Mennonite Church Koenigsberg
The Mennonite Church Königsberg (also: prayer house of the Mennonites ) was a church building in the East Prussian Konigsberg .
history
The first Anabaptists came to Königsberg in the first half of the 16th century. They had been brought from the Netherlands as hydraulic engineers to drain the swampy areas south of the city and lived mainly in the suburb of Roßgarten, which was newly laid out by Duke Albrecht in 1542 . But only a few years later, all those who did not commit to the Evangelical Lutheran Church were expelled. In 1579, some Mennonites sent a request to Georg Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach to be allowed to settle in his territory. Although they were denied permission, they stayed. Many were Dutch or Flemish religious refugees who had moved to Prussia .
After the plague had depopulated vast tracts of land in East Prussia in 1708, the Prussian king promised Frederick I as part of the Rétablissements resettlement consent Mennonite families from West Prussia freedom from military service if they took over abandoned farms. A community was only allowed to be founded in Königsberg in 1722 after some Mennonite families introduced whiskey distillation in the city. Friedrich Wilhelm I , however, had his religious tolerance paid for. The community had to raise an annual fee of 200 thalers. The community was threatened with deportation several times in its early years because of its conscientious objection . The Mennonites only received citizenship from Frederick II. Like other Anabaptist-Mennonite municipalities in northern Germany, the Königsberg municipality was still strongly influenced by Dutch in the 18th century. In 1767 the first Mennonite hymn book in German was published in Königsberg.
In 1752 the community at Tränkgasse 3 in Laak in the old town of Königsberg acquired the first building complex in which meetings were held. In 1768 the foundation stone for a church was laid on the same spot, which could be consecrated two years later. Like other Mennonite churches, the new church as a simple Protestant preaching church had no steeple. The broken hipped roof and the sparrow arched windows were characteristic . The interior of the church was kept in a plain white. The front area was dominated by a central pulpit and the sacrament table . Opposite this stood the organ , which was placed on a gallery supported by wooden columns . The entrance was designed as a porch with a gable in the middle . The pews were also white. The nave had a slightly curved plaster ceiling that was set off by a ledge .
The early 19th century can be seen as the heyday of the community. In 1825 the community had 248 members. At that time, two larger foundations were set up, including the well-known Zimmermann Women's Foundation, which were administered by the community until the end. There were contacts in particular with the neighboring Mennonite congregations in Danzig , Elbing and on the Memel in the vicinity of Tilsit , with whom the congregation partly shared the preaching position. The community was also part of the North German Association of German Mennonite Congregations , which is now part of the all-German working group of Mennonite Congregations .
After the number of Mennonites in Königsberg had declined at the end of the 19th century, the building was finally sold in 1899 for 125,000 marks . The proceeds were donated to the Association of German Mennonite Congregations, but the annual pension was still available for community work in Königsberg. According to another source, the proceeds were handed over to the Mennonite community in Hamburg / Altona with the stipulation that the sum for a new building should be reimbursed as soon as a larger community should settle in Königsberg again. The dwindling membership continued: in 1934 there were only 65 including children. The building itself was taken over by a mechanical engineering company that initially used it as a warehouse. The building was still standing in 1934, but is said to have been demolished later. Today there are no more remains of the church or of the entire environment. The community itself was dissolved as a result of war, expulsion and Russian occupation. The last church service was held by the community leader Joseph Gingerich at Christmas 1945.
See also
literature
- Heinz D. Rainer Ney: God's houses in Königsberg. Volume 1: Churches, chapels and synagogues until 1945 , 2015, pp. 142 ff.
- Kurt Kauenhoven: The Königsberg Mennonite Church , in Mennonite history sheets No. 16, 1964.
- Josef Gingericht: The Mennonite community of Königsberg and its end , in: Der Mennonit 1949, p. 22.
- H. Quiring: Art. Königsberg , in: Mennonitisches Lexikon Vol. 2, Frankfurt am Main / Weierhof 1937, p. 538f.