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The Shift from Dutch to German, 1700s

Already in 1671, Mennonite Flemish Elder Georg Hansen in Danzig published his German-language catechism (Glaubens-Bericht für die Jugend) as preparation for youth seeking baptism. Though educational competencies varied, Hansen’s Glaubens-Bericht assumed that youth preparing for baptism had a stronger ability to read complex German than Dutch (note 1).

Popular Mennonite preacher Jacob Denner (1659–1746), originally from the Hamburg-Altona Mennonite Church, lived in Danzig for four years in the early 1700s. A first volume of his Dutch sermons was published in 1706 in Danzig and Amsterdam, and then in 1730 and 1751 he published two German collections. Untrained preachers would often read Denner’s sermons: “Those who preached German—which all Prussian preachers around 1750 did, with the exception of the Danzig preachers—had no sermons books from their co-religionists other than this one by Jacob Denner” (note 2).

In Danzig and the Vistula Delta region there were some differences between the Frisian and Flemish Mennonite groups.

From the earliest years, the predominant language among the smaller Frisian Mennonite group had been more German than Dutch, whereas the larger Flemish Mennonite population used Dutch exclusively. As early as 1671, a letter written to the Het Lam congregation in Amsterdam by five Frisian Danzig preachers—they were accused of having many “drinkers” in their congregation—was written in High German. Five other letters from Frisian congregations in the Greater Delta in the same decade were also written in High German (note 3). A century later in 1782, the Frisian Danzig minister and translator of selections from Martyrs Mirror lamented the dearth of Anabaptist materials available in “our High German language” (note 4).

Early in the 1700s Flemish ministers in the Greater Delta preached “largely in Dutch or in Low German” (note 5). The change in the pulpit language to High German was complete by mid-century--except in Danzig. Longtime Elder Hans van Steen (d. 1780) "had an excellent command of the Dutch language both in speaking and in writing and resisted the transition from Dutch preaching to German" (note 6).

A Danzig Flemish family Bible contains records written in 1734 mostly in Dutch mixed with some German; entries by the same writer six years later are written in High German. Yet as late as 1752 Flemish Mennonites ordered 3,000 Dutch hymnals from Amsterdam (note 7).

In the Danzig Flemish Mennonite Church, visiting Elbing-Ellerwalde Elder Gerhard Wiebe was the first to preach a German sermon, September 19, 1762; apparently Wiebe’s sermon was not well received. When Heubuden’s Flemish elder Cornelius Regier preached in German in Danzig on April 20, 1767, he “found greater approval” (note 8). 

The Polish Prussian rural churches with the leadership of Gerhard Wiebe produced a first German hymnal in 1767. The shift in language was inevitable after the First Partition of Poland under new Prussian rule; one diary notes: "30 March 1777. On the first holiday of Easter the Dutch hymnals are set aside in Ladekop and High German is adopted for signing hymns" (note 9). In his first preface to the German hymnal, Wiebe wrote: 

"Most of our co-religionists had grown up with Dutch. However because we use High German in preaching and singing, as well as when instructing the youth here in our Mennonite congregations (Taufgesinnten Gemeinen) here in W. Prussia, we made the decision (with Divine assistance) to publish this hymnal, in the certain hope that it will serve for general edification, and that God-seeking souls will derive no small benefit from it." (Note 10).

Cultural change was inevitable for the congregation in Danzig as well. While van Steen's preference for worship was Dutch, he was ultimately responsible for Danzig's first German hymnal in 1780. The collection was significantly different than that used in the rural Prussian congregations. However both were designed not only for use in public worship, but also for private and family settings to “awaken devotion and edification,” and in particular for the youth—that they may “not use it out of mere habit, but rather for the true uplifting of the heart,” as van Steen wrote in his preface (note 11).

The next year a Mennonite confession of faith written in Dutch in 1730 was translated into German and published for use in Heubuden (1768; note 12).

The first German sermon to be preached in Danzig by one of its own ministers, however, did not take place until January 1, 1771 (note 13).

When did Mennonites in Polish-Prussia and Danzig begin to use a German Bible? I am not aware of any source that mentions a switch of Bibles, but I would assume a German sermon was accompanied by scripture reading in German.

Mennonite migration to New Russia began in 1788.

Resources for faith formation in New Russia were limited from the start. In 1806, ministers in the Molotschna and Chortitza colonies begged (in German) the mother congregations in Prussia to send more German Bibles, catechisms, and hymnals—but Dutch texts would also do, “for we can still read Dutch without difficulty" (note 14).

In his Mennonite Encyclopedia article on the German language West Prussian Mennonite Geistreiches Gesangbuch, Cornelius Krahn wrote in 1955 that the hymnal had  "the unusual record of having been in use for nearly 200 years ... going through 11 editions in Prussia, 7 in Russia, 11 in America, and 2 in Mexico, a total of 33 editions ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 copies each, making it the most widely used hymnbook of the Prussian-Russian Mennonites” (note 15).

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Map: Horst Penner, Ansiedlung mennonitischer Niederländer im Weichselmündungsgebiet von der Mitte des 16. Jh. bis zum Beginn der Preußischen Zeit (Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1940), 145, http://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=33883.

Note 1: Georg Hansen, Ein Glaubens-Bericht für die Jugend durch einen Liebhaber der Wahrheit gestellt und ans Licht gebracht im Jahre Christi 1671 (Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Publishing, 1892). Also idem, Confession oder Kurtze und einfältige Glaubens-Bekänetenüsse derer Mennonisten in Preußen, so man nennet die Clarichen (N.p. 1678), https://dhb.thulb.uni-jena.de/receive/ufb_cbu_00010148. 

Note 2: Cf. Jacob Denner's Christlich- und Erbauliche Betrachtungen über die Sonn- und Festtags-Evangelia des ganzen Jahrs, neue Auflage (Königsberg, [1730] 1751), https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN819172022; also Hermann G. Mannhardt, “Geschichte der Predigt in den deutschen Mennoniten-Gemeinden (Fortsetzung),” Mennonitische Blätter 38, no. 5 (March 1, 1891), 28–29, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1854-1900/1891/DSCF1343.JPG.

Note 3: Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen, Teil 1, 1526–1772, 2nd edition (Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1994), 178f. English draft: https://www.mharchives.ca/download/3408/.

Note 4: Isaak van Dühren, Geschichte der Märtyrer, oder kurze historische Nachricht von den Verfolgungen der Mennonisten (Königsberg: Hartung, 1782/1788), 3; 34, https://gdz.sub.unigoettingen.de/id/PPN660141337.

Note 5: Abraham Hartwich, Geographisch-Historische Landes-Beschribung [sic] derer dreyen im Pohlnischen Preußen liegenden Werdern (Königsberg, 1723), 290, http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/resolve/display/bsb10000874.html.

Note 6: Jacob A. Duerksen, "Transition from Dutch to German in West Prussia," Mennonite Life 22, no. 3 (July 1967), 109, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1967jul.pdf. 

Note 7: Hans van Steen, “Ein Danziger Brief an Martin Möllinger” (November 30, 1769), reprinted in Christlicher Gemeinde-Kalender 5 (1896), 82, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Christlicher%20Gemeinde-Kalender/1892-1900/1896/.

Note 8: From the “Danziger Chronik,” cited in “Familiengeschichte des Cornelius Regier, 1743–1793 und seiner Nachkommen (Auszug),” (Bolanden-Weierhof: Mennonitische Forschungsstelle, n.d.), 12, https://chortitza.org/Pis/Regier.pdf.

Note 9: “Lehn Diary,” transliteration and translation by Waldemar Henry Lehn, 2010. From Mennonite Heritage Archives, Winnipeg, MB.

Note 10: Geistreiches Gesangbuch, worin nebst denen Psalmen Davids eine Samlung auserlesener alter und neuer Lieder zu finden ist, zur allgemenen Erbauung herausgegeben, edited by Gerhard Wiebe (Königsberg: Kanter, 1767/1775), https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/783_952_G279_1775_c3/.

Note 11: Geistreiches Gesangbuch, zur öffentlichen und besondern Erbauung der Mennonitischen Gemeine in und vor der Stadt Danzig, edited by Hans van Steen (Marienwerder, West Preußen, 1780), 4 (link). See Hans-Jürgen Goertz, Pieter Post and Peter Letkemann, “Gemeindegesang und Gesangbücher der Mennoniten (Europa),” in Mennonitisches Lexikon (MennLex), volume V, http://mennlex.de/doku.php?id=top:gemeindegesang.

Note 12: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/creating-spiritual-tradition-nine-core.html.

Note 13: See notes 6 and 8 above.

Note 14: Cf. Jakob Wienß to Joh. Kaunhowen, June 21, 1806, letter, “Alte Briefe,” Mennonitische Warte 4, no. 42 (Juni 1938), 230, https://chortitza.org/Buch/Brief2.pdf; also cited by David G. Rempel to Mrs. Yeomans, June 19, 1970, letter, David G. Rempel Papers, Box 6, File 2. From Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. Toronto, ON.

Note 15: See GAMEO article by Cornelius Krahn: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Geistreiches_Gesangbuch. The entry erroneously does not distinguish between the West Prussian 1767 hymnal and the 1780 Danzig hymnal.


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