Flooding and Mennonites: A Common Thread

In November 2021 many Mennonites in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia were impacted by disastrous flooding. The mayor of Abbotsford—the worst-hit city—as well as the local Member of Parliament were Mennonites. Many Mennonites across Canada had family members who are directly impacted. 

Flood stories have been an important thread in the Prussian-Russian Mennonite story. How have Mennonites responded? Mutual aid stands out. For Menno Simons, it was “the only sign whereby a true Christian may be known” (note 1). 

In 1562, “Dutch people of the Mennonite religion” were specifically invited by the Polish banking house Loysen to settle on the “Tiegenhoff part of the Vistula Delta” to rebuild dikes partially destroyed by huge floods (1540 and 1543) and wars, and to drain low-lying lagoons and swamps over large blocks of land (note 2). The Tiege River—a branch of the Vistula—was at or below sea level. 

Dams and ditches along the Nogat and Vistula rivers had been constructed for at least three centuries before Mennonites arrived, and the waters consistently had free run over the entire flood plain and its sparse population. Where lands had been won from “swamp” and sea after some years of labour, the rivers regularly and massively pushed back and spilled their banks (note 3). 

From The Netherlands Mennonites brought skills to construct unique windmills that continuously pumped out water from the lowest points, and they designed and built complex systems of canals and sub-canals to discharge the water. The land had to be dried, cleared and strategically sloped to control water run-off and to protect from flooding. 

Because of the enormous labour required, with little capital for construction, and the danger of swamp fever, up to eighty percent of the first settlers died prematurely. In some places it took a century—three generations—to create a stable or fruitful agricultural region and, of necessity, a sense of community (note 4). The conditions helped to birth significant Mennonite-Christian social experiments of mutual aid. 

Mennonite newcomers from Holland normally became members of a Mennonite drainage company and village leasing association with common obligations to maintain the dams. Long-term leases valid for thirty to forty years encouraged the development of the land (note 5).

When a dike in the Vistula Delta broke and caused severe flooding in 1622, two “Dutchmen”—Andreas Bril and Hendrik Penner—appeared before the Polish King on behalf of the residents of Tiege to inquire regarding obligations for maintenance on the main dike (note 6). 

In 1642 the first Mennonite Privilegium was issued, which guaranteed broad privileges and which recognized the Mennonite economic contribution to the kingdom—especially with respect to flooding and the creation of dams: 

"We are all well aware of the manner in which the ancestors of the Mennonite inhabitants of the Marienburg islands (Werder), both large and small, were invited here with the knowledge and by the will of the gracious King Sigismund Augustus, to areas that were barren, swampy and unusable places in those islands. With great effort and at very high cost, they made these lands fertile and productive. They cleared out the brush, and, in order to drain the water from these flooded and marshy lands, they built mills and constructed dams to guard against flooding by the Vistula, Nogat, Haff, Tiege, and other streams." (Note 7)

Inundations were also a weapon of war. In the 1655-1660 Polish-Swedish War, intentional breaching of embankments was ordered by the Swedish King Carolus Gustavus. The Swedes did the same 25 years earlier (Note 8). 

As water levels varied, so did the local responses to natural disasters. After dams broke causing lands to flood in 1667, a powerful government official for Pomerelia near Danzig argued that God was now punishing Poland and Danzig for its tolerance of Anabaptists. The official found broad support among the nobles in parliament for a plan to deport all Mennonites, which did not come to pass (note 9). 

In 1736–37 the area again experienced catastrophic flooding (note 10) and two contemporary historians noted Protestant and Catholic neighbours were also recipients of “good deeds from the hands of Mennonites” (note 11). 

In all cases when flooding occurred, aid from co-religionists from The Netherlands was unfailing. 

Flooding in Russia

Mennonites in New Russia settled where water could be easily obtained—first along the mighty Dnieper River. Unlike in Polish-Prussia, surface water here was “scarce and the water-layer in the ground very deep.” As a result, Mennonite villages were not in the centre of their designated lands, but adjacent to rivers or streams (note 12). 

Over millennia the course of the Dnieper River had shifted. The path of the ancient Dnieper still flows around the western side of the Island of Chortitza, but at one time it went through the valley where Mennonites first established the village of Einlage. What settlers did not know was that spring high water occasionally rushes into that ancient riverbed. 

With high water in 1820, the Mennonite villages of Chortitza Island, Rosenthal, and the lower part of Einlage flooded. At some point a small dam was built at Einlage to prevent further flood damage. Again in 1829 and 1841, Rosenthal flooded, but the damage was mostly confined to their lower gardens. 

In 1845, however, the Dnieper rose to record levels and Einlage, Rosenthal, Chortitza Island, and Nieder-Chortitza suffered severe damage. 

Most famously Einlage was “completely overrun by the rupture of its dam, and 20 houses were destroyed. Damages totaled 8,922 Rubles.” By 1848, these houses had all been relocated, “partly with cash support, partly with voluntary contributions. The height of the dam was also raised significantly. The buildings and equipment of the community distillery were also severely damaged, with a loss amounting to 2,409 Rubles.” North of Einlage the Frisian Mennonite village of Kronsgarten was also severely damaged and was relocated by 1 kilometer on to adjacent higher ground. (This section is adapted mostly from the colony history written in 1848; note 13). 

Rosenthal suffered damages of 2,491 Rubles. It too had built a dam at the lower end of the valley to prevent an overflow of the river into its village. The hayfields on the village lowlands were covered with silt from the flood. Afterwards only four farmsteads could be relocated due to limited space. 

On the Island of Chortitza, several of the houses were almost up to their roofs with water in 1845, but remained standing because the current did not hit them directly. Damage was estimated at 430 Rubles. But the community suffered greater damage from silt on the largest and best part of its hayfields. The houses could not be relocated because of lack of space. The road along the shore, however, was raised significantly. 

In the 1845 flood Nieder-Chortiza was also mostly under water, and suffered total damages of 1,221 Rubles. Because of the great effort and expense involved in relocation, the community chose instead to protect itself for the future with an earthen dike. 

The much smaller Molotschna River—really more of a stream with a broad flood-plain—surprised Mennonites in the first year of settlement, 1804. With a sudden melt, water cannot soak into the frozen ground, and causes the river’s water to spill onto a large flood plain. After one year in its original location, the village of Altenau was relocated further from the river (note 14). Twenty-eight years later the village of Fischau, also on the Molotschna, was similarly moved. Eighty years later the Tokmak River that feeds into the Molotschna, overflowed in 1912. In the City of Tokmak, immediately adjacent to Ladekop, 200 houses were flooded and collapsed. Further upstream the Mennonite village of Liebenau had water on the streets, and Klippenfeld’s low-lying gardens were flooded (note 15). Flooding happened again in 1915, and Halbstadt’s streets were under water.

These are some of the key episodes of flooding in the Prussian-Russian Mennonite story. Expert technical response, local adaptations and mitigation, as well as a theology of mutual aid defined each chapter. 

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

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Illustration: 1888 flooding of the Nogat River at Janowka, https://www.przewodnikelblag.pl/pl/blog/historia-jednego-zdjecia. “Petershagen Land Lease Contract (Pachtvertrag), 1635,” https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/elecrec586/PetershagenPachtvertrag1635GdanskFond779DSygn137/IMG_3285.JPG. 

Note 1: Menno Simons, Complete Writings of Menno Simons, edited by J. C. Wenger (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1984); 558, 559. Older online version edited by John Funk, “A Humble and Christian Defense,” IV, Complete Works of Menno Simons (Elkhart, IN, 1871), http://www.mennosimons.net/ft118-defense.html. Cf. also Peter J. Klassen, “The History of Mennonite Mutual Aid,” Proceedings of All-Mennonite Conference on Christian Mutual Aid, B1–B9. Smithville, OH, June 4–6, 1964. 

Note 2: For this early period, cf. Peter J. Klassen, Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). For the history of Vistula River flooding, cf. Jerzy Cyerski, Marek Grzes et al., “History of floods on the River Vistula,” Hydrological Sciences Journal 51, no. 5 (2006), 799-817, https://doi.org/10.1623/hysj.51.5.799. 

Note 3: Reinhold Curicken, Der Stadt Dantzig: Historische Beschreibung (Amsterdam/ Dantzigk: Janssons, 1687), 138, https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10805961_00011.html. 

Note 4: See notes 5, 6 and 7 below. On what was grown, cf. Fynes Moryson, Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, vol. 4 (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1908), 69f., https://archive.org/details/itinerarycontain04moryuoft/page/68. 

Note 5: See Heinrich Donner and Johann Donner, Orlofferfelde Chronik, page 3, transcribed by Werner Janzen, 2010. From MLA-B, Prussian-Polish sources (online), https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/cong_303/ok63/orlofferfeldechronik.html.  Cf. Karl-Heinz Ludwig, Zur Besiedlung des Weichseldeltas durch die Mennoniten. Die Siedlungen der Mennoniten im Territorium der Stadt Elbing und in der Ökonomie Marienburg bis zur Übernahme der Gebiete durch Preußen 1772 (Marburg/Lahn: Herder-Institut, 1961), http://ostdok.de/id/BV007004581/ft/bsb00096853?page=9&c=solrSearchOstdok. 

Note 6: Horst Penner, Ansiedlung mennonitischer Niederländer im Weichselmündungsgebiet von der Mitte des 16. Jh. bis zum Beginn der Preussischen Zeit (Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1940), 57, http://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=33883 (English translation by Tim Flaming and Glenn Penner: https://www.mharchives.ca/download/3408/). For historical maps of Mennonite villages of the region, search by village in Brent Wiebe's collection: https://trailsofthepast.com/all-in-one-map/. 

Note 7: Cited in 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), 1f., https://archive.org/details/ahomeland-for-strangers-an-introduction-to-mennonites-in-poland-and-prussia-revised-ocr.

Note 8: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/02/flooding-as-weapon-of-war-1657.html. 

Note 9: Anna Brons, Ursprung, Entwickelung und Schicksale der Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten in kurzen Zügen (Norden, 1884), 258f., https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/. 

Note 10: Cf. Horst Quiring, “Ein Notjahr in Westpreußen,” Christlicher Gemeinde-Kalender 47 (1938) 70–73. https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Christlicher%20Gemeinde-Kalender/1933-1941/DSCF7096.JPG. 

Note 11: Georg von Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck, Beiträge zur Kenntniß der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Europa und Amerika, Part I (Berlin, 1821), 42f. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009717700. 

Note 12: David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia. A study of their settlement and economic development from 1789–1914,” PhD dissertation, Stanford Un,iversity, 1933, 110, https://archive.org/details/themennonitecoloniesinnewrussiaastudyoftheirsettlementandeconomicdevelopmentfrom1789to1914ocr. 

Note 13: Heinrich Heese, “Das Chortitzer Mennonitengebiet 1848. Kurzgefasste geschichtliche Übersicht der Gründung und des Bestehens der Kolonien des Chortitzer Mennonitenbezirkes,” https://chortitza.org/Ber1848.php#Eg; also Heinrich Bergen, ed., Einlage/ Kitschkas, 1789–1943: Ein Denkmal (Regina, SK: Self-published, 2008), 36-37; and Nick J. Kroeker, Erste Mennoniten Doerfer Russlands 1789–1943: Chortitza–Rosental (Vancouver, BC: Self-published, 1981), 209, and map of Chortitza and Rosental with local dams and ancient river bed, p. 204.

Note 14: M. Woltner, ed., Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941), 113, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/kb/woltner.pdf.

Note 15: Cf. Helmut Huebert, Mennonites in the Cities of Imperial Russia, vol. 2 (Winnipeg, MB: Springfield, 2008), 398, https://archive.org/details/MennonitesInTheCitiesOfImperialRussiaVolTwoOCRopt/page/n423/; idem, Molotschna Historical Atlas (Winnipeg, MB: Springfield, 2003), 153. https://archive.org/details/MolotschnaHistoricalAtlasOCRopt.

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To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Flooding and Mennonites: A Common Thread," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 5, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/11/flooding-and-mennonites-common-thread.html.