Lange, Johannes (19th century)
Johannes Lange, a relative of Wilhelm Lange, was sent by the Gnadenfeld Bruderschule (secondary school) of the Molotschna Mennonite settlement, Ukraine, Russia, to the Kirschenhardthof school of Württemberg, Germany, to take a teacher training course. The brilliant young man not only received a very good training but also came under the influence of Christoph Hoffman and Christoph Paulus, the leaders of the Templer movement of the Friends of Jerusalem. After his return in 1861, he became a teacher in the Gnadenfeld Bruderschule. He was joined by his brother Friedrich who had received his training in the same school. Since the Langes not only exposed the children but also the adults in private meetings to the teachings of the Templer group, the matter was investigated by the authorities. When Johannes Lange began to advocate the cause of the landless his case became more complicated. For seven months he was kept in custody as the Halbstadt Gebietsamt after his arrest on 25 January 1863. This was during the time that the Gnadenfeld Evangelische Mennonitengemeinde was founded (Friends of Jerusalem). In 1866 Johannes and Friedrich Lange went to St. Petersburg to defend the cause of their newly founded church. As a result in 1868 the group was permitted to settle on the estate of Orbelyani in the vicinity of Pyatigorsk on the Kuban River in the Caucasus where the Mennonite Brethren had settled. They established there the settlement Tempelhof. Next to Nikolai Schmidt, Johann Schmidt, and Isaak Fast, Johannes Lange and his brothers Friedrich and Benjamin played a significant role in the founding of the Templer Church and in laying its religious and educational foundations. Their educational standards remained high.
Bibliography
Görz, H. Die Molotschnaer Ansiedlung. Steinbach: 1951.
Isaac, Franz. Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Halbstadt: 1908.
Sawatzky, Heinrich. Templer Mennonitischer Herkunft. Winnipeg: 1955.
| Author(s) | Cornelius Krahn |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Krahn, Cornelius. "Lange, Johannes (19th century)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lange,_Johannes_(19th_century)&oldid=83031.
APA style
Krahn, Cornelius. (1957). Lange, Johannes (19th century). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lange,_Johannes_(19th_century)&oldid=83031.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 287-288. All rights reserved.
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