Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772–1880 (review)

Mark Jantzen’s book Mennonite German Soldiers discusses the history of Mennonites in the regions of the Vistula River, from the beginning of the 1772 Prussian takeover of the lands where Mennonites resided to the early years after the formation of the German Empire in 1871. In particular, the book is the story of how a faith community, within the space of a century, was transformed from a community whose primary identity was faith in God and the belief that this faith required rejection of military service to a community that embraced German nationalism and accepted that military service was the highest duty of a German Christian. As such, this book becomes a study in nationalism, acculturation, toleration, and the precarious nature of all minority religious groups in the face of the ultimate claims of nation-states.

Jantzen portrays in detail the struggle between Mennonites and the Prussian state. In the government’s effort to draw Mennonites into the national ethos and have them accept military service, it decided to put pressure on them in three areas: land, taxation, and marriage patterns. As long as Mennonites rejected military service, they could not buy additional land. This caused many to emigrate to Russia. As long as Mennonites rejected military service, they had to pay a military exemption tax and local church taxes to either the Lutheran or Catholic parishes, in addition to their normal taxes. This resulted in a double-taxation system. As long as Mennonites rejected military service, they could not marry outside of their church group, since the government decreed that children of mixed marriages could not be exempt from military service. Thus, intermarriages with non-Mennonites jeopardized the future of the Mennonite church.

Jantzen’s excellent book is a sequel to the study by Peter Klassen, Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia (Baltimore, 2009), of these same Mennonite communities. Klassen’s study covers the period spanning the sixteenth-century Mennonite migration to the Vistula River regions in Poland to the 1772–95 divisions of Poland, when most of the Mennonites in this region came under Prussian rule. Thus, these two books provide readers with excellent, new, well-researched, and well-written histories of the years that Mennonites lived in the former Polish and Prussian regions.

This study is remarkably well documented, using Mennonite records, local archives, and various state archives of Germany and the former Prussia. It thus places the various movements, discussions and issues fully within the local and federal cultural, political and religious contexts.

The book includes almost sixty pages of footnotes, fifteen pages of primary documents, about twenty-four pages of bibliography (including both primary and secondary sources), and a helpful index. A few maps would have enhanced the book, especially for contemporary readers unfamiliar with the various changes to political boundaries in that area of Europe.

Jantzen’s study is highly recommended for anyone interested in Mennonite history. In addition to helping readers better understand the history of this important segment of the Mennonite past, it also sheds light on the character and identity of Mennonites from this community who migrated to Russia and from there to North America and Latin America.