The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

of society, his first interest was always the service of God." Jung-Stilling was invited to visit Russia (1812-1813) by Czar Al- exander I, and Russian students studying under him at Marburg University insisted that he visit their country. After meeting the czar, Jung-Stilling kept up a lengthy correspondence with him for several years. He became so famous that when five volumes of his novel Der graue Mann were published in 1812. Russians, including Mennonites, began to study his works with intensity. Mennonites en- joyed his popularity because it gave expression to many of their own 54 The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites beliefs;'> for there already existed a number of contacts between Mennonites and Heinrich Jung-Stilling.'* He felt a spiritual kinship with these people because of his early training and sympathy for their separatist views. Among the scholarly influences on Jung-Stilling was the historian of the Reformation, Gottfried Arnold, whom Jung- Stilling frequently relied upon in his writings.'’ In his Taschenbuch fur die Freunde des Christentums (1813), he published a biography of Menno Simons taken from Deknatel’s edition of Menno’s writings, which he concludes with the admonition: “It is time to remove from between the sects the obsolete walls of paper which have hindered the unity of the spirit and brotherly love for so long a time.’’* In addition to Jung-Stilling’s scholarly knowledge of Mennonites, he came into personal contact with many individuals. While a pro- fessor at Kaiserslautern (1777-1787) he lived in the midst of a Men- nonite settlement, and his university lectures detailed their excel- lent farming techniques, integrity, and industry. He took many study tours and field trips to their homes and model farms as a part of his classwork.'® In the Stammbuch of David Mollinger, the grandson of a Mennonite immigrant from Switzerland, with the date 1767, are two personal notes from Jung-Stilling.*” Some personal letters to Men- nonites are still extant,?’ and they fully corroborate Goethe’s descrip- tion of Jung-Stilling’s absolute dependence upon God.” In Jung- Stilling’s autobiography, Heinrich Jung-Stillings Jugend (1780), he recounts many kindnesses he experienced from Mennonite friends. These friendly gestures by Mennonites greatly influenced his later writings.” An example of Jung-Stilling’s attitude toward Mennonites is found in his most famous allegorical novel, Heimweh (Homesickness- Nostalgia), published in 1794. This book uses the story of a great Oriental monarch as the vehicle for a theme similar to that of Bun- yan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. In fact, Jung-Stilling’s reading of that novel prompted his own work.* The novel concerns an empire stretching over all of Europe and Asia which is endangered by a se- cret conspiracy in France. The followers of the emperor form a counterorganization to protect him. Throughout Heimweh there is a yearning by the monarch’s tru