ProQuest Dissertations - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

the state would lose its potential for defense. Thus, the government under Frederic
William 11 prohibited the purchase of new lands by Mennonites during the second half of
the is"* century, which was much supported by the Lutheran state churches. This
restriction in landholdings caused considerable problems, especially for the poor and
landless, because the Mennonites' main economic activity approved by their church was
agriculture. But even these hardships were exceeded in severity during the IQ"* century.
Based on the 1848 decision of the Frankfurt Parliament, which was in the process of
working out a democratic constitution for Germany, religious convictions could no longer
excuse anyone from civic duties, not even military service. As a result, the German
Mennonites' special privileges were removed in 1867 (Bender and Smith 1974:67;
Loewen and Nolt 1996:206-213; Sawatzky 1971:3; Schroeder and Huebert 1996:115:
Wedel 1901:76-77.91).
While the Mennonite communities tried their best to live through these hard times, an
unexpected way out of this situation appeared in 1786 when the Russian messenger
Georg von Trappe visited the Mennonites in Prussia in order to publicize the Russian
Colonization Law of 1763. This law granted special privileges, among others, the right to
settle as closed groups with self-determined administration, freedom of religion and
exemption from taking oaths, exemption front military and civil service, and the right to
have proper schools and churches. Czarina Catherine the Great, who had issued this law.
invited foreign colonists to settle on land north of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov,
recently taken over from the Turks (Sawatzky 1971:4-5: Loewen and Nolt 1996:213;
Schroeder and Huebert 1996:115; Wedel 1901:92, 121).
In 1786. two delegates, Jakob Hoppner and Johann Bartsch. were sent to Russia to
inspect the land and to work out privileges. Wedel (1991:24) details the personal
sacrifices these men made for the sake of their brothers and sisters in faith:
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