Galicia

History of Lvov (Lemberg), Galicia and Volhynia

Map of the contemporary area where the villages of Falkenstein, Einsiedel, and Rosenberg were located

Map of old Lemberg (modern Lvov) -- You will need to navigate to the right when this map opens to view Lemberg.

As a result of the growing hostility of the government towards the Mennonites a group of twenty-eight families left the Palatinate and settled in three villages in territory that had been taken from Poland and given to Austria. The Austrian government actively sought settlers from Germany to settle on these lands to rebuild their productivity. In return the settlers were given terms which included exemption from various taxes and rents, limited exemption from military service, hereditary lease on about 35 acres of land, an equipped farmyard including a house-barn, shed, and basic farm equipment, and financial assistance in purchasing livestock.

The families settled in three villages: Falkenstein, Einsiedel, and Rosenberg. Falkenstein was a reminder of the Duchy of Falkenstein in the Palatinate from which some of the immigrants had come. Leaving the Palatinate in 1784, the first six families consisting of Bachmans, Ewys, Krehbiels, Mündleins, and Schrags traveled through Regensburg, Linz, Vienna, Riala and Lemberg.

Schrag (p. 32) summarizes several letters written by Jacob Müller which give a description of the land and people in the area which the Mennonites settled:

Most of the newly-built villages in which German colonists settled were taken from the church, i.e., monastaries. …He states that the terrain of Poland is level. Although the productivity of the land is uneven, it is very productive in the area of the Mennonite settlements. The land is not stpny; there are many bushes on it. In contrast to the Palatinate, there is very little wild life. Müller is amazed at the low prices, the low cultural level of the people, the low quality of the livestock, and he laments the condition of the farm buildings. The Polish people are poor. They do not have tables, benches or beds in their homes. Their clothing is limited and of poor quality. Their appearance is unusual because of their large mustaches and odd type of haircut which consists of one level clip around the head. Their hair has not been touched by a comb. The cultural superiority of the Mennonites accentuated the exclusive spirit and placed greter stress on the perpetuation of German culture as a means of maintianing a higher type of life."

Because of their indutriousness and general cultural level the Mennonites generally were in a better financial level than their Polish or German Lutheran neighbors.

A major event which was to have significant consequences in the determination of Swiss Mennonite migration and settlement was the separation of Amish Mennonites from other Mennonites. Joseph Mündlein was one of the leaders of the Amish. These Amish adhered to the Amish Church Discipline of 1772, especially in the matters of dress and shunning those who did not abide by church discipline. As a result of the tensions between the two religious groups and other factors most of the Amish group left the Galician settlement to live with the Hutterite community in Russia in 1796. Joseph and Elizabeth Mündlen were notable exceptions. They eventually settled in Michelsdorf, Poland.

Hutterite Colony

The Hutterite colony or Bruderhof of Wischanka on the River Desna in the northern Ukraine is of interest here because one of the important family lines of this colony was that of the Waldners. Maria Waldner is the mother of Carolina Kaufman Voran and a direct descendent of the Hutterite Waldners.

In the 16th century, the Hutterites arose from the Anabaptist group in Moravia, Slovakia, and Transylvania. After 100 years, they fled to Russian Ukraine for religious freedom, where they lived for 100 years, then moved to America in the 1870's.

Information on the history and development of Hutterite belief and practice may be found at the following sites:

http://feefhs.org/hut/hut-hist.html

http://feefhs.org/hut/hutgenpg.html

http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/hutterites.html

The Amish connection begins with George or Jorg Waldner who along with Andreas Wurth were two Lutheran religious exiles from Carinthia (southern Austria) who were looking for something more beyond Lutheran belief and practice. After contact with Hutterites in the Transylvanian Bruderhof at Alwintz they discovered the original Hutterite writings and in a kind of Hutterite reform movement established a new Bruderhof at Creutz in Transylvania (Rumania).

About 1770, after being driven out of Transylvania they established a Bruderhof at Wischanka on the River Desna in the northern Ukraine. In about 1793 as a result of religious differences and tensions between Amish and other Mennonites in Galicia, the Amish Mennonites apparently became convinced that in the Hutterian belief and practice they could find a community with which they were more compatible theologically. As a consequence the entered into correspondence with the Bruderhof at Wischanka.

On two occasions Hutterites visited the Mennonites in Galicia when they were in the vicinity and in 1795 two Amish Mennonite elders and ministers visited the Bruderhof. Though it seems that the Hutterites advised caution in making such a significant move, the Mennonites were so inclined to leave Galicia and separate themselves from those Mennonites of a somewhat different persuasion there that they sold their land, packed their belongings and moved as a group to the Hutterite colony. However, once the families arrived they did not appear to like the communal aspect of living because they found "the work too heavy and 'the cost too high'" (Schrag, p. 34). Having sold their land in Galicia several of the families did not return there, but instead migrated to Michalin on the Vistula Delta. Two Mennonites remained at the Hutterite colony. One of them was Katherina Schrag Waldner who had married Andreas Waldner during the time that the Mennonites were in residence at the Hutterite Bruderhof in Wischenka. Her husband died in 1817 and she returned to the Mennonite community at Edwardsdorf taking her six children with her. She was the daughter of Johannes Schrag.

Michalin (in the Province of Kiev, Russia)

Michalin was a brief stop in the migration of the group of Swiss Mennonites who moved from Switzerland to the Palatinate to the Galician villages of Falkenstein Einsiedel, and Rosenberg, then to the Hutterite Bruderhof in the northern Ukraine.

The original settlers of Michalin were Dutch and Prussian Mennonites. When certain families of the Mennonites from the Hutterite colony were looking for a new place to settle they decided upon Michalin. That was about 1797, but sometime before 1804 the climate changed and government authorities refused to honor the agreement made with the original Mennonite settlers and attempted to put the Mennonites on the same basis as the Russian serfs. The Swiss Mennonites then left, settlling first in Bersesina and then Wignanka near Dubno in Volhynia.