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"They are useful to the state." An almost forgotten Prussian view of Mennonites, ca. 1780s-90s

In 1787 Mennonite interest for emigration was extremely strong outside the quasi independent City of Danzig in the Prussian annexed Marienwerder and Elbing regions. Even before the land scouts Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner had returned from Russia later that year, so many Mennonite exit applications had flooded offices that officials wrote Berlin in August 1787 for direction (note 1a). Initially officials did not see a problem: because Mennonites do not provide soldiers, the cantons lose nothing by their departure, and in fact benefit from the ten-percent tax imposed on financial assets leaving the state. 

Ludwig von Baczko (1756-1823), Professor of History at the Artillery Academy in Königsberg, East Prussia, was the general editor of a series that included a travelogue through Prussia written by a certain Karl Ephraim Nanke. Nanke had no special love for Mennonites, but was generally balanced in his judgements and based his now almost forgotten account of Mennonites on personal engagement, correspondence and interviews (note 1b).

Nanke’s first example is from the Stuhm Lowlands and the Mennonites of the Tragheimerweide congregation.

“Another remarkable thing was that [during the 7 Years War, 1756–1763] there had never been a dispute with the Mennonites living here in the district (Stuhm in West Pr.), although they consisted of more than 600 people. All the district officials and [non-Mennonite] clergy I asked about this agree that these people are the most obedient subjects and the most industrious farmers.

They practice their trade not merely mechanically, but with much insight, and know how to make excellent use of every local advantage. They are engaged only in farming and animal husbandry; spinning and weaving is rarely practiced by them on a large scale. From the bourgeois trades they excel in brandy distilling, and some also engage in trade.” (Note 2).

Strangely the Stuhm Mennonites did “not like to call themselves Mennonites,” but rather followed the Dutch variation: Taufgesinnte (Doopsgezinde) or “baptism-minded.” In particular Nanke noted, “they do not want to be known as originating from the Anabaptists much less as descended from Thomas Müntzer”—though he thinks otherwise. This suggests that the term “Anabaptist” (Wiedertäufer) was still weighted with the memory of the Münster “Old Testament" inspired “theocracy,” and the “fanatical” and “militant” Münsterite Anabaptists of the sixteenth century. Thomas Müntzer—a different case—was a Reformation peasant radical and mystic, marginally related to some mainstream Anabaptists, and generally a revolutionary from whom Mennonites still sought to distance themselves (note 3).

Nanke appreciated the turn Anabaptists took under Menno Simons, who sought to mirror the community after the “early church” of the New Testament. “In this way they achieve the goal of being able to influence the morality of the community and to form a society of quiet, industrious people” (note 4).

Nanke then described the community leadership model that developed among Mennonites, and how it served to shape communal discipline and morality in the Mennonite Marienburger settlements as a whole.

“The people elect leaders (Vorsteher) from among themselves, whose business it is to [ensure all] adhere to exhortations in worship and also to discipline in the church. Like a good housefather, the leader with the involvement of their [church] elders oversees the whole [Mennonite] community and prevents every evil from arising." (Note 5)

Their work ethic, care for the poor, and way of addressing sloth or mismanagement were all connected matters for the whole community.

“One of their leaders once said to me when I asked him about their almshouses: We have no poor; for we see to it that none of us becomes impoverished; a misfortune of an individual through no fault of his own is regarded as a burden that the whole community must bear. Misfortunes that are caused by the persons themselves are mitigated by [community] forbearance and care—as long as there is hope for improvement. If not, we put the unfortunate one in the position of no longer being able to harm himself and his neighbours in the same way.” (Note 6)

So that Mennonites could follow their convictions and be released from military service, the community as a whole was responsible for a lump sum tax payment of 5,000 Thaler annually since 1772ff.—enough to cover the majority capital portion and annual operating costs of a new military cadet school at Culm. The community of 12,603 persons (1780) was also restricted from acquiring more farming land, because military conscription quotas were canton based (note 7). For these reasons the Mennonite community had a stake in how every farm was operated. Nanke wrote:

“I have also been assured that if a landowner manages his farm poorly and runs up too much debt, his property will be taken from him by the [Mennonite] community (Gemeinde) and he will be forced to work as a hired-hand for a good landlord. This severity is in fact necessary, because they are liable for the taxes in solidum [as a group] and in this way the Royal Treasury does not lose money with them.” (Note 8)

Even later in Russia, Mennonites as a whole would have shared obligations to the state with charter expectations, and even later with a communal tax system to cover the significant costs of their alternative service obligations. 

But in the late 1780 and early 1790s, it was Nanke’s assessment Mennonites were citizens worth retaining in Prussia despite their unique scruples.

“They are useful to the state in this regard [taxes] and with respect to the good example they set through diligence and good manners. One does not find any drunkards among them or hear of any salacious debauchery. Most of their disputes are settled amicably by community leaders (Vorsteher). They are restrained from cheating and bickering by their religious convictions. According to their principles, they are forbidden to take an oath. The state has also exempted them from this, so that their unsworn testimony is also valid in court. Lies and shady tricks (Winkelzüge) are extremely rare among them.” (Note 9)

To support these claims, Nanke cited a recently completed study by Wilhelm Crichton on the Mennonites in Prussia (1786):

“In it an excellent testimony is given to their morality, and among other things it is told that there is no known example of a Mennonite who had had a criminal trial in Königsberg. And in the Marienburg area over thirty years there have been only two [Mennonite] criminal offenders. One of them was a (woman) child murderer who was however declared insane.” (Note 10)

Yet at the same time Nanke also noted moral exceptions. Some who have known Mennonites for a longer time and their original “innocent morality,” claim to have seen change among some Mennonites—a decay in morality--according to Nanke, especially because of “increased wealth” and “bad example.” While Nanke was convinced that these too were exceptions, he noted that some now view Mennonites in a negative light (note 11).

A comparable picture of  West Prussian Mennonites at Brenkenhoffswalde was reported in an Augsburg (Bavarian) newspaper in 1779 (note 12). Fourteen years earlier, 35 families had been expelled from the Culm lowlands by local noblemen and given permission by the King to settle in the “marshy” Netzebruch region.

"(Berlin, March 22, 1779): The Mennonites in West Prussia deserve special attention. In all the districts in which they dwell it is found that Mennonites are chiefly industrious, useful, and quiet citizens of the state. They understand what belongs to the best cattle breeding, and make very tasty cheeses, which resemble the Dutch ones. They also weave very fine linen, and they are trusted to be very conscientious in handling other people's property.

For a few years now, three colonies [villages] of these honest people have settled in the Neumark, specifically at Netzebruch, at the instigation of the Councilor of Brenkenhof. These consist of 40 families, which include 210 people at the time of their settlement. While they have brought only 65 horses, 214 head of cattle and 1010 Reichsthaler cash into the country, their diligence and example alone is of great value.

The king has granted them a detailed charter of privileges, and in it has assured them the unrestricted practice of their religion, and that they will be permanently exempt from taking the oath and from military service...”

These reports point to the mixed and debated opinion about Mennonites in the late 18th century--at the very time that many were immigrating or planning to immigrate to Russia. In 1788, as the numbers of revenue-generating agriculturalists wanting to emigrate swelled, Frederick William II’s mind changed, and only the landless were granted exit visas (note 13). In this very public debate the voices that recommended to keep the Mennonites had some impact. Despite the perceived negatives, "they are useful to the state." 

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Portrait: Ludwig von Baczko, Geschichte meines Lebens, vol. 1 (Königsberg, 1824), http://prussia.online/books/geschichte-meines-lebens.

Note 1a: Paul Karge, “Die Auswanderung ost- und westpreussischen Mennoniten nach Südrussland (nach Chortiza und der Molotschna), 1787–1820,” Elbinger Jahrbuch 3 (1923) 87, http://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=13874.

Note 1b: Cf. Ludwig von Baczko, ed., Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, vol. 2 (Hamburg and Altona, Vollmer, 1800), 111-125, https://archive.org/details/reisedurcheinen00baczgoog/page/n378/mode/2up; OR https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:70-dtl-0000000449#061. Kurt Kauenhowen referred to this account in 1938, but incorrectly named Baczko as the author; see Kauenhowen, “Die Mennoniten in West- und Ostpreußen im Jahre 1794,” Mitteilungen 4, no. 5 (October 1938), 128-132, https://www.mharchives.ca/download/1426/.

Note 2: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 111f.; on Stuhm and Tragheimerweide, see https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stuhm_Lowlands_(Pomerania_Voivodeship,_Poland); https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Tragheimerweide_(Pomeranian_Voivodeship,_Poland).

Note 3: Baczko, ed., Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 112f. See the 1701 prejudice and propaganda against Anabaptist-Mennonites as Münsterites in another post (forthcoming). The term Münsterite was also an insult employed by the Frisians against the Flemish for their harsh use of the ban; cf. Abraham Hartwich, Geographisch-Historische Landes-Beschribung [sic] derer dreyen im Pohlnischen Preußen liegenden Werdern (Königsberg, 1723), 279, http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/resolve/display/bsb10000874.html. On Thomas Müntzer, cf. GAMEO entry, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=M%C3%BCntzer,_Thomas_(1488/9-1525).

Note 4: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 114.

Note 5: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 114.

Note 6: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 114f.

Note 7: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 124.

Note 8: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 115.

Note 9: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 115f.

Note 10: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 118; cf. Wilhelm D. Crichton, Zur Geschichte der Mennoniten (Königsberg, 1786), https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-uba003137-1.

Note 11: Baczko, Nankes Wanderungen durch Preussen, 121f.

Note 12: Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung, nos. 79 & 80 (April 3, 1779), 3, https://digipress.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb10505145_00307_u001/3?cq=mennonisten. On the Mennonite community at "Brenkenhoffswalde," see GAMEO, Brenkenhoffswalde and franztal (lubusz voivodeship, poland) - GAMEO.

Note 13: Karge, “Auswanderung ost- und westpreussischen Mennoniten,” 87–89.










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