Russian-German Mission Work in the East

John N. Klassen

Russian-German Baptist and Mennonite migrant churches in Germany have an active ministry in Russia and neighboring states, lands they called home for several centuries. But before detailing that story, some historical background is in order.

Identifying the People of the Story
Russian-German "Aussiedler" (resettlers) living in the West are descendants of German farmers who immigrated to Russia in the eighteenth century upon invitation of Catherine II. Beginning in 1763 some 30,000, mostly Hessians, settled along the Volga River. The first Mennonites moved eastward 25 years later. During a period of 75 years some 10,000 Mennonites established four colonies with some 90 villages, most on or in the vicinity of the Dnieper River in present-day Ukraine. From 1803 to 1845 the largest group, about 60,000, mostly Swabians, settled on the western and northern shores of the Black Sea despite severe difficulties.¹

Economic and political conditions in Germany were difficult. Young families needed land, while many craftsmen lacked work.² The young Tsarina Catherine promised not only land and work in Russia's newly conquered territories in Ukraine, but religious freedom. In addition, some German migrants were inspired by apocalyptic visions of Christ's imminent second coming in the East.³

New German settlers in Russia were about 55 percent Lutherans (known as "Evangelisch", which is a German synonym for "Protestant," rather than "Evangelical" in the Western theological sense), 35 percent Roman Catholic, and 10 percent Mennonite. Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century many German settlers in Russia experienced a pietistic spiritual awakening and church renewal.⁴ In the wake of thisrevival new church groups came into being: Evangelical Lutheran Brethren,⁵ Mennonite Brethren,⁶ and German-speaking Baptist churches in Russia and Ukraine.

Tsarist Russification and Immigration
Much earlier, German professionals and artisans had settled in Russia before the settlers came to cultivate land in what is now Ukraine. They typically lived in cities and for the most part assimilated into Slavic culture.⁷ But the German farming population that immigrated to Russia has a different history. Although given citizenship in their new homeland, they, by law and preference, built colonies that were segregated from the surrounding Slavic population. And the religious freedom they enjoyed did not extend to converting their Orthodox neighbors to Protestantism. When in the 1870s Russia began the russification of its German colonists and forced military conscription of the largely pacifist population, Germans began a large-scale immigration to North and South America.⁸

Post-World War II Immigration
The more recent post-World War II western resettlement began as a program to reunite families separated by the massive upheavals connected with fighting on the Eastern front, 1941-45.⁹ Some family members lived in the USSR and others in Germany. Initially the former Soviet Union tried by every imaginable method to hinder Soviet-Germans leaving its territory.¹⁰ However, Moscow's political liberalizations under Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-91) set in motion a large-scale immigration of ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union to Germany that by 2002 numbered over two million. They included approximately one million Lutherans, 500,000 Roman Catholics, 280,000 Baptists and Mennonites or their descendants, and 220,000 who belonged to other churches or no church. Moscow permitted the first handful of Russian German Baptists and Mennonites to depart the Soviet Union for Germany in 1963, but no appreciable number left until after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985.

Although no official statistics exist for the number of Protestant, free church families entering Germany, a reasonable estimate would be that from 1963 to 2001 the total is approximately 280,000.¹¹ Factoring in births, deaths, and immigration out of Germany, the post-World War II "Aussiedler" population in Germany today, including descendants, is approximately 335,000. Of this total, about 81,000 are adult members of Baptist and Mennonite churches who migrated to Germany. The rest are minors or adults who affiliated with, but are not members of, the above denominations.

German Resettlement
Upon arriving in Germany, these free church immigrants joined established German Baptist and Mennonite congregations. But culturally the "Aussiedler" came to realize they were strangers in their own homeland.¹² Initially--and even today--many resist change, in particular as regards religious customs. As a result, "Aussiedler" have established new congregations in order to practice their faith according to familiar traditions. Only about 11,000 "Aussiedler" joined existing German churches. Most, instead, established their own churches, called prayer houses, approximately 400 to date.¹³ New "Aussiedler" churches have been growing at an above-average rate of three to five percent annually. As of 2002, of the approximately 70,000 members in "Aussiedler" congregations, about 32,700 had joined through baptism, while the remainder were new immigrants.¹⁴ Thus the number of "Aussiedler" believers in their own and in traditional German churches totals approximately 81,000.

Resettlers, Evangelism, and Missions
Contrary to popular opinion, Russian German Christians entered their old/new homeland with a concern for evangelism and mission. And their understanding of the mission of the New Testament Church has been growing. Basically it begins in the home, continues in Sunday school, and leads from evangelism in church services to public meetings. To illustrate this active commitment to evangelism, between 1970 and 2001 approximately one third of baptisms (10,500 out of 31,500) were young people and adults from non-believing families.¹⁵

"Aussiedler" Christians and their congregations evidence a growing concern for mission work, both in former East Germany and outside Germany. To date this concern has found expression primarily in short-term endeavors. But more and more "Aussiedler" believers are moving to other countries and are working cross-culturally. With their home church or a mission society serving as the sending agency, most combine evangelism with social and material help. The amount of food, clothing, literature, etc. "Aussiedler" Christians are donating for mission work, primarily in the former Soviet Union, is probably unparalleled in history.16

John N. Klassen holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and teaches systematic theology at Bibelseminar Bonn.

Sources:
1. Karl Stumpp, Die Auswanderung aus Deutschland nach Russland in den Jahren 1763 bis 1862 (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1991), 25-26.
2. Hans-Christian Diedrich, Siedler, Sekteirer und Stundisten (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1985), 29.
3. Stumpp, Die Auswanderung, 26-30; Kalendar 1954 Heimatbuch der Ostumsiedler (Stuttgart: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Ostumsiedler, 1954), 17-22.
4. Hans Kasdorf, Flammen unausloschlich: Mission der Mennoniten unter Zaren und Sowjets, 1789-1989 (Bielefeld: Logos Verlag, 1991), 62-84. 5. Reinhard Schott, Integration von Aussiedlern, in Gnadauer Kongress...1993 (Dillenburg: 1993), 207-24.
6. John A. Toews, A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church (Fresno, CA: General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, 1975), 26-36; Diedrich 23.33-57.
7. Karl Stumpp, Die Russlanddeutschen 200 Jahre Unterwegs (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1993), 6-9.
8. Herbert Wiens, Volk auf dem Weg: Deutsche in Russland und in der GUS, 1763-1997 (Stuttgart: andsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1997),12-14.
9. Alfred Eisfeld, "Die Deutschen in Russland-gestern und heute" in Die Deutschen in der UdSSR-einst und jetzt: Globus Spezial (Bonn: 1989), 54.
10. Wiens, Volk, 22.
11. John N. Klassen, "Church Planting and Church Growth Among Evangelical Russian German Christians in Germany in the Tension Between Immigration and Integration (in German)," Ph.D. dissertation, UNISA, South Africa, 2002, 113.
12. Ibid., 61.
13. Ibid., 104-07.
14. Ibid., 62-66.
15. Ibid., 121-26; Unterwegs zur besseren Weide: Festschrift...Mennoniten-Bruedergemeinde (Neuwied-Gladbach: MB-Gemeinde, 2002), 233-58.
16. Unterwegs zur besseren Weide, 259-69.

Selected Russian-German Mission Efforts in the East

John N. Klassen, "Russian-German Mission Work in the East," East-West Church & Ministry Report 12 (Spring 2004), 10-12.

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© 2004 East-West Church and Ministry Report
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