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 also barred from living within the safety of the city gates. Both were under the jurisdiction of the Catholic bishop, who also profited from e.g., Mennonite competition with the guilds of Danzig. A small monastery was also constructed around this time between Schottland and the city walls. In the neighbouring hamlet of Nobis the local pub is noted (Der Nobis Krug).

Illustration 3, with the Bischofs-Berg (Bishop's Mount) in the background right, is from the early 1600s. The first literary product of the Danzig Mennonite congregation was from this period—a handsome reprint of a Dutch Bible, known as the "Scottish" (Schottländische) Bible of 1598.

Illustration 3b, 1617, shows a world of activity in and around Schottland and neighbouring Petershagen, and also the quarrying of the Bishop's Mount.

Illustration 4 offers a beautiful view of Schottland looking out from the Danzig city walls, mid-1600s. It appears to be a prosperous community. We know that wealthier members of the Danzig congregation (mostly living in Schottland) sent their young adult children to Amsterdam to complete their education, learn a business, and receive catechetical instruction and baptism.

In 1648 the Flemish Mennonites were given permission by the city to build a church building—its front likely indistinguishable from a house—and hospice. To that point most of its members lived in Schottland. The Frisians were able to purchase land for their meeting place in 1638.

In 1656 Schottland was razed by the city as a precaution in the war with Sweden (Curicken, 368), but by 1681 some 180 Mennonite families were living in suburbs of Danzig again (Mannhardt, 105; H. Penner II, 41).

The 1709 plague took some 24,533 lives in and around Danzig. The small Flemish Mennonite congregation centred in Schottland lost 154 members and 141 younger adherents. The "Lehn Diary" notes that 146 Mennonites were buried in the Schottland fields; 223 individuals were buried in Hoppenbrug, immediatelybehind Schottland; Jews in Schottland buried 94 of their own; 185 Catholics were buried in the Jesuit cemetery behind Schottland; 364 plague deaths were recorded in neighbouring Petershagen, and 2,063 in Ohra.

Map 5 jumps ahead 80 years to 1734, just prior to the siege of the city by the Russians. Again, it shows the prosperity and urban density of Schottland, Ohra, Langfuhr, and Stolzenberg where Mennonites were living.

Map 6: 1740; depicts in deep red the destroyed buildings of Schottland after the Russian siege in 1734. By the 1760s Schottland is completely rebuilt; illustration 6b offers another beautiful view of the village from the "Lege" or "New" Gate into the city.

After 1800 Mennonites were permitted to become citizens and moved increasingly into the city.

Map 7 and Map 8, 1807, show the nicely rebuilt and vibrant Mennonite communities just prior to the siege of Danzig by the French.

Illustration 8b depicts the intensity of the French bombardment of the city and generally how the suburbs were razed in advance. Danzig soldiers dismantled and destroyed all buildings within 800 paces of the city walls, which included the Frisian Mennonite church building in Neugarten and their hospice. The larger Flemish Mennonite church and its new organ and hospice were not destroyed, but were set aflame in 1815 in an attack on the city by Russian forces. In 1808 after two centuries of division, the congregations had merged (the division however continued in Russia).

Map 9: by 1822, Mennonite life in Alt-Schottland had come to an end. Alt Schottland, Ohra, Stolzenberg are labelled as burnt out and "lying in ruins“ after the French siege in 1807.

Illustration 10, ca. 1890s, is a photograph of the Danzig Mennonite Church and parsonage under the Bishop's Mount.

There are other maps and other depictions of life in Danzig, especially from the mid-1600s (see source for illustration 4). Danzig was a large, wealthy, beautiful and strategically important city. Proud citizens, friends and foes alike had reasons to map it out! Fortunately these artefacts also help us to piece together a little bit of Mennonite life "in the suburbs."

---Text by Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Sources and Links---

Map 1: From Karl Stumpp, “Karte der Siedlungen in Danzig-Westpreußen, aus denen Mennoniten in den Jahren 1789–1807 nach Rußland ausgewandert sind,” in idem, The emigration from Germany to Russia in the years 1763 to 1862 (Lincoln, NB: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1973), appendix, https://archive.org/details/emigrationfromge00stum/page/1039/mode/1up.

Map 2: “1615 inset” of an 1815 map of Danzig, http://maps.mapywig.org/m/City_plans/Central_Europe/Situations_Plan_von_der_Stadt_und_Festung_Danzig_1815_Rolle_30L.jpg?fbclid=IwAR2ao8i3XlZ3vMsDRW93EVfQTvYdh_AA0dwIwXFHHwiLz5kHjlqzLOwEug4.

Illustration 3: ca. 1600, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/1716151,foto.html?s=0.72&cx=3642&cy=1805.

Illustration 3b, 1617, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670734.

Illustration 4: mid-1600s, from Reinhold Curicken, Der Stadt Dantzig: Historische Beschreibung (Amsterdam/ Dantzigk: Janssons, 1687), 32 [63], https://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/publication/61987/edition/55645/content.

Map 5: 1734, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/Gdansk/b25605,Mapy_i_plany,72,48.html?f=780245-foto.

Map 6a: 1740, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/367411,foto.html.

Map 6b: 1760-1764, https://download.cloudgdansk.pl/gdansk-pl/t/202206191744.jpg.

Map 7: 1807, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/717711,foto.html?s=1&cx=4291&cy=1904.

Map 8: 1807, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/Gdansk/b25605,Mapy_i_plany,72,48.html?f=780245-foto.

Illustration 8b: 1807, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/Gdansk/b33823,Panoramy_Gdanska,24,48.html.

Map 9: 1822, https://gdansk.fotopolska.eu/Gdansk/b25605,Mapy_i_plany,120,48.html?f=672473-foto.

Illustration 10: 1890s, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Danzig_Mennonite_Church_(Gdansk,_Poland)#/media/File:Gdansk_mennonici_02_137.jpg.

---References for Further Reading---

“Jesuiten in Danzig,” https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuiten_in_Danzig.

Klassen, Peter J. A Homeland for Strangers. An Introduction to Mennonites in Poland and Prussia. Rev’d ed. Fresno, CA: Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 1989. https://archive.org/details/ahomeland-for-strangers-an-introduction-to-mennonites-in-poland-and-prussia-revised-ocr.

———. Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Lehn, Waldemar Henry, ed. “Lehn Diary.” Transliteration from the gothic script and translation, 2010. From Mennonite Heritage Archives, Winnipeg, MB.

Mannhardt, Hermann G. Die Danziger Mennonitengemeinde. Ihre Entstehung und ihre Geschichte von 1569–1919. Danzig, 1919. https://archive.org/details/diedanzigermenno00mannuoft.

———. "Danzig Mennonite Church (Gdansk, Poland)." https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Danzig_Mennonite_Church_(Gdansk,_Poland).

Penner, Horst. Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen. Teil 2, 1772–bis zur Gegenwart. Kirchheimbolanden: Self-published, 1987.

“Stare-Szkoty (Alt-Schottland),” https://www.gdansk.pl/turystyka-w-gdansku/wielokulturowa-tozsamosc-miasta-gdanska/stare-szkoty,a,223126.

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...

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...

"Anti-Menno" Communist: David J. Penner (1904-1993)

The most outspoken early “Mennonite communist”—or better, “Anti-Menno” communist—was David Johann Penner, b. 1904. Penner was the son of a Chortitza teacher and had grown up Mennonite Brethren in Millerovo, with five religious services per week ( note 1 )! In 1930 with Stalin firmly in power, Penner pseudonymously penned the booklet entitled Anti-Menno ( note 2 ). While his attack was bitter, his criticisms offer a well-informed, plausible window on Mennonite life—albeit biased and with no intention for reform. He is a ethnic Mennonite writing to other Mennonites. Penner offers multiple examples of how the Mennonite clergy in particular—but also deacons, choir conductors, Sunday School teachers, leaders of youth or women’s circles—aligned themselves with the exploitative interests of industry and wealth. Extreme prosperity for Mennonite industrialists and large landowners was achieved with low wages and the poverty of their Russian /Ukrainian workers, according to Penner. Though t...

Sesquicentennial: Proclamation of Universal Military Service Manifesto, January 1, 1874

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago Tsar Alexander II proclaimed a new universal military service requirement into law, which—despite the promises of his predecesors—included Russia’s Mennonites. This act fundamentally changed the course of the Russian Mennonite story, and resulted in the emigration of some 17,000 Mennonites. The Russian government’s intentions in this regard were first reported in newspapers in November 1870 ( note 1 ) and later confirmed by Senator Evgenii von Hahn, former President of the Guardianship Committee ( note 2 ). Some Russian Mennonite leaders were soon corresponding with American counterparts on the possibility of mass migration ( note 3 ). Despite painful internal differences in the Mennonite community, between 1871 and Fall 1873 they put up a united front with five joint delegations to St. Petersburg and Yalta to petition for a Mennonite exemption. While the delegations were well received and some options could be discussed with ministers of the Crown, ...

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...

Anti-Jewish Pogroms and Mennonite responses in Einlage (1905) and Sagradovka (1899)

Below are stories of two pogroms and of the responses in two Mennonite communities in Ukraine/Russia. The first location is Einlage (Chortitza) in 1905, with two episodes. The rage of peasants and the working class exploded with strikes, bloody revolts, chaos and plundering across the land, especially on the estates early in 1905. The Greater Zaporozhzhia-Alexandrovsk economic zone, with larger Mennonite manufacturers of agricultural machinery in Einlage as well, was a centre for some of that labour unrest ( note 1 ). In the shadows of the larger March 1905 Russian Revolution, there were so-called provocateurs named the "Black Hundred" ( note 2 ) who organized pogroms across Russia, but especially in ethnic Ukrainian and Polish areas. “Jewish stores, shops, and homes were broken into, robbed, and plundered; Jewish women and girls were raped and brutally murdered. Many Jews lost not only their belongings in Russia, but also their lives. And all with impunity. The police ...

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 ...

1873: First Russian Mennonites leave for North America

On February 4, 1873, ministers and elders held a special meeting in Elder Isaak Peters’ Pordenau Molotschna church ( note 1 ). It was a larger building with balcony, constructed in 1860 after the original 1828 stone church building had been torn down. They had put down deep roots in Russia; nonetheless Peters spoke strongly in favour of emigration and supported a decision to send land scouts to America. The team was given a mandate to negotiate for the possibility of some 50 to 60,000 Mennonite immigrants ( note 2 ). Eager to compete with the United States for settlers, the Canadian government passed an Order-in-Council on March 3, 1873 to create a Mennonite reservation of nine-and-one-third townships ( note 3 ). The twelve-member deputation—including two Molotschna elders—which had been sent to North America returned in September with a favourable report ( note 4 ). Despite divergent opinions on the ground, the first hundred Russian Mennonite agriculturalists arrived in the United...

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 ...

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog