptists were in considerable
| |
| − | strength in Hesse as late as 1578, when Hans Kuchenbecker and his brethren
| |
| − | drew up an elaborate confession of faith for the authorities (<em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>24, 24-34). Their criticism of the poor quality of life
| |
| − | in the state church contributed greatly through <a href="B815.html">Bucer</a> to the introduction of
| |
| − | the ceremony of confirmation, which passed from here into other Lutheran and
| |
| − | Reformed state churches.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The next outstanding leader to arise was <a href="M3745.html">Pilgram Marpeck</a> of
| |
| − | Rattenberg on the Inn, converted an Anabaptist in 1528, living in Strasbourg
| |
| − | 1528-1532, then chiefly in <a href="U423.html">Ulm</a> and <a href="A891.html">Augsburg</a> until his death at the latter place
| |
| − | in 1556. He was the most notable doctrinal writer of the South German Anabaptists
| |
| − | (see his <em>Vermahnung </em>of 1542 and <em>Verantwortung </em>of 1544, both
| |
| − | against <a href="S388.html">Caspar Schwenckfeld</a>, and his <em>Testamentserläuterung </em>of
| |
| − | much the same time). He was the leader of a strong group, as the recent discovery
| |
| − | of some 42 letters by him (found in a Bern library) attests.</p>
| |
| − | <p>As soon as the German authorities, both Catholic and Protestant, became aware
| |
| − | of the rising Anabaptist movement, they used every means at their command to
| |
| − | destroy it. The first Anabaptist mandates by the [[Hapsburg, House of|Hapsburg]] rulers appeared in
| |
| − | 1527. The notorious edict of the Diet of Speyer, ordering the extermination
| |
| − | of the Anabaptists throughout the Empire, was issued 22 April 1529. In explanation
| |
| − | of the attitude of the authorities, the close connection between the territorial
| |
| − | government and the local church, which was already true at that time, must
| |
| − | not be overlooked. It might have been possible to reform the whole of any given
| |
| − | territorial church, but only as a whole and only in so far as the authorities
| |
| − | thought fit. <a href="L9222.html">Luther</a> and <a href="Z97.html">Zwingli</a> and their followers
| |
| − | had to learn that, and only as far as they learned it did they succeed at
| |
| − | least partly. Hubmaier and the <a href="M850.html">Münster</a> Anabapists tried
| |
| − | to go the same way, but they failed. And neither a congregation of saints nor
| |
| − | the <a title="Baptism" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/B3689.html">baptism</a> of adults could win public opinion; <a title="Nonconformity" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/N651ME.html">nonconformity</a> and <a title="Nonresistance" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/N656ME.html">nonresistance</a>,
| |
| − | the refusal of <a title="Oath" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/O358.html">oaths</a>, nonpayment of war taxes, and refusal of public offices,
| |
| − | sometimes a leaning toward the revolutionary peasants, sometimes the hope that
| |
| − | the coming of the Turks would announce the coming of Christ, made them suspect.
| |
| − | And the magistrates felt responsible for the spiritual as well as for the physical
| |
| − | welfare of their subjects. The Anabaptists' high morality, courage, and unflinching
| |
| − | fidelity to their convictions impressed many again and again, but these were
| |
| − | not sufficient to change the attitude of the others in general. So the advice
| |
| − | of the Lutheran and Reformed theologians guided by their own creed, and the
| |
| − | decisions of the lawyers guided by their tradition, resulted in a persecution
| |
| − | with all the cruelty of medieval law and punishment (e.g., to counterfeit a
| |
| − | coin was punished by burning at the stake). Hege (<em><a href="M4776.html">Mennonitisches Lexikon</a></em> III,
| |
| − | 6 and 7) for the first 20 years (1525-1544) alone enumerates 110 <a href="M3537.html">mandates</a> against
| |
| − | the Anabaptists: 27 Swiss, 27 Austrian, 15 Bavarian and Swabian, 16 Franconian,
| |
| − | Hessian, Saxon, and Thuringian, 6 Alsatian, 4 Palatine, after 1530 also 8 in
| |
| − | the north, besides 7 of the Emperor and the Empire in general. But though the
| |
| − | principle of persecution was more or less the same, everywhere the practice
| |
| − | showed much variation. The number of mandates also illustrates the number of
| |
| − | Anabaptists in the one and the other area. Apart from Reformed Switzerland,
| |
| − | the keenest persecutors were the Catholic <a href="F467.html">King Ferdinand I</a> of Austria and the
| |
| − | Catholic dukes of Bavaria. Among the Protestant princes the electors of <a href="S328.html">Saxony</a>,
| |
| − | supported by their theologians, did not shrink from capital punishment (first
| |
| − | case 1530 at <a title="Reinhardsbrunn (Thuringia, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/reinhardsbrunn_thuringia_germany">Reinhardsbrunn</a> in <a href="T5957.html">Thuringia</a>), whereas the <a href="P5149.html">Landgrave
| |
| − | of Hesse</a> never
| |
| − | had an Anabaptist executed and even in cases when Saxony was also concerned
| |
| − | he prevailed upon the elector to be content with imprisonment for life (e.g.,
| |
| − | <a title="Erbe, Fritz (d. 1548)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/erbe_fritz_d._1548">Fritz Erbe</a>, 1532-1548 at the Wartburg near Eisenach and not far from Reinhardsbrunn).
| |
| − | The Counts Palatine in 66 years (1544-1610) several times changed their creed
| |
| − | (3 times Lutheran, 3 times Reformed), but the report of 350 killed in the one
| |
| − | year 1529 in the Palatinate (at <a href="A45684.html">Alzey</a>) is an error, though a smaller number
| |
| − | were killed there indeed. The imperial cities followed different policies and
| |
| − | were often influenced by the princes near by. At <a href="N860.html">Nürnberg</a>, Franconia, as early
| |
| − | as 26 March 1527, an Anabaptist (Wolfgang Vogel) was executed, at Schweinfurt
| |
| − | in February 1529 another (<a href="B74032.html">Georg Braun</a>)<em>. </em>In the bishoprics of <a href="B3593.html">Bamberg</a> and Würzburg half a dozen were executed in 1528, and in the margravure of Brandenburg
| |
| − | (Ansbach-Bayreuth) also about half a dozen in the same year.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The century from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 17th records
| |
| − | the decline of the Anabaptist movement; the persecution gradually reached its
| |
| − | goal. From 1548 to 1650 there were (Hege) only 78 <a href="M3537.html">mandates</a> (in sharp contrast
| |
| − | to the 110 for only the 20 years 1525-1544), the centers being the same as
| |
| − | before; e.g., 24 Austrian and 16 Swiss mandates. In 1592 the last execution
| |
| − | occurred (Thoman Haan of <a href="N5480.html">Nikolsburg</a>) in Bavaria, in 1618 the last executions
| |
| − | (Jost Wilhelm and <a href="B78726.html">Christine Brünnerin</a>) at <a href="E416.html">Egg</a> near Bregenz in Vorarlberg (<a href="T9185.html">Tyrol</a>),
| |
| − | also the last in the Holy Roman Empire. All three were connected with the Hutterites
| |
| − | who up to 1620 sent many missionaries from <a href="M6692.html">Moravia</a> to the West, as also many
| |
| − | from the West at this time fled to Moravia<em>.</em></p>
| |
| − | <p>Strasbourg long remained a chief meeting place of the Anabaptists. Here important
| |
| − | conferences were held in 1555 and 1557, in which the Northern (<a href="M4636ME.html">Menno
| |
| − | Simons</a>) doctrines of the <a href="C482ME.html">Incarnation</a> and of the <a href="B36ME.html">ban</a> were
| |
| − | repudiated by the Southern brethren. The Strasbourg conference of 1568, attended
| |
| − | by many ministers and elders from all over southern Germany, dealt chiefly
| |
| − | with certain rules of discipline. In 1557 and 1571 there were <a title="Disputations" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/disputations">disputations</a>
| |
| − | with the Lutheran and Calvinistic authorities respectively of the Palatinate,
| |
| − | the former at Pfeddersheim near Worms, the other at Frankenthal. The protocol
| |
| − | of the latter was printed in 1571. Among the 15 Anabaptist participants one
| |
| − | came from Andernach in the north, two from <a href="A4526.html">Alsace</a> in the south, half a dozen
| |
| − | from the Palatinate, one from Heilbronn, and one from Salzburg; two others
| |
| − | and two Hutterites served as observers, so to speak.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The story of the <a href="H888ME.html">Hutterites</a> is a chapter of its
| |
| − | own, not to be told here. The history of the Anabaptists in <a href="T5957.html">Thuringia</a> came
| |
| − | to its end in 1584 (Wappler, <em>Täuferbewegung </em><em>in </em><em>Thüringen), </em>that
| |
| − | of the Palatinate in 1610 (Hege, <em>Täufer </em><em>in </em><em>der Kurpfalz), </em>that
| |
| − | of <a href="T9185.html">Tyrol</a> in 1626 (Loserth, <em>Der Anabaptismus in</em> <em>Tyrol</em><em>). </em>By
| |
| − | the time of the <a href="T5881.html">Thirty Years' War</a> practically all the Anabaptists in South
| |
| − | and Middle Germany had been converted, exiled, or executed.</p>
| |
| − | <p>It is rather easy to tell the story of the Anabaptists in North Germany separately
| |
| − | from that of those in South and Middle Germany, though of course there are
| |
| − | connections, Strasbourg especially being the meeting point.</p>
| |
| − | ==== Northwest Germany ====
| |
| − | ===== Lower Rhine =====
| |
| − | <p>In Northwest
| |
| − | Germany much the same tendencies were found as in the South. As early as 1522 [[Westerburg, Gerhard (d. 1558)|Dr. Gerhard Westerburg]], a patrician of Cologne, was visited by Nicholas Storch,
| |
| − | who influenced him against <a href="I5533.html">infant baptism</a>. A little later he came in contact
| |
| − | with <a href="K3759.html">Karlstadt</a>, whose sister he married and whose
| |
| − | pamphlets and ideas he propagated. In the autumn of 1524 he even paid Zürich
| |
| − | a short visit. But in general the question of baptism became important later
| |
| − | in the North than in the South. The first martyrs of the Reformation were <a title="Clarenbach, Adolf (d. 1529)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/clarenbach_adolf_d._1529">Adolf
| |
| − | Clarenbach</a> and <a title="Fliesteden, Peter of (d. 1529)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/fliesteden_peter_of_d._1529">Peter Fliesteden</a>, both subjects of Jülich-Berg, but executed
| |
| − | at Cologne in 1529; at least Fliesteden had a moderate touch of Anabaptism.
| |
| − | About the same time (1530) <a href="H646.html">Melchior Hoffman </a> (1495-1543)
| |
| − | brought to this area from Strasbourg the idea of Anabaptism and of a special
| |
| − | doctrine of the Incarnation initiating Anabaptism here and founding a congregation
| |
| − | at Emden, and soon reaching the Netherlands also.</p>
| |
| − | <p>It was characteristic of the situation on the <a href="L724.html">Lower Rhine </a>that the dukes of
| |
| − | Jülich-Cleves-Berg-Mark-Ravensberg (Johann III, 1521-1539, Wilhelm V, 1539-1592,
| |
| − | Johann Wilhelm, 1592-1609) as well as the elector (archbishop) Hermann of Cologne
| |
| − | (1515-1547) were influenced by Erasmus and tried to follow a middle line between
| |
| − | <a href="L9222.html">Luther</a> and the Roman Catholic Church. But this middle party of reformers failed:
| |
| − | the turning point was the war (1543), when the Emperor defeated Wilhelm V,
| |
| − | gained <a href="G4493.html">Geldern</a> for himself and so for the Netherlands, and enforced a Catholic
| |
| − | polity. Later reform endeavors also failed, especially because Wilhelm V was
| |
| − | handicapped by an attack of apoplexy in 1566. (It is significant that Wilhelm
| |
| − | V was a brother-in-law for some time of Henry VIII of England and Francis I
| |
| − | of France, later of Emperor Maximilian II and of Elector— later Duke—<a href="J6410.html">Johann
| |
| − | Friedrich of Saxony</a>, who in 1547 was defeated by the Emperor.)</p>
| |
| − | <p>The "Aemter" and "Unterherrschaften" into which the duchies
| |
| − | of <a href="J845.html">Jülich</a>, <a title="Cleves, Duchy of" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/cleves_duchy_of">Cleves</a>, and Berg were divided allowed the nobility a rather independent
| |
| − | position. So the Aemter of <a href="B67430.html">Born</a>, Millen, Heinsberg,
| |
| − | Wassenberg, and Brüggen in the northwest corner of the duchy of Jülich adjoining
| |
| − | the present Dutch province of <a title="Limburg (Netherlands)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/limburg_netherlands">Limburg</a> along the Maas from Venlo to Sittard
| |
| − | became a center of the Anabaptist movement. In 1529-1532 especially the court
| |
| − | of the high bailiff (Drost) Werner von Pallant at Wassenberg was a meeting
| |
| − | place for several clergymen, most of them from the bishopric of Liege (<a href="C317.html">Campanus</a>,
| |
| − | Slachtscaep) and the duchy of <a href="B718.html">Brabant</a> (Roll, Vinne),
| |
| − | also from Westphalia (<a title="Klopreis, Johann (d. 1535)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/klopreis_johann_d._1535">Klopreis</a>), known as the "<a href="W3794.html">Wassenberger
| |
| − | Prädikanten</a>."<em> </em>Klopreis (d. 1535) had been in touch with Clarenbach;
| |
| − | from the common prison at Cologne he was rescued and brought to Wassenberg
| |
| − | as the first of this group. Here again the influence of Erasmus was found together
| |
| − | with that of <a href="L9222.html">Luther</a> and Zwingli, and also spiritualistic
| |
| − | tendencies and the rejection of <a href="I5533.html">infant baptism</a>. With the exception of <a href="C317.html">Campanus</a> (d.
| |
| − | after 1574), the leader, they went from Wassenberg to Münster in 1532-1534,
| |
| − | were baptized there, and then were sent as apostles of the kingdom of the saints
| |
| − | to Westphalia (Slachtscaep, d. 1534, and Vinne, d. 1534) and to the Rhineland
| |
| − | (Klopreis and Roll, d. 1534), all ending as martyrs to their belief.</p>
| |
| − | <p>After the first congregation at Emden (1530), the Lower Rhine-Maas congregation
| |
| − | at <a href="M27.html">Maastricht</a> (1530-1535), Cologne (1531), Aachen (1533), and <a title="Emmerich (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/emmerich_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Emmerich</a> (1534)
| |
| − | must be recorded. The first martyr of this region who is mentioned in <a href="B7350.html">van Braght's</a> <em><a href="M37858ME.html">Martyrs
| |
| − | Mir</a></em><a href="M37858ME.html"><em>ror </em></a>is <a title="Pilgrims, Veit (d. 1537)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/pilgrims_veit_d._1537">Vit to Pilgrams</a> at
| |
| − | <a href="M6534.html">München-Gladbach</a> (not 1532, as is said there, but 1537).</p>
| |
| − | <p>At Münster (Westphalia) at first a local movement for religious and social
| |
| − | reform was started by the Lutheran pastor <a href="R6852.html">Bernhard Rothmann</a> and
| |
| − | the merchant <a title="Knipperdolling, Bernt (ca. 1490-1536)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/knipperdolling_bernt_ca._1490_1536">Bernhard Knipperdolling</a>. Roll as the first of the Wassenberger
| |
| − | preachers had already introduced their vision in 1532. Then, after Melchior
| |
| − | Hoffman was imprisoned (for life, as it turned out) at Strasbourg in 1533,
| |
| − | the Dutch Anabaptists took the lead. As Hoffman had thought of himself as Elijah
| |
| − | and Strasbourg as the New Jerusalem and of the millennium immediately following
| |
| − | his imprisonment, now the baker <a title="Jan Matthijsz van Haarlem (d. 1534)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/jan_matthijsz_van_haarlem_d._1534">Jan Matthijsz van Haarlem</a> declared himself to
| |
| − | be Enoch, and <a title="Münster Anabaptists" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/M850.html">Münster</a> the New Jerusalem. The Anabaptist movement here became
| |
| − | militant, and at the same time baptism became a political rather than a religious
| |
| − | symbol. In February 1534 Matthijsz himself arrived at Münster (which now was
| |
| − | besieged by the Catholic and Protestant princes of this region), and was killed
| |
| − | in action at Easter (April 5) 1534. But one of his disciples, <a title="Beukelszoon, Jan (ca. 1509-1536)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/beukelszoon_jan_1509_1536">Jan Beukelszoon</a>
| |
| − | of Leiden, a tailor, full of eloquence and courage, under war conditions set
| |
| − | up a dictatorship as King David of Zion. Discipline was enforced, communism
| |
| − | and polygamy introduced, help asked from abroad. The fact that "banners
| |
| − | were to fly in <a href="F755.html">Friesland</a> and Holland, <a title="Limburg (Netherlands)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/limburg_netherlands">Limburg</a> and <a href="J845.html">Jülich</a>," shows what
| |
| − | districts were expected to support the enterprise. But through famine and treason
| |
| − | the city fell on 25 June 1535. Münster became Catholic again and many executions
| |
| − | followed; Beukelszoon and <a title="Knipperdolling, Bernt (ca. 1490-1536)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/knipperdolling_bernt_ca._1490_1536">Knipperdolling</a> died not before 22 January 1536. The
| |
| − | Münster catastrophe once more strengthened the hostile attitude of public opinion
| |
| − | and of the authorities against Anabaptism of all kinds.</p>
| |
| − | <p>It was <a href="M4636ME.html">Menno Simons</a> (1496-1561) in Holland and
| |
| − | North Germany who after the debacle gathered the nonresistant Anabaptists (for
| |
| − | him they were named Mennonites after 1544). Soon he had to leave the Netherlands
| |
| − | and found a refuge in <a href="E23823.html">East Friesland</a>, where in January 1544 he had a disputation
| |
| − | with <a title="Lasco, John á (1499-1560)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/lasco_john_a_1499_1560">John á Lasco</a>, the reformer of the district. Then he had to leave East
| |
| − | Friesland and went to the Lower Rhine-Maas area, where the endeavors to introduce
| |
| − | the Reformation had not yet come to an end. Menno stayed and worked "in
| |
| − | the diocese of <a title="Cologne (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/cologne_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Cologne</a>" in 1544-1546. In vain he strove for a disputation
| |
| − | with the "scholars" at Bonn (electorate of Cologne) and at <a href="W4662.html">Wesel</a> (<a title="Cleves, Duchy of" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/cleves_duchy_of">duchy of Cleves</a>). But about 1545 he lived with Lemken (see below) at <a href="I467.html">Illikhoven</a> (one part belonging to the <a href="B67430.html">Amt
| |
| − | Born</a>, duchy of Jülich, another part belonging
| |
| − | to Roosteren in the <a href="G4493.html">duchy of Geldern</a>) and Vissersweert on the Maas (Amt Born),
| |
| − | now both in the Dutch province of Limburg. He preached in the environs of both
| |
| − | places and also reached Roermond and may have founded the Anabaptist congregation
| |
| − | of Illikhoven-Vissersweert. At any rate after the Wassenberg preachers and
| |
| − | their adherents had left for Münster, and Menno had visited the region, organized
| |
| − | congregations remained or were founded anew.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Roelof Martens, usually called <a href="A264.html">Adam Pastor</a>, had been
| |
| − | ordained as elder by Menno (in 1542?) and excommunicated by <a href="D57.html">Dirk
| |
| − | Philips </a> and Menno in 1547. Nevertheless he continued his work in his district
| |
| − | from <a href="O937.html">Overijssel</a> in the Netherlands to the county of
| |
| − | Mark (Hamm) in Westphalia, having his seat at <a href="O445.html">Odenkirchen</a> (exclave
| |
| − | of the electorate of Cologne), and at Well on the Maas (duchy of Geldern),
| |
| − | here and there under the protection of a member of the van Vlodrop family.
| |
| − | Menno and Adam diverged from the orthodox Christology in opposite directions.
| |
| − | In Jesus Christ Menno, following Melchior Hoffman and <a href="O3593.html">Obbe
| |
| − | Philips</a> (d. 1568), overstated the divine nature, and Adam the human one.
| |
| − | The idea of a pure congregation called for a divine head of the church; the
| |
| − | idea of an imitation of Christ called for a human head. <a href="M38244.html">Matthias
| |
| − | Servaes</a>, ordained
| |
| − | by <a href="Z508.html">Zillis</a> (see below), and Heinrich von Knifft worked
| |
| − | especially in the area of München-Gladbach; Matthias Servaes worked also at
| |
| − | Cologne, where he was executed in 1565.</p>
| |
| − | <p>More to the South, in the Aemter <a href="B67430.html">Born</a>, Millen, etc., of the duchy of Jülich
| |
| − | the records showed an office of teaching and baptizing and of deacons for the
| |
| − | poor. About 1550 an elder <a href="L4507.html">Leitgen</a> died, and in 1550 the "principal teacher" Remken
| |
| − | Ramakers was executed at Sittard, Amt Born. They were succeeded by Theunis
| |
| − | van Hastenrath, who had his seat at <a href="I467.html">Illikhoven</a> and worked from the Maas to
| |
| − | the Rhine (from <a title="Kleve (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kleve_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Kleve</a> to Essen and from Maastricht to Bonn), being executed
| |
| − | at Linnich on the Roer in 1551. He was succeeded as elder by Lemken, formerly
| |
| − | deacon at Vissersweert in 1547 and at Illikhoven in 1550, working at first
| |
| − | in the western Aemter of the duchy of Jülich and along the Maas, later also
| |
| − | in a wider area.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Farther to the South, in the Amt Montjoie in the <a href="E477.html">Eifel</a> Mountains, <a href="Z508.html">Zillis</a>, another
| |
| − | elder, was found who together with Lemken (and the Dutch Waterlanders and
| |
| − | the South German Anabaptists) fought the rigid attitude of Menno concerning
| |
| − | excommunication and shunning from 1557 to 1560, when Menno excommunicated Lemken
| |
| − | and Zillis as well as the <a href="W381.html">Waterlanders</a>. Thus Menno
| |
| − | and his friends on the one side, and the Waterlanders, the "High Germans" (Lemken
| |
| − | and Zillis in <a href="J845.html">Jülich</a>), and the Southern Anabaptists on the other side, were
| |
| − | separated. Zillis worked in the duchy of Berg on the right side of the Rhine
| |
| − | as well as in the duchy of Jülich on the left side. There were martyrs, e.g.,
| |
| − | Palmken Palmen (1550) at <a href="B67430.html">Born</a>, <a href="M373050.html">Maria
| |
| − | of Montjoie</a> (1552) at Jülich, and Conrad
| |
| − | Koch (1565) at Honnef in the duchy of Berg. <a href="I475.html">Thomas von Imbroich</a> from Imgenbroich
| |
| − | near Montjoie was executed at Cologne in 1558. Some Hutterite missionaries
| |
| − | were executed in 1558-1559 at <a href="A2205.html">Aachen</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In spite of such sacrifices (or because of them) the congregations on the
| |
| − | <a href="L724.html">Lower Rhine </a>in general held their own to the end of the 16th century and into
| |
| − | the 17th, not being exterminated as was the case in Middle Germany and to a
| |
| − | large extent in South Germany. In May 1591 a decisive meeting took place at
| |
| − | Cologne under the guidance of <a title="Clock, Leenaert (d. after 1638)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/clock_leenaert_d._after_1638">Leenaert Clock</a>. Congregations of the Upper Rhine,
| |
| − | Breisgau, <a href="A4526.html">Alsace</a> (Strasbourg, Weissenburg), and the Palatinate (<a title="Kreuznach (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kreuznach_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Kreuznach</a>,
| |
| − | <a title="Landau (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/landau_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Landau</a>, Landesheim, <a href="N48760.html">Neustadt</a>, Worms) were represented. Of the Lower Rhine the
| |
| − | congregations of the city of Cologne, of the electorate of Cologne (Odenkirchen),
| |
| − | of the duchy of Cleves (Rees), of the duchy of Jülich (area of Milien and Maas,
| |
| − | München-Gladbach), and of the duchy of Berg were represented. Practical questions
| |
| − | prevailed, but some doctrinal questions appear in the first part of the <a href="C6618.html">Concept
| |
| − | of Cologne</a>. If on the one side the Trinity was confessed, on the other
| |
| − | side the Holy Spirit was described as a power of God (and so not as the third
| |
| − | person of the Trinity). He who was baptized according to Anabaptist order was
| |
| − | not to be rebaptized.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The 17th century put these congregations under new conditions. Anabaptists
| |
| − | were in general expelled in 1601 from the cities of <a title="Aachen (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/A2205.html">Aachen</a> and Cologne, in
| |
| − | 1614 from <a href="B8577.html">Burtscheid</a> (then belonging to the Imperial Abbey of Cornelismünster,
| |
| − | now incorporated into Aachen), and in 1628 from <a title="Odenkirchen (Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/O445.html">Odenkirchen</a>. In 1614 the united
| |
| − | duchies were divided into tolerant Cleves under the Hohenzollerns and intolerant
| |
| − | Jülich-Berg under the Wittelsbachs. From 1600 on the county of Mors with the
| |
| − | dominion of <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> for a century belonged to the tolerant <a href="O721.html">House
| |
| − | of Orange</a>. Thus, early in the 17th century a congregation was founded at
| |
| − | Krefeld, which now became the place of refuge for Mennonites on the <a href="L724.html">Lower
| |
| − | Rhine</a>,
| |
| − | as well as some congregations in the duchy of Cleves (<a title="Goch (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/goch_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Goch</a>, <a title="Kleve (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kleve_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Kleve</a>, <a title="Emmerich (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/emmerich_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Emmerich</a>,
| |
| − | Rees, <a title="Duisburg (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/duisburg_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Duisburg</a>). It is worthy of note that the founder of the congregation
| |
| − | of Krefeld, Hermann op den Graeff (1585-1642), together with a second representative,
| |
| − | Wilhelm Kreynen, signed the <a href="D674.html">Confession of Dordrecht</a> in
| |
| − | 1632.</p>
| |
| − | <h5>East Friesland</h5>
| |
| − | <p><strong><em><a href="E23823.html">East Friesland</a><a name="Friesland"></a></em></strong> remained
| |
| − | a place of refuge for the Anabaptists, first in the country, especially near
| |
| − | Krummhorn. Later there were three congregations of importance besides <a title="Emden (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/emden_niedersachsen_germany">Emden</a>:
| |
| − | <a href="N6714.html">Norden</a>, <a title="Leer (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/L4300.html">Leer</a>, and <a href="N48765.html">Neustadt-Gödens</a>. In 1612 there were a total of about 400
| |
| − | Anabaptists in East Friesland. There were also some across the eastern border
| |
| − | in the county of <a href="O5519.html">Oldenburg</a>. Among the first grants
| |
| − | of toleration for Mennonites is that given by <a href="R846.html">Count Rudolf
| |
| − | Christian</a> in 1626
| |
| − | for his country. Emden reached the climax of its history in the 16th century.
| |
| − | Situated next to the Netherlands, but maintaining its independence, it was
| |
| − | again and again (like <a href="W4662.html">Wesel</a> in a similar situation) used as a starting point
| |
| − | by the Anabaptists for influencing the Netherlands from the outside. In 1568
| |
| − | and 1579 meetings of the Waterlanders were held at Emden. In 1571 a Reformed
| |
| − | synod took place there. In 1578 there was a religious disputation between the
| |
| − | Flemish Anabaptists and the Reformed, of which the <em>Protocol </em>was published
| |
| − | in 1578; from Cologne and Groningen Anabaptist elders were present. For years <a href="L429.html">Leenaert
| |
| − | Bouwens</a> had his headquarters at <a title="Falder (Emden, Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/falder_emden_niedersachsen_germany">'t Falder</a> near Emden, and baptized 320
| |
| − | persons here alone, in other places of <a href="E23823.html">East Friesland</a> also 323, but during
| |
| − | 1551-1582 many more in the Netherlands and a few also in Cologne, Holstein,
| |
| − | and Mecklenburg. It is also probable that many refugees from here found their
| |
| − | way eastward—a few, as said before, to the adjacent Oldenburg, but practically
| |
| − | none to the district between the Weser and the Elbe (the archbishopric of <a href="B74205.html">Bremen</a>).</p>
| |
| − | <p><strong>Holstein<a name="Holstein"></a> and Prussia Proper<em>. </em></strong>The two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, the dominion of Pinneberg, and the
| |
| − | two imperial cities and Hanseatic towns of Hamburg and <a href="L778.html">Lübeck </a>were the goal
| |
| − | for many. The first place in this area where Anabaptists were to be found was
| |
| − | Lübeck. Here in 1535 the burgomaster Jürgen Wullenweber (d. 1537) took a friendly
| |
| − | attitude toward the Anabaptists. As early as 1532 Cord Roosen (1495-1553 or
| |
| − | 1554) of Korschenbroich near Grevenbroich (near München-Gladbach), had found
| |
| − | his way to Lübeck. His sons and a grandson were, surprisingly, powder manufacturers.
| |
| − | In 1546 Menno Simons held a meeting here concerning <a href="D26801.html">David
| |
| − | Joris</a> (d. 1556), and in 1552 concerning <a href="A264.html">Adam Pastor</a>.
| |
| − | In the winter of 1553-54 Menno was living at neighboring <a title="Wismar (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/wismar_mecklenburg_vorpommern_germany">Wismar</a> in Mecklenburg,
| |
| − | where he debated with the Reformed preacher <a href="M527.html">Micronius</a> (d. 1559). Here the <a href="W58.html">Wismar
| |
| − | articles</a> were adopted in 1554. Later Menno, with the Anabaptist printing
| |
| − | plant recently founded at Lübeck, went to <a title="Fresenburg (Oldesloe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/fresenburg_oldesloe_schleswig_holstein_germany">Fresenburg</a> near <a href="O5521.html">Oldesloe</a> between
| |
| − | Lübeck and Hamburg. Here arose the first congregation (<a href="F625.html">Flemish</a>) in this area;
| |
| − | and here Menno found an abode undisturbed by the authorities for his last years
| |
| − | (1554-1561).</p>
| |
| − | <p>In the second half of the 16th century the Anabaptist impact more and more
| |
| − | shifted from the eastern to the western part of this area. During the same
| |
| − | time here and often elsewhere it also changed its character more and more:
| |
| − | Anabaptists were becoming Mennonites. The struggle for a new vision was disappearing,
| |
| − | though the loyalty to convictions remained. While <a href="B371.html">Baptists</a> and
| |
| − | Quakers soon undertook to propagate the one or other of these convictions,
| |
| − | the Mennonites were content to have permission to live according to their convictions,
| |
| − | and in addition to be good manufacturers or farmers and citizens. This development
| |
| − | may be the consequence of a colonial existence, of a flight into another country,
| |
| − | where first a living had to be made.</p>
| |
| − | <p>On the west coast of <a href="S346.html">Schleswig-Holstein</a> the first
| |
| − | Mennonites (as we now may call them) appeared sometime before 1566 when five
| |
| − | of them had already been exiled, on the peninsula of <a href="E474.html">Eiderstedt</a> in the duchy
| |
| − | of Schleswig, not far from the border of the duchy of Holstein, belonging to
| |
| − | the Gottorp portion. Soon there were wholesale merchants, among them <a title="Kotte, Johann Clausen (1563/64-1623/24)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kotte_johann_clausen_1563_64_1623_24">Johann
| |
| − | Clausen Codt (also Kotte, Cotte, Cothe, Coodt)</a>, a dike-reeve who, like Marpeck,
| |
| − | early in the 17th century sustained the religious wishes of his fellow believers
| |
| − | by protecting the land and so being very helpful to the country. In 1621, when <a href="F754245.html">Duke
| |
| − | Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp</a> (1616-1659) founded <a title="Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/friedrichstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Friedrichstadt</a>
| |
| − | east of <a href="E474.html">Eiderstedt</a> as a Dutch place of refuge, he gave the Mennonites very
| |
| − | liberal privileges. Some years earlier already (1616) the king of <a title="Denmark" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/denmark">Denmark</a>,
| |
| − | who with the Gottorps and (until 1640) the counts of Schauenburg (dominion
| |
| − | of Pinneberg) shared the whole country, had founded <a title="Glückstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/gluckstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Glückstadt</a> on the Elbe,
| |
| − | south of Friedrichstadt, as a place of refuge; here from 1623 on Mennonites
| |
| − | were accepted as citizens and from 1631 on were mentioned in a grant of toleration
| |
| − | for "the Dutch
| |
| − | nation" in
| |
| − | the city. But the greatest importance for the Mennonites in this area was gained
| |
| − | by Hamburg, the imperial city, and the adjacent Altona, first a village of
| |
| − | fishermen, since 1604 a borough in the county of Pinneberg under the Schauenburgs,
| |
| − | after 1640 under the kings of Denmark, after 1664 a town under municipal law.
| |
| − | By 1575 Mennonite families were found at Hamburg (de Voss, Quins, etc., coming
| |
| − | from the Netherlands), and 1601 at Altona (Francois Noe II, whose father had
| |
| − | come from <a href="A617.html">Antwerp</a> to Hamburg, originally from Flanders).
| |
| − | At Hamburg the Mennonites made a contract with the city in 1605 (renewed in
| |
| − | 1635). Noë as a wholesale dealer had come in touch with Ernst, Count of Schauenburg,
| |
| − | and was allowed with others to settle on the "Freiheit" next to
| |
| − | Hamburg. He obtained a "<a href="P758ME.html">privilege</a>" for
| |
| − | his coreligionists in 1601 (renewed in 1635 and again in 1641). Though living
| |
| − | in different states (until 1937, when Altona was incorporated into Hamburg),
| |
| − | the Mennonites of the two places had no separate congregations.</p>
| |
| − | <p>A still larger colonization enterprise of Dutch Mennonite refugees were the
| |
| − | settlements in Prussia proper, the German melting pot. In Ducal (or East) Prussia
| |
| − | the Duke, himself excommunicated by the Pope and outlawed by the Emperor, even
| |
| − | had councilors with an Anabaptist past, from 1536 <a title="Entfelder, Christian (16th century)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/entfelder_christian_16th_century">Christian Entfelder</a>, the
| |
| − | pupil of <a href="D4485.html">Denck</a>, from 1542 <a href="W47752.html">Gerhard Westerburg</a>, the pupil of Storch and Karlstadt,
| |
| − | baptized at Münster in 1534. Immigrants were Schwenckfelders (since 1527),
| |
| − | Dutch Sacramentists (since 1527), <a href="G12.html">Gabrielites</a> (1535), <a href="B652.html">Bohemian
| |
| − | Brethren</a> (1548),
| |
| − |
| |
| − | and from ca. 1535 Dutch Anabaptists, who settled especially at Königsberg and
| |
| − | in the district of <a title="Preussisch Holland (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/preussisch_holland_warmian_masurian_voivodeship">Preussisch Holland</a> near the border of Royal (or Polish or
| |
| − | West) Prussia. After the church inspection (the duke was now following a Lutheran
| |
| − | course) in 1543 they were exiled; only a few remained. As the devastation in
| |
| − | consequence of the "Reiterkrieg" (1519-1525) opened the door for
| |
| − | immigrants into <a href="E23829.html">East Prussia</a>, so the floods of the Vistula (1540-1543) did
| |
| − | the same in <a href="W4752.html">West Prussia</a>; here the immigrants were
| |
| − | expected to drain the inundated land. The first contract was made in 1547 for
| |
| − | the Danzig Werder or delta (Reichenberg, etc.) by Philip Fresen of Edzema,
| |
| − | another in 1562 for the <a href="M373080.html">Great Marienburg (Unter) Werder</a> by the <a href="L754.html">Loysen
| |
| − | brothers</a> at <a href="T611.html">Tiegenhof</a>. In the same period Mennonite settlers reached the cities of Danzig
| |
| − | and <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> as well as the lowland to the left and the right of the Nogat (Ellerwald,
| |
| − | Little Marienburg Werder) and somewhat later also the pastures of the Great
| |
| − | Marienburg (Ober) Werder at <a title="Heubuden (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/heubuden_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Heubuden</a>. Rather early there were Mennonites also
| |
| − | along the Vistula up to <a href="T592.html">Thorn</a>. Menno visited "the elect and children of
| |
| − | God in Prussia" in the summer of 1549 and wrote them a letter in the autumn
| |
| − | of that year. Later <a href="D57.html">Dirk Philips </a>(d. 1568), its founder,
| |
| − | was at the head of the Danzig congregation. A successor of his, <a href="M49165.html">Quirin
| |
| − | Vermeulen</a> (also "van der Meulen")<em>, </em>in 1598 published a stately edition
| |
| − | of the Bible in Dutch translation (the <a href="B54011.html">Biestkens Bible</a>).</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1608 at the diet at Graudenz, the Bishop of <a title="Culm (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/culm_kuyavian_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Culm</a>, Poland, Laurentius Gumbicki,
| |
| − | made a statement to the effect that the Marienburger Werder was filled with
| |
| − | Anabaptists. Yet it is reported that at least 80 per cent of the Mennonite
| |
| − | farmers had perished of marsh fever in connection with the work of draining
| |
| − | and clearing the land. In 1642 King Ladislav IV of Poland (1632-1648) gave
| |
| − | the Mennonites a grant of privileges in which he declared that <a href="S54685.html">King
| |
| − | Sigismund Augustus</a> (1546-1572) had summoned the Mennonites into a district "which
| |
| − | then was a desolate swamp and not used. With great effort and large expenditure
| |
| − | they had made this district fertile and profitable by turning woodland into
| |
| − | arable land and establishing pumps in order to remove the water from the inundated
| |
| − | grounds covered with mud and to erect dikes against the floods of the Vistula."</p>
| |
| − | <h3>Mennonitism in Germany, 1650-1800</h3>
| |
| − | <p>We have already observed that from the second half of the 16th century the
| |
| − | Anabaptist type more and more died out in Germany and was replaced by the Mennonite
| |
| − | type. As evangelization and with it conversion and martyrdom disappeared, with
| |
| − | later generations rebaptizing disappeared also, occurring only here and there
| |
| − | within the Mennonite groups and being plainly replaced by adult baptism of
| |
| − | the following generation when grown up. Thus the imperial mandate of 1529,
| |
| − | so to speak, lost its objective; in 1768, for instance, the Imperial Court
| |
| − | at Wetzlar even recommended that the affirmation of a Mennonite might be regarded
| |
| − | the same as the oath of another. Thus the original endeavor to better the Christian
| |
| − | testimony to the world, so much resented by this world, was toned down into
| |
| − | the desire of a small religious group to be allowed to live for itself, yes,
| |
| − | according to its tradition. And this nonconformity to the world was precisely
| |
| − | what made these believers the best farmers, artisans, manufacturers, etc.,
| |
| − | now highly esteemed by the rulers in this period. So wanderings continued from
| |
| − | territories where the Mennonites were persecuted as heretics to other territories
| |
| − | where they were welcomed as good citizens. The interest of the world turned
| |
| − | more and more from religious problems to economic ones, the <a href="T5881.html">Thirty Years' War</a> being the boundary between the older and the newer attitudes.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Migrations</h4>
| |
| − | <p>Going from southwest to northeast, there are the migrations of the Swiss Brethren
| |
| − | to the <a href="P3594.html">Palatinate</a>, where after the devastations of
| |
| − | the <a href="T5881.html">Thirty Years' War</a> Elector Karl Ludwig (1617-80) gave them a <a href="P758ME.html">Privilegium</a> in
| |
| − | 1664. As early as 1652 they are found near Sinsheim (east of the Rhine, Kraichgau,
| |
| − | now <a title="Baden-Württemberg (Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/B341.html">Baden-Württemberg</a>) and soon afterwards on the Ibersheimer Hof (west of
| |
| − | the Rhine, now <a title="Rheinland-Pfalz (Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/R54.html">Rheinland-Pfalz</a>). The nobility of the <a title="Kraichgau (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/K735.html">Kraichgau</a> between Heidelberg
| |
| − | and Karlsruhe opened their domains to the Swiss refugees, as did also <a href="A4526.html">Alsace</a> and at least from the beginning of the 18th century also the margraves of Baden-<a title="Durlach (Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/durlach_karlsruhe_baden_wurttemberg_germany">Durlach</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>For many of the Swiss emigrants the new home was of rather short duration
| |
| − | because of the war of the Palatine Succession (1688-1697). The French invaded
| |
| − | and devastated the territory once more, and notwithstanding the Privilegium
| |
| − | oppressions were frequendy applied. So from 1707 on many of them searched and
| |
| − | found a more lasting place of refuge in <a href="P4662.html">Pennsylvania</a>. But many also remained
| |
| − | in Germany, some in the Palatinate, some (mostly <a href="A4574ME.html">Amish</a>)
| |
| − | crossing the Rhine and the Main to the north and founding (ca. 1750 and later)
| |
| − | settlements in <a href="N369.html">Nassau</a> and Hesse, in the county of Wittgenstein (now in Westphalia)
| |
| − | and in the county of Waldeck (now in Hesse). Soon afterwards others (Mennonites)
| |
| − | turned to the east, to the bishopric of Würzburg (now Bavaria) and the duchy
| |
| − | of Württemberg. And when <a title="Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1741-1790)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/joseph_ii_holy_roman_emperor_1741_1790">Emperor Joseph II</a>, after gaining Polish <a href="G22.html">Galicia</a> in
| |
| − | 1772, invited colonization there in 1781, since the new subjects needed instruction
| |
| − | in agriculture, 28 families, most of them Palatines, some of them. Alsatian
| |
| − | Mennonites and Amish, settled near <a title="Lemberg (L'vivs'ka oblast', Ukraine)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/lemberg_lvivska_oblast_ukraine">Lemberg</a> in 1784.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Farther to the north as early as the 17th century the Mennonites of the duchy
| |
| − | of <a href="J845.html">Jülich</a> (1654 from München-Gladbach, 1694 from <a title="Rheydt (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/rheydt_rhine_province_germany">Rheydt</a>), often linen weavers,
| |
| − | found their way to the place of refuge in this region, <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a>. In addition
| |
| − | the (great) Elector of <a href="B7375.html">Brandenburg </a>in 1654 and 1660 issued <a href="M3537.html">mandates</a> favorable
| |
| − | to the Mennonites for his duchy of Cleves, quite contrary to the intolerant
| |
| − | mandates of the Wittelsbachs in Jülich. Even in the county of Mark, now also
| |
| − | inherited by the Hohenzollerns, a small congregation existed at Hamm (now in
| |
| − | Westphalia). A center of its own was Neuwied (founded in 1652 on the Rhine
| |
| − | as the new residence of the counts of Wied. Even from the very beginning immigrants
| |
| − | of the northern group of Mennonites (Jülich, etc.) and of the southern group
| |
| − | (Switzerland, Palatinate) met here. In 1680 they were given a Privilegium,
| |
| − | and in 1768 the Count even helped them to get a church, opposite his castle
| |
| − | and in the same rococo style of architecture.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Then in the east there was the migration from <a href="W4752.html">West Prussia </a> to
| |
| − | <a href="E23829.html">East Prussia</a> (from 1713 on to the area of <a href="T6173.html">Tilsit</a>, and from 1716 on to Königsberg,
| |
| − | the attitude of the kings changing, but the local authorities continuing to
| |
| − | favor the Mennonites. Later on the Mennonites also moved to the southeast along
| |
| − | the Vistula <em>ca. </em>1750 into Poland proper (<a title="Deutsch-Wymysle (Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/deutsch_wymysle_poland">Deutsch-Wymysle</a>, and Deutsch-Kazim,
| |
| − | to the west in 1765 into the province of Brandenburg (Neumark).</p>
| |
| − | <p>Most settlements in this period secured legal toleration by a grant called
| |
| − | a "<a href="P758ME.html">Privilegium</a>" (concession). Some of these
| |
| − | concessions were given by the following rulers: (1) Duke <a title="Friedrich III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1597-1659)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/F754245.html">Friedrich III</a> of Holstein-Gottorp,
| |
| − | dated 13 February 1623, for <a title="Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/friedrichstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Friedrichstadt</a> in Schleswig; (2) Count <a title="Rudolf Christian, Count of East Friesland (1602-1628)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/R846.html">Rudolph
| |
| − | Christian</a> of <a href="E23823.html">East Friesland</a>, 26 May 1626, for his country; (3) King Christian
| |
| − | IV of Denmark, 6 June 1641, for Altona in Holstein; (4) King Ladislav IV of
| |
| − | Poland, 22 December 1642, for his country; (5) Elector <a title="Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine (1617-1680)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/C46036.html">Karl Ludwig</a> of the Palatinate,
| |
| − | 4 August 1664, for his possessions; (6) Count Friedrich of Wied, 16 December
| |
| − | 1680, for Neuwied on the Middle Rhine; (7) King <a title="Friedrich Wilhelm I, King in Prussia (1688-1740)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/F754281.html">Friedrich Wilhelm I</a> of Prussia,
| |
| − | 30 January 1721, for Krefeld. These documents have been preserved in the original
| |
| − | or in copies in various archives, most of them also in printed form, some in
| |
| − | several editions.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Sometimes older "<a title="Privileges (Privilegia)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/P758ME.html">privileges</a>" were renewed or extended, and also
| |
| − | here and there they underwent certain revisions. Sometimes they were limited
| |
| − | to a single place (Friedrichstadt, Altona, <a title="Neuwied (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/N488.html">Neuwied</a>, <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a>). Elector Karl
| |
| − | Ludwig expressly mentioned the protracted war and its effects, and King Christian
| |
| − | the importance of the immigrants for trade and commerce. Count Friedrich became
| |
| − | the model for other princes of the Empire; he founded the town of Neuwied in
| |
| − | the interests of his small territory specifically as a place of refuge for
| |
| − | tolerated as well as "privileged" religious groups, hoping to secure
| |
| − | as settlers at least part of those "useful" people who had to leave
| |
| − | ruined homes elsewhere. The Mennonites were here allowed to conduct their own
| |
| − | worship, though it had to be in secret and without making proselytes by "sweet
| |
| − | words" (as it is stated in the Altona privilege), and were exempt from
| |
| − | attending the worship of the established church, holding public office, bearing
| |
| − | arms, and taking the oath. They were even protected against "mockery" (as
| |
| − | it is stated in the Friedrichstadt privilege). For all this they only had to
| |
| − | be recorded in special registers and to pay a special tax.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The situation of the princes of the Empire in this time as well as their opinions
| |
| − | and intentions were rather remarkably revealed by the Neuwied privilege of
| |
| − | 1680. The count had asked the Mennonites to attend the official (Reformed)
| |
| − | services, but they had asked him to release them from this obligation. So the
| |
| − | count pondered and said in his privilege: He was entitled to enforce his requirements,
| |
| − | for the imperial law of 1529 expressly forbade tolerating Mennonites in the
| |
| − | Roman Empire, and the Peace of Münster of 1648 only permitted Roman Catholics,
| |
| − | Lutherans, and Reformed, and even the Imperial Court when authorizing this
| |
| − | new residence did not include the Mennonites. But on the other hand they were
| |
| − | living quietly, the electors of <a href="B7375.html">Brandenburg </a>and the Palatinate and the duke
| |
| − | of Holstein and others occasionally tolerated them and so disregarded the law
| |
| − | of 1529, and at least he was a free "Imperial Estate" as well, and
| |
| − | so by tacit understanding empowered to do the same. And so he gave the privilege
| |
| − | in the face of the imperial laws which had settled the problem otherwise. Not
| |
| − | the Empire, but the individual territory possessed the real power.</p>
| |
| − | <p>To understand the system of privileges within the territories it must be pointed
| |
| − | out that in this period people did not live under equal rights for all, but
| |
| − | that rights were differentiated according to the political, social, ecclesiastical,
| |
| − | and economic position of the person in question. Thus at Krefeld, e.g., there
| |
| − | was no difficulty in releasing the Mennonites from the oath, since the Reformed
| |
| − | clergy were liberated from this obligation also, as is seen incidentally from
| |
| − | a report concerning the oath of allegiance. Besides, such privileges gave the
| |
| − | princes an opportunity to secure able artisans, etc., and in this time of mercantilism
| |
| − | it was quite common for princes to attract such persons from one another. Just
| |
| − | as arbitrarily as privileges were given, citizenship was also transferred:
| |
| − | at <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> as early as 1585, at Tönning in <a href="E474.html">Eiderstedt</a> in 1607, at <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> in
| |
| − | 1678, at Königsberg and <a href="M373076.html">Marienburg</a> ca. 1750, at Danzig and in Bavaria not before
| |
| − | 1800.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Though much scattered by the migrations, under these conditions the Mennonites
| |
| − | of Germany reached the culminating point of their history in this period as
| |
| − | far as economics were concerned. It may here be sufficient to name <a href="M6516.html">David Möllinger
| |
| − | (1709-1786)</a>, "the father of the agriculture of the Palatinate," the.
| |
| − | von der Leyens and the silk industry at Krefeld, the Roosens at Hamburg, and
| |
| − | the van der Smissens at Altona, shipowners and whalers of the first rank; or
| |
| − | also the gifted mechanic and clockmaker Peter Kinsing (1745-1816) at Neuwied,
| |
| − | and the strong Bouman family with its manifold trade at Emden. A real host
| |
| − | of Mennonite entrepreneurs at many places promoted the economic advance of
| |
| − | their respective areas; kingly merchants they often were, especially in the
| |
| − | Lower Rhine district and on the Lower Elbe.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Spiritual Life</h4>
| |
| − | <p>As to the spiritual life, the northern settlements (Holstein, etc., and Prussia
| |
| − | proper) in the beginning were dependent on the Netherlands, and the southern
| |
| − | (Palatinate and its daughter colonies) on Switzerland. The <a href="L724.html">Lower
| |
| − | Rhine </a>and
| |
| − | East Friesland in their turn were already geographically as neighbors in constant
| |
| − | contact with the Netherlands. Visits and exchange of preachers for a long time
| |
| − | helped in this direction.</p>
| |
| − | <p>When in the north, e.g., <a href="W5429.html">Gerhard Wiebe</a> (Flemish elder
| |
| − | of <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> 1778-1796) had documents copied <em>(Heubudener Urkundenbuch) </em>which
| |
| − | he regarded of particular importance also for his congregation and his time,
| |
| − | there were among these documents some relating to the division of 1557 (Menno
| |
| − | against the Waterlander, Jülich, and South German-Swiss leaders), that of 1567
| |
| − | (<a href="F625.html">Flemish</a> against <a href="F7599.html">Frisian</a>), and that of 1586 (Contra-Housebuyers against Housebuyers).
| |
| − | In the case of Quirin Vermeulen and Hans von Schwinderen, elder and preacher
| |
| − | of Danzig (1583-1588), and for a later controversy at Haarlem in 1631, the
| |
| − | documents showed a vivid interchange of opinions and judgments.</p>
| |
| − | <p>So even in 1759 the Dutch divisions were still maintained in East Friesland,
| |
| − | in the Holstein region, and in Prussia proper. Old Flemish of the Groningen
| |
| − | branch had congregations at <a title="Emden (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/emden_niedersachsen_germany">Emden</a>, Leer, Neustadt-Goedens, and <a href="N6714.html">Norden</a> in <a href="E23823.html">East
| |
| − | Friesland</a>, and at <a title="Przechovka (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/P780.html">Przechowka</a>, etc., near Schwetz in Prussia proper. Those of
| |
| − | the <a href="D2610.html">Danzig Old Flemish</a> branch appear at Danzig, <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a>, Gross-Werder, <a title="Heubuden (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/heubuden_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Heubuden</a>,
| |
| − | Königsberg, and <a href="N538216.html">Nieschewski</a> near <a href="T592.html">Thorn</a>, all in Prussia proper. The <a href="F625.html">Flemish</a> (alone or combined with <a title="Frisian Mennonites" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/F7599.html">Frisians</a> and <a href="W381.html">Waterlanders</a>)
| |
| − | had congregations at Emden, Leer, and Norden in East Friesland, at <a title="Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/friedrichstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Friedrichstadt</a>
| |
| − | and Hamburg-Altona in the Holstein region. Finally the Frisians or Waterlanders
| |
| − | (the names change) were represented at Danzig, the Gross Werder (later <a href="O773.html">Orlofferfelde</a>),
| |
| − | <a title="Lithuania (East Prussia)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/lithuania">Lithuania</a> (the <a href="T6173.html">Tilsit</a> region), <a href="M65630.html">Montau</a>, and Schweinsgrube (later <a href="T730.html">Tragheimerweide</a>)
| |
| − | in Prussia proper. At Emden and Hamburg-Altona the congregations had joined
| |
| − | the conservative <a href="Z747.html">Zonists</a> in 1674 and 1682 respectively.
| |
| − | But at Emden and Leer in 1767, at Norden in 1780, and at Danzig in 1808, the
| |
| − | congregations were again united.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1739 and following years a discipline controversy about <a title="Wigs" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/wigs">wigs</a>, shoe buckles,
| |
| − | etc., at Danzig was settled after the Dutch brethren had been asked for their
| |
| − | judgment. In 1776 at Hamburg a German translation of the <a href="M4637ME.html">Ris
| |
| − | confession of faith</a> (1766 at Hoorn) was published, which remained in use
| |
| − | in German congregations until the 19th century.</p>
| |
| − | <p>But soon an independent spirit announced itself among the German Mennonites
| |
| − | alongside of the dependency on Dutch developments, especially in literary productions
| |
| − | by the settlements on the Elbe and on the Vistula. In 1660 the first German
| |
| − | confession of faith appeared at Danzig. Georg Hansen (d.
| |
| − | 1703), a shoemaker, from 1655 deacon and preacher and 1690-1703 elder of the
| |
| − | Flemish congregation at Danzig, published a catechism in 1671 and a confession
| |
| − | of faith in 1678. Gerrit Roosen (1612-1711), a merchant, from 1649 deacon,
| |
| − | from 1660 preacher, from 1663 elder of the Flemish congregation of Hamburg-Altona,
| |
| − | in 1702 also published a catechism (<em><a href="C4815ME.html" target="_self">Christliches
| |
| − | Gemütsgespräch</a>) </em>and an apologetic <em>(<a href="U5799.html">Unschuld
| |
| − | und Gegenbericht</a>). </em><a title="Donner Heinrich (1735-1804)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/donner_heinrich_1735_1804">Heinrich
| |
| − | Donner</a> (1735-1804), Frisian elder of Orlofferfelde since 1772, and Gerhard
| |
| − | Wiebe in 1778 and 1783 published a catechism, which as the <a href="E5117.html">Elbing-Waldeck-Zweibriicken
| |
| − | catechism</a> was one of the most widely used in Europe and in America. In
| |
| − | 1792 <a title="Wiebe, Gerhard (1725-1796)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/W5429.html">Gerhard Wiebe</a> also published a confession of faith.</p>
| |
| − | <p>A new influence from the Netherlands began withe the introduction of trained
| |
| − | and salaried ministers, e.g., at <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> since 1770, who received their education
| |
| − | more and more at the <a href="A4765.html">Amsterdam Mennonite Seminary</a>, established in 1735.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In the South the <a href="P3594.html">Palatinate</a> Mennonites also showed
| |
| − | a continued dependence on Switzerland. Peter Ramseyer (b. 1706), from 1730
| |
| − | preacher and from 1732 elder of the Jura congregation, for 20 years (1762-1782)
| |
| − | again and again traveled to the Palatinate to settle dissension there. <a href="A4584ME.html">The
| |
| − | Amish division </a>of 1693 especially affected the settlers in the Palatinate.
| |
| − | Amish congregations arose by migration from the <a href="N470.html">Netherlands</a> to
| |
| − | Volhynia; the most northern points they reached in Germany were Menge-ringhausen
| |
| − | in Waldeck, and <a title="Petershagen (Kreis Minden-Lübbecke, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/petershagen_kreis_minden_lubbecke_nordrhein">Petershagen</a> in Minden west of Hanover. The Amish remained in
| |
| − | strong contact with each other, at least from <a href="A4526.html">Alsace</a> to
| |
| − | Waldeck, at meetings where "Ordnungsbriefe" supplemented earlier
| |
| − | decisions on discipline.
| |
| − | <a href="N3493.html">Hans Nafziger</a>, from 1731 preacher and later elder
| |
| − | at Essingen in the Palatinate, a central figure in his time, held such meetings
| |
| − | at his place in 1759 and 1779. In 1765 he traveled to the Netherlands to settle
| |
| − | dissension among the Amish there. In 1780 he published the only edition of
| |
| − | the<em><a href="M37858ME.html"> Martyrs
| |
| − | Mir</a></em><a href="M37858ME.html"><em>ror</em></a> in German in
| |
| − | Germany at Pirmasens, together with <a href="W4337.html">Peter Weber</a>. In 1781 he wrote a letter
| |
| − | to the Amish in Holland as a kind of formulary for baptism, marriage, and ordinations.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Outside Influences</h4>
| |
| − | <p>As religious discrimination from 1650 on gradually lost much of its former
| |
| − | intensity, the Mennonites could come into contact with religious movements
| |
| − | outside their group. In fact, the Mennonite congregations not seldom proved
| |
| − | themselves to be a fertile ground for such movements. Among the outside influences
| |
| − | were (1) <a title="Society of Friends" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/society_of_friends">Quakers</a>, (2) <a title="Dompelaars" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/dompelaars">Dompelaars</a>, and (3) <a title="Pietism" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/P5475ME.html">Pietists</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <ol>
| |
| − | <li><strong>The Quakers</strong> appeared at <a title="Kriegsheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kriegsheim_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Kriegsheim</a> in the Palatinate soon
| |
| − | after the Mennonites, gained some of them for their convictions, and had
| |
| − | a congregation of their own there 1657-1686, when they emigrated to <a href="P4662.html">Pennsylvania</a>.
| |
| − | They also appeared at Hamburg-Altona in 1659, but not being allowed to stay
| |
| − | there soon left again, taking with them some Mennonites, among tliem the
| |
| − | preacher Berend Roelofs. They were at <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> also in 1667-1683. In the latter
| |
| − | year they induced 13 families (formerly Mennonites) to emigrate to Pennsylvania,
| |
| − | where they founded <a href="G4766.html">Germantown</a> —only one remained Mennonite in the long run;
| |
| − | it was the first group of Germans to reach the later <a href="U568.html">United
| |
| − | States</a> of America. </li>
| |
| − | <li><strong>The <a title="Dompelaars" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/dompelaars">Dompelaars</a></strong> were found at Hamburg-Altona in 1648-1746,
| |
| − | having their own congregation alongside the Mennonite congregation from ca. 1656
| |
| − | on, their own church building from 1708. Their most prominent preacher was
| |
| − | <a title="Denner, Jakob (1659-1746)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/denner_jakob_1659_1746">Jacob Denner</a> ( 1659-1746), from 1684, at <a href="L778.html">Lübeck </a>1687-1694, at <a title="Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/friedrichstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Friedrichstadt</a>
| |
| − | 1694-1698, at Danzig 1698-1702, and then again at Altona until his death.
| |
| − | He preached for an interdenominational audience. Perhaps the group was influenced
| |
| − | by the Dutch <a title="Collegiants" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/collegiants">Collegiants</a> or by the English Baptists. The Dompelaars found
| |
| − | at Krefeld in 1705-1725 were of another kind, viz., Dunkers, who in 1719
| |
| − | also turned to <a href="P4662.html">Pennsylvania</a>. In the Mennonite congregation at Krefeld for
| |
| − | some time one preacher, <a title="Goyen, Gossen (1667-1737)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/goyen_gossen_1667_1737">Gossen Goyen</a> (1667-1737), advocated baptism by immersion,
| |
| − | himself being rebaptized in 1724 in the Rhine, and another, <a title="Crous, Jan (1670-1729)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/crous_jan_1670_1729">Jan Crous</a> (1670-1729),
| |
| − | advocated baptism by sprinkling. </li>
| |
| − | <li><strong>The <a href="P5475ME.html">Pietists</a></strong> exercised an especially
| |
| − | long and far-reaching influence upon the German Mennonites. It came both
| |
| − | from the outside and also through Mennonite channels. In Holland the outstanding
| |
| − | Mennonite Pietist was <a href="D445.html">Jan Deknatel (1698-1759)</a>, from
| |
| − | 1726 the minister of the congregation 't Lam at <a href="A4755.html">Amsterdam</a>,
| |
| − | converted (in the Pietist sense) in 1734 and standing in close relations
| |
| − | with the Moravians and the Methodists. On the Lower Rhine <a href="T4967.html">Gerhard Tersteegen</a> (1697-1769), Reformed, from 1725 an interdenominational spiritual adviser,
| |
| − | gained a similar position.</li></ol>
| |
| − | <p>In 1735-1769 Tersteegen was in close contact with the Krefeld Mennonites and
| |
| − | later also with <a title="Friedenreich, Lorenz (1718-1794)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/friedenreich_lorenz_1718_1794">Lorenz Friedenreich</a> (ca. 1728-1794), from 1758 elder of the
| |
| − | Mennonite congregation at Neuwied. Friedenreich, in this time of letter writing
| |
| − | and traveling and exchange of books and pamphlets, served as a liaison officer
| |
| − | in all directions. In his last years Deknatel became instrumental in the conversion
| |
| − | of <a href="W4337.html">Peter Weber</a> (1731-1781), a weaver and from 1757-1758 until his death preacher
| |
| − | of the Mennonite congregation of Höningen near <a href="A4546.html">Altleiningen</a> in the Palatinate.
| |
| − | Abraham Krehbiel (d. 1804), farmer and preacher (from 1766) of the Mennonite
| |
| − | congregation at the <a href="W447.html">Weierhof</a>, was also from his ordination
| |
| − | on in contact with Weber, Tersteegen, and Deknatel's son. It was as in a missionary
| |
| − | family, and thus also the namelists <em>(<a href="N316.html">Naamlijst</a>), </em>which at Deknatel's
| |
| − | instigation were published at Amsterdam from 1731 on, and the endeavor to make
| |
| − | them complete, widened the circle more and more. Under the pietist influence
| |
| − | even a correspondence between Prussia proper and the Palatinate, so far distant
| |
| − | from one another, was started (1768-1773). Hans van Steen (1705-81), elder
| |
| − | of the <a href="F625.html">Flemish</a> congregation at Danzig from 1754, and <a href="M6520.html">Martin Möllinger</a> (1698-1774),
| |
| − | brother of <a href="M6516.html">David Möllinger</a>, preacher of the congregation at <a href="M36857.html">Mannheim</a> from 1753,
| |
| − | were the principal writers. Some letters also came from Gerhard Wiebe (see
| |
| − | above) and Frienenreich, Weber, etc. Pietists in West Prussia were Isaak van
| |
| − | Diihren (1725-1800), converted in 1772, from 1775 preacher of the Danzig Frisian
| |
| − | congregation, who in 1787 published a German extract from the <em><a href="M37858ME.html">Martyrs
| |
| − | Mir</a></em><a href="M37858ME.html"><em>ror</em></a><em>, </em>and <a href="R44582.html">Cornelius
| |
| − | Regier (1743-1794</a>), from 1764 preacher, 1771 elder of the Heubuden congregation.
| |
| − | On the Elbe a stronghold of Pietism was the <a title="Smissen, van der, family" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/smissen_van_der">van der Smissen family</a>, particularly
| |
| − | Gysbert III (1717-1793) and his son <a title="Smissen, Jacob Gysbert van der (1746-1829)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/smissen_jacob_gysbert_van_der_1746_1829">Jacob Gysbert</a> (1746-1829), who already
| |
| − | in 1766-1768 on his cavalier's tour with his cousin Hinrich III (1742-1814)
| |
| − | visited in England the great evangelist and cofounder of Methodism George Whitefield,
| |
| − | and in Germany <a href="T4967.html">Tersteegen</a> and the Moravian settlements, Herrnhut and Niesky.
| |
| − | At his advice this cousin in 1781 engaged as a tutor for his many children
| |
| − | <a href="M36855.html">Johann Wilhelm Mannhardt</a> (1760-1831), a member of the Tübingen Stift, who in
| |
| − | 1790 married one of his pupils, thus combining these two families, which were
| |
| − | prominent among the German Mennonites, especially in the 19th century.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Assimilation</h4>
| |
| − | <p>In addition to these relations with more or less kindred movements the Christian
| |
| − | church in general, and the great world also, entered the scene. Gerrit Roosen
| |
| − | had already taken a position as a conservative as well as irenical trying to
| |
| − | recommend the controversial Mennonite teaching to society as "harmless":
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Mennonitism in assimilation. At <a title="Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/friedrichstadt_schleswig_holstein_germany">Friedrichstadt</a> two Owens, father and son, were
| |
| − | during 1711-1782 successively one of the two burgomasters of the town: public
| |
| − | offices were no longer abhorred. In London in 1766 the young van der Smissens
| |
| − | enjoyed seeing English soldiers at drill; at Neuwied the young men of the Mennonite
| |
| − | congregation in 1804 wanted to meet their new prince on horseback, with swords
| |
| − | buckled on, like other young citizens: the principle of <a href="N656ME.html">nonresistance</a> was
| |
| − | at least softened. And even Gerhard Wiebe in his confession of faith of 1792
| |
| − | dropped the idea of a visible congregation of saints and accepted that of an
| |
| − | invisible church.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Whereas at Danzig in 1697 the painter <a href="S4396.html">Enoch Seemann</a> (b.
| |
| − | 1661) was banned for painting portraits (Second Commandment), at Hamburg-Altona
| |
| − | <a title="Denner, Balthasar (1685-1749)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/denner_balthasar_1685_1749">Balthasar Denner</a> (1685-1749) and <a title="Smissen, Dominicus van der (1704-1760)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/smissen_dominicus_van_der_1704_60">Dominicus van der Smissen</a> (1705-1760), the
| |
| − | son and son-in-law of <a title="Denner, Jakob (1659-1746)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/denner_jakob_1659_1746">Jacob Denner</a>, were "the last German portraitists
| |
| − | of international importance." After
| |
| − | the Swedish General Stenbock had burned the town of Altona in 1713, <a title="Smissen, Hinrich I van der (1662-1737)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/smissen_heinrich_i_van_der_1662_1737">Hinrich
| |
| − | I van der Smissen</a> (1662-1737, father of Gysbert III) rebuilt it, thus becoming
| |
| − | known as "the city builder." Berend Roosen discovered the famous
| |
| − | architect Sonnin and had him build his home, one of the finest in Hamburg in
| |
| − | the 18th century. Later the great Mennonite manufacturers gave <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> its
| |
| − | architectural character by their monumental homes, one of their homes even
| |
| − | being called "the castle" (later the town hall).</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1687 and 1688 the Danzig congregation helped the <a href="J466.html">Jesuits</a> and
| |
| − | the Lutherans respectively to build their churches; in 1750-1751 the Hamburg-Altona
| |
| − | congregation helped to rebuild the Lutheran St. Michael's Church; in 1779 the
| |
| − | Emden congregation shared in the costs of a Reformed peace festival. In 1732
| |
| − | the Danzig Mennonites made a contribution for the Salzburg exiles; for decades
| |
| − | the Friedrichstadt Mennonites had done the same for the poor Lutherans of their
| |
| − | town. In Krefeld the van der Leyens in 1738 had <a href="R65.html">Roman Catholic</a>,
| |
| − | Lutherans, and Reformed among their laborers and in 1789 promoted social contacts
| |
| − | between members of different denominations.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In this course of events it is not astonishing to see also the Mennonite church
| |
| − | buildings and services adapted to the surrounding culture. Many of the new
| |
| − | church buildings—in 1751 <a href="O773.html">Orlofferfelde</a>, 1754 <a title="Rosenort Mennonite Church (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/rosenort_mennonite_church_west_prussia_germany">Rosenort</a>,
| |
| − |
| |
| − | 1768 Fürstenwerder, <a title="Heubuden (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/heubuden_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Heubuden</a>, <a href="L212.html">Ladekopp</a>, and <a href="T6108.html">Tiegenhagen</a>, 1776 Gruppe, 1783
| |
| − | Ellerwald (all in <a href="W4752.html">West Prussia</a>), 1778 <a href="S452.html">Sembach</a>, 1779
| |
| − | Eppstein, 1784 <a title="Heppenheim auf der Wiese (Rheinhessen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/heppenheim_auf_der_wiese_rheinhessen_germany">Heppenheim</a> (all in the <a href="P3594.html">Palatinate</a>);
| |
| − | also the old churches—1586 <a href="M65630.html">Montau</a>, 1618 <a href="S36796.html">Schönsee</a>, 1638 and 1648 Danzig, 1675
| |
| − | and 1715 Altona, 1693 Krefeld, 1769 Emden—indeed were modest buildings. But
| |
| − | <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> (1590) and Friedrichstadt (1708) were fine patrician buildings, and
| |
| − | <a href="N6714.html">Norden</a> (1796) was even a finer one in a splendid rococo style. The Spitalhof
| |
| − | (1682) held its services in a beautiful old Gothic chapel. The church of Neuwied
| |
| − | (1768) has already been mentioned. Organs were first admitted to German Mennonite
| |
| − | churches at Altona (1764) and at Norden (1797).</p>
| |
| − | <p>Language was long a great barrier between the immigrant German Mennonites
| |
| − | and the native Protestants or Catholics. This was not so true in the South,
| |
| − | where the Swiss dialect was apparently soon given up and the High German literary
| |
| − | idiom commonly used from the start, but in the North things were more complicated.
| |
| − | The Mennonites from Holland of course brought the Dutch church language of
| |
| − | their old home with them into the new one. The congregations on the Dutch-German
| |
| − | border so close to the Netherlands, which was enjoying its political and cultural
| |
| − | Golden Age in the 17th century, naturally also felt the Dutch influence in
| |
| − | the matter of language. Yet naturally in the course of time the Dutch language
| |
| − | for church services, in partly alien, partly changed surroundings, with no
| |
| − | support from the language in general use, declined and was pushed aside. It
| |
| − | is easy to understand that this development took place most rapidly at the
| |
| − | most advanced Anabaptist-Mennonite outpost, in West Prussia around Danzig.
| |
| − | By 1671 Georg Hansen lamented that the young people read German better than
| |
| − | Dutch. So in the rural congregations at Heubuden in West Prussia in the 1750's
| |
| − | and the city congregation at Danzig in the 1760s and 1770s the ministers began
| |
| − | to preach their sermons in German. Farther to the west the proximity of the <a href="N470.html">Netherlands</a> was
| |
| − | of strong influence; also the fact that the educated ministers called by these
| |
| − | congregations had to be obtained from the Netherlands or had to get their training
| |
| − | in the Dutch universities and especially in the <a href="A4765.html">Mennonite
| |
| − | Seminary at Amsterdam</a>.
| |
| − | In 1786 at Hamburg and Altona Reinhard Rahusen (1735-93) first began the use
| |
| − | of High German in the newly introduced weekday services; in general the High
| |
| − | German language was not used here in sermons until 1839 and in the <a href="C4936.html">church
| |
| − | records</a> not until the 1880s. <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> used German after 1818, Friedrichstadt after
| |
| − | 1826.</p>
| |
| − | <h3>Modern Mennonitism in Germany, 1800-1949</h3>
| |
| − | <h4>Nonresistance, etc.</h4>
| |
| − | <p>For the history of the Mennonites in Germany a turning point came when the <a title="French Revolution (1789-1799)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/french_revolution_1789_1799">French
| |
| − | Revolution</a> did away with local independence and local privileges, in
| |
| − | 1789 proclaiming "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" as the rights of
| |
| − | all men, and in 1793 introducing universal compulsory service. <a href="N363.html">Napoleon</a> moderated
| |
| − | this law in 1800 by allowing substitutes under special conditions, but enforced
| |
| − | it anew in 1806. Since the treaties of Basel (1795) and of Campo Formio (1797),
| |
| − | the Rheinbund (1806), and the treaty of Tilsit (1807) ceded the left border
| |
| − | of the Rhine to France and placed practically all Germany west of the Elbe
| |
| − | under the control of Napoleon I, similar decrees followed, especially in the
| |
| − | South German states.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In the face of this danger to <a href="N656ME.html">nonresistance</a> the
| |
| − | Mennonites of the <a href="P3594.html">Palatinate</a> as early as 1802 sought
| |
| − | contact with those of the <a href="N470.html">Netherlands</a>. In <a href="I217.html">1803
| |
| − | and 1805 at Ibersheim</a> representatives of Rhenish congregations professed
| |
| − | anew their adherence to the principles of nonconformity and nonresistance.
| |
| − | Several delegates were sent to Paris on behalf of their privileges. In vain;
| |
| − | no exceptions were allowed, only perhaps substitutes. But to obtain substitutes
| |
| − | was rather expensive. Some congregations even regarded paying substitutes as
| |
| − | contrary to nonresistance. For some time some of the congregations paid for
| |
| − | the poor members who could not pay the substitutes. But later on this practice
| |
| − | was discontinued, since nonconcerned members opposed it. So, on the one hand
| |
| − | many emigrated to America in 1830-1860; on the other hand, as the conditions
| |
| − | continued, those remaining in South Germany gradually gave up the principle
| |
| − | of nonresistance. The catechisms of the Palatinate and Hesse (i.e., old Palatinate
| |
| − | on the left border of the Rhine) of 1861, and of Baden (i.e., old Palatinate
| |
| − | on the right border of the Rhine: the Kraichgau and Baden-Durlach) of 1865
| |
| − | had already tacitly dropped the principle. Early in the 20th century, when
| |
| − | Georg Wünsch asked a young farmer in Baden why he did not follow the traditional
| |
| − | order, this Mennonite answered, "When every man goes, we can't stay at
| |
| − | home."</p>
| |
| − | <p>In North Germany the kingdom of Prussia after the peace of Vienna in 1815
| |
| − | comprised the following Mennonite population: <a href="E23829.html">East Prussia</a> 678; <a href="W4752.html">West
| |
| − | Prussia </a> 12,497; <a href="B7375.html">Brandenburg</a>, etc., 692; Rhine Province and Westphalia
| |
| − | 1,289, making a total of 15,156 Mennonites (souls). In the Rhine Province alone
| |
| − | in 1812-1827, in the government district of <a title="Düsseldorf (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/dusseldorf_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Düsseldorf</a> (<a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a>, etc.), Aachen,
| |
| − | and Cologne, there were about 883; of Coblenz (Neuwied, etc., and Trier) about
| |
| − | 353, including some Amish, making a total of about 1,236 Mennonites (souls).</p>
| |
| − | <p>As to the western provinces of Prussia, their different parts had belonged
| |
| − | to various states and were only now united into a larger political body. Since
| |
| − | the eastern provinces lived under older decrees, the government, after the
| |
| − | Prussian military law of 1814 was promulgated, tried to find a similar status
| |
| − | for those of the west. A first report was given by the Minister of the Interior
| |
| − | in 1817, a second by a commission of the Royal Council in 1819 (<a href="M4636ME.html">Menno</a>,
| |
| − | several confessions including that of <a href="D674.html">Dordrecht</a> and
| |
| − | that of <a href="M4637ME.html">Ris</a>, the Latin history by <a href="S3373.html">Schijn</a>,
| |
| − | works on Mennonites by Zeidler in 1698, Rues in 1743, Crich-ton in 1786, and
| |
| − | Starck in 1789, and other general works were cited). There was a lively correspondence
| |
| − | between <a href="F754283.html">King Friedrich Wilhelm III</a> and the
| |
| − | Oberpräsident on the one side, with the congregations, especially Krefeld,
| |
| − | on the other. Even a small Amish group at Offhausen (Altenkirchen district)
| |
| − | received an answer from Chancellor Hardenberg. In 1826 the king ordered that
| |
| − | all heads of Mennonite families be questioned about their position on nonresistance.
| |
| − | In 1830 the law on the rights of the Mennonites (and Quakers) in the western
| |
| − | provinces and <a href="B7375.html">Brandenburg </a>was published. Most of the families asked accepted
| |
| − | military service and thus became ordinary citizens. The smaller part refused
| |
| − | military service, and were obliged to pay a special income tax of 3 per cent,
| |
| − | were not allowed to acquire new property, and were admitted to communal, but
| |
| − | not to state offices; new settlements were forbidden. Thus the new legal status
| |
| − | was established. In the North as well as in South Germany many, particularly
| |
| − | the Amish, emigrated to America in 1830-1860, particularly from <a href="N369.html">Nassau</a>,
| |
| − | Hesse, and Waldeck. Among those who remained in Germany there were frequently
| |
| − | cases—at Friedrichstadt, at Hamburg-Altona, and in the 1820's even at Krefeld—when
| |
| − | individuals more or less successfully tried to evade military service. In Hamburg
| |
| − | occurred the remarkable case that in 1818 a Mennonite Lieutenant Jansen complained
| |
| − | to the military authorities of being excommunicated by the congregation on
| |
| − | account of his military service; it was rather surprising to him that the authorities
| |
| − | advised him to return to civilian life. Yet the Hamburg congregation lost ground
| |
| − | notwithstanding. Whereas in 1837 they had asserted that substitutes were as
| |
| − | objectionable as personal service, by 1851 they had to be satisfied with avoiding
| |
| − | personal service by the use of substitutes.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Little by little, as in South Germany, the attitude of the Mennonites in North
| |
| − | Germany concerning nonresistance changed. Already in 1831 the congregations
| |
| − | of <a href="E23823.html">East Friesland</a> (in 1815-1866 belonging to the Kingdom of Hanover) had relinquished
| |
| − | this principle, as they then officially declared to the authorities.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1848 the first German parliament in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt became
| |
| − | something like another turning point in nonresistance. A Mennonite banker of <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a>, <a href="B44337.html">Hermann von Beckerath</a> (1801-1870), a member of diis parliament (and
| |
| − | of the Prussian parliament as well) and of its committee for the constitution
| |
| − | and even one of its ministers, discussing the fundamental laws, on 28 August
| |
| − | declared: "I think myself fortunate in belonging to one of the freest
| |
| − | denominations. The time of privileges is gone. The modern state requires equal
| |
| − | rights for all citizens. So the Rhenish Mennonites with only few exceptions
| |
| − | are rendering their military service. Nonresistance with them is no longer
| |
| − | an integral part of their creed." So an amendment in favor of nonresistance
| |
| − | for the Mennonites offered by the members from Danzig was lost. Many applauded:
| |
| − | a real confession! Indeed, these Mennonites of West and South Germany now regarded
| |
| − | nonresistance no longer as a fundamental article of their creed, but as a privilege
| |
| − | no longer tolerable because it was injurious to the rights of fellow citizens.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1867 even the conference of Offenthal (near St. Goarshausen on the Rhine
| |
| − | in <a href="N369.html">Nassau</a>), where Mennonites and Amish of the Palatinate, Neuwied, Nassau,
| |
| − | and Hesse (the duchy of <a href="N369.html">Nassau</a> and the electorate of Hesse having just been
| |
| − | added to Prussia) met to come to an agreement, though confessing nonresistance
| |
| − | as an article of the creed, ruled: "But how each congregation and each
| |
| − | young man will indeed prove our old-Mennonite nonresistance, in order to satisfy
| |
| − | his own conscience and the demands of the authorities, we leave to the judgment
| |
| − | of each of them." This was the formula later often repeated to save the
| |
| − | principle and at the same time abandon it.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The situation in Prussia proper was more fortunate. In the same year (1818)
| |
| − | when at Hamburg Lieutenant Jansen sought in vain to return to his congregation
| |
| − | in spite of his military service, the same thing happened to a David van Riesen
| |
| − | of Elbing who had served in the Wars of Liberation and had nevertheless also
| |
| − | tried to return to his congregation with the help of the courts. The emigration
| |
| − | to <a href="R87.html">Russia</a> from 1788 on alleviated the economic difficulties
| |
| − | (as the buying of property here was also limited) for those who remained. Besides,
| |
| − | the "everlasting" privilege of 1780 gave a matchless support. But
| |
| − | after 1848 the Mennonites of Prussia proper also had to realize the change
| |
| − | of the times. There was the new Prussian constitution which proclaimed equal
| |
| − | rights and equal duties for all (5 December 1848). At Frankfurt in August 1848
| |
| − | the Danzig members of the parliament (Martens and Osterrath) had in vain pleaded
| |
| − | for the Mennonite privilege of nonresistance, pleading for tolerance. The West
| |
| − | Prussian congregations met on 14 September 1848, at <a title="Heubuden (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/heubuden_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Heubuden</a> and sent a petition
| |
| − | to Frankfurt to recognize their convictions, but in vain. At <a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a> in February
| |
| − | 1849 delegates of the congregations met the Prime Minister of <a href="B7375.html">Brandenburg </a>and
| |
| − | at least obtained a postponement. But the discussions about the nonresistance
| |
| − | of the Prussian Mennonites, their special tax and their limitations in buying
| |
| − | new property continued. Peter Froese (d. 1853), elder of Orlofferfelde 1830-1853,
| |
| − | wrote a pamphlet in 1850 once more defending nonresistance as an article of
| |
| − | the Mennonite creed, and <a href="M36856.html">Wilhelm Mannhardt</a> (1831-1880), the noted folklorist,
| |
| − | in 1863 did the same by means of thorough historical research <em>(<a href="W4467.html">Die
| |
| − | Wehrfreiheit der Altpreussischen Mennoniten</a>).</em></p>
| |
| − | <p>Even in 1867 the Prussian government proposed, in a bill concerning military
| |
| − | service, exempting the members of those Mennonite and Quaker families who by
| |
| − | laws or privileges were released from direct service, but obliging them to
| |
| − | furnish an equivalent. Yet on 18 October 1867 the first Imperial Diet of the
| |
| − | North German Confederation (the nucleus of the later German Empire) rejected
| |
| − | this paragraph so that now all Mennonites had to serve in the army. <a title="Penner, Gerhard (1805-1878)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/penner_gerhard_1805_1878">Gerhard
| |
| − | Penner</a> (1805-1878), the elder of the Heubuden congregation 1852-1877, was informed
| |
| − | of this vote the same day by wire. On the 23rd representatives of the Prussian
| |
| − | congregations met in his house at Warnau (Koczelitzky) and a delegation of
| |
| − | five set out at once for <a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a> and on the 24th called on the Minister of War
| |
| − | (Roon). Nevertheless the law was published on 9 November 1867. Summoned by
| |
| − | the members of parliament of their region in February 1868 the five traveled
| |
| − | to Berlin once more and for a whole week (18-26 February) called on the king
| |
| − | and the crown prince, ministers and privy councilors, members of the parliament,
| |
| − | etc. Most impressive was what the crown prince said; viz., that the whole royal
| |
| − | house was trying to help them; he warned them against emigration to Russia
| |
| − | and advised them at least to reserve a return for their children, as probably
| |
| − | in Russia matters would soon turn the same way. In this very week, on 20 February,
| |
| − | the ministers of War and of Interior in a common report recommended that the
| |
| − | members of the older Mennonite families who were not willing to serve with
| |
| − | arms might be trained as nurses, wagoners, etc., only. These proposals were
| |
| − | sanctioned by the Order of Cabinet of the king on 3 March 1868. As a consequence
| |
| − | of the new course the limitation as to property and the special tax on the
| |
| − | Mennonites were rescinded.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The Prussian Mennonites reacted in several ways to these transactions and
| |
| − | decisions. A smaller part emigrated to Russia (1853 f.) and to America (1873
| |
| − | f.). Those remaining were divided into a group which strongly clung to the
| |
| − | Order of Cabinet, and another which was willing to serve with arms. The congregation
| |
| − | of Montau-Gruppe was split into two for half a century on this question. In
| |
| − | 1909-1914, of the 200 young Mennonites of Prussia proper in contact with their
| |
| − | congregations nearly one half followed the Order of Cabinet, and the rest served
| |
| − | with arms. In this respect for West and East Prussia <a href="W6766.html">World
| |
| − | War I</a> signified the end of nonresistance. In 1933 when the curatorium of
| |
| − | the Vereinigung discussed the question of a new universal compulsory service
| |
| − | nobody proposed asking for another "privilege." Even the confession
| |
| − | of faith of the Mennonites in Prussia (1895), which forbade revenging oneself
| |
| − | on one's neighbor, merely urged its members as far as possible to avoid the
| |
| − | outrages of war. The German martyrs of nonresistance in World War II included
| |
| − | only one Lutheran and many Jehovah's Witnesses, but no Mennonites. After the
| |
| − | war American and Dutch Mennonite influences, as well as the impressions of
| |
| − | the war, resulted in a new nonresistant trend. The new German constitution
| |
| − | of 1950 made provision for alternative service for conscientious objectors.</p>
| |
| − | <p>As to the problem of the <a href="O358.html">oath</a>, regulations exempting
| |
| − | Mennonites in the courts and as officials were made in Württemberg in 1807,
| |
| − | in Bavaria in 1811, in <a href="N369.html">Nassau</a> in 1822, in the older provinces of Prussia in
| |
| − | 1827, etc. Under Hitler it was rather easy to get such exemptions for soldiers
| |
| − | in the army as early as 1935. But in certain other respects there was a long
| |
| − | struggle, the oath being regarded by the National Socialists as a special foundation
| |
| − | of the state; hence many had to render an oath, as the authorities ordered,
| |
| − | even by radio, and many did so without scruples, although ultimately the requirement
| |
| − | was waived for Mennonites.</p>
| |
| − | <p>As to public offices, for the 19th century at least two South German Mennonites
| |
| − | may be named besides <a href="B44337.html">Hermann von Beckerath</a> in the North, namely, <a title="Eymann, Peter (1788-1855)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/eymann_peter_1788_1855">Peter Eymann</a>
| |
| − | (1788-1855), a miller of <a href="S452.html">Sembach</a> (Palatinate), assistant preacher of his congregation,
| |
| − | who was mayor of Frankenstein and in 1849 a Liberal member of the Bavarian
| |
| − | parliament, and <a title="Finger, Jacob (1825-1904)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/finger_jacob_1825_1904">Jakob Finger</a> (1825-1904), a lawyer of <a href="M6553.html">Monsheim</a> (Hesse), in
| |
| − | 1862-1865 a member of the Hessian parliament and in 1884-1898 minister of state.
| |
| − | A look at the Mennonite <em>Adressbuch </em>of 1936 revealed all the difficulties
| |
| − | of the question of office-holding in a modern state such as Germany. Mail,
| |
| − | telegraph, and railways were managed by the state, and many schools and libraries
| |
| − | also. But was working in them a public office in the sense of earlier times?
| |
| − | And if we found a good many Mennonites in these offices, what about Mennonites
| |
| − | in the administration of customs or in the revenue department? But then it
| |
| − | was only a step to the courts and the police and then again only one more to
| |
| − | serving as captain or admiral. At any rate, the principle of avoiding public
| |
| − | offices was nearly forgotten. Sometimes and in some places (<a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a>, <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a>)
| |
| − | there were Mennonites in an amazing number of public offices.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1874 a Prussian law allowed Mennonite congregations to incorporate. After
| |
| − | 1924 Gustav Reimer (1884-1955) in a series of lawsuits liberated the Mennonites
| |
| − | of Prussia proper (including the Free City of Danzig) from the obligation of
| |
| − | paying taxes to the Protestant established church.</p>
| |
| − | <p>As to <a href="N651ME.html">nonconformity</a> nobody wanted to be very conspicuous,
| |
| − | different, or shocking. At the end of the 19th century nonconformity was gradually
| |
| − | dropped even by the Amish. On the other hand, even between the world wars,
| |
| − | e.g., 1918-1939 in the Palatinate, it was a problem whether girls might be
| |
| − | allowed to bob their hair. Sometime later even the older women had bobbed hair.
| |
| − | Technical progress often did away with traditional fashions. Thus the world
| |
| − | overcame nonconformity.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Foreign Influences</h4>
| |
| − | <p>But also spiritual influences of the surrounding life helped to bring about
| |
| − | change in the character of the Mennonite congregations in Germany. There was
| |
| − | the Reveil in Holland in the early 19th century with its interest in missions
| |
| − | and Bible distribution. Even in <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> in 1818-1834 the minister <a href="M6503.html">Isaac Molenaar
| |
| − | (1776-1834)</a>, in close contact with Holland, was a spokesman of this renewal
| |
| − | of <a href="P5475ME.html">Pietism</a>. The English <a href="B371.html">Baptist</a> <a href="A5398.html">William
| |
| − | Henry Angas</a> (d. 1832) visited West Prussia in 1823 and the Palatinate in 1824
| |
| − | to make propaganda for the missions which the Baptists had started with William
| |
| − | Carey in 1792. The Basel Mission (founded in 1815) in the South, the <a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a> Mission (founded in 1824) in the North, and later (1847 ff.) the Mission of
| |
| − | the Dutch Mennonites also were supported by the offerings of the German Mennonites.
| |
| − | In the 1950s there was a <a href="D489553.html">German Mennonite Committee
| |
| − | for Missions</a> as a branch of an <a href="E879.html">all-European Mennonite
| |
| − | Mission Board</a>. There was the "<a href="G4537.html">Gemeinschaftsbewegung</a>" in the
| |
| − | late 19th century with its Gospel songs which won the South more or less, in
| |
| − | West Prussia particularly the <a href="T55.html">Thiensdorf-Preussisch Rosengart</a> congregation.
| |
| − | Pietistic influences in general came especially from St. Chrischona (founded
| |
| − | in 1840) and many similar schools. From 1858 on the Hahnsche Pietists of Württemberg
| |
| − | with their <a href="U573.html">universalism</a> reached two congregations of Baden. As the Northwest
| |
| − | German congregations (<a href="L724.html">Lower Rhine </a>and <a href="E23823.html">East
| |
| − | Friesland</a>) were in character like
| |
| − | the Dutch congregations, quite different influences are found here. From the
| |
| − | Netherlands and from the universities rationalism, liberalism, and modernism
| |
| − | found their way into these congregations. Gustav Kraemer (1863-1948) in Krefeld
| |
| − | (from 1903) and <a href="A6748.html">J. G. Appeldoorn</a> (1862-1945) in Emden (1904-1916) were prominent
| |
| − | representatives of these tendencies, the one coming from the German Protestant
| |
| − | Church, the other from Holland, to which he later returned. A milder liberalism
| |
| − | had appeared earlier in Prussia proper with Carl Harder (1820-1896), pastor
| |
| − | at Neuwied 1857-1869 and at <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> in the progressive town congregation 1869-1896,
| |
| − | and with <a href="M36853.html">Hermann Gottlieb Mannhardt</a> (1855-1927), pastor at Danzig from 1879.
| |
| − | In general confessional boundaries became lax in certain areas. So we found
| |
| − | non-Mennonite pastors of Mennonite congregations (Krefeld, <a href="M6553.html">Monsheim</a>), and the
| |
| − | opposite as well (<a href="K5210.html">Kiel</a>).</p>
| |
| − | <p>The pietistic wing of the German Mennonites since 1857 was in constant contact
| |
| − | with the <a href="A44497.html">Evangelical Alliance</a>, represented for instance by Pastor H. van der
| |
| − | Smissen of Hamburg. The South German Conference was represented at the World
| |
| − | Conference for Faith and Order at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1927 (<a href="U5796.html">Benjamin
| |
| − | H. Unruh</a>). The Vereinigung belonged officially after 1930 to the World Alliance
| |
| − | for International Friendship through the Churches. In 1947-1948 the Vereinigung
| |
| − | became a member of the World Council of Churches and one of the founders of
| |
| − | the Committee of Christian Churches in Germany. In the World Council meeting
| |
| − | at Amsterdam in 1948 it was represented (Ernst Crous and Otto Schowalter).</p>
| |
| − | <p>It must be admitted that there was a great change from the 16th-century Anabaptists
| |
| − | to the 19th-century Mennonites and from the old Mennonites to the modern Mennonites
| |
| − | in the 19th century. But we may also acknowledge that these changes in some
| |
| − | respects at least have been helpful. We cannot deny that the little river ran
| |
| − | through the centuries again and again in several smaller branches and two bigger
| |
| − | ones, that the number of Mennonites in Germany absolutely and relatively diminished,
| |
| − | and that much of the best substance was lost by so many emigrations. But it
| |
| − | is nevertheless a fact that even under such conditions until the mid-20th century
| |
| − | the Anabaptist-Mennonite vision, old and new, has in one way or the other accomplished
| |
| − | something in the brotherhood.</p>
| |
| − | <p>In economic life it is worth noting that numerous Mennonites of the city congregations
| |
| − | of Krefeld, Emden, Gronau, Hamburg, and Danzig became successful and wealthy
| |
| − | merchants and manufacturers, but that the Mennonites of West Prussia and South
| |
| − | Germany remained essentially farmers and achieved a splendid reputation in
| |
| − | this field.</p>
| |
| − | <h4>Internal Migrations</h4>
| |
| − | <p>As the emigrations to Russia and to America weakened the position of the Mennonites
| |
| − | in the homeland, so also the inland migration dispersed the few remaining over
| |
| − | a larger area. There were movements to the East especially in South Germany,
| |
| − | 1802 along the Danube, from 1818 and again since 1880 to Upper Bavaria. There
| |
| − | was also the tendency to leave the rural areas and settle in the large cities.
| |
| − | In <a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a>, for instance, there has been a congregation since 1887, in <a href="M8447.html">Munich</a> one since 1893, in Stuttgart one since 1933. A large number of German Mennonites
| |
| − | now lived far away from their home congregations. The statistics showed a steady
| |
| − | relative decline, e.g., in Prussia proper from a ratio of 127 in 1816 to 70
| |
| − | in 1858 to a population of 100,000; and absolutely, e.g., in Bavaria (without
| |
| − | Palatinate), from 1,053 in 1875 to 783 in 1910. In 1910 the census gaves the
| |
| − | number of Mennonites in West Prussia as ca. 10,000, in the rest of North Germany
| |
| − | ca. 4,000, in the Palatinate ca. 2,500, in South Germany east of the Rhine
| |
| − | also ca. 2,500, in Alsace-Lorraine ca. 2,000. A real catastrophe was the flight
| |
| − | and expulsion from West Prussia proper in 1945. This great tragedy meant unnumbered
| |
| − | tragedies in single families and individuals; many perished, even by suicide.
| |
| − | For some time many that fled to <a title="Denmark" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/denmark">Denmark</a> were kept there. In 1948 and 1951 more
| |
| − | than 1,000 emigrated to <a href="U76.html">Uruguay</a>. In Western Germany
| |
| − | refugee congregations had to be founded: <a title="Göttingen (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/gottingen_niedersachsen_germany">Göttingen</a> in 1945, later <a href="B74205.html">Bremen</a>, <a href="B457.html">Bergisches
| |
| − | Land</a> (near Cologne), <a href="K5210.html">Kiel</a>, <a href="U23.html">Uelzen</a>, etc.; Frankfurt on the Main was revived
| |
| − | in 1948. Berlin was much enlarged (1940—406, 1955—1,122), also Hamburg (from
| |
| − | 338 to 935), <a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a> (ca. 800 to 1,880), and Neuwied (ca. 20 to ca. 500). One
| |
| − | thousand turned to the Palatinate. -- Harold S. Bender, 1956</p>
| |
| − | <p>In 1955 the German congregations with membership
| |
| − | (total 14,068 souls) were, according to the <em>Mennonitischer Gemeinde-Kalender, </em>as
| |
| − | follows (the word "souls" meaning total population including unbaptized
| |
| − | children):</p>
| |
| − | <div align="center">
| |
| − | <table class="vertical listing">
| |
| − | <tbody>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td colspan="4">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong>North Germany—8,694 souls</strong> </div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td colspan="2">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Old Congregations</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td colspan="2">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>New Congregations</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="B4748.html">Berlin</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">1,122</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Bergisches Land (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/B457.html">Bergisches Land</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">275</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Hamburg</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">935</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="B74205.html">Bremen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">500</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Friedrichstadt</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">39</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Espelkamp (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/E765.html">Espelkamp</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">135</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Neuwied (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/N488.html">Neuwied</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">500</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Göttingen (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/gottingen_niedersachsen_germany">Göttingen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">543</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Emden (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/emden_niedersachsen_germany">Emden</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">280</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="K5210.html">Kiel</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">436</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Leer</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">50</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Lübeck (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/L778.html">Lübeck</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">189</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a href="N6714.html">Norden</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">155</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="U23.html">Uelzen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">465</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Gronau</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">110</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="S347.html">Schleswig-Holstein</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">380</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a title="Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/krefeld_nordrhein_westfalen_germany">Krefeld</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">1,880</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> Westphalia</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">700</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>Total</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>5,071<br /></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>Total</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>3,623</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td colspan="4">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>South Germany—3,374 souls</em> </strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td colspan="2">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Palatinate-Hesse</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td colspan="2">
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Gemeindeverband</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Friedeisheim</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">180</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Palatinate</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Kohlhof (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kohlhof_rheinland_pfalz_germany">Kohlhof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">70</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="B7372.html">Branchweilerhof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">65</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Ibersheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/I214.html">Ibersheim</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">185</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Germany (1956)" class="internal-link">Deutschhof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">122</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Eppstein</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">120</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="L860.html">Ludwigshafen</a>-Frisenheim</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">90</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Baden</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="M6553.html">Monsheim</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">310</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td><a title="Adelsheim Mennonitengemeinde (Adelsheim, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/A269.html">Adelsheim</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">41</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Durlach (Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/durlach_karlsruhe_baden_wurttemberg_germany">Durlach</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">131</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td><a href="B74825.html">Bretten</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">32</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Obersülzen</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">221</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> Hasselbach</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">94</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a href="K200.html">Kaiserslautern</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">91</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> Heidelberg</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">42</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="K831.html">Kühbörncheshof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">209</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="S3687.html">Schopfheim</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">31</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Zweibrücken (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/Z943.html">Zweibrücken</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">245</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Sinsheim Mennonite Church (Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/sinsheim_mennonite_church">Sinsheim</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">120</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Saarland</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">87</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="U22.html">Ueberlingen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">87</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a href="S452.html">Sembach</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">400</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Wössingen Mennonite Church (Walzbachtal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/wossingen_mennonite_church_walzbachtal_baden">Wössingen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">64</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="N4821.html">Neudorferhof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">138</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Württemberg</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="A4546.html">Altleiningen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">40</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="B3370.html">Backnang</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">235</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a title="Weierhof (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/W447.html">Weierhof</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">560</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>Heilbronn</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">177</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="U31.html">Uffhofen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">58</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="M610.html">Möckmühl</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">25</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Bavaria</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="N4680.html">Nesselbach</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">32</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td rowspan="2">
| |
| − | <div align="center">(Bavaria, not in <br />
| |
| − | the Verband)</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td rowspan="2"> </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a title="Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/reutlingen_baden_wurttemberg_germany">Reutlingen</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">131</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Stuttgart</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">135</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="E473.html">Eichstock</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">32</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="center"><strong><em>Bavaria</em></strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="M8447.html">Munich</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">185</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> Augsburg</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">60</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Regensburg</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">156</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td><a href="I5543.html">Ingolstadt</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">135</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | <td><a href="N860.html">Nürnberg</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">30</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>Subtotal</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong> 3,277</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> <a href="T738.html">Trappstadt</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">65</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td> Frankfurt on the Main</td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">170</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td> Würzburg-<a title="Giebelstadt (Freistaat Bayern, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/giebelstadt_freistaat_bayern_germany">Giebelstadt</a></td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right">73</div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>Total </strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong> 3,447</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong> Total </strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | <td>
| |
| − | <div align="right"><strong>1,927</strong></div>
| |
| − | </td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | </tbody>
| |
| − | </table>
| |
| − | </div>
| |
| − | <h4 align="center">Statistics provided by Ernst Crous</h4>
| |
| − | <h3>Division of Germany, 1949-1990</h3>
| |
| − | <h4>Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)</h4>
| |
| − | <table class="plain" align="left">
| |
| − | <tbody>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a href="../../images/ME2_484.jpg/view"><img class="image-inline" src="../images/ME2_484.jpg/image_preview" alt="ME2_484.jpg" /></a></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><span class="style1">West Germany in 1955<br />Source: Mennonite Encyclopedia, v. 2, pp. 484-485.</span></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | </tbody>
| |
| − | </table>
| |
| − | <p>Mennonites in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD; Federal Republic of Germany)
| |
| − | can be divided into six groups: (1) "urban
| |
| − | Mennonites " of the north and west; (2) descendants of
| |
| − | Swiss immigrants in the south; (3) <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/W4752.html">West Prussian</a> refugees, who for the most
| |
| − | part are living in northern Germany in their second generation; (4) approximately
| |
| − | 700 return emigrants, who came from <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/P370.html">Paraguay</a> and <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/U76.html">Uruguay</a> since the 1960s; (5)
| |
| − | more than 3,000 <em>Umsiedler </em> (resettlers), who arrived from the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/U540.html">Soviet Union</a> in the 1970s; (6) ca. 800 Mennonites in congregations resulting from
| |
| − | Mennonite Brethren and Mennonitische Heimatsmission (MHM) mission work. The
| |
| − | differing backgrounds of these groups has made "coming together" difficult.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The four German Mennonite conferences vary in the roles they fill. In general,
| |
| − | their functions include: publication of periodicals; continuing education
| |
| − | for church workers; organization of conferences; support and encouragement
| |
| − | of congregations, missions, and social projects; the peace witness; and representation
| |
| − | before state, society, and other denominations.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The Vereinigung Deutscher Mennonitengemeinden (VdM; Union of German Mennonite
| |
| − | Congregations) includes 34 congregations, with 7,248 members in the north
| |
| − | and west as well as in the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/p3594.html">Palatinate</a>. The <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/V4700.html">Verband
| |
| − | deutscher Mennonitengemeinden</a> (VdM; Federation of German Mennonite Congregations) has 22 congregations and
| |
| − | 1,617 members in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern ( Bavaria), and the Palatinate.
| |
| − | The two Mennonite Brethren conferences (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Brüdergemeinden in Deutschland and Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Brüdergemeinden in Osterreich and Bayern) include 938 members in eight
| |
| − | congregations within the Federal Republic. Ten <em> Umsiedler </em> congregations,
| |
| − | with 2,183 members, have neither joined an existing conference nor organized
| |
| − | their own; they are connected among themselves and with other congregations
| |
| − | through the Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur geistlichen Unterstützung in Mennonitengemeinden
| |
| − | (Task Force for Spiritual Aid in Mennonite Congregations).</p>
| |
| − | <p>For 1987, <em> the Mennonitisches Jahrbuch </em> lists 81 Mennonite
| |
| − | congregations and three mission projects by MHM, two by Deutscher Mennonitisches
| |
| − | Missionskomitee (DMMK), and one by Rosedale Mennonite Mission (<a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/C6676ME.html">Conservative
| |
| − | Mennonite Conference</a>). Altogether, these add up to 11,335 members, not
| |
| − | including children or guests. Congregational size varies from 15 to 1,170
| |
| − | members. Geographical concentrations exist in the Palatinate (18 congregations,
| |
| − | 2,600 members), the Bielefeld area (5 congregations, 1,858 members), Espelkamp
| |
| − | (3 congregations, 1,555 members), and <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/N488.html">Neuwied</a> (4 congregations, 1,078 members).
| |
| − | Roughly calculated, Mennonites in the Bundesrepublik can be categorized as
| |
| − | one-fourth "West Prussian," one-fourth "Swiss," one-third "Russian," one-twelfth
| |
| − | urban, and one-twelfth not of Mennonite background. If the total figure is
| |
| − | compared with that of 1933, a one-third decline is revealed; however, if
| |
| − | those of Russian Mennonite heritage are not figured in, it becomes evident
| |
| − | that Mennonites in <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/G477.html">Germany</a> declined by more than one-half during that period.
| |
| − | Every sector of German Mennonites is faced with this.</p>
| |
| − | <table class="plain" align="right">
| |
| − | <tbody>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><a href="../../images/Germany_Map_1987.jpg/view"><img class="image-inline" src="../images/Germany_Map_1987.jpg/image_preview" alt="Germany_Map_1987.jpg" /></a></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><span class="style1">Germany in 1987.<br />Source: ME 5, p. 109</span></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | </tbody>
| |
| − | </table>
| |
| − | <p>Along with this dramatic decline, structural changes have taken place since
| |
| − | World War II. After the flight and expulsion of West Prussians and during the
| |
| − | beginnings of return emigration from <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/S672.html">South America</a> and resettlement from the
| |
| − | <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/U540.html">Soviet Union</a>, more and more rural Mennonites in the southern Bundesrepublik
| |
| − | left their villages and farms for the cities. Opportunities for young people
| |
| − | in agriculture diminished due to structural shifts in that field; at the same
| |
| − | time, the educational system improved, broadening the spectrum of professional
| |
| − | opportunities. The demands of professional mobility brought many young Mennonites
| |
| − | to cities without Mennonite congregations. The customary relationship of profession
| |
| − | and congregation was lost; a steady shrinking of congregations resulted. In
| |
| − | addition, the number of marriages in which one partner either was a stranger
| |
| − | to the Mennonite world or had other confessional ties increased. As patriarchal
| |
| − | structures weakened, the extended family lost its hold. The Mennonite "family
| |
| − | church" was no longer the natural home, no longer provided the sought-after
| |
| − | shelter and protection. Most young Mennonites were finding themselves on their
| |
| − | own in a strange environment.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Due to these shifts, numerous congregations have been founded in small and
| |
| − | middle-sized cities since 1945. In the late 1980s, there were as many "new" congregations
| |
| − | (40 with 5,468 members) as "old " ones (41 with 5,867 members). In
| |
| − | recent years, many congregations have been able to buy or build meetingplaces;
| |
| − | in 1986 more than half of the congregations owned the building in which they
| |
| − | met. Based on the frequency of congregational events, on involvement reaching
| |
| − | outside the congregation, and on the findings of church workers, congregations
| |
| − | with their own buildings are especially active.</p>
| |
| − | <p>More than 100 <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/L398.html">lay preachers</a> (119, not including MHM) and 23 salaried ministers
| |
| − | serve Mennonite congregations; eight church workers are also employed in various
| |
| − | projects (not including the staff of the four homes for the elderly in <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/T58982.html">Thomashof</a>,
| |
| − | <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/B8484.html">Burgweinting</a>, Enkenbach, and Bad Oldesloe). The training of the salaried pastors
| |
| − | varies considerably: some have attended a Bible school, others have studied
| |
| − | at independent theological academies, and eight have university degrees in
| |
| − | theology. Seven also supplemented their ministerial training through courses
| |
| − | at Mennonite seminaries or colleges in <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/N676.html">North America</a>. Forty-seven of the lay
| |
| − | ministers are with VdM, and 28 are with the <em> Umsiedler </em> congregations.
| |
| − | In recent years, the readiness of laity to deliver sermons has also been increasing
| |
| − | in many predominantly West Prussian congregations. An important task in coming
| |
| − | years will be further training of lay ministers. However, many congregations
| |
| − | still have difficulty finding lay persons who will preach. Some smaller congregations
| |
| − | no longer have a minister, and others have no replacement leadership under
| |
| − | training. A number of congregations meet for worship only every two to four
| |
| − | weeks. Nine of the salaried ministers serve two or more congregations. There
| |
| − | are many other congregations in which the number of weekly events has increased,
| |
| − | and in which consistent work with congregational subgroups (the elderly, youth,
| |
| − | young adults, etc.) has been growing. Such a variety of offerings in a congregation
| |
| − | is not possible without strong lay involvement.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Because of their diverse backgrounds and situations, Mennonites in the Bundesrepublik
| |
| − | present a picture rich in variety. There are "conservative" Mennonites
| |
| − | as well as those looking for new forms and directions; here a congregation
| |
| − | influenced by evangelistic renewal, and there one more interested in the peace
| |
| − | witness. The social spectrum has changed; the number of farmers has gone down
| |
| − | and social and service professions have become more popular, while the Umsiedler—due
| |
| − | to their background—frequently find employment as industrial workers.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Nonetheless, such insecurity about the position of Mennonites in the modern
| |
| − | world or about the relationship of congregation to believers as may exist,
| |
| − | has not led to resignation or indifference. Instead, we find a reflective "backwards
| |
| − | look" toward the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/A533ME.html">Anabaptist</a> heritage, and a deepening consideration of
| |
| − | the task of Mennonites in the Bundesrepublik of today. German Mennonites—in
| |
| − | all their variety—are pursuing a new identity. This can be seen in Mennonite
| |
| − | publications, discussions at the conference level, and the offerings of church
| |
| − | workshops and conferences. In the following ways the German Mennonite identity
| |
| − | has been strengthened since 1945: (1) With three exceptions, salaried ministers
| |
| − | come from Mennonite ranks, and there are currently a number of Mennonite theology
| |
| − | students who can provide for future needs. (2) Youth work, in the north as
| |
| − | well as south, is being intensified through full time staff; non-Mennonites
| |
| − | are also attending youth conferences and retreats. (3) The peace witness,
| |
| − | and its implications, has become a determining factor for many Mennonites,
| |
| − | and is beginning to mold their thinking and the manner in which they lead their
| |
| − | lives. (4) There is a heightened interest in missions (including home missions)
| |
| − | and social responsibility, expressed through contributions and personal involvement.
| |
| − | (5) The tendency toward inter-Mennonite cooperation at many levels, and the
| |
| − | desire to stay together and come closer to each other, are both increasing.
| |
| − | (6) In evidence is an increasing commitment of sisters and brothers who expect
| |
| − | more than Sunday worship, and who are ready to be involved in congregational
| |
| − | activities.-- Diether Götz Lichdi, 1987</p>
| |
| − | <h4>German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)</h4>
| |
| − | <p>The Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR; German Democratic Republic
| |
| − | [East Germany]. Founded on 7 October 1949, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik
| |
| − | comprised the area of the post-World-War-II Soviet zone of occupation. Its
| |
| − | social, political, and economic systems were modeled on those of the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/U540.html">Soviet Union</a> under Stalin. After 1949 the Socialist Unity Party (SED), governing according
| |
| − | to the principles of democratic centralism, remained virtually unchallenged
| |
| − | in its control. Economically and socially weakened by heavy emigration to <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/B4748.html">West
| |
| − | Berlin</a>, the DDR built a wall to seal off West Berlin from the surrounding territory
| |
| − | of the DDR (1961). In 1971 the communist party leader, Walter Ulbricht, was
| |
| − | replaced by Erich Honecker, who, while strengthening ties to the Soviet Union,
| |
| − | was also responsive to the needs of the people. A new treaty with the Bundesrepublik
| |
| − | Deutschland (BRD, Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany]), ratified the
| |
| − | next year, moved towards normalization of relations and increased contact between
| |
| − | the two Germanys at many levels. The economic and social stability of the German
| |
| − | Democratic Republic increased significantly during Honecker's time in power.
| |
| − | In 1985 the country had a population of 16.7 million.</p>
| |
| − | <p>During the early years of the DDR's existence church-state relations were
| |
| − | often confrontational. This situation peaked in 1953 with widespread harassment
| |
| − | and some arrests. The state had introduced clubs for children and youth, and
| |
| − | also the <em> Jugendweihe —</em> a socialist youth initiation at the
| |
| − | traditional age of church <a title="Confirmation" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/encyclopedia/contents/confirmation">confirmation</a>. In 1969 the Evangelische Kirche (the
| |
| − | main Protestant [Lutheran-Reformed] body) in the DDR separated from the inter-German
| |
| − | Protestant union (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland). The leadership of this
| |
| − | church sought to be a "church within socialism," not beside it, and
| |
| − | not against it. This stance of critical solidarity was combined with an appeal
| |
| − | to the humanistic core of communism.</p>
| |
| − | <p>On 6 March 1978 leaders of the Protestant Church met with Honecker. One
| |
| − | result was the expansion of the role of the church in the society. Numerous
| |
| − | educational institutions, hospitals, and homes for the elderly and the disabled
| |
| − | were supported by the church. The Protestant Church was also known for its
| |
| − | active involvement in international ecumenical work.</p>
| |
| − | <p>The cooperation of the church with the state in the celebration of the 500th
| |
| − | anniversary of <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/L9222.html">Martin Luther's</a> birth in 1983 was positively evaluated by many.
| |
| − | However, the unequal treatment of Christians in the education system, repeatedly
| |
| − | addressed at church synods in 1985 and 1986, was not resolved.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Statistics for 1983 showed the Protestant Church with 6,950,000 members,
| |
| − | the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/R65.html">Roman Catholic Church</a> with 1.2 million, and the free churches and fellowships
| |
| − | with 150,000. Membership had declined steadily in the two large churches,
| |
| − | and active membership was substantially lower.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Before <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/W6767.html">World War II</a> very few Mennonites resided in what became the DDR. Immediately
| |
| − | after the war, many hundreds came from <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/W4752.html">West Prussia</a> . They scattered widely,
| |
| − | and because of their dispersion often associated with the Lutheran-Reformed
| |
| − | or Baptist churches in their areas. Beginning in 1961 Walter Jantzen, a businessman
| |
| − | in East Berlin, took the initiative to gather and organize the Mennonites in
| |
| − | the DDR, and achieved state recognition of the church the following year. Jantzen,
| |
| − | ordained in 1965, took much time to visit members and to lead worship services
| |
| − | at various meeting places. After 1980 Knuth Hansen, a Protestant Church pastor,
| |
| − | was full-time minister. His main functions were to conduct worship services
| |
| − | and to visit the members of the largely elderly congregation. In 1986 the Mennonites
| |
| − | met monthly or quarterly in East Berlin, Rostock, Halle, Erfurt, and Freital.
| |
| − | Due to death and emigration membership declined steadily. In 1950 one spoke
| |
| − | of 1,100 Mennonites in the DDR. In 1985 the membership stood at 287. Since
| |
| − | 1983 the church has sought to strengthen ties to Mennonites in the BRD. In
| |
| − | 1984 six delegates attended the Mennonite World Conference, and since then
| |
| − | others have attended international Mennonite gatherings. The church was also
| |
| − | represented in ecumenical organizations in the DDR. A feeling of togetherness
| |
| − | remained even though understanding of the <a href="../../encyclopedia/contents/A533ME.html">Anabaptist</a> heritage and distinctives
| |
| − | was cloudy. The church held its first national congregational meeting in October
| |
| − | 1985. -- John Thiessen, 1987</p>
| |
| − | <h3>Reunification of Germany, 1990-present</h3>
| |
| − | <p>Political events throughout 1989 in East Germany, including mass demonstrations, led to the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. Germany was formally reunited on 3 October 1990.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Between 2000 and 2009 the following Anabaptist groups were active in Germany:</p>
| |
| − | <div align="center">
| |
| − | <table class="vertical listing">
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <th>Group</th>
| |
| − | <th>Membership<br />in 1990</th>
| |
| − | <th>Congregations<br />in 1990</th>
| |
| − | <th>Membership<br />in 2000<br /></th>
| |
| − | <th>Congregations<br />in 2000<br /></th>
| |
| − | <th>Membership<br />in 2003<br /></th>
| |
| − | <th>Congregations<br />in 2003<br /></th>
| |
| − | <th>Membership<br /> in 2006</th>
| |
| − | <th>Congregations<br /> in 2006</th>
| |
| − | <th>Membership<br /> in 2009</th>
| |
| − | <th>Congregations<br /> in 2009</th>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>AGAPE-Gemeindewerk - Mennonitische
| |
| − | Heimatmission e. V.</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">180<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">6<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">180</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">6</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">250</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Brüdergemeinden in Deutschland (AMBD)<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1,044<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1,397<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">15<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1,430<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">15<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">1,519</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">15</td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">1,623</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">15</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer
| |
| − | Gemeinden in Deutschland (AMG)<sup>1</sup><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">8,644<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">56<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7,606<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">55<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">6,060<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">57<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">5,900</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">54</td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">5,417</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">55</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur geistlichen
| |
| − | Unterstützung in Mennonitengemeinden e.V. (AGUM)<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">3,850<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">12<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">6,547<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">27<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5,400<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">23<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">5,573</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">24</td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">5,565</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">19</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Bruderschaft der Christengemeinden in
| |
| − | Deutschland</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">20,000</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">80</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Bund der Europäisch-Mennonitischen Brüdergemeinden<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5,620<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">13<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Bund Taufgesinnter Gemeinden (BTG)<sup>2</sup><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">2,500<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5,658<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">27<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">3,400<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">12<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">3,500</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">9</td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">6,356</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">27</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Evangelische Freikirche Missionsgemeinde
| |
| − | Bad Pyrmont</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">45<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">37<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">43</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1</td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Mennoniten-Brüdergemeinden (Independent
| |
| − | Mennonite Brethren congregations)<sup>3</sup></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">2,000<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">8<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">15,000<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">45<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">13,250<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">45<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">13,970</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">46</td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">4,520</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">19</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Mennoniten-Kirchgemeinden (Independent
| |
| − | Mennonite congregations)</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1,700<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">1,800</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">445</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">13</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Mennonitengemeinde in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">168<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">1<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Mennonitische Heimatmission (MHM)<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">310<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">13<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">301<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>Verband der Evangelischen Freikirchen
| |
| − | Mennonitischer Brüdergemeinden in Bayern (VMBB)</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">225<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">220<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">7<br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">291</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">306</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">5</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td>WEBB-Gemeinden (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der
| |
| − | Gemeinden in Wolfsburg, Espelkamp, Bechterdissen und Bielefeld)</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td><br /></td>
| |
| − | <td> </td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right">1,585</td>
| |
| − | <td align="right">4</td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | <tr>
| |
| − | <td><strong>Totals</strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>18,516<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>104<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>36,779<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>184<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>37,297<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>184<br /></strong></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right"><strong>32,776</strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>167</strong></td>
| |
| − | <td class="xl63" align="right"><strong>46,067</strong></td>
| |
| − | <td align="right"><strong>242</strong></td>
| |
| − | </tr>
| |
| − | </table>
| |
| − | </div>
| |
| − | <p class="discreet"><sup>1</sup>Includes three regional conferences: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Südwestdeutscher Mennonitengemeinden (ASM), Verband deutscher Mennonitengemeinden (VdM), and Vereinigung der Deutschen Mennonitengemeinden (VDM)<sup></sup></p>
| |
| − | <p class="discreet"><sup>2</sup>Only part of the BTG (6,619 members, 30 congregations) in 2003 were Mennonite Brethren.</p>
| |
| − | <p class="discreet"><sup>3</sup>The data for 2003 includes 29% of the congregations in the Bruderschaft der Christengemeinden in Deutschland: (25,000 members, 74 congregations).</p>
| |
| − | <h3>Literature of the German Mennonites</h3>
| |
| − | <p>The literature of the Mennonites in Germany, excluding the 16th-century Anabaptists
| |
| − | and omitting small pamphlets and ephemeral literature, falls into six categories:
| |
| − | (1) reprints of Dutch Mennonite books; (2) sermon collections; (3) devotional
| |
| − | literature and church manuals such as confessions, catechisms, and prayerbooks;
| |
| − | (4) historical writings; (5) hymnbooks, and (6) general theological and Biblical
| |
| − | literature.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Of the last category remarkably little was produced by native German Mennonites;
| |
| − | they seem to have produced no substantial general writers throughout their
| |
| − | history. The entire list includes only five writers: (1) Gerhard Ewert, <a title="Gross-Lunau, Klein-Lunau, Horst (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/gross_lunau_klein_lunau_horst_kuyavian_pomeranian">Gross-Lunau</a>
| |
| − | near <a title="Culm (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/culm_kuyavian_pomeranian_voivodeship_poland">Culm</a> <em>(Sieben Betrachtungen, </em>1843); (2) Peter Froese, elder at
| |
| − | Orlofferfelde <em>(Liebreiche Erinnerung </em><em>. . . </em><em>von der Wehrlosigkeit, </em>1850);
| |
| − | (3) Karl Harder, preacher at Neuwied and <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a>, who published (with the help
| |
| − | of others) three volumes of <em>Blätter für Religion and Erziehung, </em>1869-1871;
| |
| − | (4) <a href="K5208.html">Philipp Kieferndorf</a>, preacher at Monsheim <em>(Der Eid, </em>1891); and
| |
| − | (5) Horst Quiring, preacher at Berlin <em>(Grundworte </em><em>des Glaubens, </em>1938,
| |
| − | a theological dictionary). <a title="Kroeker, Jakob (1872-1948)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/kroeker_jakob_1872_1948">Jakob Kroeker</a> (1872-1948), an outstanding writer
| |
| − | with over 20 titles of quality to his credit (e.g., <em>Das </em><em>lebendige
| |
| − | Wort, </em>14 vols of Old Testament exposition), was a Russian Mennonite who
| |
| − | came to Germany permanently in 1910 and served as an interdenominational speaker
| |
| − | and writer without membership in any German Mennonite group.</p>
| |
| − | <ol>
| |
| − | <li>The list of German translations of Dutch Mennonite authors is extensive: <a href="M4636ME.html">Menno
| |
| − | Simons</a>, <em>Ein Fun </em><em>damentbuch </em>(n.p., 1575; 2nd ed. undated), <em>Die </em><em>Fundamente </em>(Danzig,
| |
| − | 1835), translated by P. van Riesen, <em>Ausgang aus dem Papsttum </em>(Frankfurt
| |
| − | and Leipzig, 1700), and <em>Kurzer Auszug </em>(Büdingen, 1758 and Königsberg,
| |
| − | 1765); <a href="D57.html">Dirk Philips</a>, <em>Enchiridion </em>(1715,
| |
| − | with three smaller tracts) and <em>Von der Ehe der Christen </em>(1765);
| |
| − | <a href="B7350.html">T. J. van Braght</a>, <em>Tugendschule </em>(1743) and <em>Märtyrer-Spiegel, </em>reprinted
| |
| − | from the Ephrata, PA, 1748 edition at Pirmasens in 1780; H. Schijn, <em>Erster
| |
| − | Anfang von dem christlichen Gottes dienst </em>(1743); <a href="D445.html">J.
| |
| − | Deknatel</a>, <em>Anleitung zum Christ lichen Glauben, </em>a catechism
| |
| − | (Amsterdam, 1756; reprints Neuwied 1790, Worms 1829, <a href="A45684.html">Alzey</a> 1839); two confessions: <em>(a) </em><a href="D674.html">Dordrecht</a> of
| |
| − | 1632 in German first at Amsterdam, 1664 and 1691, then n.p., 1686, 1711,
| |
| − | and 1742, further at Zweibrücken in 1854 and Regensburg in 1876; <em>(b) </em><a href="M4637ME.html">Cornelis
| |
| − | Ris confession</a> of 1766 at Hamburg 1776 and 1850; the first <em>(a) </em>be
| |
| − | coming the confession of the Amish, the second <em>(b) </em>that of the
| |
| − | North German Mennonites. Deknatel's sermons were also published in German
| |
| − | translation at Büdingen in 1757. <a title="Schabaelje, Jan Philipsz (Philipsen) (ca. 1585-1656)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/S3297.html">J. P. Schabalie</a>'s famous <a title="Wandering Soul" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/W3597.html"><em>Wan</em></a><em><a title="Wandering Soul" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/W3597.html">delnde
| |
| − | Seele</a> </em>had at least nine European German editions, among them Basel
| |
| − | 1741, 1770, 1811, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1758, 1770, and 1860.</li>
| |
| − | <li>The printed sermon collections were fairly numerous, seventeen of more
| |
| − | than two sermons being listed in 1730-1909 in the exhaustive "Annotated
| |
| − | Bibliography of Published Mennonite Sermons" <em>(Mennonite Quarterly
| |
| − | Review </em>27 (1953): 145-149), beginning with Jakob Denner of Hamburg and
| |
| − | including Rahusen of Leer, I. Kroeker of Königsberg, <a title="Weydmann, Leonhard (1793-1868)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/weydmann_leonhard">Leonhard Weydmann</a> and <a href="M6503.html">Isaac
| |
| − | Molenaar</a> of Krefeld, <a title="Hoekstra, Johannes Albertus (1763-1817)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/hoekstra_johannes_albertus_1763_1817">J. A. Hoekstra</a> of Hamburg, H. Reeder of Weierhof, <a href="M6506.html">J.
| |
| − | Molenaar</a> of <a href="M6553.html">Monsheim</a>, C. Harder of Neuwied and <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a>, <a href="M36853.html">H.
| |
| − | G. Mannhardt</a> of
| |
| − | Danzig, J. P. Müller of Emden, and three series of sermons by various preachers <em>(Menn.
| |
| − | Bl. </em>supplements 1887-89, <em>Predigten aus Mennoniten-Gemein-</em><em>den
| |
| − | i8gi-gg, 9 </em>vv., and <em>Predigten vorgetragen in den </em><em>Mennoniten </em><em>Gemeinden
| |
| − | Westpreussens </em><em>igo6-og, </em>2). </li>
| |
| − | <li>The devotional literature and church manuals include, besides the Dordrecht and Cornelis Ris
| |
| − | Dutch confessions and Deknatel's Dutch catechism, the following confessions
| |
| − | and catechisms: the first German confession (possibly translated from the
| |
| − | Dutch) of 1660 at Danzig (United Flemish, <a href="F7599.html">Frisian</a>, and <a title="High German Mennonites" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/high_german_mennonites">High German Mennonites</a>), <em>Confession </em><em>oder </em><em>Kurtze </em><em>und
| |
| − | Einfältige Glaubensbekentniss, </em>to which were attached beginning 1690
| |
| − | the catechism <em>Kurtze </em><em>Unterweisung </em>and <em>Formular etlicher
| |
| − | christlicher Gebete; </em>another West Prussian <em>Confession </em><em>oder </em><em>Kurtze </em><em>und
| |
| − | Einfältige </em><em>Glaubensbekenntniss </em>of 1678 (Georg Hansen, elder
| |
| − | of the Danzig Flemish congregation); <em>Glaubens-Bericht vor die Jugend </em>of
| |
| − | 1671 (the first German publication of its sort) and <em>Erklärungen der Antworten </em>of
| |
| − | 1678 (both also written by Georg Hansen); <em>Confession or Kurtzer </em><em>und
| |
| − | einfältiger Glaubens-Bericht der </em>(Danziger) <em>Alten Flämischen of
| |
| − | 1768 </em>(comprising the confession of 1730 and the catechism of 1768);
| |
| − | the very popular <a href="E5117.html">Elbing catechism of 1778</a> of the
| |
| − | <a href="F625.html">Flemish</a> elder Gerhard Wiebe (<a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a>) and the Frisian elder <a title="Donner Heinrich (1735-1804)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/donner_heinrich_1735_1804">Heinrich Donner</a>
| |
| − | (<a title="Orlofferfelde (West Prussia)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/O773.html">Orlofferfelde</a>), <em>Kurtze und Einfältige Unterweisung, </em>which became
| |
| − | the catechism of the Amish and, reprinted first at Waldeck (1797), was often
| |
| − | called the "Waldeck catechism," with many German reprints for
| |
| − | the Amish, four French editions, and many editions in America as well as
| |
| − | many reprints in West Prussia and numerous reprints in Russia; the confession
| |
| − | of Gerhard Wiebe (1792) and the new West Prussian of 1895. Gerrit Roosen's
| |
| − | justly popular <em><a href="C4815ME.html">Christliches Gemüthsgespräch</a> </em>(Ratzeburg,
| |
| − | 1702), which went out of use in Germany after 1838 but was widely used in
| |
| − | America (14 German editions, 1769-1938, and 6 English editions, 1857-1941);
| |
| − | attached to the <em>Gemüthsgespräch, </em>strangely enough, was the Prussian
| |
| − | catechism of 1690, <em>Kurtze </em><em>Unterweisung; </em>Leonhard Weydmann's <em>Christliche
| |
| − | Lehre </em>(Monsheim, 1836, and Crefeld, 1852); <a href="M6506.html">Johannes Molenaar's</a> <em>Katechismus
| |
| − | der christlichen Lehre </em>(Leipzig, 1841); the <em>Christliches Lehrbüchlein </em>of
| |
| − | the Verband (Heilbronn, 1865). (For a complete account of all German confessions
| |
| − |
| |
| − | and catechisms see the articles "<a href="C6656ME.html">Confessions,
| |
| − | Doctrinal</a>"
| |
| − | and "<a href="C4574ME.html">Cathechism</a>"
| |
| − | in this Encyclopedia.) The chief prayerbook was the <em><a href="E7565ME.html">Ernsthafte
| |
| − | Christenpflicht</a>, </em>first published at <a href="K200.html">Kaiserslautern</a> in 1739, reprinted
| |
| − | many times in Germany, 1753, 1781 (Pirmasens), 1787 (Herborn), 1796, 1816
| |
| − | (Zweibrücken), 1832 (Basel), 1837 (Zweibrücken), 1840 (Reinach), and 1852
| |
| − | (Regensburg), and many editions in America, largely used by the Amish. (For
| |
| − | a fuller discussion of prayerbooks and devotional literature see Friedmann, <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Piety, </em>particularly the chapters "Mennonite Prayer-books, Their
| |
| − | Story and Meaning" and "The Devotional Literature of the Mennonites
| |
| − | in Danzig and East Prussia.") </li>
| |
| − | <li>The hymnbooks of the German Mennonites were basically few in number. In
| |
| − | 1564 was published <em>Etliche schöne Christliche Geseng, wie sie in der
| |
| − | Gefengkniss zu Passaw im Schloss von den Schweitzer Brüdern durch Gottes
| |
| − | gnad geticht vnd gesungen worden. </em>About the same time, probably 1563/64,
| |
| − | in the <a href="L724.html">Lower Rhine </a>area was published <em><a href="S3673.html">Ein schön Gesangbüchlein Geistlicher
| |
| − | Liede</a>r, zusammen getragen auss dem Alten und Neuen Testament durch fromme
| |
| − | Christen vnd Liebhaber Gottes, </em>reprinted twice with additions, the third
| |
| − | edition being made by <a title="Clock, Leenaert (d. after 1638)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/clock_leenaert_d._after_1638">Leenaert Clock</a>. Since 1583 the first of these hymnals
| |
| − | is the second part of the <em><a href="A8995ME.html">Ausbund</a>, </em>whereas
| |
| − | a number of hymns of the second hymnal appear in the first part of the <em>Ausbund, </em>which
| |
| − | has become the hymnal of the Amish (first edition with this title 1583, n.p.,
| |
| − | 2nd ed. 1622, n.p., with later editions probably all at Basel, last there
| |
| − | in 1838). The first German hymnbook of the Prussian Mennonites (they had
| |
| − | used Dutch hymnals before) was the <em><a href="G447.html">Geistreiches Gesangbuch</a> </em>(Königsberg,
| |
| − | 1767), which went through 9 German editions, last at <a href="E5115.html">Elbing</a> in 1843, and
| |
| − | went on to long use in <a href="R87.html">Russia</a>, <a href="M3650ME.html">Manitoba</a>,
| |
| − | and <a href="M492.html">Mexico</a> where it was still being used in the 1950s.
| |
| − | Meanwhile it was replaced in <a href="W4752.html">West Prussia </a> by a
| |
| − | new book, <em>Gesangbuch für Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Kirche und Haus </em>(1869,
| |
| − | with its 5th ed. in 1922). The Danzig congregation had its own hymnal from
| |
| − | 1780 on, also called <em><a href="G447.html">Geistreiches Gesangbuch</a>, </em>displaced in 1854
| |
| − | by a new book called <em><a href="G4813.html">Gesangbuch zur kirchlichen und häuslichen Erbauung</a>, </em>reprinted
| |
| − | in revised form in 1908. The Northwest German congregations long used Dutch
| |
| − | Mennonite hymnals and then replaced them with modern state-church books.
| |
| − | But the South Germans, after first using state-church hymnals, created their
| |
| − | own hymnbooks. The first one, <em>Christliches Gesangbuch, </em>appeared
| |
| − | at Worms in 1832, with a revised edition at Würzburg in 1839. The second
| |
| − | and final one, <em><a href="G4812.html">Gesangbuch zum gottesdienstlichen und häuslichen Gebrauch</a>, </em>appeared
| |
| − | at Worms in 1854, with new editions in 1876, 1910 (revised), and 1950. A
| |
| − | separate book was published by the Amish in Hesse and neighboring areas at
| |
| − | Wiesbaden in 1843 (reprint Regensburg, 1859), under the title <em>Gesangbuch
| |
| − | zum Gebrauch bei dem öffentlichen Gottesdienst. </em><em>. . .<br />
| |
| − | <br />
| |
| − | </em>The hymns in all these books were largely taken from the older German
| |
| − | treasury of hymns and chorales, with few additions of the late 19th-century "Gospel
| |
| − |
| |
| − | song" type (see <a href="H949ME.html">Hymnology</a>).</li>
| |
| − | <li>The historical literature produced by the German Mennonites to the 1950s
| |
| − | included the following: <a href="M36856.html">Wilhelm Mannhardt</a>, <em>Die Wehrfreiheit
| |
| − | der Altpreussischen Mennoniten </em>(Marienburg, 1863); <a href="B7650.html">A.
| |
| − | Brons</a>, <em>Der
| |
| − | Ursprung, Entwicklung und Schicksale der Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten </em>(Norden,
| |
| − | 1884, new ed. 1891 and 1912); <a title="Hege, Christian (1869-1943)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/hege_christian_1869_1943">Christian Hege</a>, <em>Die Täufer in der Kurpfalz </em>(Frankfurt,
| |
| − | 1908); <a title="Hege, Christine (1871-1942)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/hege_christine_1871_1942">Christine Hege</a>, <em>Kurze Geschichte der Mennoniten </em>(Frankfurt,
| |
| − | 1909); J. P. Müller, <em>Die Mennoniten in Ost-Friesland </em>(1881 and 1887);
| |
| − | B. C. Roosen, <em>Geschichte der Mennoniten-Gemeinde zu Hamburg und Altona, </em><em>2 </em>vols.
| |
| − | (Hamburg, 1886-87); J. t. Dornkaat Koolman, <em>Kurze Mitteilungen aus der
| |
| − | Geschichte der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Ostfriesland </em>(Norden, 1903); <em>idem, </em><em>Mitteilungen </em><em>.
| |
| − | . . </em><em>Gemeinde zu Norden </em>(Norden, 1904); E. Weydmann, <em>Geschichte
| |
| − | der Mennoniten bis zum </em><em>18. </em><em>Jahrhundert </em>(Neuwied, 1905);
| |
| − | H. G. Mannhardt, <em>Die Danziger Mennonitengemeinde </em>(Danzig, 1919);
| |
| − | L. Stobbe, <em>Montau-Gruppe </em>(Mon-tau, 1918); E. Händiges, <em>Die Lehre
| |
| − | der Mennoniten in Geschichte und Gegenwart </em>(Kaiserslautern, 1921); Chr.
| |
| − | Neff, ed., <em>Gedenkschrift zum 400jährigen Jubiläum der Mennoniten </em>(<a href="L860.html">Ludwigshafen</a>,
| |
| − | 1925); Chr. Hege, <em>Ein Rückblick auf 400 Jahre Mennonitischer</em> <em>Geschichte </em>(Karlsruhe,
| |
| − | 1935); W. Quiring, <em>Deutsche erschliessen den Chaco </em>(Karlsruhe, 1936); <em>idem, </em><em>Russlanddeutsche
| |
| − | suchen eine Heimat </em>(Karlsruhe, 1938); Horst Penner, <em>Ansiedlung Mennonitischsr
| |
| − | Niederländer im Weichsel-Mündungsgebiet </em>(Karlsruhe, 1940); <em>idem, </em><em>Weltweite
| |
| − | Bruderschaft, Ein mennonitisches Geschichtsbuch </em>(Karlsruhe, 1955); Herbert
| |
| − | Wiebe, <em>Das Siedlungswerk niederländischer Mennoniten im Weichseltal </em>(Marburg,
| |
| − | 1952); <a href="U5796.html">B. H. Unruh</a>, <em>Die niederländisch-niederdeutschen Hinter gründe
| |
| − | der mennonitischen Ostwanderungen im 16., 18. und ig. Jahrhundert </em>(Karlsruhe,
| |
| − | 1955). The greatest historical work of the German Mennonites has been the <em>Mennonitisches Lexikon </em>(1913-1967)
| |
| − | edited by <a title="Hege, Christian (1869-1943)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/hege_christian_1869_1943">Christian Hege</a> and <a href="N450.html">Christian Neff</a>, since 1947 by E. Crous (and
| |
| − | H. S. Bender), in 1956 at the letter <em>R. </em>The publications of the
| |
| − | Mennonitischer Geschichts verein (founded 1933), edited by Christian Hege
| |
| − | and since 1950 by Horst Quiring <em>(Mennonitische </em><em>Geschichtsblätter </em>1936-,
| |
| − | and <em>Schriftenreihe des </em><em>Mennonitischen </em><em>Geschichtsvereins </em>1938-)
| |
| − | have been notable. The Mennonite Research Center at <a title="Göttingen (Niedersachsen, Germany)" class="internal-link" href="../encyclopedia/contents/gottingen_niedersachsen_germany">Göttingen</a>, directed by
| |
| − | Ernst Crous, was created by the MGV in 1948. The <em><a href="M4679.html">Mennonitische Blätter</a> </em>(1854-1941)
| |
| − | carried much historical material. The <em>G<a href="G4527.html">emeindeblatt der </a></em><a href="G4527.html"><em>Mennoniten</em></a><em>, </em>published
| |
| − | since 1870 by the Verband, and the <em><a href="M46868.html">Mennonitische
| |
| − | Jugendwarte</a>, </em>published
| |
| − | by the Youth Commission of the South German Conference 1920-1939, also contained
| |
| − | some historical material. Much more has been contained in the <em>Christlicher </em>(now <em>Mennonitischer) </em><em>Gemeinde-Kalender, </em>published
| |
| − | since 1892 by the South German Conference. The <em>Mennonitisches </em><em>Adressbuch </em>(Frankfurt,
| |
| − | 1936) tried to give complete names and addresses of all Mennonites living
| |
| − | in Germany in 1936, by congregations. -- HSB</li>
| |
| − | <li>In addition to the titles in the section on literature above and the bibliographies under the various articles on subsections of Germany, the following should
| |
| − | be noted: A. H. Newman, <em>A History of Anti-Pedobaptism ...to 1609 </em>(Philadelphia,
| |
| − | 1897); C. Henry Smith, <em>The Story of the Mennonites </em>(Berne, 1945); <a title="Horsch, John (1867-1941)" class="internal-link" href="../../encyclopedia/contents/horsch_john_1867_1941">John Horsch</a>, <em>Mennonites in Europe </em>(Scottdale, 1942); F. H. Iittell, <em>The
| |
| − | Anabaptist View of the Church </em>(1952); R. Friedmann, <em>Mennonite Piety
| |
| − | Through the Centuries </em>(Goshen, 1949); H. S. Bender, "The Zwickau
| |
| − | Prophets, Thomas Miintzer and the Anabaptists," <em>MQR </em>XVII (1953)
| |
| − | 3-16; Wiswedel, <em>Bilder; </em>R, Dollinger, <em>Geschichte der </em><em>Mennoniten
| |
| − | in </em><em>Schleswig-Holstein, </em><em>Hamburg </em><em>und Lübeck </em>(Neumünster,
| |
| − | 1930); C. Krahn, <em>Menno </em><em>Simons </em>(Karlsruhe, 1936); H. S.
| |
| − | Bender and J. Horsch, <em>Menno </em><em>Simons' Life and Writings </em>(Scottdale,
| |
| − | 1936); Rembert, <em>Wiedertäufer; </em>P. Wappler, <em>Die </em><em>Täuferbewegung
| |
| − | in Thüringen </em>(Jena, 1913); Chr. Hege, "Early Anabaptists in Hesse," <em>MQR </em>V
| |
| − | (1931) 157-78; C. Neff, "Mennonites of Germany, including Danzig and
| |
| − | Poland," <em>MQR </em>XI (1937) 34-43; J. C. Wenger, "Life and
| |
| − | Work of Pilgram Marpeck," <em>MQR </em>XII (1938) 137-66; <em>idem, </em>"Theology
| |
| − | of Pilgram Marpeck," <em>ibid. </em>205-56; R. Friedmann, "Spiritual
| |
| − | Changes in European Mennonitism, 1650-1750," <em>MQR </em>XV (1941)
| |
| − | 33-45; J. C. Wenger, "The Schleitheim Confession of Faith," <em>MQR </em>XIX
| |
| − | (1945) 243-53; H. Penner, "Anabaptists and Mennonites of East Prussia," <em>MQR </em>XXII
| |
| − | (1948) 212-25; E. Crous, "Mennonites in Germany since the Thirty Years'
| |
| − | War," <em>MQR </em>XXV (1951) 235-62; D. Cattepoel, "Mennonites
| |
| − | of Germany 1936-1948, and the Present Outlook," <em>MQR </em>XXIV (1950)
| |
| − | 103-10; O. Wiebe, "Die Mennonitengemeinden in Nordwestdeutschland vor
| |
| − | 10 Jahren und heute," <em>Gem.-Kal. </em>1956, 34-42; <em>TA Württemberg;
| |
| − | TA Hessen; TA Bayern </em>I and II; <em>ML </em>I, 422-29.</li></ol>
| |
| − | == Bibliography ==
| |
| − | <p><strong>In addition to the titles in the section on literature above
| |
| − | and the bibliographies under the various articles on subsections of
| |
| − | Germany, the following should be noted: </strong></p>
| |
| − | <p>Bender, Harold S. and John Horsch. <em>Menno </em><em>Simons' Life and
| |
| − | Writings. </em>Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1936.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Bender, Harold S. Bender. "The Zwickau Prophets, Thomas Miintzer
| |
| − | and the Anabaptists." <em>Mennonite Quarterly Review </em>17 (1953):
| |
| − | 3-16.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Bossert, Gustav. <em>Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer I. Band, Herzogtum
| |
| − | Württemberg</em>. Leipzig: M. Heinsius, 1930.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Cattepoel, D. "Mennonites of Germany 1936-1948, and the Present
| |
| − | Outlook." <em>Mennonite Quarterly Review </em>24 (1950): 103-110.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Crous, Ernst. "Mennonites in Germany since the Thirty Years' War." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>25 (1951): 235-262.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Dollinger, R. <em>Geschichte der </em><em>Mennoniten in </em><em>Schleswig-Holstein, </em><em>Hamburg </em><em>und
| |
| − | Lübeck. </em>Neumünster, 1930.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Franz, Günther. <em>Urkundliche Quellen zur hessischen Reformationsgeschichte.
| |
| − | Vierter Band, Wiedertäuferakten 1527-1626.</em> Marburg: N.G. Elwert,
| |
| − | 1951.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Friedmann, Robert. <em>Mennonite Piety Through the Centuries. </em>Goshen,
| |
| − | IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1949.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Friedmann, Robert. "Spiritual Changes in European Mennonitism,
| |
| − | 1650-1750." <em>Mennonite Quarterly Review </em>15 (1941): 33-45.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Hege, Christian. "Early Anabaptists in Hesse." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>5 (1931): 157-178.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. <em>Mennonitisches Lexikon</em>,
| |
| − | 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967:
| |
| − | v. I, 422-429.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Horsch, John. <em>Mennonites in Europe. </em>Scottdale, PA: Mennonite
| |
| − | Publishing House, 1942.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Krahn, Cornelius. <em>Menno </em><em>Simons. </em>Karlsruhe, 1936.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Littell, F. H. <em>The Anabaptist View of the Church. </em>1952.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Mennonite World Conference. "2000 Europe Mennonite & Brethren in Christ Churches." Web. 27 February 2011. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2000europe.html">http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2000europe.html</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Mennonite World Conference. "2003 Europe Mennonite & Brethren in Christ Churches." Web. 27 February 2011. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2000europe.html">http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2000europe.html</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Mennonite World Conference. "Europe." Web. 5 October 2008. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2006europe.pdf">http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/2006europe.pdf</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Mennonite World Conference. "World Directory: Europe." Web. 13 June
| |
| − | 2010. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en15/files/Members2009/EuropeSummary.doc">http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en15/files/Members2009/EuropeSummary.doc</a>.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Neff, Christian. "Mennonites of Germany, including Danzig and
| |
| − | Poland." <em>Mennonite Quarterly Review </em>11 (1937): 34-43.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Newman, A. H. <em>A History of Anti-Pedobaptism . . .to 1609. </em>Philadelphia,
| |
| − | 1897.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Penner, Horst. "Anabaptists and Mennonites of East Prussia." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>22 (1948): 212-225.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Rembert, Karl. <em>Die "Wiedertäufer" im Herzogtum Jülich</em>.
| |
| − | Berlin: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1899.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Schornbaum, Karl. <em>Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer II. Band,
| |
| − | Markgraftum Brandenburg. (Bayern I. Abteilung)</em>. Leipzig: M. Heinsius
| |
| − | Nachfolger, 1934.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Schornbaum, Karl. <em>Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, V. Band (Bayern,
| |
| − | II. Abteilung)</em> Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1951.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Smith, C. Henry. <em>The Story of the Mennonites. </em>Berne, IN, 1945.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wappler, Paul. <em>Die Täuferbewegung in Thüringen von 1526-1584</em>.
| |
| − | Jena: Gustav Fisher, 1913.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wenger, John C. "Life and Work of Pilgram Marpeck." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>12 (1938): 137-166.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wenger, John C. "The Schleitheim Confession of Faith." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>19 (1945): 243-253.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wenger, John C. "Theology of Pilgram Marpeck." <em>Mennonite
| |
| − | Quarterly Review </em>12 (1938): 205-256.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wiebe, O. "Die Mennonitengemeinden in Nordwestdeutschland vor
| |
| − | 10 Jahren und heute."<em> Mennonitischer Gemeinde-Kalender</em> (1956):
| |
| − | 34-42.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Wiswedel, Wilhelm. <em>Bilder and Führergestalten aus dem Täufertum,</em> 3
| |
| − | vols. Kassel: J.G. Oncken Verlag, 1928-1952.</p>
| |
| − | <p><strong>Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bibliography</strong></p>
| |
| − | <div>
| |
| − | <p>Foth,
| |
| − | Peter J. "Mit hundert Jahren noch ein Kind—Wege und Umwege
| |
| − | zur mennonitischen Einheit."<em class="gameo_bibliography"> Brücke</em> 4 (1986).</p>
| |
| − | <p>"Konferenzen
| |
| − | Woher? Wohin? " in <em class="gameo_bibliography"> Mennonitisches Jahrbuch
| |
| − | </em>(1986).</p>
| |
| − | <p> Kraybill, Paul N., ed. <em class="gameo_bibliography">Mennonite World Handbook</em>. Lombard,
| |
| − | IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1978: 293-299.</p>
| |
| − | <p><em class="gameo_bibliography">Mennonite World Handbook Supplement</em>.
| |
| − | Strasbourg, France, and Lombard, IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1984:
| |
| − | 115-117. </p>
| |
| − | <p><em class="gameo_bibliography">Zurich und Witmarsum nach Addis Abeba:
| |
| − | Die Mennoniten in
| |
| − | Geschichte und Gegenwart. </em> Maxdorf, 1983.</p>
| |
| − | <p><strong>Deutsche Demokratische Republik Bibliography</strong></p>
| |
| − | <div>
| |
| − | <p>Beeson, Trevor. <em class="gameo_bibliography"> Discretion and Valour:
| |
| − | Religious Conditions in Russia and Eastern Eur</em><em class="gameo_bibliography">op</em><em class="gameo_bibliography">e. </em> London:
| |
| − | Fount Paperbacks, 1982; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Childs, David. <em class="gameo_bibliography"> The
| |
| − | GDR: Moscow's German Ally. </em> London: George Allen and Unwin,
| |
| − | 1983.</p>
| |
| − | <p><em class="gameo_bibliography">DDR
| |
| − | Handbuch.</em> 3rd. ed., 2 vols., ed. by Hartmut Zimmermann. Cologne:
| |
| − | Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1985.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Hansen, Knuth. "Die Mennoniten-Gemeinde in der DDR." 1986.
| |
| − | Copy of chapter prepared for future publication in the DDR.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Hansen, Knuth. "Mennonitengemeinde
| |
| − | in der DDR—Bilanz der letzten 5 Jahre." Report to the West
| |
| − | Berlin Mennonite Church on 2 February 1985.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Henkys, Reinhard, ed.<em class="gameo_bibliography"> Die
| |
| − | evangelischen Kirchen in der </em><em class="gameo_bibliography"> DDR: </em><em class="gameo_bibliography"> Beiträge </em> zu <em class="gameo_bibliography"> einer
| |
| − | Bestandsaufnahme. </em> Munich: Car. Kaiser Verlag, 1982.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Henkys, Reinhard. <em class="gameo_bibliography"> Gottes
| |
| − | Volk in Sozialismus: Wie Christen in </em> der <em class="gameo_bibliography"> DDR leben. </em> West
| |
| − | Berlin: Wiehern Verlag, 1983.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Kraybill, Paul N., ed. <em class="gameo_bibliography">Mennonite World Handbook</em>. Lombard,
| |
| − | IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1978: 290-292.</p>
| |
| − | <p><em class="gameo_bibliography">Mennonite World Handbook Supplement</em>.
| |
| − | Strasbourg, France, and Lombard, IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1984:
| |
| − | 119.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Sanford, John. <em class="gameo_bibliography"> The Sword
| |
| − | and the Ploughshare: Autonomous Peace Initiatives in East
| |
| − | Germany. </em> London:
| |
| − | Merlin Press/European Nuclear Disarmament, 1983.</p>
| |
| − | <p><em class="gameo_bibliography"> Travelling
| |
| − | Information about the Evangelical Church in the </em><em class="gameo_bibliography"> German</em><em class="gameo_bibliography"> Democratic
| |
| − | Republic. </em> East Berlin: Press and Information Office
| |
| − | of the Federation of Protestant Churches in the GDR, 1981.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Weber,
| |
| − | Hermann. <em class="gameo_bibliography"> DDR:
| |
| − | Grundriß </em> der <em class="gameo_bibliography"> Geschichte
| |
| − | 1945-1981. </em> Hannover: Fackelträger, 1982.</p>
| |
| − | <p>Yoder, Bill. "Installation
| |
| − | of New Pastor in East Berlin: Time for Reflection on Destiny." <em class="gameo_bibliography"> Gospel
| |
| − | Herald </em> (13 October 1981).</p>
| |
| − | </div>
| |
| − | </div>
| |