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

5. New Avenues into Prussian Society, 1818–48

C H A P T E R F I V E ∏ New Avenues into Prussian Society, 1818–48 T he pressure for reform in Prussia in the three decades that followed the restoration of absolutism after 1818 prompted changes in Mennonites’ relationship to Prussian society. Many German intellectuals, students, and businessmen supported the new ideas of nationalism and constitutionalism. These ideas created space for Mennonites to participate as equals in an emerging civil society . Mennonites, however, needed to weigh the cost to their religious tradition of joining the movements of the age. Most in the west were ready to join German society. Religious conservatives, the nobility, and the king worked assiduously to maintain the status quo. Most Mennonites in the east feared and resisted change because they believed the disruption of their religious tradition would outweigh any potential benefits. In the same way the Prussian monarchy struggled to contain challenges to its hold on political power, the Mennonite leadership sought to restore and maintain the status quo in the congregations, creating a Mennonite “Restoration” in certain aspects of Mennonite life, such as renewed comprehensive bans on military service and mixed marriages 107 108 Mennonite German Soldiers and efforts to maintain a stable relationship with Protestant neighbors. Some progressive lay Mennonites struggled to overturn those and other established traditions out of a wide variety of motives. Increased interaction with society repeatedly brought family issues and mixed marriages into Mennonite congregations where leaders attempted to declare such matters settled, a dynamic that mirrored Protestant-Catholic relationships of the day. New alliances between mission-minded Mennonites and Protestants created a vigorous regional religious culture that weakened traditional confessional boundaries, while at the same time the conservative theology of missions eased some Mennonites into political alignments of striking novelty. Mennonites’ unique status in Prussia continued to illuminate key political developments. The state’s contestation of Mennonite land ownership fell in a time period that saw the first stirrings of government initiatives to limit Polish land ownership. A central issue for postNapoleonic Prussia—how to integrate the newer western provinces with the older eastern territories—led to a failed attempt to promulgate a comprehensive Mennonite law. The fact that Mennonites in western and central Prussia lived under laws different from those in the provinces of West and East Prussia is typical of the continued deep divide between the two geographic halves of the kingdom. German historian Wolfgang Hardtwig has pointed out that it was the totality of changes at all levels of society in these three decades that finally produced the revolution of 1848 and set the stage for all that followed .1 Much the same claim could be made for the experience of the Mennonites during the entire Vormärz period, the thirty years preceding the March 1848 revolution. Like the development of German political parties, the fracturing of the Mennonite community into various religious parties had its roots in this period. Most of the conflicts that plagued Mennonites in the 1860s and were resolved in the 1870s had their precursors here. Krefeld Mennonites Provide a New Model in the West Legal and social developments related to the Mennonite community in the west established a precedent that Vistula Delta Mennonites fol- lowed several decades later, in spite of vigorous opposition from traditionalists . For example, governmental pressures to create a class of military-serving Mennonites, which dated back to the Declaration of 1801, first came to fruition in Krefeld in the Rhineland. By 1820 the Prussian High Court and the government had restored the legal status quo for Mennonites in West and East Prussia. The legal status of Mennonites in the Rhineland, however, remained unclear. In the process of drafting a new law to regulate Mennonite life in the west, the Prussian government found that the majority of Mennonites was no longer willing to accept curtailment of civil rights in order to ensure their military exemption. In 1830 Rhineland Mennonites who agreed to accept liability for military service were exempted from the new restrictions applied to the minority refusing to serve. Mennonites in the west made individual choices about how to define their social and religious identities. The Mennonite community in western Prussia was centered on the city of Krefeld, where Mennonite domination of the silk industry made for a set of social circumstances radically different from those that obtained for the predominantly rural Mennonites of the Vistula Delta. By...