Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons!

Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons: Heart-Shaped Waffles and a smooth talking General

In 1874 with Mennonite immigration to North America in full swing, the Tsar sent General Eduard von Totleben to the colonies to talk the remaining Mennonites out of leaving (note 1). He came with the now legendary offer of alternative service. Totleben made presentations in Mennonite churches and had many conversations in Mennonite homes.

Decades later the women still recalled how fond Totleben was of Mennonite heart-shaped waffles. He complemented the women saying, “How beautiful are the hearts of Mennonites!,” and he joked about how “much Mennonites love waffles (Waffeln), but not weapons (Waffen)” (note 2)!

His visit resulted in an extensive reversal of opinion and the offer was welcomed officially by the Molotschna and Chortitza Colony ministerials. And upon leaving, the general was gifted with a poem by Bernhard Harder (note 3) and a waffle iron (note 4).

Harder was an influential Neu-Halbstadt minister and itinerant evangelist, and years earlier he had composed a hymn dedicated “in deepest reverence to General Totleben," “the revered hero of and benefactor of the Mennonites”— for use in congregations for royal birthdays and anniversaries (note 5). The different kind heart-felt hymn praises Totleben for his role in the Crimean War (1853-56):

“Though confusion and fearful ferment reigned, he [Totleben] called out to us: ‘Children, stay home! The Tsar, rich in grace and wisdom, wishes that you stay put. His care is over you.’”

Totleben not only knew Mennonites from the Crimean War [trivia: his troops slaughtered 1500 British troops in one battle!] but was trusted by them too. This was both good and bad. The problem: Totleben was all-too familiar with the less than peaceful disagreements between Mennonites in dealing with the landless issue in the 1860s. After his 1874 visit he suggested cynically to the Minister of the Interior that not-merely religious reasons are at play with emigration:

“[T]here are three parties among the Mennonites: those fanatics who have already decided to move at all costs, the more enlightened who want to stay in Russia but are afraid to speak out[,] and those who intend to remain but are inciting others to leave so as to be able to buy their farms cheaply!” (Note 6).

Totleben visited many of the central villages like Rudnerweide (note 7) and was invited to “deliver actual sermons from the pulpit” to “clarify the true state of affairs,” according to his biographer. Totleben’s many explanations and demonstrations of the Tsar’s favour were repeatedly met “with quotes from the gospel and the dogmas of their confession” (note 8).

Despite his kind words about Mennonites and their heart-shaped waffles, Rudnerweide Elder Benjamin Ratzlaff (retired) found the final offer for alternative service unacceptable, and he left for America with his adult children a month later. Two weeks later he was followed by two Pordenau ministers (note 9).

Pordenau Elder Isaak Peters and others were convinced that the Tsar’s offer of alternative service was “an unevangelical association with the ‘Beast,’ the state, hostile to God”--and he was exiled from Russia and settled in Nebraska (note 10).

The Kleine Gemeinde Elder Peter Töws had been summoned three times to meet Totleben, and was finally blessed by the latter: “Go in the name of God!” (note 11).

Military exemption, the approval to establish a Mennonite-run forestry service, and the availability of exit visas to those wishing to emigrate were, according to James Urry, “remarkable acts of tolerance on the part of the Russian government” that “reflected how important the state saw the Mennonites” (note 12). The new accommodations or privileges for Mennonites “on account of their exemplary industriousness” were ratified later in the year (note 13); and for his efforts Totleben was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, First Class, with the rights of hereditary nobility, August 1874 (note 14).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: "Totleben, Eduard Ivanovich von (1818-1884)," GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Totleben,_Eduard_Ivanovich_von_(1818-1884).

Note 2: Karl Lindemann, Von den deutschen Kolonisten in Rußland. Ergebnisse einer Studienreise 1919–1921 (Stuttgart: Ausland und Heimat, 1924), 33 n1, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Buch/Lind.pdf.

Note 3: See letters in Franz Isaac, Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben (Halbstadt, Taurien: H. J. Braun, 1908), 323-327, https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/Molotschnaer%20Mennoniten/.

Note 4: Gerhard Lohrenz, ed., Damit es nicht vergessen werde. Ein Bildband zur Geschichte der Mennoniten Preussens und Russlands (Winnipeg, MB: Canadian Mennonite Bible College Press, 1974), 59.

Note 5: Geistliche Lieder und Gelegenheitsgedichte von Bernhard Harder, edited by Heinrich Franz, vol. 1 (Hamburg: A-G, 1888), I, no. 532, 580f., https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Pis/Hard1.pdf. See General Totleben's History of the Defence of Sebastopol, 1854-55 (English), pp. 201, 203, 274. https://archive.org/details/generaltodlebens00russuoft/page/n5.

Note 6: In P. Albert Koop, “Some Economic Aspects of Mennonite Migration. With special Emphasis on the 1870s Migration from Russia to North America,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 55, no. 2 [1981], 151; cf. also James Urry, “None but Saints”: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia, 1789–1889 (Winnipeg, MB: Hyperion, 1989), 215.

Note 7: John B. Toews, “A Russian Mennonite: The Diary of Diedrich Gaeddert (1860–1876),” Mennonite Life 33, no. 4 (December 1978), 13, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1978dec.pdf; cf. Dietrich Gaeddert, Diary: 1860–1871, from Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, MS. 7, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_7.

Note 8: Cf. Nikolai Schilder, Ego zhizn’ i’ deyatelnost’ [Count Eduard Ivanovich Totleben: Life and Works], volume 2 (St. Petersburg: Tikhanov, 1886), 709, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Dok/Totleben.pdf; and https://books.google.ca/books?id=UkdDAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Shilder%2C%20Graf%20Eduard%20Ivanovich%20Totleben&pg=PA709#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 9: Cf. Dietrich Gaeddert, Diary: 1860–1871, from Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, MS. 7, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_7; J. Toews, “A Russian Mennonite Diary, 13.

Note 10: Cf. Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.

Note 11: Mennonitische Rundschau 41, no. 12 (March 20, 1918), 4, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1918-03-20_41_12/page/n3/mode/2up?q=totleben.

Note 12: James Urry, “The Russian State, the Mennonite World and the Migration from Russia to North America in the 1870s,” Mennonite Life 46, no. 1 (March 1991), 14, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1991mar.pdf.

Note 13: Hallesches Tageblatt 75, no. 281 (December 2, 1874), 1614, https://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/zd/periodical/pageview/8861006.

Note 14: Cf. Schilder, Graf Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, 710. See also the following informative online article on Totleben from the British National Army Museum: https://web.archive.org/web/20160311004111/; https://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/enemy-commanders-britains-greatest-foes/eduard-totleben. I also looked at: “Memorandum of General Adjutant Todleben Concerning the Mennonites.” David G. Rempel Papers. Box 7, File 12. From Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. Toronto, ON.

Comments

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle...

Catherine the Great’s 1763 Manifesto

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...

Quiet in the Land: Peter Fast, 1932-2010

My father Peter Fast passed away in January 2010. The years have given me many opportunities to reflect on his life and impact. He was a gentle and good person--and could work like horse. He was born into poverty in 1932 in Paraguay. His parents were pioneers, first in Fernheim and then (1937) in Friesland. He liked to tell me that he ate manioc root for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was never sure if that was true, and it didn’t help to convince me to eat things I didn’t like. His mother died when he was fourteen; the basic medical aid she needed was out of reach. His new step-mother was a complex person who made life difficult for him and others. Dad only finished the 6th grade in Friesland. He was more than happy to get off the school bench and onto a horse. I don’t think I ever saw him write a complete sentence in my life, whether in English or in German. He had no interest in history, let alone reading—though over time he read the local city paper. Nothing I’ve written on...

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 ...

The Selbstschutz (Self-Defence Units) and Benjamin H. Unruh

Abram Kröker, editor of the Molotschna (South Russia/ Ukraine) -based Mennonite Friedensstimme , wrote that Mennonites are “predestined to foreshadow … even in an imperfect way, the great peace among nations in the Thousand-Year-Reign [of Christ].” And among all denominations, “it has pleased God,” according to Kröker, to “present and manifest” through the Mennonites this “pearl of evangelical truth gained at great cost by our fathers” ( note 1 ). And it is because of this theological hope and inheritance that “our youth are raised differently,” Kröker reminded his readers; “not military bravery or fighting are presented as the highest civic virtues, but rather sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others. In all our schools, non-resistance is explicitly taught and impressed [upon students] according to the Mennonite catechism” ( note 2 ). But taking up arms in self-defence was nuanced differently by his colleague and influential 37-year-old teacher and theologian Benja...

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

Snapshots of Danzig Mennonites, late 1600s & early 1700s

A picture can be worth a thousand words. We do not have photographs, but we have a few colour paintings of life in and around Danzig in the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as maps. We also have a limited number of "textual snapshots" of Mennonites at this time and place, which offer an instructive window into that foreign world. These snapshots of work, worship, health, education, community relationships, smaller repressions, and security can contribute to the creation of a larger collage of Mennonite life in Danzig and Polish Prussia. Snapshot 1 : In 1681 there were approximately 180 Mennonite families who lived in the “gardens” or villages outside Danzig, with 113 of those families within the jurisdiction of the city. At this time Mennonites were barred from owning houses within the walls of the city. Of these 113 family heads, we know: 43 were retailers of spirits, 24 merchants, 9 lacemakers, 7 dyers, 3 silk dyers, 3 pressers, 2 brokers, 2 treasurers, 2 waitresses, et...

A-Cases and O-Cases. After the Trek, 1944

Some 35,000 Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine by the retreating Reich German military in 1943-44 applied for naturalization /citizenship once in German-annexed Poland (mostly Warthegau). The applications made through the “EWZ” ( Einwandererzentralstelle ) are easy to attain today ( note 1 ). Much information may be new and useful for families; however just as much is disturbing, including the racial assessments, categorization, and separation of so-called “A-cases” from “O-cases.” What are they? The EWZ files contain the application for naturalization made by the head of a family unit, the certificate of naturalization, and sometimes correspondence/ claims regarding property and possessions left behind in Ukraine. Each form contains information about the applicant’s spouse and children, as well as a genealogy listing parents and grandparents, and those of their spouse as well; racial background is calculated by percentage (!). Applicants were asked about their citizenship, their e...

Jews and Mennonites Together in Danzig's Suburbs

There has been very little reflection on the relationship of Jews and Mennonites in the suburb of Schottland (or Alt-Schottland or Stare Szkoty) where Mennonites first settled in the mid-1500s. Here Mennonites and Jews lived in the small community together for two centuries, quite literally on the margins outside the gates of the city of Danzig. Many historic maps that include Alt Schottland have become available in recent years ( note 1; pic ). H.G. Mannhardt’s book on the Danzig Mennonite church community plus some archival membership lists are our best sources for the Mennonite experience, while illustrations from the day bring many of those episodes of prosperity, repressions, war, plague, emigration, flooding etc. in an urban environment to life ( note 2 ). Peter J. Klassen’s writings on Mennonites in Poland and Prussia also present newer research on Mennonite life in and around Danzig in helpful ways ( note 3 ). There is one small sentence in Klassen’s larger volume that sugg...

Polish-Prussia? Royal Prussia? West Prussia? Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Notes for Clarification

The historical jurisdictions, names and political powers under which Mennonites lived since their arrival in lands that are today Poland are difficult to keep straight. However they are important for telling the story right. This post simply provides some notes for orientation with reference to the late sixteenth-century map below. Polish- or Royal Prussia comes into being with the defeat of Teutonic Knights by the Polish Crown in 1466. See the pink-shaded area of the map below. Ducal Prussia is a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland after 1525 (see stiped on map). In 1618, this duchy (voivodeship) is inherited by Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, who separated it from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1657. After 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg is the “King of Prussia” when in that territory. With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, it becomes East Prussia . By 1569 Polish- or Royal Prussia was fully integrated into Kingdom of Poland and part of the larger Polish-Lithuanian...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog