Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

Preservings
The worship house of the Bergthal Colony situated in the central village of Bergthal could seat 1000 people.
Dimensions 40 by 100 feet. The cross and bell tower were added after 1876. Photo courtesy of The Bergthal
Colony, page 37.
Peter Unger (1812-88) BGB A10, born in Einlage,
Chortitza Colony, who settled in the village of
Bergthal, Bergthal Colony, Russia. Unger also received
a gold watch from the Imperial Czar “for
services during the Crimean War.” Unger must
have been an intelligent and educated man as he
was the District (Municipal) Secretary at the
time—Oberschulz, page 29. Unger immigrated
to Canada in 1876 and established the “estate”
Felsenton on NE22-6-6E and NW23-6-6E, just
south of Steinbach. Unger had 22 children and
was the ancestor of the “Felsenton” Ungers.
A third gold watch for honourable service during
the Crimean War was received by Abraham
Hiebert, Schönthal, also listed as district secretary.
Each watch was worth 150 ruble, more or
less equal to six good horses. Only four watches
of this value were awarded to individuals in the
Molotschna and Chortitza Colonies altogether, although
11 watches of lessor values were awarded
including one to Samuel Kleinsasser, from
Hutterthal, a Hutterite.
Bergthal also had colourful residents such as
Johann Schroeder (1807-84), who served as
“chief-of-police, fire chief and at times social
worker and marriage councillor.” When his second
wife died, Johann was preparing to go courting
for another wife. His maid, Maria Dyck (1840-
1900), an intelligent woman, stood at the door
watching these preparations and won his heart
by quoting some lines of Goethe’s poetry to him,
`... Sieh das Gute liegt so nah’”; see Wm.
Schroeder, Preservings, No. 8, June 1996, Part
One, pages 44-46.
Bergthal Schools.
Each village in Bergthal had its own centrally
located school house. The teachers were often local
individuals who had a gift and interest in teaching
the young, but were also hired from the
Molotschna and Chortitza Colonies. Teaching
methods followed those standard at the time.
The teachers in the Bergthal Colony in 1848
were as follows: Bergthal - Heinrich Wiens
(Gerhard Dueck); Schönfeld - Abraham Friesen
(Abraham Enns); Schönthal - Franz Dyck (Corn.
Neufeld); Heuboden - Abraham Wiebe (Johann
Hiebert); and Friedrichsthal - (Johann Buhler)—
Oberschulz, page 121. The second name listed in
brackets may have been a substitute or teacher
trainee. The Bergthal Colony teachers 1857 were:
Bergthal - Gerhard Dueck; Schönfeld - Abraham
Ens; Schönthal - Cornelius Neufeld; and
Heuboden - Johann Hiebert—Oberschulz, page
22.
The Bergthal teachers were genuinely interested
in the well-being and spiritual growth of
their students. In some cases among conservative
Mennonites teaching was a stepping stone to leadership
in the Gemeinde. This also held true among
the Bergthaler as with David Stoesz, who taught
in Friedrichsthal and later became Aeltester of
the Chortitzer Gemeinde in 1882.
The philosophy of education of conservative
Mennonites was that schools should instill children
with “Genuine faith ... before the forces of
reason take hold and prevent a true understanding
of `simplicity in Christ’.” The purpose of the
school system was not necessarily to excel in the
mechanics of learning, but rather “to prepare the
youth to live an existential Christian life of piety
and reverence for God based on simplicity and
love for fellowman. A good education opened a
child’s heart to allow a knowledge of Christ to
take root.”
Whatever belonged to higher education was
seen as leading to “sophistry, unbelief, and corruption
of the church, for knowledge puffeth up.
1 Cor. 8:1.”
The truth of this statement was observed in
many from among the Russian Mennonites such
as historian Peter M. Friesen who attended Separatist-Pietist
Bible Schools in Europe and elsewhere
and returned to their home communities
filled with disdain for their traditional faith and
who commenced fervent proselytising for all
manner of “fabled” endtimes teachings based on
the novels of Jung Stilling who believed that the
Second Coming would occur in the east and that
the Imperial Czar would be the saviour of the
Church in the end-times (Note Two). It was fortunate
for these people that they preached extemporaneously
as had they carefully composed and
written out their sermons as conservative ministers
did, their descendants would be extremely
embarrassed at the teachings they propagated so
fanatically which were proven totally false by the
effluxion of time.
4
The educational system in Bergthal has been
unfairly criticized often by writers committed to
modernization typology or by those whose religious
disposition made it necessary for them to
denigrate conservative and orthodox Mennonites.
It is true that Bergthal was not directly affected
by the reforms of Johann Cornies in the sense
that the schools were never put under his control.
But this was probably more of a blessing than a
disadvantage. Bergthal received many of the benefits
indirectly through the various emigrants arriving
in the new settlement as late as 1853 and
by teachers hired from the outside, from the
Molotschna as well as the Old Colony. e.g. Jakob
Warkentin (b. 1836), Tiege, Mol., Pioneers and
Pilgrims, page 187, and Johann Abrams (1794-
1856), BGB A 58, from Pastwa, Mol., teacher in
Schönfeld 1843.
Advocates of the Cornies reforms conveniently
forget that these measures caused immense social
disruption and disputation when they were
implemented in the Molotschna and Old Colonies,
alienating the majority of the population. In
setting rigid standards Cornies inhibited the creativity
of the best of the old-school teachers and
prohibited traditional Mennonite art forms such
as Schönschrieben and Fraktur which he regarded
as sissified. These advocates also ignore some of
the negative aspects of the post-Cornies pedagogue:
they were known as frightfully strict and
almost abusive disciplinarians, many of their students
became vulnerable to a fawning Russian
nationalism and/or pan-Germanism, many fell
victims to the fanciful teachings of German Separatist-Pietism,
and, worst of all, they disdained
the Plaut-dietsch language and Low German culture
which had once dominated commerce and
socio-economic life in Northern Europe and
around the Baltic Sea during medieval times.
Those who have denounced the Bergthal
schools so completely and thoroughly have obviously
never studied the writings of Bergthal/
Chortitzer leaders and even ordinary lay-people.
The sermons of Aeltester Gerhard Wiebe (1827-
1900) are studded with jewels of Biblical allegory
and reveal a sound exegesis and a truly inspired
faith as enduring today as when they were
written in the 1860s and are far beyond anything
ever conceived by his enemies. The journals of
Chortitzer Aeltester David Stoesz and minister
Heinrich Friesen are concrete proof that the
Bergthal school system turned out graduates who
were not only imbued with a love of Christ, but
also competent writers and gifted thinkers.
Social Services and Mutual Aid.
The spiritual ethos of the Bergthaler/Chortitzer
people was evident in the three paradigms of rural
agrarian communities; family, village and
church. Its faith was put into practice by a myriad
of social services, community mutual aid, and
ethno-cultural activities.
The mutual aid extended from informal activities
such as a Bahrung (“barn raising”), pig
slaughtering bees (“Schwine’s jkast”), nursing and
midwifery services, to more formal institutionalized
structures such as the Waisenamt (“orphan’s
trust office”) which provided for devolution of
estates, investment of orphans’ and widows’
funds, and loans to community members, the