THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

The Setting a) The Dutch Anabaptists, who emigrated during the period of persecution in the Netherlands before that country’s liberation from the Spanish-Jesuit yoke, provided the base and greatest number for the Mennonite congregations in Prussia, our (the Russian Mennonite) forefathers. b) Earlier, Prussia was Slavic-Polish territory. Shortly after 1200, the celibate knights of the Teutonic Order, which had arisen in Palestine during the Crusades, came to Prussia in order to “convert” by means of fire and sword the Slavic Prussians (Prussen, Borussen), Lithuanians, Kashubians, etc., to Roman Catholicism and the German culture. In the course of time, these knights became vassals of the Polish kings. In 1525 Albrecht, the master of the order, together with the majority of his knights, became Protestant, married, and was given the Order’s territory of East Prussia, with the title of duke, which he held as a fief of the king of Poland. When his son died childless, East Prussia came into the hands of the Margraves of Hohenzollem and the Electors of Brandenburg, but not to Germany, for, like West Prussia, it became a part of Germany only in the 19th century (1866 into the North German Union, and 1871 into the Empire). In 1660 the princes of Brandenburg became sovereign rulers in Prussia, independent of Poland; and in 1701 the Elector of Brandenburg took on the title of “King in Prussia,” with Koenigsberg as the coronation city, but as Elector of Brandenburg he remained a vassal of the Hapsburg Emperor. Gradually, the collective lands controlled by the Hohenzollem came to be called the “Kingdom of Prussia,” which, through the acquisition of Polish and German territories, became ever larger and more powerful until it became the most prominent part of the new German Empire, whose emperor is always the current King of Prussia. c) Our Mennonite forebears always had to deal with this originally Slavic-Polish Prussia, the present Prussian provinces: East Prussia, with the cities and administrative center of Koenigsberg and Gumbinnen, and West Prussia, with its administrative centers of Danzig and Marienwerder and the cities: Danzig, Marienwerder, Elbing, Marien- burg, Schwetz, Graudenz, Thom, and the borough Tiegenhoff (“T’hoff”). All these names play a significant role in the history of our forefathers and in the stories of our immigrant forebears. The actual scene of our Prussian history, however, was West Prussia and the region of the free city of Danzig; the first came to Prussia from Poland in 1772, the second in 1793. Only the small group of those of our immigrant forefathers who §12 41 42 DUTCH-PRUSSIAN ANABAPTISTS came from Gnadenfeld (and a few from Franzthal. etc.) actually came from the German Empire: these lived in Brandenburg (in Brenkenhofs- walde and Franzthal, etc.) to which they had moved in 1760 from the region around Schwetz in West Prussia. 2. The Origin a) According to Re