Christmas and New Year’s Letter to the New King, 1797

On Christmas Eve Day 1797, Orlofferfelde Elder Heinrich Donner took time to write the new 28-year-old monarch, Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, on behalf of the entire Mennonite West Prussian ministerial:

“We, your humble servants, prostrate ourselves in deep reverence before your Honourable Royal Majesty at this year end, to offer our most loving congratulations on the occasion of our Honourable Royal Majesty’s ascendence to the supreme throne. No wishes are more heartfelt and fervent than ours, because our entire well-being is dependent on the great happiness brought about by being subject to the glorious and wise scepter of your Honourable Royal Majesty. Therefore, we wish for our Honourable Royal Majesty perpetual happiness, to the highest of all your government: May God grant His Royal Majesty, as well as your dearest wife, Her Majesty the Queen, the pleasures of all desired wealth and rewards and also infinite years for the welfare of the whole country. Then our joyous hope will be satisfied in receiving grace and protection from our Honourable Royal Majesty, the wisest monarch, in regards to our religion and our sustenance in favourable measure, and may we enjoy them forever. We pledge our Honourable Royal Majesty all the loyalty and servility your righteous subjects are capable of, and eagerly look forward to the time, Honourable Royal Majesty, just as our immortalized ancestors, to give the highest of all our solemn promise of homage publicly and deepest reverence.

Honourable Royal Majesty, your humble servants, the Elders and Ministers of all the Mennonite congregations in West Prussia: Heinrich Donner [Orlofferfelde; Frisian], Dirk Thiessen [Tiegenhagen; Flemish], Cornelius Warkentin [Rosenort; Flemish].” (Note 1)

The response reads as follows:

"His Royal Majesty, our most gracious ruler, acknowledges with gracious pleasure the congratulations and good wishes, which the Elders and Ministers of all the Mennonite congregations in West Prussia wish to express on the 24th of December at the approaching New Year, and does not fail to thank them for this with the assurance of his highest paternal grace.” Frederick Wilhelm Berlin December 31, 1797." (Translation slightly altered)

Since 1772, “full parity” between Catholics and Lutherans was established in the Marienwerder, whereas Mennonites were only to be “tolerated” and “the numerous beggar Jews (Betteljuden)” were designated for “gradual removal” (note 2).

Donner, Warkentin and Thiessen were politically astute Mennonite leaders for these very uncertain times. Notably five years later, hundreds of Mennonite families would leave Prussia to form the new Molotschna Colony in Russia.

Already under the new king’s father, Friedrich-Wilhelm II, the view from Berlin had turned toxic towards the “slothful and useless” Mennonites, and the benefits of expulsion were seriously weighed (note 3).

This came to a head with the Mennonite Edict of 1789, which made it almost impossible for Mennonites to increase their land holdings in number or size:

“We wish, therefore, to order and command [that Mennonites]:

… shall no longer be able to easily acquire the most comfortable and productive properties out from other subjects who serve in the military;

… shall be required to pay the same fees proportional to the value of their properties as Protestant members toward the support of Protestant church buildings, parsonages with chapels, and parsonages, as well as teacher residences and school buildings;

… shall … be required to pay the same church fees for births, weddings, and funerals where they are required of Protestants … [as well as] the supplemental pastoral fees in kind;

… concerning the children of mixed marriages … they shall be raised in the faith of their non-Mennonite parent.” (Note 4)

If their “religious opinion” kept Mennonites from “fulfilling one of the pre-eminent duties of loyal subjects—the defence of the fatherland”—it followed that they “may not have all those civil privileges enjoyed by subjects who willingly undertake this duty” and who are “more useful to the state,” according to Friedrich-Wilhelm II (note 5).

The land restrictions and new fees meant impoverishment for many, and no prospects for the poor and their children. The vast majority of Mennonites in Prussia still hoped that they would be able to negotiate a fair resolution as they had done so often in the past. After all, the Prussian state exempted the whole upper stratum of society from military service, including artisans and workers in industries. Elder Donner was convinced that the best political strategy was--as in the past--not to boast of their virtues, achievements, and economic contributions before the king, but simply plead for his grace. Like God, a sovereign king tolerates his subjects not on their merits, but because of grace alone (note 6). This assumption and tactic was behind the Christmas/New Years letter to the new king as well (this approach would change some years later on the advise of a leading lawyer; note 7).

In 1793 Donner and Warkentin met with the Governor of Prussia who restated that he would strongly oppose any Mennonite petitions. Donner informed the Governor that as a consequence many more Mennonite families would want to emigrate. “Let them go,” was the Governor’s response. But when asked if he would approve applications for emigration, he said no (note 8).

A year and a half after the Christmas letter above, on June 30, 1799, in a response to an unwisely formulated letter by a lone minister, the King reaffirmed his father’s 1789 policy that linked any Mennonite land acquisition to military service. The normally calm Frisian Elder Heinrich Donner was livid in his response: “Under Prussian rule we have never received such a disgraceful resolution as this. … [It] even seeks to prove that the station of a soldier is a duty based on the teachings of Jesus, and that we should unite this duty with our religious principles. … Lord have mercy!” It now seemed to Donner that they were like the people of Israel when a new king came to power in Egypt, “according to the description in Exodus 1:8–13,” who was ignorant of their legacy and call, and enslaved and oppressed them (note 9).

---Arnold Neufeld-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Heinrich Donner Diary (Tagebuch) (1774-1803), translated by Elfriede Rempel and Glenn Penner, Mennonite Heritage Archives Winnipeg, Feb 2023, https://www.mharchives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Heinrich-Donner-Diary-12-Feb-2023.pdf. Translation slightly altered. German: Orlofferfelde Chronik, transcribed by Werner Janzen and Merle Schlabough, 2022, Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/cong_303/ok63/orlofferfeldechronik.html.

Note 2: Prussian policy did not change. Cf. Hans Maercker, “Geschichte des Schwetzer Kreises 1466–1873,” Zeitschrift der Westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins 17 [1886], 67, https://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/dlibra/publication/52346/edition/49705#structure. Cf. also “Obermedizinalrat” and “Bericht der westpreussischen Kammer, 1803,” cited in Karge, “Die Auswanderung,” 70, 74f. It was argued that the state “would gain more than it would lose with the emigration” of this “soft” and “lazy type of humanity.” Conscription should be expanded to include every Mennonite, and such a policy could only be bettered, in the view of one regional official, if the same policies were enforced against “that similar type of humanity to the Mennonites in this province, namely the Jews.”

Note 3: Paul Karge, “Die Auswanderung ost- und westpreussischen Mennoniten nach Südrussland (nach Chortiza und der Molotschna), 1787–1820,” Elbinger Jahrbuch 3 (1923), 70, http://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=13874; https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/0v760.pdf.

Note 4: Frederick William II, King of Prussia, “Edict Concerning the Future Establishment of the Mennonites in All Royal Provinces Excluding the Duchy Silesia, 1789,” in Mark Jantzen, Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772–1880, translated by Mark Jantzen, Appendix, Document 2, 256–260 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). Original: “Edict, die künftige Einrichtung des Mennonisten-Wesens in sämmtlichen Königlichen Provinzien exklusive des Herzogthums Schlesien betreffend,” Berlin, July 30, 1789. Decker, 1789. From Staatsbibliothek Berlin, https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN806951052.

Note 5: In Jantzen, Mennonite German Soldiers, 256; cf. also the "1801 Declaration," ibid., 262.

Note 6: Donner, Orlofferfelde Chronik [German], 57 (1799).

Note 7: Eventually Mennonites retained an influential and well-connected lawyer from Königsberg. Rather than references to scripture or old Polish Privilegia, his strategy was to highlight the huge loss of technical knowledge and vast human resources in industry and agriculture because of the state’s policy. Cf. Karge, “Die Auswanderung,” 73.

Note 8: Donner, Orlofferfelde Chronik, 44f.; 47.

Note 9: Donner, Orlofferfelde Chronik, 57.

---

To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “Christmas and New Year's Letter to the New King, 1797,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), December 24, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-and-new-years-letter-to-new.html.

Comments

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

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 ...

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle...

Quiet in the Land: Peter Fast, 1932-2010

My father Peter Fast passed away in January 2010. The years have given me many opportunities to reflect on his life and impact. He was a gentle and good person--and could work like horse. He was born into poverty in 1932 in Paraguay. His parents were pioneers, first in Fernheim and then (1937) in Friesland. He liked to tell me that he ate manioc root for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was never sure if that was true, and it didn’t help to convince me to eat things I didn’t like. His mother died when he was fourteen; the basic medical aid she needed was out of reach. His new step-mother was a complex person who made life difficult for him and others. Dad only finished the 6th grade in Friesland. He was more than happy to get off the school bench and onto a horse. I don’t think I ever saw him write a complete sentence in my life, whether in English or in German. He had no interest in history, let alone reading—though over time he read the local city paper. Nothing I’ve written on...

Life in Exin, 1944: German-Occupied Poland

After the 1943-44 portion of the Great Trek ended with settlement of some 35,000 Mennonites in German-annexed Poland, the Gnadenfeld area trek members were scattered in resettler camps ( Umsiedler-Lager ) around Exin ( Kcynia ) and the Altburgund District administrative centre of Dietfurt ( Żnin ), including the hamlets of Kiefernrode ( Słupowiec ), Schwarzerde ( Malice ), Schmiedebach, etc. ( note 1) . Until World War I, the area was part of the German-Prussian Province of Posen, about 170 kilometres south-west of Danzig ( Gdańsk ) and about 400 kilometres east of Berlin. Almost all ethnic German resettlers from Ukraine arrived through Litzmannstadt (Łódź), one of two entrance points from the east into new German province of “Warthegau” ( note 2) . Here thousands were cleansed, deloused and processed daily. Some Gnadenfeld group members were brought to Janowitz (Janowiec) , near Hermannsbad in the District of Hohensalza for quarantine. Here fresh straw was laid out on the floor for ...

The Selbstschutz (Self-Defence Units) and Benjamin H. Unruh

Abram Kröker, editor of the Molotschna (South Russia/ Ukraine) -based Mennonite Friedensstimme , wrote that Mennonites are “predestined to foreshadow … even in an imperfect way, the great peace among nations in the Thousand-Year-Reign [of Christ].” And among all denominations, “it has pleased God,” according to Kröker, to “present and manifest” through the Mennonites this “pearl of evangelical truth gained at great cost by our fathers” ( note 1 ). And it is because of this theological hope and inheritance that “our youth are raised differently,” Kröker reminded his readers; “not military bravery or fighting are presented as the highest civic virtues, but rather sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others. In all our schools, non-resistance is explicitly taught and impressed [upon students] according to the Mennonite catechism” ( note 2 ). But taking up arms in self-defence was nuanced differently by his colleague and influential 37-year-old teacher and theologian Benja...

Ukraine Independence--Russian Aggression--German Interests (1918)

The semi-autonomous Ukrainian People's Republic was established shortly after Russia's February Revolution in 1917. Much was still fluid, however. After the October Bolshevik Revolution the Central Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv declared full state independence from the Russian Republic on January 22, 1918. The Ukrainian People's Republic negotiated an end to its participation in Great War, and on February 9, 1918 signed a protectorate treaty in Brest-Litovsk. On February 17, Ukraine appealed to Germany and Austria-Hungary for assistance to repel Russian Bolshevik “invaders,” to detach Ukraine from Russia, and to establish conditions of stability. The World War had not yet ended. Imperialist Germany was desperate for grain and natural resources from Ukraine, eager to end the war in the east while containing Russia, and determined to establish post-war markets for German goods, technologies and influence ( note 1 ). For its part the Russian Bolshevik regime was eager to save ...

Flight from Flanders to Friesland

In the latter half of the sixteenth century Protestantism gradually spread throughout the northern Netherlands in the form of Calvinism—which had a direct impact on Anabaptists. When the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands led by the exiled Protestant Prince William of Orange went to war against Spain in 1568, persecution of Anabaptists in Catholic Flanders increased again. Long before the Protestant Northern Provinces would declare independence in 1581, the inquisition against Anabaptists in Bruges, for example, had achieved its goal. With the last two Anabaptist executions in the city in 1573, the once large and thriving Mennonite congregation was extinguished. Subsequently Mennonites lived in Bruges only on rare occasions, and when present, for only a short time, as for example the well-known art historian Karel van Mander in 1582 ( note 1 ). In the Northern Provinces Calvinism had become attractive theologically and politically. Not only was Christian resistance to tyrannical gov...

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 a...

A-Cases and O-Cases. After the Trek, 1944

Some 35,000 Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine by the retreating Reich German military in 1943-44 applied for naturalization /citizenship once in German-annexed Poland (mostly Warthegau). The applications made through the “EWZ” ( Einwandererzentralstelle ) are easy to attain today ( note 1 ). Much information may be new and useful for families; however just as much is disturbing, including the racial assessments, categorization, and separation of so-called “A-cases” from “O-cases.” What are they? The EWZ files contain the application for naturalization made by the head of a family unit, the certificate of naturalization, and sometimes correspondence/ claims regarding property and possessions left behind in Ukraine. Each form contains information about the applicant’s spouse and children, as well as a genealogy listing parents and grandparents, and those of their spouse as well; racial background is calculated by percentage (!). Applicants were asked about their citizenship, their e...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog