Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772-1880

4. The Impact of Defeat and Victory in the Napoleonic Wars

C H A P T E R F O U R ∏ The Impact of Defeat and Victory in the Napoleonic Wars P russia’s defeat and collapse in 1806 proved the need for reform. The reformers who came into power hoped to harness new financial and military energies by turning subjects into citizens . Extreme differences in civil rights and status, however, were a hindrance to such plans. Groups whom the government formerly held at arm’s length, such as Mennonites and Jews, were therefore given new opportunities to participate in society. These designs nonetheless required significant time to take effect. French oversight of Prussia in any case initially kept military reforms at the theoretical level while domestic and royal opposition slowed other reforms. Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in 1812 upset Prussia’s emerging new order. The need for large numbers of soldiers and the cash to support them gave military reformers the opportunity to implement their theories about building a strong army based on a militia and citizen soldiers . The relationship of king, state, nation, and subject was recast as Prussians were called to fight in support of national instead of dynastic interests. By participating in the nation’s defense, soldiers created 79 80 Mennonite German Soldiers their own place in the nation, a novel way to construe citizenship in a country whose army had been heavily dependent on mercenaries. Mennonites’ refusal to fight became the definitive reason for curtailing their civil rights, as their nonparticipation in warfare was tantamount to nonparticipation in the nation. Although most Mennonites were willing to accept this arrangement, many of their neighbors were not. Given the responsibility of all male citizens to defend the nation, to submit to the draft, and to kill and face death on the battlefield, the presence of a minority that challenged the assumptions of the proposed new social arrangement proved an enormous irritant. Making subjects into citizen soldiers had given them a limited political voice, and one of popular nationalism’s first demands in the Vistula Delta was to end Mennonites’ exemption. Bilateral negotiations between Mennonites and the state became a more complex triangle of relationships among the state, Mennonites, and their non-Mennonite neighbors. Patriotic Contribution or Judicious Bribe in 1806 Before 1806 the reform efforts of the Prussian state in response to the challenges of the revolution in France remained modest. The successes of the French revolutionary army prompted some German military professionals such as Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Hermann von Boyen, and Carl von Clausewitz to advocate reforms in the Prussian military. Domestic reforms freed the royal serfs and addressed administrative and financial aspects of governance. Because of the complex issues involved, these efforts had little immediate impact, especially in comparison with the dramatic reforms effected after 1806.1 In the fall of 1806 Frederick William III led an isolated Prussia into war against Napoleonic France. The results were disastrous. Following the defeat of the Prussian army on October 14, 1806, at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, the Prussian state collapsed. Since the army put in the field was a product of the older style of mixed local conscription and foreign mercenary recruitment, Mennonites faced no serious pressure from the Prussian government during the brief campaign or its immediate aftermath. On October 28, 1806, leaders from all but two of the West Prussian Mennonite congregations gathered at the farmstead of Aron Wölke in Koszelitzkerfeld near Marienburg. Because so “many Prussian soldiers were killed,” they decided to raise a sixfold payment of the military academy tax, a total of thirty thousand Reichsthaler, in order to give “our king a voluntary patriotic contribution in support of the widows and orphans of those soldiers.”2 No decision on when or how to deliver this money was taken at this initial meeting. In the face of advancing French troops the Prussian court and government fled Berlin in mid-October 1806. The court stopped in the fortress at Graudenz for two weeks in the beginning of November.3 On November 8 Abraham Nickel, a deacon of the nearby Mennonite congregation of Schönsee, struck up a conversation in Graudenz with General Adjutant Karl Leopold von Köckritz, an official in the royal entourage. Köckritz “asked for more information about the Mennonites ,” and Nickel disclosed that they had decided to collect money in response to the events of October 14. Because his main...