Hermann Jantzen

Hermann Jantzen (born May 28, 1866 in Hahnsau in the Kuibytschew area not far from the Volga; † November 13, 1959 in Hilversum ) was a Mennonite missionary and activist of Russian-German origin in Russian Turkestan .

Central Asia

Jantzen was born in Hahnsau in the Kuibytschew area not far from the Volga in 1866, where his father owned a large farm. When the tsarist government also wanted to use the Mennonites for military service in 1880, the family decided to emigrate and to accept the offer of the governor of Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann , and to settle in Turkestan . On July 3, 1880, the family broke up with numerous other Mennonites and reached Kaplanbeg on October 18, 1880, followed a few weeks later by a second group of 22 families. The linguistically gifted fourteen-year-old immediately began to learn Uzbek.

While some of the Mennonites moved on to Aulie Ata or Jambul to found four villages there, fate led the Jantzen family and other Mennonites to the court of the Emir of Khiva , who showed great interest in the Mennonites' craftsmanship. The group settled in Aq-Metschet, about 6 km from the capital of the Khiva Khanate of the same name. The khanate had been under the Russian protectorate since 1873. The German settlement in Aq-Metschet existed until April 15, 1935, when the inhabitants were deported to southern Turkmenistan.

Jantzen's training included not only the local Turkic languages, but also the Koran and Sharia, and thus at least a basic knowledge of Arabic.

In 1883 Hermann Jantzen was appointed court interpreter by Seyyit Muhammad Dschâsim Bahâdur under the name 'Yaman Aga'. But he did not stay long, but moved with his family in 1890 (he had since married and had a first son, later four more sons and a daughter were added) to Aulie Ata or Jambul (since 1997: Taras , in today's Kazakhstan ). There he got a job as a forester because of his diverse language skills: the decisive factor was probably the fact that he could work without an interpreter. In 1885 he was promoted to chief forester, having just graduated. His knowledge of Kazakh and Tajik had acquired at the court of Khiva, and had already learned Uzbek before.

Jantzen succeeded in bringing an uprising instigated by a member of the former ruling house to the attention of the authorities in good time, but fell victim to the intrigues of his superior himself if he should be exiled to Siberia, but his trial was resumed, he himself rehabilitated and temporarily in the Tashkent area . His forest district was in the Hindu Kush , where he mainly dealt with Tajiks.

In 1900 he established the forestry of Kojantogai near Aulie Ata (Taras), now again in Kyrgyzstan. But after more than 18 years as a civil servant, Jantzen decided to give up civil service and devote himself to missionary work (called by him 'witness service'). In this role, too, he succeeded in breaking off a Kyrgyz revolt. The Kyrgyz sympathized with the Germans in World War I and did not see why they should fill the ranks of the fallen Russians. By the way, he was called 'Rahman Bey' by the Kyrgyz people.

With the Bolshevik Revolution, Jantzen was elected deputy district commissioner, but with his integrity he quickly encountered intrigues, especially on the part of the local GPU , which almost cost him his life. Finally, after repeated incarceration, he managed to escape the execution that had already been decided and to flee to Moscow with his family in an adventurous way. A ship brought him from Leningrad to Stettin.

Activity in Europe

This ended the Central Asian chapter of his life, but later, as a missionary in Bulgaria, he again had contact with Turkic-speaking populations.

In 1928 his wife died after a year of illness. As a result, Jantzen settled in Holland. In 1931 he participated in Hilversum in founding an aid committee for needy Christians in Russia; the committee had to cease its activities in January 1936 due to a Soviet decision. Before the Second World War, Jantzen took part in numerous conferences on the subject of proselytizing, but restricted these Europe-wide trips during the war. In the meantime he had married again. In 1944 he had to leave Arnhem, saw the end of the war in Friesland and then returned to Arnhem.

His autobiography was published posthumously as a typescript in 1975 and as a book in 1988.

Intercultural communication as a way of working

Jantzen pursued the principle of intercultural communication long before it became a concept of modern media. It was a matter of course for him to communicate with the locals as the target group in their languages, but also to dress like them: "First we have to gain trust, the Turks become a Turk," Jantzen describes his approach. This also includes food, sharing your feelings, but also your suffering. As a connoisseur of the Koran, Jantzen also argues from the Koran and then moves on to Bible verses.

publication

• In wild Turkestan - A life among Muslims. Autobiography . Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen / Basel 1988 ISBN 3-7655-3974-0

Web links

• Jantzen, Hermann (1866-1959) at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online