Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia
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Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 17. No. 2 Summer 1994 Editor CHRISTINE CLAYTON Editorial Board IRMGARD HEIN ELLINGSON PETER J. KLASSEN Bukovina Society, Ellis, KS California State University, Fresno ARTHUR E. FLEGEL TIMOTHY KLOBERDANZ Certified Genealogist, Menio Park, CA North Dakota State University, Fargo ADAM GIESINGER GEORGE KUFELDT University of Manitoba, emeritus Anderson University, Indiana, emeritus NANCY BERNHARDT HOLLAND LEONA PFEIFER Trinity College, Burlington, VT Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS WILLIAM KEEL HELMUT SCHMELLER University of Kansas, Lawrence Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS On the cover: The Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is published quarterly by AHSGR. Mennonite Prayer House in Orlov on the Members of the Society receive the Journal, a quarterly Newsletter, and an annual genealogical publication, Clues. Members qualify for discounts on material available for purchase from AHSGR. Membership categories Molochna, Photo courtesy of Landsmannschaft are: Student, $20; Individual, $30; Family, $30; Contributing, $50; Sustaining, $100; Life, $500 (may be paid in der Deutschen aus Rußland. five annual installments). Memberships are based on a calendar year, due each January 1. Dues in excess of $30 For an account on the Mennonites in may be tax-deductible as allowed by law. Applications for membership should be sent to AHSGR, 631 D Street, Danzig shortly before the onset of their Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. The Journal welcomes the submission of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, book migration to Russia see Anthony R. Epp's reviews, and items regarding all aspects of the lives of Germans in/from Russia. Manuscripts should be typed article, starting on page 1. Horst Gerlach's double spaced with endnotes. Computer fan-fold paper should be separated before mailing. If written on article, starting on page 11, describes the computer, please include a diskette containing a copy of the computer file. We can accept IBM-compatible Mennonite emigration in detail. ASCII or WordPerfect™ files. Our style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. revised (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). Please indicate in your cover letter whether you have photos or illustrations to accompany your article. If you wish your submission returned to you, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with adequate postage. Unless you instruct us otherwise, submissions not published in the Journal will be added to the AHSGR archives. The International Foundation of AHSGR is a non-profit organization which seeks funds beyond the annual dues of members of AHSGR to support the needs of the many operations of the Society. The Foundation accepts monetary gifts, bequests, securities, memorial gifts, trusts, and other donations. Gifts to the Foundation may be designated for specific purposes such as promoting the work of the Aussiedler Project gathering information from German-Russian emigrants recently arrived in Germany, the AHSGR/CIS Project of research in Russia, or supporting the Society's library or genealogical work; gifts may also be designated for use where most needed. All contributions help further the goals of AHSGR: to gather, preserve, and make available for research material pertaining to the history of Germans from Russia. For information and to make contributions, contact the International Foundation of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 631 D Street, Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. Telephone: (402) 474-3363. Fax; (402) 474-7229. Donations to the International Foundation are tax deductible as allowed by law. Opinions and statements of fact expressed by contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society, the Foundation, the Editor, or members of the Editorial Board, who assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Published by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, NE 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 © Copyright 1994 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0162-8283 CONTENTS OBSERVATIONS ON DANZIG MENNONITES FROM 1773 ..................….........…….................................... 1 Anthony R. Epp KLEINLIEBENTAL REVISITED—MAY 1993.....................................………................................................... 7 Doris Dickenson.. FROM WEST PRUSSIA TO RUSSIA, 1789-1989: BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MENNONITE EMIGRATION....................... 11 Horst Gerlach Translated by Christine Clayton GROWING UP FEMALE ON THE KANSAS PLAINS: THE DEPRESSION YEARS ........................................................................................................... 23 Humanities Scholars and Students of Fort Hays State University RETRACING THE SCHMIDTKE TRAIL IN POLAND..................................………….................................... 43 Edward Reimer Brandt AHSGR Journal/Summer 1994 OBSERVATIONS ON DANZIG MENNONITES FROM 1773 Anthony R. Epp In 1919 Willibald Franke published Daniel Chodowieckis ments that individual Dutch Mennonites arrived in Danzig Künstlerfahrt nach Danzig im Jahre 1773. To the 108 as early as 1530, with the city supporting a congregation by drawings from Chodowiecki's sketchbook [Skizzenbuch], 1569.2 Menno Simons may have ministered among them, previously published only in a very limited and expensive and Dirk Philips did in fact carry out a ministry of nineteenth century art book, Franke first added the portion preaching, and administering baptism and communion. of Johanna Schopenhauer's memoirs dealing with people In 1466 a military defeat had forced the Teutonic and sites in Danzig which Chodowiecki would have Knights to cede their Baltic lands to Poland. Danzig itself, observed as he immortalized them in his sketchbook. Then, however, remained a free city until 1772. That status, with from one of Chodowiecki's distant heirs, a Frau Doktor its attraction of religious freedom, offered in a city which Rosenberg, editor Franke obtained permission to print, for early became a stronghold for the Lutheran branch of the the first time, Chodowiecki's journal (1 June to 19 August Reformation, made it an attractive destination for the 1773) of the trip. Mennonites figure in all three elements of displaced Protestants of Europe. Although Lutheranism the book—in Schopenhauer's memoirs, in Chodowiecki's became the official religion, the city, in addition to sketchbook, and in his Tagebuch [diary]. Whereas attracting Flemish and Frisian Mennonites, was home to Chodowiecki came from Polish heritage, he chose to relate sizable populations of Jews and Huguenots, as the French to the French colony in Berlin, preferring to speak and Protestants were called. Johanna Schopenhauer (mother of write French. Frederick the Great nevertheless considered the philosopher), in describing her home city Danzig as the artist a German, thus relegating him to second class Chodowiecki recorded it in his 1773 sketchbook, adds status with the monarch.' The king preferred French verbal detail to his visual portrayal. After portraying the language, literature, and art to German language and Jewish community and before turning to Catholics, monks, culture, and seeing in Chodowiecki a German, he refused to and Russians, she devotes a revealing paragraph to sit for a portrait by Chodowiecki, even after he became a Mennonites: leading member of the Berlin art world. By 1773 Danzig had been home to Mennonites from In my time, freedom of religion reigned in my home- the Lowlands for over two centuries. Under the reign of the town, which acknowledged the Lutheran confession. strict Catholic emperor Charles V, Mennonites had already The Mennonites, who came from Holland, and most of begun emigrating across the Baltic Sea to Danzig in the whom were well-to-do, divided themselves in the fine sixteenth century. The Mennonite Encyclopedia docu- and the coarse [groups]; they had their houses of prayer, and uneducated citizens of their faith (mostly laborers or shopkeepers) held the position of preacher and A twenty-year member o fAHSGR, Anthony Epp comes from a long exhorted their fellow believers with good hearty line of German Russians. In the 1870s the Epps left the Molochna speaking. They were also allowed to have their children Colony in Russia to settle in Henderson, Nebraska. There the author's grandfather served the Bethesda Mennonite Church as baptized as late as they wanted: I myself once witnessed 3 elder. On his maternal side, the Wiens grandparents were sent by the baptism of a sixteen-year old girl friend of mine. their families in the early 1900s to study at Bethel College in Kansas. Before finally settling in Newton, they spent three decades Her distinction between fine \fein\ and coarse [grob} as missionaries in India. Anthony Epp married Dianne Waltner of Mennonites reflects divisions that had emigrated with them rural Freeman, South Dakota. Upon earning his Ph.D. in French from the Lowlands. The Flemish [fern] would require from the University of Colorado in 1971\ he joined the Modern rebaptism of Frisian [grob] Mennonites for church mem- Language Department at Nebraska Wesleyan University where he 4 bership. teaches French and German. AHSGR Journal/Summer 1994 2 Danzig Mennonites While Mennonites endured many sanctions and pri- their first reunion in over thirty years. By then he was an vations in order to maintain the principle of