Mennonite German soldiers : nation, religion, and family in the Prussian East, 1772-1880 / Mark Jantzen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jantzen, Mark, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mennonites--Prussia, East (Poland and Russia)--History.

Mennonites.

Mennonites--Germany--Prussia--History.

Soldiers--Prussia, East (Poland and Russia)--History.

Soldiers.

Soldiers--Religious life--Germany--Prussia--History.

Prussia, East (Poland and Russia)--Church history.

Prussia, East (Poland and Russia).

Prussia (Germany)--Church history.

Prussia (Germany).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (386 p.)

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Mennonite German Soldiers traces the efforts of a small, pacifist, Christian religious minority in eastern Prussia-the Mennonite communities of the Vistula River basin-to preserve their exemption from military service, which was based on their religious confession of faith. Conscription was mandatory for nearly all male Prussian citizens, and the willingness to fight and die for country was essential to the ideals of a developing German national identity. In this engaging historical narrative, Mark Jantzen describes the policies of the Prussian federal and regional governments toward the Mennonites over a hundred-year period and the legal, economic, and social pressures brought to bear on the Mennonites to conform. Mennonite leaders defended the exemptions of their communities' sons through a long history of petitions and legal pleas, and sought alternative ways, such as charitable donations, to support the state and prove their loyalty. Faced with increasingly punitive legal and financial restrictions, as well as widespread social disapproval, many Mennonites ultimately emigrated, and many others chose to join the German nation at the cost of their religious tradition. Jantzen tells the history of the Mennonite experience in Prussian territories against the backdrop of larger themes of Prussian state-building and the growth of German nationalism. The Mennonites, who lived on the margins of German society, were also active agents in the long struggle of the state to integrate them. The public debates over their place in Prussian society shed light on a multi-confessional German past and on the dissemination of nationalist values.

Contents:

Viewing German nationalism from the bottom up

From Polish to Prussian subjects

Redefining Mennonites' place in ancien regime Prussia

The impact of defeat and victory in the Napoleonic wars

New avenues into Prussian society, 1818-48

Revolutionary changes in Frankfurt and at home

Family politics and generational transitions as windows into Prussian society

The unification of Germany and the ideology of universal conscription

The Kulturkampf and Mennonite reverberations in early Kaiserreich culture

Conclusions.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-353) and index.

ISBN:

9780268083540

0268083541

OCLC:

768247488