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MB Bulletin.October 03.1 California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin No. 39 October 2003 Were Prussian Mennonites Die Stillen im Lande? by Ron Froese The Move to Prussia n modern societies, the wishes of minorities are either highly vocalized by an aggressive group that asserts Iits rights, or are significantly muted by an unobtrusive group that seeks to remain on society’s fringes. Mennonites, who would identify more readily with the latter group, were at times protected, and at times harassed while living in various Prussian regions, both urban and rural. Their treatment varied by both time and by place. Suburban Mennonites did not receive as thorough a protection as their The former United Flemish and Frisian Mennonite Church in Gdansk (formerly Dan- zig). (Photo by Peter J. Klassen.) rural co-religionists. “Die Stillen im Lande” was exactly that, the quiet in the country, not to be confused set the stage for the arrival As such they were considered with ‘the harried in the city’. of the Mennonites. Religious die Stillen im Lande and often Sixteenth-century Poland convictions drove the Mennonites (though not always) were granted fervently desired growth. from Flanders, Brabant and the religious toleration. Territorially, it was the largest Dutch provinces, and economic The Poland of the 1500s-1600s country in Europe, including opportunity attracted them to was essentially a medieval society present-day Poland, Lithuania, Prussia.1 They received protection without inalienable individual Belarus and the Ukraine. because they contributed to the rights. The only right a person Economically, it was behind economy. Mennonites did not had was to belong to a group that western Europe so it was open evangelize nor demand political was protected in society. Since for business expansion. In the rights. They only wanted to Mennonites did not belong to 1500s, an expanding economy practice their religion privately. one of the recognized churches 2 California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 3 of Poland, they had no political, to Prussia were either: urban purposes because the patricians social or economic rights or skilled artisans of Dutch or were seeking to break the guilds’ privileges. In order to survive in Flemish extraction; or rural economic power. These patricians such a society they had to obtain Frisian or Dutch farmers. In the were trying now to abolish or licenses or permits to guarantee heated religious atmosphere of reduce the power of the guilds protection in Polish society. the Low Countries, authorities because their products were too The treatment that Mennonites had persecuted Anabaptists/ expensive and they restricted in Polish Prussia received was Mennonites for their evangelism. trade. far from universal. The policies They understood that their The urban confl ict was further of the national, provincial and ‘heresy’ would be tolerated in complicated by religious affairs. urban governments towards Poland, but that evangelism Sometimes the members of the Mennonites were inconsistent by would invite persecution and upper clergy harbored Mennonites place and time. The treatment of possible expulsion. Hence the and even promoted their high epithet “die Stillen im Lande” standard of craftsmanship became appropriate for the Polish (which lined clerical pockets as “ [Mennonites] experience of Mennonites. well). In Polish Prussian cities, the Lutherans outnumbered the understood their Urban Confl ict Catholics. Catholic alliance with Mennonites was a veiled attack on ‘heresy’ would be Most of the fi rst Mennonite Lutheran control of the guilds.3 refugees arrived by ship through In some respects, charters tolerated in Poland, the bustling seaports of Danzig from the Polish crown protected or Elbing, each with international Mennonites much as they but that evangelism communities. Urban political protected the Jews. Their charters would invite battles that pitched these set up a separate Jewish society Mennonite communities against with a separate court system. persecution and the burghers, or citizens of these These charters, however, did not cities became commonplace allow Jews to live within the city possible expulsion.” over the next two centuries. For walls unless restricted to specifi ed survival, Mennonites would areas. The distinguishing point need some form of protection. In between Jews and Mennonites urban Mennonites differed from Danzig, the local Catholic bishop was that the charters that the treatment of rural Mennonites. provided protection by allowing protected Jews protected them As long as Mennonites remained them to settle in Schottland and everywhere in Poland, whereas die Stillen im Lande, they were not Stolzenburg, ecclesiastical lands most charters extended to harassed for religious reasons. outside the city walls. Eventually, Mennonites were intended However, their industry, which the nobles who controlled the city for specifi c groups in specifi c initially earned them a legacy with government came to the defense locations. the Polish crown, came to haunt of Mennonites because the latter For urban Mennonites, them as their accrued wealth produced goods that offered direct opposition arose primarily incurred jealousy. competition to products of the from guild members. The Initially, Mennonite refugees city’s guilds.2 This suited their guilds instigated expulsion of Footnotes (Cambridge, England: University Press, Publishers, 1979), 129, 131. 1The region was known as “Royal Prussia” 2000), 149. Another designation was 3 Kazimierz Mezynski, From the History of (königliche Preussen), in contrast to the “Preussen Polnischen Antheils,” that is, the Mennonites in Poland (Warsaw: Akademia territory held by the Teutonic Order, which part of Prussia under Polish control. When Rolnicza w Warszawie, 1975), 15f. was known as Prussia. When the Order’s Polish Prussia became part of the kingdom 4 Wolfgang Froese, “Stets hilfreich lands were secularized, it became known of Prussia, the whole territory was divided und tolerant entgegengekommen? Die as the Duchy of Prussia. In 1701, the into West and East Prussia. Politik des Elbinger Rates gegenüber elector of Brandenburg became the king 2 A. Brückner, “Polish Cultural Life in the den Mennoniten bis 1772,” Mennonitische of Prussia (königreiche Preussen). Not to be Seventeenth Century,” in Reddaway et Geschichtsblätter 49 (1992): 57. George confused with königliche Preussen, the Poles al., eds., The Cambridge History of Poland, Huntston Williams, The Radical Reformation, designated their portion now as “Polish 566; Aleksander Gieysztor, A History of 3rd ed. (Kirksville, MD: Sixteenth Century Prussia.” Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia Poland (Warsaw: PWN, Polish Scientifi c Journal Publishers, 1992), 616; John Friesen, 2 California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 3 Anabaptists in Elbing by a royal order, as early as 1550.4 In 1571, The Vistula-Nogat River Delta the city issued another decree of expulsion.5 By 1600, Elbing “ For urban Mennonites, opposition arose primarily from guild members.” restricted city commerce of Moravian Hutterites.6 The guilds also attempted, but failed, to thwart Mennonite involvement in the city’s brandy distilling business.7 Danzig never offered citizenship to Mennonites until 1800, and the opposition of Danzig guilds was more abrasive. With the introduction of silk weaving in Elbing, the city council offered citizenship to Mennonites. The introduction of lace-making into Danzig took a different course. From 1623 to 1750, Danzig’s lace- making guild constantly sought Most of the Mennonites who migrated to Prussia beginning in the 1530s settled protection from Mennonite lace- in the Vistula-Nogat River Delta. This triangular area was defi ned by Danzig to the northwest, Elbing to the northeast and Marienberg to the south. It was a very makers, who had introduced the small area—the distance in a straight line from Danzig to Elbing was less than forty 8 skill. miles. For purposes of comparison, most Mennonites in Prussia lived in an area In the seventeenth century, roughly the same size as a triangle between Fresno, Visalia and Reedley. Mennonites many Danzig guilds relentlessly eventually spread beyond this original area, creating new settlements to the south pursued legislation to restrict or along the Vistula River and in other parts of the country. Many left Prussia begin- ning in the late 1700s, at which time Mennonites fi rst began to settle in South Rus- expel their archrivals. According sia. This map originally appeared in “A Homeland for Strangers: An Introduction to the records, they raised the to Mennonites in Poland and Prussia” by Peter J. Klassen (Center for Mennonite issue at every council session.9 In Brethren Studies, 1989). “Mennonites in Poland: An Expanded Eighteenth Century: A Study in the History Entstehung und ihre Geschichte von Historical View,” Journal of Mennonite of a Small Confessional Community’ by 1569-1919 (Danzig: Selbstverlag der Studies 4 (1986): 96; Horst Penner, Die Edmund Kizik.” Mennonite Quarterly Mennonitengemeinde, 1919), 58ff. ost- und westpreussischen Mennoniten in Review, 70 (April 1996): 223; Penner, Die ost- 9 H. G. Mannhardt, 55. ihren religiosen und sozialen Leben in ihren und westpreussischen Mennoniten, 1: 143. 10 Gotthilf Löschin, Beiträge zur Geschichte kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen 6 Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte (Gotha, Danzigs und seiner Umgebungen (Hanover- (Weierhof, Pfalz,
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