Claas Epp

Claas Epp (born January 1, 1803 in Schönsee , West Prussia , † January 21, 1881 in Neuhoffnung (Alt-Samara)) was the village mayor of Fürstenwerder and played an important role in the resettlement of West Prussian Mennonites to Russia . In 1853 he founded the Mennonite settlement Am Trakt and in 1859 the Mennonite settlement Alt-Samara .

Life

Class Epp was born on January 1st, 1803 in Schönsee. Little is known of his childhood. His father, a Mennonite landowner in Schönsee, died when Claas Epp was still a child. As a gifted student, he graduated from the Evangelical Lutheran School in Schönsee on July 31, 1818 with an “Excellent”. In the autumn of the same year he entered the boarding school in Schardau, but broke it off after a year.

On March 18, 1825 Claas Epp married Margarethe Klassen from Fürstenwerder. The couple had 13 children, 11 sons and two daughters. Most died at a young age in Prussia and also in Russia. The third son, Claas Epp jr , achieved particular fame as a “prophet” . (1838–1913), whose teaching his father did not support.

Claas Epp distinguished itself through its good organizational skills and its managers. In Prussia he was elected village mayor of Fürstenwerder. Around 1850 he received a medal from the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture for his impeccable service and his achievements .

In the last years of his life, Claas Epp lived relatively withdrawn on his farm in Neuhoff Hope. His wife died on September 26, 1873. He himself was badly plagued by rheumatism. During these years he maintained a lively correspondence with the magistrate Peter von Koeppen and with several Schulzen and elders in Prussia. Claas Epp died on January 21, 1881 in Neuhoffnung (Alt-Samara).

Commitment to the emigration to Russia

When the Mennonites saw their privilege of freedom of defense endangered after the German Revolution in 1848 , Claas Epp and Johann Wall were sent to Russia as deputies in 1850 to look for new settlement options. After they had received the approval to settle, Claas Epp and Isaak Klassen obtained after long and tough negotiations the assurance from the Tsar that the Mennonite settlers and their descendants would be exempted from conscription "for ever".

Foundation of the colony "Am Trakt"

Since Tsar Nicholas I had forbidden Mennonite emigration by law in 1835, Claas Epp obtained a special privilege in 1853 for the establishment of a Mennonite settlement on the salt tract in Ujesd Nowousen. Magistrate Peter von Koeppen, through whom this permit was granted, was of great help in this regard. The Mennonite settlement Am Trakt with ten villages was built on the salt tract within the next few years . The main village was named in honor of the Magistrate Koeppenthal. Claas Epp himself emigrated to Russia in 1853 and initially settled in the Am Trakt colony.

Foundation of the colony "Old Samara"

When there were still Mennonites willing to emigrate in Prussia after the land had been distributed in the wing, Claas Epp once again advocated further settlement land for Mennonites with the recently acceded Tsar Alexander II . In January 1859 he granted him a special privilege for 100 more Mennonite families to settle on land on the Kondurtscha River in Ujesd Samara . The Mennonite settlement of Alt-Samara arose here, the main village of which was named Alexander Valley in honor of the Tsar.

Claas Epp received the first settlers of old Samara and bought a piece of land himself at the entrance to the village of Neuhoffnung, where he settled in September 1861. Here he founded a brick factory. When the colony was founded, the administrative management of the colony was in the hands of Claas Epps. Although Johann Wiens was elected first Schulze soon afterwards, Epp continued to participate in the organization. His concerns were community life, the development of agriculture, social life and the school system. In schools he spoke out against the use of corporal punishment.

literature

• Viktor Fast (Ed.): Temporary home. 150 years of praying and working in Old Samara (Alexandertal and Konstantinow) . Steinhagen: Samenkorn 2009. ISBN 978-3-936894-86-8 .
• Bernhard Harder: Alexandertal. The history of the last German tribal settlement in Russia. Berlin: Kohnert n.d. [1955].
• Wilhelm Matthies: History of the formation of the Mennonite colony of Old Samara . Alexandertal 1927, unpublished manuscript.