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.

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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