1690s Scandal in the Danzig Flemish Church: A Mennonite Artist

A very public congregational dispute between artist Enoch Seemann and Flemish Elder Georg Hansen in Danzig in the 1690s set new limits for Mennonite cultural participation and cemented the central role of the elder.

Renowned Canadian novelist Rudy Wiebe has put the story into a beautiful historical narrative in Sweeter than all the World, based largely on Harry Loewen’s historical tale of Seemann in Cities of Refuge. More recently we have a full text reconstruction of the key lost pamphlet and replies, by Hans Rudolf Lavater. Here is the gist of the story.

Seemann was born in the Hansa city of Elbing (Poland) to a Mennonite minister and artist—a reminder of the sophisticated urban culture that some refugees brought east. Seemann travelled abroad and apprenticed in Holland, then settled in Danzig where he also married. As an accomplished portrait painter, he was disciplined by Elder Hansen and the congregation in 1697 for painting “graven images” and was barred from communion, footwashing, and membership meetings (note 1).

This was an odd case, for Menno Simons too sat for portraits, Seemann argues, and all Mennonites were familiar with the gripping human scenes in the Martyrs Mirror, as well as the elaborate ceiling art in the Red Chamber of Danzig City Hall and paintings in its Treasury created by Flemish Mennonite artist Isaac von den Blocke.

Yet in obedience to the church, Seemann cut up two of his portraits before three congregational representatives and was then accepted back into the congregation. When minister shop-owners however did not destroy their painted signboards, Seemann felt free to return to his art which the congregation saw as deceit. An additional conflict arose when Hansen said the congregation could not permit Seemann to look at human figures, especially “exposed females” which he did “without shame” (note 2).

Hansen’s teaching on the “new creation” or the Christian life sought to warn against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—all rooted in the power of sin (note 3). Seemann’s portraits were consistent with the best of seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture painting (Mennonite congregations in Holland were well represented in the “Dutch Golden Age” of painting; note 4). But unlike von den Blocke’s work, Seemann’s art was without an obvious moralistic narrative, e.g., of choosing between the “narrow and broad way” (note 5).

At a second church “brotherhood meeting” Seemann was placed under the ban and no longer referred to as “brother” by church members, but only “friend;” even his wife was not to share table or bed with him. In defiance, Seemann published a “well-intended brotherly admonition and faithful warning made public for all by a lover of the truth” with the title: “The Revelation and Punishment of Georg Hansen’s Folly” (note 6). This is likely the first Mennonite pamphlet (1697) published in Danzig and Poland, and in it Seemann attempted to “admonish” believers and also to expose the Flemish elder’s ignorance and maze of deceit, as well as to shame him into reconsideration. Hansen’s charge of making “graven images” was not only a poor reading of scripture, but superstitious and inconsistent, guided neither by divine nor worldly justice, according to Seemann. He argued that the elder reigned over others by his affects alone, even breaking up marriages—a civil matter—with the ban, which Seemann leveraged to bring before city council (note 7).

Hansen, while a cobbler, was the most theologically literate and eloquent Mennonite apologist in Danzig since Dirk Philips. Hansen judged the art of portraiture painting as “impudent,” “frivolous,” and vain (note 8), but what he really could not tolerate was Seemann’s free-spirited eccentricity as an artist and lack of respect and honour towards the congregation and its leaders.

This very public conflict gives profile to the struggles of the Flemish church in Danzig and Poland with early modernity. Are God-created human beings primarily “individuals” responsible to fulfill their unique spiritual and intellectual potentiality, or called primarily to obey God and to test and live this out in mutual submission to the Christian community? What are the limits to the authority of leaders in a believers’ church? Hansen often spoke of these “last evil times” when “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ, and their destiny is damnation (Philippians 3:17f.; note 9). That so few have not “defiled themselves” (note 10) is sign for the faithful that they are living in “the last days” (note 11). The Seemann case offers a vivid account of the excesses of congregational discipline that had burdened Mennonites now for a century in an attempt to preserve a pure and spotless church.

–Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Cf. the Second Commandment: Exodus 20:4, with Deut. 4: 16-19 and other texts. Cf. Rudy Wiebe, Sweeter than all the World (Toronto: Jackpine House, 2001), 111–136. Harry Loewen, Cities of Refuge: Stories from Anabaptist-Mennonite History and Life (Kitchener, ON: Pandora, 2010), 79-85. The key document is Rudolf Lavater exhaustive reconstruction of documents and the story: “Der Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann, die Danziger Mennoniten und die Kunst,” Mennonitica Helvetica 36 (2013): 11–97.

Note 2: Lavater, “Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann,” 27, 31, 42f., 46, 91f., 111.

Note 3: Cf. summary of Hansen’s Spiegel des Levens in Harvey Plett, “Georg Hansen and the Danzig Flemish Mennonite Church: A Study in Continuity” (PhD dissertation, University of Manitoba, 1991), 318f., https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/xmlui/handle/1993/7218. Hansen’s Confession oder Kurtze und einfältige Glaubens-Bekänetenüsse derer Mennonisten in Preußen, so man nennet die Clarichen (1678; http://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?from=rss&id=35959) and appended examination is in line with Peter Twisck’s confession (in von Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 373–410); Twisck speaks of humanity after the fall as “corrupted” and “inclined to sin,” but affirms freedom of the will by God’s grace after the Fall. This larger message is arguably present in von Blocke’s works in Danzig City Hall; cf. Rainer Kobe, “Isaac von den Blocke, Painter and Mennonite at Gdańsk,” in European Mennonites and the Challenge of Modernity over Five Centuries. Contributors, Detractors, and Adaptors, edited by Mark Jantzen et al. (North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 2016).

Note 4: Cf. for example Robert W. Regier, “The Anabaptists and Art: The Dutch Golden Age of Painting,” Mennonite Life 23, no. 1 (January 1968) 16–21, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1968jan.pdf; Hendrick Meihuizen, “Dutch Painters in the Time of Vondel and Rembrandt,” in A Legacy of Faith: The Heritage of Menno Simons, edited by Cornelius J. Dyck, 119–135 (Newton, KS: Faith and Life, 1962), https://archive.org/details/legacyoffaithher00unse. See “The Dutch Golden Age: Mennonite to the Core” by Lauren Friesen, lecture at Kauffman Museum at Bethel College, October 2021, https://youtu.be/a38xkoTYZng.

Note 5: The name of von Blocke’s painting in the Protestant St. Catherine Church in Danzig.

Note 6: Lavater, “Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann,” esp. 80, 89, 91, 92, 93.

Note 7: Lavater, “Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann,” 43, 45, 94. For a contemporary English perspective on life in Danzig—including its forms of civil punishment, feasting, food, entertainment, recreation and church life—cf. Travels, Travels of Peter Mundy, vol. 4: Travels in Europe, 1639–1647, edited by Richard C. Temple (London: Hakluyt Society, 1925), 167–193, https://archive.org/details/travelspetermun00mundgoog/page/n8/mode/2up.

Note 8: Lavater, “Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann,” 32, 37, 71, 145. Hansen uses Luther’s translation of Acts 19:19, in which those who practiced “fürwitzige” (frivolous) arts brought their scrolls to be publicly burnt. The Greek original refers to magical arts, as found in most translations.

Note 9: Hansen, Glaubens-Bericht, 73.

Note 10: Hansen, Glaubens-Bericht, 74.

Note 11: Hansen, Glaubens-Bericht, 78.

Comments

The End of Schardau (and other Molotschna villages), 1941

My grandmother was four-years old when her parents moved from Petershagen, Molotschna to Schardau in 1908. This story is larger than that of Schardau, but tells how this village and many others in Molotschna were evacuated by Stalin days before the arrival of German troops in 1941. -ANF The bridge across the Dnieper at Chortitza was destroyed by retreating Soviet troops on August 18, 1941 and the hydroelectric dam completed near Einlage in 1932 was also dynamited by NKVD personnel—killing at least 20,000 locals downstream, and forcing the Germans to cross further south at Nikopol. For the next six-and-a-half weeks, the old Mennonite settlement area of Chortitza was continuously shelled by Soviet troops from Zaporozhje on the east side of the river ( note 1 ). The majority of Russian Germans in Crimea and Ukraine paid dearly for Germany’s Blitzkrieg and plans for racially-based population resettlements. As early as August 3, 1941, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Forces received noti...

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2 is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

On Becoming the Quiet in the Land

They are fair questions: “What happened to the firebrands of the Reformation? How did the movement become so withdrawn--even "dour and unexciting,” according to one historian? Mennonites originally referred to themselves as the “quiet in the land” in contrast to the militant--definitely more exciting--militant revolutionaries of Münster ( note 1 ), and identification with Psalm 35:19f.: “Let not my enemies gloat over me … For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.” How did Mennonites become the “quiet in the land” in Royal Prussia? Minority non-citizen groups in Poland like Jews, Scots, Huguenots or the much smaller body of Mennonites did not enjoy full political or economic rights as citizens. Ecclesial and civil laws left linguistic or religious minorities vulnerable to extortion. Such groups sought to negotiate a Privilegium or charter with the king, which set out a legal basis for some protections of life an...

School Reports, 1890s

Mennonite memoirs typically paint a golden picture of schools in the so-called “golden era” of Mennonite life in Russia. The official “Reports on Molotschna Schools: 1895/96 and 1897/98,” however, give us a more lackluster and realistic picture ( note 1 ). What do we learn from these reports? Many schools had minor infractions—the furniture did not correspond to requirements, there were insufficient book cabinets, or the desks and benches were too old and in need of repair. The Mennonite schoolhouses in Halbstadt and Rudnerweide—once recognized as leading and exceptional—together with schools in Friedensruh, Fürstenwerder, Franzthal, and Blumstein were deemed to be “in an unsatisfactory state.” In other cases a new roof and new steps were needed, or the rooms too were too small, too dark, too cramped, or with moist walls. More seriously in some villages—Waldheim, Schönsee, Fabrikerwiese, and even Gnadenfeld, well-known for its educational past—inspectors recorded that pupils “do not ...

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...

What were Molotschna Mennonites reading in the early 1840s?

Johann Cornies expanded his Agricultural Society School library in Ohrloff to become a lending library “for the instruction and better enlightenment of every adult resident.” The library was overseen by the Agricultural Society; in 1845, patrons across the colony paid 1 ruble annually to access its growing collection of 355 volumes (see note 1 ). The great majority of the volumes were in German, but the library included Russian and some French volumes, with a large selection of handbooks and periodicals on agronomy and agriculture—even a medical handbook ( note 2 ). Philosophical texts included a German translation of George Combe’s The Constitution of Man ( note 3 ) and its controversial theory of phrenology, and the political economist Johann H. G. Justi’s Ergetzungen der vernünftigen Seele —which give example of the high level of reading and reflection amongst some colonists. The library’s teaching and reference resources included a history of science and technology with an accomp...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog