Penmanship: School Exercise Samples, 1869 and 1883

Johann Cornies recommended “penmanship as the pedagogical means for [developing] a sense of beauty” (note 1). Schönschreiben--calligraphy or penmanship--appears in the handwritten school plans and manuals of Tobias Voth (Ohrloff, 1820), Jakob Bräul (Rudnerweide, 1830), and Heinrich Heese (Ohrloff, 1842). Heese had a list of related supplies required for each pupil, including “a Bible, slate, slate pencil, paper, straight edge, lead pencil, quill pen, quill knife, ink bottle, three candlesticks, three snuffers, and a container to keep supplies; the teacher will provide water color (Tusche) and ink” (note 2).

The standard school schedule at this time included ten subject areas: Bible; reading; writing; recitation and composition; arithmetic; geography; singing; recitation and memory work; and preparation of the scripture for the following Sunday worship—and penmanship (note 3).

Below are penmanship samples first from the Molotschna village school of Tiege, 1869. This student work was created by Peter Wiens. The folder of materials show that students were required to write not only in old-form Kurrent cursive, but also Latin cursive and in Russian (note 4).

While Russian language training had been encouraged since the days of Johann Cornies, it remained absent from the required village school curriculum. In 1866 Russian school inspectors had found that less than half of the Mennonite schoolteachers were familiar with Russian (note 5). That year state officials obliged Mennonite teachers “by their own signatures” to instruct the children in the Russian language for one hour a day, though “several progressive teachers, long before 1866, even in 1830 [Bräul and Heese], had taught in Russian” (note 6).

The second set of samples below on penmanship are by 12 and 13-year-olds in 1883 (note 7). Again, the assignments are vehicles for students not only to develop a sense of beauty, but also to learn a religious or moral truth. They give a small window on how Russian Mennonite children were shaped to rightly see and navigate their lives as a spiritual journey.

Below are translations of three of the 1883 samples:

"To love PEACE, to bring PEACE, to hold my tongue when the quarreler rants, to approach all matters full of love--may these things always be my obligation [full text repeated]. Age 12 Franz Wieb"

"To pray eagerly and watch carefully--may this duty become my joy. And to wisely flee temptation---may I strive daily towards this goal [repeat]. Jesus, allow me to succeed. Age 12 Helena Ediger."

"Christian thinking, talking, doing, is the Christian's duty. If you want to rest in peace and surety, do not neglect this rule. Act responsibly, be faithful, fear God, and shun sin. Age 12, Dietrich Peters."

The fourth is written in the older Kurrent script by Kornelius Janzen. It is a mini essay on the origins of the "rose" in western Asia, and how its fruit is used for "rose hip" tea, etc.

Next generation pedagogues judged calligraphy and the drawing “of flowers, etc.” as “if not laughable, then at least as somewhat useless” as part of the curriculum (note 8). However, in the pre-industrial, first half of the eighteenth century, Schönschreiben also some economic value, as P. M. Friesen’s description of master teacher Jacob Bräul of Rudnerweide suggests:

“‘Block-lettering’ [Fraktur] drawing, and painting were practiced especially in the making of small pictures and greeting cards (for Christmas, New Year, etc.), which also were presented to students as rewards for industry and good behaviour. Bräul really had artistic talent, but he also had ability in technical drawing (drafting) and produced designs for clock faces, for the huge Dutch wall clocks which even now are manufactured among the Mennonites of Russia as household furniture. He also drew plans for chests (large trunks), the major piece of furniture of the “big room” (living-room) of those days, and drew blueprints for clothes closets, corner cabinets, brick cabinets, four-poster beds and stately desks for the living room. Thus he supplemented his income during the long summer vacation [four months]. In the same way he was engaged in bookbinding.” (Note 9)

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: In D. H. Epp, Johann Cornies: Züge aus seinem Leben und Wirken [1909] (Rosthern, SK: Echo, 1946), 62, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=1dok15.pdf.

Note 2: Ethel Ewert Abraham, “Fraktur by Germans from Russia,” American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Working paper no. 21 (Fall 1976), 12–16; 16. Decades later P. M. Friesen reported on Bräul’s ability to teach Russia as well as the fact that he was “famous for his teaching of arithmetic, singing, and penmanship” (The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 [Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978], 781, https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/).

Note 3: Peter J. Braun, “The Educational System of the Mennonite Colonies in South Russia,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 3, no. 3 (July 1929), 174; see Braun’s larger 1920 study: Der Molotschnaer Mennoniten-Schulrat, 1869–1919. Zum Gedenktag seines 50jährigen Bestehens, edited by Wladimir Süss (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001).

Note 4: Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, Robarts Library, University of Toronto, file no. 2000, “School Exercise Samples, Tiege Village Schools, 1869,” 16 pages. See finding guide, http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/papers/pdfs/PJBRussMennArchiveFA2.pdf.

Note 5: Friesen, Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia, 711.

Note 6: Braun, “The Educational System of the Mennonite Colonies,” 174; see J. Dyck, Braeul Genealogy: 1670–1983 (Sprinstein, MB: Self-published), 21.

Note 7: File no. 2466, Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive.

Note 8: Franz Isaac, Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben (Halbstadt, Taurien: H. J. Braun, 1908), 275, https://archive.org/details/die-molotschnaer-mennoniten-editablea; ET: https://www.mharchives.ca/download/3573/.

Note 9: Friesen, Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia, 780f. Tobias Voth too was an excellent artist and drew the only existing picture of Johann Cornies.

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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