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 uniformity of design and regulations informed by his Mennonite theology of community. This community flourished economically in comparison to other Nogai villages. While only a small fraction of the Nogai were directly impacted by Cornies’ mentorship and philanthropy, these economic developments led the Nogai to offer cheap, long-term leases to landless colonists before wheat prices sky-rocketed and market prices for sheep declined steeply (note 4). Unprepared to adapt their traditional culture to new market conditions with very little land, virtually all 35,000 Nogai left Taurida for the Ottoman Empire after the Crimean War in the late 1850s, together with Crimean Tatars.

Cornies’ lending library (1841) included at least one relevant book, Muhamads Religion aus dem Koran (Muhammad’s Religion from the Koran; note 5; pic 2). In his report to the state Cornies recommended teaching for the Nogai children in which a "thorough knowledge of the Koran and its interpretations" is given "special emphasis" (note 6).

This mosque appears to have been built shortly after Cornies' untimely death in 1848, i.e., in the early 1850s before the start of the Crimean War.

Cornies used the Koran to achieve his goals of improving the “moral condition” of the Nogai. David G. Rempel tells this story:

“[H]is first effort to improve their source of income [was] through the improvement of their breed of sheep, one of the poorest native varieties. In this attempt he was at first stoutly resisted, chiefly by the Nogai priests who maintained that the merino sheep could not be used for sacrificial purpose. Cornies was undaunted. He resorted to the Koran and in the end succeeded in persuading them that the merino sheep, which the Moors had brought to Spain, was the Mohammedan sacrificial sheep par excellence. This broke the opposition to the introduction of a fine-fleeced sheep.” (Note 7)

Rempel called this a “Cornisian” (!) contribution to the improvement of the Nogais’ lot.

To his Swiss friend Daniel Schlatter, a missionary to the Nogai, Cornies wrote (November 6, 1826): “Through the grace of Jesus, we endeavour to preach with our hands and otherwise to keep silent, which is better than the opposite" (note 8). The German missionary Ludwig Bezner noted that Cornies—one of the few Mennonites to learn the Nogai language—spoke winningly to his chief herdsman, a Nogai, convinced that God speaks through the conscience. For example, Cornies dissuaded the herdsman from using a horsewhip to “train” his wife, and made him promise to treat his wife with patience and love (note 9). A 1838 visitor’s report surmised that there was “still more affection and love between Tartars and Germans than between these two and the Russians” (note 10). Schlatter however saw a different side and judged that Mennonites generally “lacked the gift of communication, or the sense and willingness to influence others for the good,” and their “unfriendly” attitude and behaviour towards the Nogai did “not exactly evoke respect and love" (note 11). Mennonites seemed “to have reason enough to make fun of the Nogai without ever dreaming that they themselves [i.e., the Mennonites] are also uneducated and in many respects just as far behind,” in Schlatter’s estimation (note 12).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Pic of Nogai man from Hermann Roskoschny, Rußland Land und Leute (Leipzig: Greßner und Schramm, 1883), vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/russland-land-und-leute-bd-1-1883/page/n7/mode/2up.

Note 1: See the finding guide: Ingrid I. Epp and Harvey L. Dyck, The Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803–1920 [PJBRMA]: A Research Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/papers/pdfs/PJBRussMennArchiveFA2.pdf. Copies of the collection are also in Waterloo, Winnipeg and Abbotsford.

Note 2: See pic, from PJBRMA file 1828, “Philipp Wiebe—Large varieties of documents,” 1845-1864; see also file 1498: “Akkerman—Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859."

Note 3: Cornies, “The Nogai Tatars, 1825,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 1: 1812–1835, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 489. See sample pages starting at 455ff. https://books.google.ca/books?id=oHQ2CwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA468&dq=koran%20johann%20cornies&pg=PA458#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 4: This argument is made in detail by John Staples, “‘On Civilizing the Nogais’: Mennonite–Nogai Economic Relations, 1825–1860,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 74, no. 2 (April 2000), 229–256, https://www.goshen.edu/mqr/2000/06/april-2000-staples/.

Note 5 (pic): “Johann Cornies—Catalogue of Books, 1841 [1845],” in Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, file 797, reel 34. From Robarts Library, University of Toronto.

Note 6: Cornies, “The Nogai Tartars,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, vol. 1.

Note 7: David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia. A study of their settlement and economic development from 1789–1914” (PhD dissertation, Stanford University, 1933), 174f., https://archive.org/details/themennonitecoloniesinnewrussiaastudyoftheirsettlementandeconomicdevelopmentfrom1789to1914ocr/page/n193/mode/2up?q=koran.

Note 8: Cornies “No. 80, To Daniel Schlatter, 6 November 1826,” Transformation I, 97.

Note 9: Karl-Günther Jung and Heinold Fast, “Bericht Ludwig Bezner über seinen Besuch bei Johann Cornies, 1821,” Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter (1988), 74f.

Note 10: “Mennoniten an der Molotschna,” Hausfreund, no. 25 (June 23, 1838), col. 393.

Note 11: Georg von Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck, Beiträge zur Kenntniß der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Europa und Amerika, Part I (Berlin, 1821), 371f., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009717700. See in more detail Heinrich Dirks,“Aus den Aufzeichnungen eines Alten.” Mennonitisches Jahrbuch 1906/7 4 (1907), 92-97, https://chortitza.org/Buch/MJ/MJ06-4.pdf.

Note 12: Daniel Schlatter, Bruchstücke aus einigen Reisen nach dem südlichen Rußland in den Jahren 1822 bis 1828 (St. Gallen: Huber, 1830), 367, https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11008440_00005.html.

Comments

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 inf...

Soviet “Farmer Giesbrecht” and the German Communist Press, 1930

The 1930 booklet Bauer Giesbrecht was published by the Communist Party press in Germany —some months after most of the 3,885 Mennonite refugees at Moscow had been transported from Germany to Canada, Paraguay and Brazil ( note 1 ). In Fall 1929 Germany set aside an astonishingly large sum of money and flexed its full diplomatic muscle to extract these “German Farmers” (mostly Mennonites) who had fled the Soviet countryside for Moscow in a last ditch attempt to flee the "Soviet Paradise". About 9,000 however were forcibly turned back. Communists in Germany saw their country’s aid operation—which their crushed economy could ill afford—as a blatant propaganda attempt to embarrass Stalin with formerly wealthy ethnic German farmers and preachers willing to tell the world’s press the worst "lies." With Heinrich Kornelius Giesbrecht from the former Mennonite Barnaul Colony in Western Siberia they finally had a poster-boy to make their point: in Germany he had seen an...

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...

Swiss and Palatinate Connections

Sometime after 1850 Andreas Plennert and his family immigrated to South Russia from the Culm Region of West Prussia. Though there was at least one Mennonite “Plehnert” who had already immigrated to Russia in 1793, it is not a very common Prussian-Russian Mennonite name. As such, however, it is easier to trace than many and offers a minority narrative and identity within the longer and broader Russian Mennonite story. The account below is adapted largely from information in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten , vol. 1, though I have expanded upon his work to offer a slightly different narrative. In 1724 there was a group of Mennonites forced out of the Memel region in East Prussia for political and religious reasons and were given assistance to resettle back to West Prussia in areas populated by Mennonites. Among the 23 households that went to the Stuhm region there is one Plenert listed, namely Christian Plenert. We know that Mennonites entered the Memel region ...

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans...

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 ...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 1 (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 accuarte and carefully considered. ~ANF American Mennonite leaders who supported Trump will be responding to the election results in the near future. Sometimes a template or sample conference address helps to formulate one’s own text. To that end I offer the following. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mennonites in Germany sent official greetings by telegram: “The Conference of the East and West Prussian Mennonites meeting today at Tiegenhagen in the Free City of Danzig are deeply grateful for the tremendous uprising ( Erhebung ) that God has given our people ( Volk ) through the vigor and action of [unclear], and promise our cooperation in the construction of our Fatherland, true to the Gospel motto of [our founder Menno Simons], ‘For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.’” ( Note 1 ) Hitler responded in a letter...

Vaccinations in Chortitza and Molotschna, beginning in 1804

Vaccination lists for Chortitza Mennonite children in 1809 and 1814 were published prior to the COVID-19 pandemic with little curiosity ( note 1 ). However during the 2020-22 pandemic and in a context in which some refused to vaccinate for religious belief, the historic data took on new significance. Ancestors of some of the more conservative Russian Mennonite groups—like the Reinländer or the Bergthalers or the adult children of land delegate Jacob Höppner—were in fact vaccinating their infants and toddlers against small pox over two hundred years ago ( note 2 ). Also before the current pandemic Ukrainian historian Dmytro Myeshkov brought to light other archival materials on Mennonites and vaccination. The material below is my summary and translation of the relevant pages of Myeshkov’s massive 2008 volume on Black Sea German and their Worlds, 1781 to 1871 (German only; note 3 ). Myeshkov confirms that Chortitza was already immunizing its children in 1804 when their District Offic...

Easter and Molotschna's First Ethnic German Cavalry Regiment of the Waffen-SS, 1942

For the two years of German occupation, 1941-43, the Molotschna Settlement area—renamed “Halbstadt” after its largest village—was under S.S. ( Schutzstaffel ) control. During this time, new National Socialist ceremonies and liturgies were introduced to the Mennonites in Ukraine, including Easter. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler named Halbstadt with its surrounding 144 villages a district commando. SS-Storm Unit Leader ( Sturmbannführer ) Hermann Roßner was appointed the Special Command R[ussia] leader for Halbstadt. Halbstadt had Waffen-SS doctors, a Waffen-SS pharmacist team and pharmacy, hospital equipment from the medical offices of the Waffen-SS and soon a Waffen-SS cavalry self-defense regiment of some 500-plus Mennonite young men ( note 1 ). Two of my uncles became members of the cavalry unit; a later, long-time lay minister in my home congregation was in the regiment as well. SS-celebrations for “Easter” were deliberately non-religious and anti-Christian, though careful ...

Molotschna's 50th Anniversary Celebration Plans, 1854

There is no mention of this celebrative event in Hildebrand’s Chronologischer Zeittafel, no report in the newly launched Prussian church paper Mennonitische Blätter , or in the Unterhaltungsblatt for German colonists in South Russia. But plans to celebrate five decades of Mennonite settlement on the Molotschna River were well underway in 1853; detailed draft notes for the event are found in the Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive ( note 1 ). Perhaps most importantly the file includes the list of names of the first settlers in each of the first nine Molotschna villages (est. 1804). While each village had been mandated a few years earlier to write its own village history ( note 2; pics ), eight of these nine did not list their first settler families by name. The lists with the male family heads are attached below. By 1854 Molotoschna’s population had increased to about 17,000; more than half of those living in the original nine villages were landless Anwohner ( note 3 ). Celeb...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog