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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 in the years 1711/12. Between 1709 and 1711, forty-percent of the Memel region of East Prussia died from the plague / pandemic, and approximately 11,000 farms were left without people to work the land (note 1).

In this context the Prussian King Friedrich I tried to entice Mennonites among others to settle in East Prussia. This offer attracted some Mennonites who had to flee Switzerland in 1710, but above all attracted Mennonites already in Polish Prussia.

In 1713, 42 Mennonite families took a boat along the Nogat River through the Wislaney Lagoon to Königsberg and then north to the Memel and Gilge Rivers region in Prussian Lithuania. Around the area stretching from Kukerneese to Tilsit along the Memel River they were given a number of farmsteads. The low-land was suitable for the cattle raising they were used to in Polish-Prussia. The number of Mennonite immigrants increased, so that by 1724 there were 105 families possessing 88 farmsteads.

Here the Mennonites were allowed the religions freedom to worship in their tradition, as well as the freedom to organize their life and their larger tract of land according to their own ways.

These Mennonites brought with them techniques for raising cattle and for the production of butter and cheese (some of them were Swiss!) which gave certain advantages over their neighbours in the Memel region. In 1723 Mennonites were supplying 3,700 Zentner (1,850 kilos!) of so-called “Mennonite cheese” to the market in Königsberg, which became known throughout the region as Tilsiter cheese (note 2).

The provincial officials had great praise for the quiet and industrious Mennonites and suggested to King Friedrich Wilhelm I that they allow more Mennonites to settle in East Prussia. The King however replied:

“That would be alright for a nobleman, but a King of Prussia must have revenue, must have income, and a strong army which can incite fear in order to protect the land; for an army there must be people. Since Mennonites will not become soldiers, therefore they shall not be tolerated in my land, special remonstration, without exception.” (Note 3)

Background: In 1717 word came to the West Prussian Mennonites that a religious awakening was occurring in Prussian Lithuania, and a number of Lutherans had decided to join the Mennonites. Prussian officials saw the change of faith communities among some as an attempt to avoid being drafted into the King’s army. Moreover, the Mennonites—fearing that they would lose their right to military exemption altogether—sent a letter to the King telling them they would terminate their lease if they were to lose their promised rights. The King did not react as they had hoped; instead he ordered the whole region to be cleared of Mennonites. “I do not want a nation of rogues of the sort that do not want to become soldiers” (note 4).

In May and June of 1724, most of the Mennonites in the Memel region were forced to leave their homes and return to West Prussia. Fifteen farmsteads were bought for the refugees in and around Tragheimerweide in the Stuhm region. In the next year a further fourteen farmsteads were bought for refugees coming from Tilsit. More land was acquired, making this the beginning of the last larger Mennonite settlement in West Prussia.


In the census taken in 1776, there are two Plenert families listed in this region, namely Cornelius Plenert in Schöneich—a married cobbler with one daughter. The other Plenert in the area is the farmer Dirk Plenert of Klein Lunau who is married with two sons and one daughter. Members of this community later immigrated to Russia.

The longer “Plennert” story is also significantly different than the majority Prussian Mennonite Dutch or Flemish story, and shows a few ways in which groups of Mennonites in Europe connected with a shared identity. Horst Penner (note 5) suggests that the Mennonite Plennert name originates from the Strasbourg area. Peters and Thiessen “write that it is most likely that the name Plenert has an occupational origin, probably derived from "Blenner(t)", "one who blends", that is, one who mixes, mingles, and blends, particularly in the manufacturing and colouring of fabrics. In 1350 there is a "Plener" recorded in the city of Breslau.

But Penner as well as Peters and Thiessen agree that Prussian / Russian Mennonites with the name Plenert are probably descended from Philip Plener (also called Blauarmel [blue arm] or Weber [weaver]). Plener was a successful Anabaptist evangelist / missionary who operated primarily in the area of Bruchsal in what is today south-western Germany, but also in the Heidelberg area as well (note 6).

Because of severe persecution in southern Germany, Philipp Plener led a group of Hessian and Palatinate converts (called Philippites) to the land near Auspitz in Moravia opened up to him by the abbess of Maria Saal. 300 to 400 Philippite brethren lived in three large communitarian colonies in close fellowship with the Hutterites (followers of Jacob Hutter) until the group split in 1533 over issues of authority (note 7). At the Moravian Diet in Znaim in 1535, the Moravian magnates were forced to comply with King Ferdinand's demand that all Anabaptists and Jews be expelled from the margraviate, fearing a violent Anabaptist uprising similar to the one happening in Muenster. As a result all the Anabaptists who had sought asylum in Moravia were driven from their homes by Easter 1535. Smith offers a useful summary:

“The nobles, no matter how highly they might prize the economic worth of their industrious tenants, no had no recourse but to enforce the order of the king. The households consequently were broken up, and their occupants were driven out into the open fields and under the open sky to seek a living as best they could. The inhabitants everywhere were forbidden under pain of heavy punishment to give these exiles shelter, food, or drink. The object evidently was to harry them out of the land as rapidly as possible.

All factions and parties had to go--the Schwertler of Nikolsburg, as well as the Stabler of Austerlitz, the Philipists, who left with "songs on their lips," the Gabrielists, and the Hutterisch. At first the large company tried to keep together, but finding this impossible, they formed into small groups of eight or ten to seek as best they could their sustenance among an unfriendly people.” (Note 8)

Philipp Plener promised his followers to find a land in which they could settle. After Moravia, the only possible place of refuge for Anabaptists was Polish-Prussia, where the imperial death sentence against Anabaptists (1529) was not in effect. In 1535 a group of 200 Anabaptists from Moravia arrived in Polish Prussia settling in Thorn, Culm and Graudenz, and into the Vistula Delta and Danzig.

According to Penner, it is likely that Philipp Plener was part of this group, since there are no records of Philipp Plener in Moravia or southern Germany after this date. As a weaver, it is likely that Philipp did not move to a farming village, but that he settled in Schottland near the city of Danzig, where Flemish Anabaptists fleeing persecution in the Low Countries had begun to settle. It was typical for the Flemish to add a "t" to the pronunciation of names ending in -er (like Kröcker, Buler, Mayer, and Plener), and so it is in Danzig that the name "Plener" is changed to "Plenert" (note 9).

When war broke out between Poland and Sweden in 1656, Danzig set fire to the villages on its outskirts (including Schottland) to deprive the approaching Swedish army material resources. Some Mennonites were allowed to move inside the Danzig city walls, while others left the Danzig area for the Culm region (note 10). Some ancestors of Russian Mennonite Plenerts were likely part of this movement south or else they had already been part of the original settlement of Schönsee, Culm in the 1540s (note 11). Later in 1711/12 another group of Mennonites left the Danzig area for the Memel region (as outlined above), which included some Plennerts.

Stories from this minority experience are part of the larger Russian Mennonite identity—traceable through one of the more unique names.

Other typical Russian Mennonite names that betray a Swiss or Palatinate connection include Balzer, Barg, Berg, Boldt, Born, Buller, [D]Riedeger, Engbrecht, Funk, Kröker, Löpp, Nachtigals, Penner (mixed), Schellenberg, Voth, Wedel, Wiehler and Wohlgemut.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: On the 1709 plague in Danzig, see previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/plague-and-pestilence-in-danzig-1709.html.

Note 2: Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen, vol. 1,1526–1772, 2nd edition (Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1994), 218.

Note 3: Cited in Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten I, 218.

Note 4: Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten I, 220.

Note 5: Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten I, 318f. See Victor Peters and Jack Thiessen, Mennonite Names (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 1987), 102.

Note 6: Cf. Robert Friedmann, “Plener, Philipp (16th century),” GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Plener,_Philipp_(16th_century).

Note 7: See G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962), 420-423, https://archive.org/details/radicalreformati0000will.

Note 8: C. Henry Smith, Story of the Mennonites, 5th ed., edited by Cornelius Krahn (Newton, KS: Faith and Life, 1981), 40, https://archive.org/details/smithsstoryofmen00unse.

Note 9: Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten.

Note 10: Cf. Peter J. Klassen, 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; also Herbert Wiebe, Das Siedlungswerk niederländischer Mennoniten im Weichseltal zwischen Fordon und Weissenberg bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts (Marburg a.d. Lahn: Herder-Institut, 1952), 94, http://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/title/BV005090375/ft/bsb00096789?page=1.

Note 11: Cf. P. Klassen, Homeland for Strangers, 33.

Map of East Prussia from: http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/maps/eastprus.gif.

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