Mennonites in Neumark 1a

Before we move on to the Brenkenhoffswalde church, we should take a moment to elaborate on a few points relevant to the first post.

1. Why the Mennonites were invited to Neumark

It is frequently written that the Mennonites were invited to Neumark (aka the Netzebruch) in order to drain the “boggy wetland along the lower course of the Netze/Noteć river” (Hege 1957), thus making the land suitable for agriculture. Christian Hege continues:

As early as 1738 Mennonite families from Poland had tried to make this land arable, but were interrupted by the first Silesian War. When oppression at the hands of a landlord in the region of Schwetz became more and more marked, three Mennonites from the village of Jeziorka on the Tuchel Heath made a successful personal appeal to Frederick the Great to have this region admitted into eastern Ostmark; they also received permission for 32 Mennonite families to settle in this desolate region, which they turned into fertile land for grain and meadow by industry and perseverance.

Jacob Mannhardt writes similarly that the Mennonites were settled as a result of “Frederick the Great [giving] Councilor Brenkenhoff charge of settling the marshy Netzebruch.” Adalbert Goertz provides more detail: “Franz von Brenkenhof (1723–1780) was appointed by the Prussian King Friedrich II to lead the effort of draining the Netze swamps and to gain arable land for Prussia. He especially advertised in Poland for settlers to the Neumark” (Goertz 2001, 47).

Peter M. Friesen adds to the account:

Their [the Mennonite settlers’] delegates, who had sought an audience with the king [Frederick II], had been coincidentally recognized as “Dutchmen” because of their speech and clothing by the Lord of Brenkenhofswalde, who accosted them, presented them to the king, who in turn granted them extraordinary privileges. They were expected to drain the marshy land, a task they accomplished brilliantly in short order. … Thus, even in the midst of this militaristic Prussia, the non-combatant Mennonites were welcomed as victorious warriors against swamps, fever and poverty, at least until swamp and fever had been replaced by cultivated fields and prosperity. (Friesen 1980, 97–98)

The story is embellished further by Horst Gerlach:

Three Mennonite families who had lived under oppressive Polish noblemen in Jesiorka and 35 other families who had lived under the jurisdiction of Anton von Wipschinsky near Danzig came to the Netzebruch, a swampy area near Driesen and founded the colonies Brenkenhoffswalde, Franzthal, and Neu-Dessau. In the “Kiewitzwinkel” and a section of pasture belonging to the village of Trebitsch, which had not been used for ages, they brought the land, after draining it, into an arable condition. Here they could settle fourteen families, each having lots of 10–15 hectares (25–37 acres). They drained the Carleische Hütung and the “Elsenbruch.”

So what is the truth of the matter? The number of errors in the Gerlach description (the thirty-five families did not live near Danzig, and the village of Trebitsch was hundreds of miles south) permits us to ignore it. Likewise, the triumphalistic tone of the Friesen account (“victorious warriors against swamps, fever and poverty”) should probably give us pause. This leaves us with a more minimalistic conclusion: the Prussian king Frederick II commissioned Franz von Brenkenhoff to enlist a variety of new settlers who would turn the water-saturated area along the Nezte River into productive farmland; some of those settlers were Mennonites from the Jeziorka (and Schwetz) area.

That these Mennonite families were expected to turn marshy wetlands into arable farmland seems indisputable, but we should probably not read too much into a presumed association between these “Dutch” Mennonites and special skill in draining low-lying river land. Granted, the Mennonites of the Vistula Delta did show special skill in draining swamps and maintaining dikes (here). Still, we must not forget who these Mennonite families were: former residents of Jeziorka, which was miles from the Vistula River on higher ground; most had never had to battle boggy wetlands or flooding rivers. In all likelihood, what they brought to the task was not special skill in draining swamps but rather the “industry and perseverance” that was necessary for the job.

2. Who owned the land?

Peter M Friesen writes in his account that the Neumark Mennonites settled on “the estates of a royal counsellor, Franz von Brenkenhofswalde, located near the city of Driesen and the Netz river” (Friesen 1980, 97). This is why he can speak of the “Lord of Brenkenhofswalde” in the earlier quote above.

Apart from the anachronism of referring to a Lord of Brenkenhofswalde before the village was founded (the Mennonites established it in 1765; there was no Brenkenhofswalde prior to that), the information that Adalbert Goertz has assembled indicates that the land belonged to the king, not to Franz Balthasar Schönberg von Brenkenhoff.

Goertz writes:

Prior to 1812, there were three land sovereigns [i.e., owners of land] in Prussia:

1) The king (crownland)
2) The nobility (Rittergüter)
3) The cities (Kammergüter)

Praestations-Tabellen (PT) are land tax lists since about 1774 and were updated about every six years until 1806 and continued from 1819 to about 1850. They list land tenants on royal domain lands (crownland) only, giving tenant names, land size in H(ufen), M(orgen) and R(uten) and tax assesssed it Reichthaler, Groschen, and Pfennig. No PTs ever existed for Rittergüter or for Kammergüter on city territories.
The Kgl. (Royal) Domainen-Amt or Domainen-Rent-Amt administered and levied the tax (= Praestation) on crownland. The Domainen-Amt districts were usually identical with the court districts (Justiz-Amt, later called Amts-Gericht). These courts were established in 1783. For the Mennonites in the Neumark the Amt and court (Justiz-Amt) was located at Driesen. (Goertz 2001, 47)

All the Praestations-Tabellen (land tax lists) that we surveyed earlier—for 1767, 1793, 1805, 1806, and 1826 for the villages of Neu Dessau, Brenkenhoffswalde, and Franztal—would not exist if the land had been owned by the noble Franz von Brenkenhoff. That they do exist is testimony to the fact that the land was owned by the king of Prussia; the Neumark Mennonites leased their land directly from the king.

Works Cited

Friesen, Peter M. 1980. The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789–1910). 2nd ed. Translated by J. B. Toews et al. Fresno, CA: Board of Christian Literature, General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

Gerlach, Horst. 1989. Water Technology. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Goertz, Adalbert. 2001. Mennonites in Amt Driesen of the Neumark, Brandenburg, Prussia. Mennonite Family History 20:47–51.

Hege, Christian. 1957. Netzebruch (Poland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

***

Additional resources if they can ever be located (Heimatkalender für den Kreis Friedeberg):

Rudolf März-Vorbruch. 1929. Neues von den Mennoniten im Netzebruch. Heimatkalender, Friedeberg, 19–26.

1929. Franz Balthasar Schönberg von Brenkenhoff. Heimatkalender, Friedeberg, 39–43.

See further here.