Halbstadt 4

Before we turn to the paragraph of the community report that is the focus of this post, a comment is in order about a translation choice in the preceding one. There, in phrases that described Klaas Wiens and David Hiebert, I rendered the the German word Kolonie with the English village: “a settler in the village Altonau and … a settler in the village Lindenau.” A more wooden translation would have used English colony for German Kolonie, and there would be a certain logic in doing so, namely, reflecting the fact that the Gemeindebericht did not use the usual German words for village: Dorf or Ortschaft.

So why did the authors of the report (and nearly everyone else referring to the Molotschna villages) use Kolonie instead of the more commonly used words? It seems that Kolonie was the preferred German term for a village that had been created for a particular reason or by a particular group, mostly likely in the recent past. A village that had existed for or grown up over a long time was a Dorf or Ortschaft; a village that had been founded by new immigrants or even for artisans or a group of workers such as miners was a Kolonie. Because all three terms refer to what English speakers understand as a village, I plan to continue using that term to translate German Kolonie.

With that brief detour concluded, we are ready to move forward, as are the Mennonite travelers in this section of the Gemeindebericht:

Already on the journey, in the border and governate city of Grodno, these immigrants enjoyed a special favor and benefaction from the Russian high crown: each family was given 50 bank rubles. Moreover, they were also given traveling money from there on for forty days—20 kopeks currency for every soul over twelve years and 10 kopeks currency for every soul under twelve years—as well as funds for food after their arrival up to the first harvest: 8 kopeks currency for each soul.

border and governate city of Grodno. The city (German Stadt) of Grodno was, as the report indicates, on the border between West Prussia and Russia. Grodno had been part of Poland (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), but Russia had annexed it during the third partition of Poland (1795). Grodno was also the seat of the Grodno Governate (Russian gubernia) and thus home to government offices and officials. The map below shows the location of Grodno in relation to two important areas. The immigrants had begun their journey from the area to the south and east of Danzig (modern Gdańsk). The distance to Grodno was approximately 175 miles. Their ultimate destination was Molotschna, which is marked by the yellow pin in the extreme lower right; it lay another another 675 miles to the southeast.

The reference to Grodno also tells us that the 1803–1804 immigrants did not follow the same route as the earlier one that led to the founding of Chortitza. The general route of that migration is traced in the map below. The Chortitza Mennonites first sailed from Danzig to the coastal city Riga, some 275 miles away. From there they traveled southeast to a village named Dubrovna on the Dnieper (Dnipro) River, where they spent the winter. The route then followed along the Dnieper, with some traveling overland in carts and others floating downstream on barges provided by the Russian government. Their destination was 500 miles to the south-southeast, marked by the red dot in the lower right corner of the map (Molotschna is the yellow pin below it). The route taken by the Molotschna founders was clearly more direct (indicated by the black arrow).

special favor and benefaction. The treatment received was not unusual but was special in the sense of gracious and generous. Countless other immigrants of various faiths and nationalities received similar funding from the Russian tsar, but that did not diminish the gratitude that these travelers felt for the gift.

50 bank rubles. In 1704, Peter the Great (1672–1725) reformed Russia’s monetary system by issuing two different types of coins. The base unit of currency was the silver ruble; the ruble was equal to 100 kopeks. Although originally Russian kopeks were only copper, by the early 1800s they were issued in copper and silver, depending on the value of the coin: copper for .25, .5, 1, 2, and 5 kopeks; silver for 5, 10, 25, and 50 kopeks. In 1768, Catherine the Great (1729–1796) established the Assignation Bank, whose purpose was to issue paper rubles in various denominations. The Russian Empire’s silver reserves were low due to military expenditures, so issuance of paper rubles was Catherine’s solution to keeping currency circulating even though Russia did not have the precious metal (silver) to back the paper. Why is this information important for understanding the community report? The 50 bank rubles given to each immigrant family were paper money, not silver coins. Not surprisingly, the paper money was generally worth less than the silver coins. In the 1830s, for example, it took 3 bank rubles to equal the value of 1 silver ruble (Morgenstern 1923, 585).

The report does not explain why each family received 50 rubles. Some suggest that this was meant to pay for fodder to feed the animals, which is a reasonable and likely explanation (see Rempel 2007, vi).

given from there on for forty days. The Russian crown gave the 50 bank rubles to each family as a one-time grant. In addition, the immigrants were given a specified amount per day for each person in the traveling party for a period of forty days. The report labels this Zehrgeld, or traveling money. It seems reasonable to deduce from this that the journey from Grodno to Molotscha was expected to take around forty days.

20 kopeks currency … and 10 kopeks currency. The amount given each day depended on the age of the person for whom it was intended: 20 kopeks for each person twelve years and older; 10 kopeks for each person younger than twelve years. Thus an adult received, in total, 8 bank rubles over this forty-day period: 20 kopeks x 40 days = 800 kopeks = 8 rubles.

UPDATE: The community report is incorrect with regard to the amounts received; Russian immigration records indicate that the funding was 25 and 10 kopeks, respectively. See further here. 

funds for food. The report does not state explicitly the purpose of the grant of money for the forty-day period, but it was likely for the same reason given here: food.

after their arrival up to the first harvest: 8 kopeks currency for each soul. As we all know, feeding a family at home generally costs less than feeding them on the road. This presumably explains the reduced amount provided once the people arrived at their destination: 8 kopeks a day for each person regardless of age. The report does not state that this was a daily allowance, but the context clearly implies it.

The Mennonite travelers are well on their way by the end of this paragraph of the community report: they have entered Russian territory and been provided funding to complete the final legs of their journey. The report does not mention that the immigrants were expected to pay back the monies received after a ten-year grace period. Apparently the Russian officials at Grodno had kept the original immigrants just as ignorant of that fact before they sent them on their way.

Works Cited

Morgenstern, William. 1923. “The Settlement of Bessarabia, Russia, by the Germans.” Translated by J. C. Ruppenthal. Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society 15:579–90. Available online here.

Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.

Halbstadt 3

The translation of the Halbstadt Gemeindebericht moves forward, with a paragraph or more added each week. For the translation and the original German of the document, see here.

The paragraph on which this post will comment consists of a single sentence:

These immigrants did not have specific leaders, but two from among them—Klaas Wiens, later a settler in the village Altonau, and David Hiebert, a settler in the village Lindenau—more or less held the rudder in their hands.

By way of recap, thus far the community report has explained why the West Prussian Mennonites wished to relocate (the Prussian king Frederick William III had issued a decree limiting their ability to purchase land), reminded readers that a large number of Mennonites had emigrated to New Russia (Chortitza) already in 1789, and stated in summary fashion that a significant number (over three hundred families), which included the original founders of Halbstadt, made the trek to New Russia in 1803 and 1804. We pick up the story at that point.

These immigrants. The reference is to the more than three hundred families who emigrated in 1803 and 1804.

did not have specific leaders. This comment probably hints at a difference between the 1789 migration and this one. In 1789, the Mennonites who left West Prussia and eventually settled in Chortitza were led by Jakob Höppner and Johann Bartsch, who had toured and surveyed potential settlement spots before the move. The 1803 and 1804 migration, by contrast, did not have such recognized leaders.

Klaas Wiens. The German original contains an error here, since it reads “Klaas und Wiens” (Klaas and Wiens). The individual in view is not, however, in any doubt. Klaas Klaas Wiens (GM 47057) was born 16 February 1768 and died 31 December 1820. He was an original settler of Altonau and the first Oberschulz (district mayor) of the Molotschna colony. See further the GAMEO article on him here.

David Hiebert. This is presumably David Jacob Hiebert (GM 266749), who was born 12 December 1774 and died 14 January 1852. According to the 1806 census (see here), he and his family resided in Lindenau Wirtschaft 15. The census also reports that the family owned five horses, fourteen cattle, and ten pigs; their farm and household equipment included a plow, two harrows, two wagons, and a spinning wheel. On 21 May 1818, David Hiebert and his wife Agatha were privileged to host Tsar Alexander I in their home (see Entz 1970).

held the rudder in their hands. The community report offers a nice visual to characterize the informal leadership of these two men: they guided the entire group of travelers (which was certainly divided into a substantial number of smaller groups of families of varying sizes) as one guides a boat, steering it toward its destination.

This section of the report offers a general description of how the future Halbstadt settlers made it from West Prussia all the way to Molotschna. Before the report narrates the settlers’ arrival at their new home, however, it will recount some good fortune that they experienced along the way.

Work Cited

Entz, J. E. 1970. “A Diamond Ring from the Czar.” Mennonite Life 25:185–86. Available online here.

Halbstadt 2

The opening sentences of the Halbstadt community report (see here) set the stage for the ensuing history of the village. In 1801, the Prussian king Frederick William III decreed that Mennonites could not buy any property from non-Mennonites. As a result, the Mennonite communities of West Prussia (formerly Poland) did not have sufficient land for the new families of their ever-growing population. The next section of the report sets the stage for and then reports the Mennonite response.

Now Mennonites had already immigrated to south Russia at the request of Her Majesty the Empress Catherine. On the basis of this request and of the privileges granted by His Majesty Emperor Paul, Most High, on 6 September 1800, to the Mennonites who had settled in the Chortitza district in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate, a significant number of families from the Kingdom of Prussia—the province of West Prussia and the administrative districts of Marienwerder and Danzig—emigrated in 1803 and 1804 to south Russia, where they settled in the Taurida Governorate. (For the full translation and German original, see here.)

Mennonites had already immigrated. Over a decade before the 1801 decree, in 1789, more than two hundred Mennonite families, mostly from the Danzig area, had left Poland to establish the Chortitza colony (see Bergmann and Krahn 1955). Their experience offered both a precedent and encouragement for those who founded Halbstadt to do the same.

south Russia. The use of this geographical designation is a little surprising, since one might expect the term New Russia. However, the terms overlap to some extent, and there is no doubt as to the meaning. As is made explicit below, the Chortitza colony is in view.

Empress Catherine. Catherine II (the Great) reigned from 1762 until her death in 1796. It was during her rule that the territory known as New Russia (Novorossiya) became part of the Russian Empire. Because the new territory was largely unsettled (although not uninhabited, as seminomadic Nogai lived in the region) in 1764 Catherine invited a number of European peoples, including Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Poles, Italians, and Germans, to colonize the area. The Mennonite emigration to Russia was part of this broader invitation and movement of peoples to the east.

Emperor Paul, Most High. When Catherine died, her son Paul seized the throne (probably against her wishes, as she favored his son and her grandson, Alexander). Paul reigned fewer than five years and was killed in a palace coup in March 1801. He was then succeeded by Alexander, after whom the Mennonite village Alexanderwohl was named. Still, Paul played a significant role in Russian Mennonite history (see next), which may explain why he is given the appellation Most High (see “Most High Declaration” in the post Halbstadt 1). 

privileges granted … on 6 September 1800. The reference here is to the privilegium, or charter of privileges, that Tsar Paul issued in September 1800, so a little more than a year before Frederick William III limited the ability of West Prussian Mennonites to acquire land. The Russian privilegium codified and guaranteed the rights of Mennonites who settled within New Russia. The charter begins:

Condescending to the petition of the Mennonites settled in the New Russian government, whose excellent industry and morality may, according to the testimony of the authorities, be held up as a model to the foreigners settled there and thereby deserve special consideration, now therefore with this Imperial Charter We most graciously wish not only to confirm all their rights and advantages specified in the preliminary agreement concluded with them, but in order co stimulate their industry and concern in agriculture even more, to grant them also other advantages, as follows…. (Urry 1989, 282)

The charter goes on to guarantee Mennonites the freedom to practice their religion according to their tenets and customs, the right to possess and pass on to their descendants the 65 dessiatins granted to each family, the option of giving simple assent instead of being required to take an oath, and exemption from military service, among other privileges important to Mennonites. The charter was directed first to the Mennonites of the Chortitza colony, but it presumably extended “to all those [Mennonites] who come to Russia in the future” (§3).

Yekaterinoslav Governorate. The Russian Empire was subdivided into administrative districts known as guberniyas, also known as governorates or provinces. New Russia (modern Ukraine) comprised nine guberniyas, two of which are of interest to us: Yekaterinoslav (or Ekaterinoslav) and Taurida. In the map below (modified from an original created by Alex Tora), Yekaterinoslav is shown in yellow; Taurida (which includes Crimea) is the green area below it. 

The Chortitza colony was located within Yekaterinoslav; the Molotschna colony was within Taurida (see further below). 

significant number of families. According to Woltner (1941, 88 n. 5), 310 Mennonite families entered Russia during 1803–1804. Rempel lists 359 Mennonite families who moved to Russia during those years (2007, 57–95). Whatever the actual figure, the number of families was indeed significant.

Kingdom of Prussia … province of West Prussia … administrative districts of Marienwerder and Danzig. The geographical description moves from the general to the specific. The Kingdom of Prussia was made up of a number of provinces. The province West Prussia contained territory that Prussia had acquired from the first partion of Poland in 1772. Each province was further divided into administrative districts. The Mennonite immigrants referenced in the Halbstadt Gemeindebericht came from Danzig and Marienwerder (see the map of West Prussia below). For reference, our family lived in the Schwetz district to the southeast of Marienwerder, in Przechówko. The Przechówko church was on the west bank of the Vistula River; Marienwerder was on the east side.

emigrated in 1803 and 1804 to south Russia. The community report provides a summary statement of the emigration at the end of this paragraph, then adds details in the following paragraphs. It seems that the summary has the broader migration in view, not merely that which led to the founding of Halbstadt. Note again the reference to south Russia rather than New Russia.

settled in the Taurida Governorate. As noted above, Chortitza was located within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Molotschna within the Taurida Governorate (see first map above).

By the end of its first paragraph, the Halbstadt report has set the stage for the story of the founding of the village. The founders were part of a large group of Mennonite families who left West Prussia to escape increasing pressure to abandon an important tenet of their faith. At the invitation and encouragement of the Russian government, they traveled to the southern part of New Russia to settle the wilderness and start new lives.

Works Cited

Bergmann, Cornelius, and Cornelius Krahn. 1955. Chortitza Mennonite Settlement (Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.

Urry, James. 1989. None but Saints: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia 1789–1889. Winnipeg: Hyperion.

Woltner, Margarete. 1941. Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer. Sammlung Georg Leibbrandt 4. Leipzig: Hirzel.