On the Origin of the Name of Alexanderwohl Village

 I'm just going to re-post this here, with a few of my comments at the very end.  Thanks to Bob Buller for his research.

On the Origin of the Name of Alexanderwohl Village

 

By Bob Buller

bullertime.blogspot.com 

Spring 2018

 

We now take up consideration of one of the more incredible claims that the 1848 Alexanderwohl community report (Gemeindebericht) makes, one repeated in every account of Alexanderwohl’s history that I have encountered. The claim relates to how the village received its name. The relevant section of the community report reads as follows:

When this community, which had existed as a church in Prussia for over 200 years, emigrated to Russia under the leadership of its church Ältester (elder), Peter Wedel, they rested for two days on the south side of the city of Warsaw. Tsar Alexander I—may he rest in peace—and a segment of his troops were outside the city engaging in field manoeuvres. We waited anxiously when the tsar, who had been alerted by several passing generals, stopped his carriage and beckoned with his right hand. Several church leaders ran to him and were asked where we came from and where we were going. When he heard we were going to Molotschna in southern Russia the tsar said: “I wish you luck on your journey. Greet your brethren for I have been there.” This happened on September 14, 1820.

When we arrived in Molotschna these greetings were promptly conveyed by Peter Wedel, our Ältester, to the congregations gathered in the churches. When the office in Ekaterinoslav heard of this extraordinary event, the chief judge Fadeyev immortalized it by naming the colony Alexanderwohl because, as he said, “Tsar Alexander has wished you well.”

Before we look at the details of the report, we need to discuss what type of literature this portion of the report actually is. In form and function it corresponds to a literary type in folklore and biblical studies commonly known as an etiological tale. George Coats explains that this type is “a narrative designed in its basic structure to support some kind of explanation for a situation or name that exists at the time of the storyteller” (1983, 318). Etiological tales, then, often give the story behind why something bears a certain name. Clearly, the Alexanderwohl community report fits the bill according to that definition: it explains how the village got its name.

What is interesting about etiological tales is that, although some of them originate in an actual event (i.e., they report how something came to be, how a name was assigned), many of them are after-the-fact explanations that make sense of the end result but actually have no basis in history or reality.

Several of the claims can be judged reliable without any further investigation: a sizable group from the (Przechówko) church did emigrate to Russia under the leadership of Elder Peter Wedel in 1820, and presumably they made periodic rest stops along the way; Alexander I, the son of Paul I (reigned 1796–1801) and grandson of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), was tsar from 1801 to 1825; and Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeev was the chairman of the Ekaterinoslav Bureau of the Guardianship Committee in 1820 (he succeeded Samuel Contenius in 1818). Finally, the German word wohl does indeed mean “well,” so the etiology makes sense from a lexical perspective. (It may surprise readers to learn that some etiologies of this type fail on a lexical level.)

Other claims will be the focus of our investigation:

1.       Is it conceivable that the tsar of Russia was on maneuvers in Poland in 1820?

2.      Is there evidence that Tsar Alexander I was in Warsaw on 14 September 1820?

To answer the first of these questions, we must engage in more than a little history.

1. The Partitions of Poland

The Kingdom of Poland had its territory systematically reduced through three successive partitions in the waning years of the eighteenth century. In 1772, 1793, and 1795 Russia, Prussia, and Austria divvied up Polish territory to add to their expanding realms. Very important to note is that the city of Warsaw never fell under Russian rule during this time.

2. The Duchy of Warsaw

Of course, Napoleon failed in his attempt to conquer and subdue Russia, and when his army retreated from Russian territory in December 1812 the Russians filled the vacuum and assumed control over most of the Duchy of Warsaw (the Prussians reclaimed the rest).

3. Congress Poland

The Russian rule over the former Duchy of Warsaw was formalized through an agreement once again made between the powers (victors against Napoleon) of the day: Russia, Austria, Prussia, and the United Kingdom. At the Congress of Vienna, which lasted from November 1814 to June 1815, Tsar Alexander I proposed, and the other participants surprisingly agreed, to form the Kingdom of Poland (more commonly known as Congress Poland in recognition of its origin—an etiology of sorts). The surprising aspect of the assent is that, although the new state was technically independent with its own constitution (Congress Poland was a constitutional monarchy), its rulers were to be the Russian tsars. In short, Polish independence was more hypothetical than real, and Alexander I was simultaneously tsar of Russia and king of Poland.

In 1807, during the middle of the Napoleonic wars of the early nineteenth century (1803–1815), the Prussians ceded their territory to Napoleon, who immediately established a Polish state that would provide him and his army material aid in their war against the Russians to the east. As is evident in the map below, the area of the Duchy of Warsaw corresponded roughly to the areas that Prussia had partitioned in 1793 and 1795 and Austria in 1795.

So, therefore, is it conceivable that the tsar of Russia was on maneuvers in Poland in 1820? Clearly, given the fact that Tsar Alexander I was ruler of Congress Poland beginning in 1815 and continued his rule over Poland through the end of his reign in 1825, it is plausible to imagine him on maneuvers south of Warsaw in September 1820.

This leaves only one more question to answer: Is there evidence that Tsar Alexander I was in Warsaw on 14 September 1820?

The answer to our question is found in a book of memoirs written by Sophie de Tisenhaus Choiseul-Gouffier, a member of the Lithuanian nobility in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries. Sophie met Alexander I in 1812, and they remained close friends until his death in late 1825. One indication of the closeness of their relationship is that Alexander was godfather of Sophie’s only son with her husband, the French Count Louis Antoine de Choiseul Island Oktavija-Gufjė.

Choiseul-Gouffier was a prolific author, with a number of novels to her credit, but the work that is of interest to us is her 1829 Mémoires historiques sur l’empereur Alexandre et la cour de Russie, translated into English many years later as Historical Memoirs of the Emperor Alexander I. and the Court of Russia (1904). A friend and confidant of Alexander during the last two decades of his life, Choiseul-Gouffier serves as a reliable and contemporary source for information about the Russian tsar.

Choiseul-Gouffier reports, for example: “In the year 1816 I made a journey to Carlsbad, with my father and one of my relatives. Upon our return we stopped at Warsaw, where the emperor was expected on the 30th of September” (221). The year is wrong for our purposes, but the location is right. Further, one cannot help but be intrigued by what follows. After Alexander arrived, he and the other Warsaw elite attended a ball, where he danced and engaged in banter with Choiseul-Gouffier. Sometime later, she reports,

The emperor left the ball at eleven o’clock. He kept early hours, rising very early in the morning, either to be present at the drilling of the soldiers or to work with his ministers. The next day he had a grand review of the Polish army, on the plain of Povonski, which was covered with an immense throng of people in carriages, on foot, and on horseback, all come to witness this brilliant military spectacle. (222)

Still the wrong year, but now we have the right action: Alexander, clad in a “Polish uniform with the blue and white plume on his cap” (221), surveying the drilling of the soldiers and a “brilliant military spectacle” that Choiseul-Gouffier refers to, strikingly, as “manœuvres” (223). The military review took place on the plain of Povonski, a site said to be three miles from Warsaw at that time (no source indicates, however, which direction it lay from Warsaw).

This is not, fortunately, the only time that Choiseul-Gouffier encountered Alexander in Warsaw. Later she explains that she wished to leave Paris but without dishonoring her husband. She initially sought to have him appointed to a post in Russia, but that did not transpire due to Alexander making his choice before her letter arrived. Still, she remained determined to leave France, so

in 1820 I made a journey to Lithuania, and M. de C. [Choiseul-Gouffier’s husband] being engaged in defending himself against a very unjust lawsuit, I decided to go to Warsaw where his Majesty was at that time, and ask justice and protection from him. (241–42)

Now we are in the right year and the right place. Choiseul-Gouffier continues her account by noting that once again she and Alexander met at a ball, where they danced and conversed and she made her plea that Alexander intervene in the lawsuit in favor of her husband. Alexander agreed and asked her to supply the details of the case. Choiseul-Gouffier intended to do so at a following ball but arrived late and did not meet Alexander at all. The morning after the second ball, Choiseul-Gouffier reports, Alexander sent a messenger to inquire about her health, since he had not seen her the night before. We pick up Choiseul-Gouffier’s narrative at that point:

As I proposed to stay only a few days at Warsaw, his Majesty, learning that I was on the eve of my departure, deigned to come and receive my respectful adieux, saying that he had hoped that I would prolong my stay at Warsaw until the term fixed for his Majesty’s own departure, twelve days later, when he was to go to the conference of Troppan in Silesia. (244)

Here at last we find a piece of evidence that will enable us to date Alexander’s 1820 stay in Warsaw: the conference in Troppan, more commonly known as Troppau. In 1820 the five great European powers of the day—Russia, Austria, Prussia, United Kingdom, and France—met in the city of Troppau (modern Opava, Czech Republic) to discuss an uprising and revolution in Naples, Italy. The details of that conference can be ignored; what is crucial for our purposes is the date of the conference: it began 20 October 1820.

Troppau lay approximately 200 miles southwest of Warsaw, so if one estimates that Alexander and his party covered 30 miles a day (they no doubt traveled faster than the Mennonites emigrating from Przechówko to Molotschna), then their journey required a week. To be safe, we might imagine that it took anywhere between five and nine days, but we will use seven days for our rough calculations.

Let us assume that Alexander arrived no later than 19 October. A seven-day journey would have thus begun on 13 October. Alexander last saw Choiseul-Gouffier twelve days before his departure, which would have been, by our reckoning, 1 October. The several balls that Choiseul-Gouffier mentions took place before then, during the last week of September. Choiseul-Gouffier also reports that the tsar was already in Warsaw when she made her decision to travel there from Paris, which was no doubt a substantial and time-consuming journey.

What does this mean for our question? It seems indisputable that Alexander I was in Warsaw when the Mennonite group from Przechówko rested south of the city on and around 14 September 1820. At least the basic facts of the etiological tale are confirmed: Alexander and the Przechówko Mennonites were at the same place at the same time, just as the Alexanderwohl community report claims.

The only confirmation that we lack is that of Alexander participating in field maneuvers with Polish troops while the Przechówko church members rested for two days. However, the fact that he did exactly that in an earlier stay at Warsaw lends credence to the claim that he also did so in 1820. Emperors of all times generally like to be seen directing their troops; Alexander was presumably no exception.

All the pieces of the etiology either fit or seem highly plausible, so we have little reason to doubt the other main element of the report: Alexander conversed briefly with several church leaders and, upon learning from where they came and to where they were headed, wished them luck. We will, or course, never have definitive confirmation of this final detail, but we also have no valid reason to doubt it.

1. Alexander I

Alexander’s quoted dialogue (from the 1848 community report) is only two sentences long, but each is worthy of notice. We begin with the second sentence: “Greet your brethren for I have been there.” Alexander’s statement is no throw-away line. In fact, Alexander had visited Molotschna colony just two years prior. Peter M. Friesen’s The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia includes a first-person account from the Mennonite head of the household that Alexander visited: David Hiebert of Lindenau, Molotschna (Friesen 1980, 173–75).

His Majesty ate with apparent appetite, drank beer and coffee, and, while eating enquired as to our circumstances in the most affable manner: how long we had been in his empire, how we liked it and whether or not we had any complaints about anyone. To this we answered: “No, but we would like to thank Your Imperial Majesty for his great mercy and gracious reception. We would also like to request grace and Your Majesty’s protection for the future; not only for ourselves but also for our brothers-in-the-faith in Prussia, who because of the great and difficult war, have come into dire straits, so that they too might find acceptance and support here.” Thereupon the emperor said to my wife: “Yes, dear child, it shall be done.” (175)

Although we cannot verify the details of the story—the Hieberts’ request on behalf of the Prussian Mennonites who were expected to make their way to Russia or Alexander’s promise to give aid and support to future immigrants—we should note that this account is entirely consistent with the second sentence of Alexander’s comment: he had personally visited Molotschna, so he asked the traveling group from Przechówko to greet their fellow Mennonites when they arrived at their final destination in Molotschna.

The first sentence merits close scrutiny as well, since it may affect how we understand and interpret the etiology of the village name. Alexander begins his dialogue with a simple statement: “I wish you luck on your journey.” Note first that Alexander expressed a wish; he did not make a promise or offer concrete assistance. Second, his wish was for the journey, not for their lives once they arrived in Molotschna. We might speculate on why he limited his wish to the journey, but for now we simply note it as potentially important for our understanding of this tale. Third, Alexander wished them luck, or Glück in German, an important word choice in light of what follows.

2. Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeev

Now that we have observed exactly what Alexander said, we can read with greater insight what the district mayor Fadeyev said when he named the village. We begin by noting first that the Przechówko group did exactly what Alexander asked when they arrived: they conveyed the tsar’s greetings to all their fellow Mennonites. Then we are told that the district office in Ekaterinoslav heard of “this extraordinary event,” Fadeyev “immortalized” it by giving the village (colony in the terminology of that day) a particular name.

At the risk of sounding cynical, I find the characterization of the tsar’s wish as an extraordinary event a bit of a stretch. Alexander wished the party good luck on their journey, in other words, safe travels. He also asked them to greet people he had previously met. Neither of these qualify, in my view, as anything out of the ordinary; they are, rather, niceties that one would hope are more mundane than spectacular. Certainly one would not expect a wish for someone to have safe travels to be immortalized in a village name.

We should also note that Alexander did not wish the Przechówko Mennonites well (German wohl), as Fadeyev claims in this account; in fact, he wished them luck, Glück. One must wonder why the village is not more accurately named Alexanderglück, to immortalize what Alexander actually said. Something is wrong with this picture; the details at the end of the account seem at odds with those at its beginning.

We have established thus far that it is both plausible and highly likely that Alexander encountered the Przechówko Mennonites south of Warsaw. The report of their encounter, with its wish for safe travels and a request to greet the Mennonites whom Alexander had met just two years previously, also has the ring of truth to it. Still, when we get to the whole point of the tale, an explanation of what the village name means, the internal logic of the story starts to fall apart and makes much less sense.

This leads me to wonder whether, although the larger story of the encounter is historically accurate, the precise explanation given for the naming is somewhat less than true. I am not suggesting that the Alexanderwohl settlers made anything up, but I do think we should ask whether there may be a better explanation for the village name than the one that Fadeyev supplied and the townspeople adopted into their historical self-understanding.

On its surface, the explanation for the naming of Alexanderwohl sounds plausible: Alexander wished the Przechówko party well, so the village they settled was named accordingly: Alexanderwohl, which combines Alexander’s name plus the German word for “well.” Most etiologies sound plausible on the surface, but frequently they become suspect when one digs a little deeper.

So it is with the Alexanderwohl etiological tale: the details of the story do not all correspond to the simple etiological explanation. That is, Alexander wished the party luck, not well, and the mundane character of the encounter, essentially wishing someone safe travels, would not typically warrant any sort of memorialization, let alone the naming of a village.

Without calling into question the basic facts of the story, one wonders if the explanation given is the real meaning of the village name. Such skepticism increases when one considers a similarly named Molotschna village, namely, Mariawohl.

This village was one of the last founded in Molotschna, in 1857. According to Helmut Huebert, the village “was named in honour of Wilhelmia Maria, wife of the recently crowned Czar Alexander II” (Huebert 2003, 158). In other words, this village received its name by combining the name of the person being honored plus the German word wohl, or “well.” In this case there is no hint that Maria wished the townspeople well. On the contrary, the village name is more likely an expression of well wishes to the person whose name provides the first part of the village name. The village name is thus a shorthand way of saying: May it be well with Maria.

Why would not the same explanation be applied to Alexanderwohl? If we did not have the story of the encounter in Poland, we would naturally think that the village name was intended more to honor Alexander than to commemorate a brief encounter between Alexander and the Mennonites in which the tsar wished them safe travels. In this explanation, the village name was a vehicle for expressing a wish of good things for the tsar: May it be well with Alexander.

This clearly is not the perspective of the etiological tale, but it makes better sense of the way some village names were created at that place and time. There was, after all, a clear precedent for naming a Molotschna village after Alexander. In 1820, one year before the founding of Alexanderwohl, the village of Alexandertal was founded. The -tal suffix simply indicates that the village was located in a valley; the primary emphasis is on the person being honored by the village name: Alexander I.

Similarly, in 1857 the Molotschna colony saw the founding of Alexanderkrone (where Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller lived for a few years). This village was named in honor of Alexander II, husband of the Maria honored by the naming of Mariawohl. The German word Krone means “crown” in English, which suggests that the village name meant something like Crown of Alexander. The point, again, is that the village name honored the one after whom it was named.

To bring this all back around to Alexanderwohl, one need not be a skeptic to find the etiological tale a little suspicious at the end. Granted, Alexander likely met and conversed with the Przechówko group south of Warsaw, and they dutifully shared his greetings with their fellow Mennonites in Molotschna. All that seems not only plausible but likely.

However, when Fadeyev named the village—and we should not lose sight of the fact that Fadeyev was the one who named the village, not the Alexanderwohl settlers—he probably was more interested in currying favor with his tsar than in memorializing the tsar’s encounter with a party of Mennonite immigrants. Given the fact that just a year earlier Fadeyev had named another Molotschna village to honor Alexander, and in light of the plain meaning of the -wohl suffix in the later village Mariawohl, it seems most plausible to conclude that the village Alexanderwohl was given its name as a means of expressing a positive wish to a much-loved tsar: May it be well with Alexander.

The association of the account of the journey and encounter with the naming of Alexanderwohl is, in all likelihood, secondary. It may be that Fadeyev named the village for the reason just given but told the Alexanderwohl settlers that the name commemorated their extraordinary encounter with the tsar. Fadeyev may have told them, in other words, what he thought they would like to hear.

It is equally possible, in my view, that the etiology proper—“When the office in Ekaterinoslav heard of this extraordinary event, the chief judge Fadeyev immortalized it by naming the colony Alexanderwohl because, as he said, ‘Tsar Alexander has wished you well.’”—was the villagers’ own creation over time, their attempt to make sense of the village name in light of their own history with the tsar.

We may never know the precise origin of the etiology proper, but it does seem more likely than not that the etiological tale of the naming of Alexanderwohl is both generally true but mistaken in its final detail.

 

Work Cited:

Choiseul-Gouffier, Sophie de Tisenhaus. 1904. Historical Memoirs of the Emperor Alexander I. and the Court of Russia. Translated by Mary Berenice Patterson. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner. Originally published Mémoires historiques sur l’empereur Alexandre et la cour de Russie (1829).

Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer; (23) Alexanderwohl (Pp 131, 132), edited by M. Woltner, S. Hitzel, Leipzig, 1941.

Friesen, Peter M. 1980. The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia, 1789–1910. 2nd ed. Translated by J. B. Toews, Abraham Friesen, Peter J. Klassen, and Harry Loewen. Fresno, CA: Board of Christian Literature, General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

Huebert, Helmut T. 2003. Molotschna Historical Atlas. Winnipeg: Springfield.

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I'll just make one addition to Buller's research above.  Mention is made of military maneuvers performed on the "Plain of Povonski".  I'll suggest that this location is equivalent to Powązki.  One can see this location on the 1839 map below.  It's situated immediately to the west of Warsaw proper.  The pronunciation of Powązki in Polish would be something like "Povanski" - that ą makes kind of a "an" sound (as an equivalent to English).  

Today, the location is within the metropolitan Warsaw area.  It's a famous and historical cemetery that was established toward the end of the 18th century.

So the location of the tsar's military maneuvers, I feel, was likely to the west of Warsaw while the Przechowko emigrants are said to have stopped/camped to the south of the city.

Searching for the Last Housebarn in Przechowko

In June, 2024, my friend David Richert and I were searching at Przechowko for remains of the houses in which villagers lived in former years when the village was occupied.  Based mostly on this photo from the early 1960s:

Here we have the cemetery circled in red, the site of the church circled in green, and a couple houses right behind (to the south) of these sites.  David and I figured that by walking between the bluffs upon which sit the cemetery and the church/school, we might find flat spots where it would make sense that houses would have stood.  So, here's the gap between the two bluffs, looking towards the north:

And here's a spot, right about where it should be (based on the above village photo) that looks flat - like it could be a spot where a house could stand:

Near this spot we even found some bricks or something.  Could these be remains of a house or just some bricks or rubbish that were dumped here?:

Otherwise, this former village area is really overgrown with trees and weeds and such:

In the spring of 2025, I was introduced to a man who is now a good friend of mine named Robert Adrych.  Robert is an artist living in the vicinity of Swiecie, Poland, and he specializes in stone carving; he can create the most wonderful items right out of stone.  He's shown me plenty of things he's carved: animals, flowers, people, etc.  It's an absolutely amazing talent, really.  I don't know how a person would even begin to carve items out of a stone but Robert can just come at the rock with his grinder and - like Michelangelo said - there's a item trapped in the stone and the artist liberates it.  Robert can do that with his chisels and grinder and it's just fascinating.  Robert also grew up living in Przechowko - right there in a Hollander housebarn.

Mennonites moved away from Przechowko by the very early 1830s.  After that point, Lutheran Hollanders moved into the village and they simply moved into the housebarns previously occupied by the Mennonite Hollanders.  Eventually, local Poles also moved into the village and were co-inhabitants with some of the Lutherans.  By the 1940s I think there were 14 farms in the village and, little by little, as the century progressed, villagers moved away from Przechowko until only one farm was occupied - the farm and housebarn that sat almost immediately east of the cemetery.  This housebarn stood until the early 2000s and Robert grew up living in it.

This is a photo of the house from Peter Klassen's "Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia", page 88:  

Note the ornamental tree in front of the house, again seen clearly in this photo via Kathy Friesen from the early 2000s.  Friesen traveled to the village at that time with a tour led by Allen Peters:

The same tree is still standing in its spot.  In the photo below, you can see the flat, open spot behind the marked tree where the house stood:

In the summer of 2025, Robert was good enough to show me exactly where the house stood.  Here we can find portions of the house foundations as well as bricks that made up the walls of the stable.

When I see this now, it looks like David and I had the correct spot back near the top of this article.

The driveway leading to the house is still seen clearly through the trees.  This is basically the gap between the cemetery and the church/school bluffs:

The Memorial Stone that Robert carved for the Przechowko is magnificent piece of art as well as a touching tribute to the souls buried in the cemetery, both Robert's ancestors and mine.

Robert included a heart-shaped stone on the front to signify our love and respect for the village and the cemetery.  This stone, as well as the Memorial Stone itself, are native stones that Robert recovered from the area.:

On the front, Robert carved a map of the village, copied from a well-known early 20th century map.

Marked here in with red crosses is the cemetery, and the house where Robert lived in marked with a yellow arrow.

At the back of the Memorial Stone, Robert carved a likeness of the housebarn in which he lived.

Thank you, Robert Adrych, for showing me the place where your childhood home stood, and thank you for your wonderful efforts in creating the Przechowko Memorial Stone.  May it, and the cemetery itself, stand as a lasting tribute to the village and to those who lived there.

Inscribed upon the Przechowko Memorial Stone:

"To the Mennonites and Evangelicals from Przechowko (Wintersdorf), and the surrounding area who found their final resting place here. Peace be upon their ashes.

The work and design were carried out by Robert Adrych, a former resident of Przechowko."

Chelmno in the Old Days

Przechowko is located directly across the Vistula from Chelmno, Poland.  In centuries past, Chelmno was an extremely important town even though for various reasons it declined.  The town was the seat of a very early bishopric even though the official bishop's residence and church was actually located in nearby Chelmza.  As a result, Chelmno was home to several important churches and monasteries.  The standard for the Chelmno Rod has been bolted onto the backside of the Renaissance-era city building.  And even today you certainly get the feel that the town was an important center back in the old days.  The locals like to repeat that sentiment and like to point out that there are more churches here than in Torun.

The largest church in town, the Church of the Assumption, could certainly be seen from Przechowko and I imagine the Mennonite villagers gazing at the tower as they did fieldwork.

View to the south from western-most Przechowko lot.  Note church towers in the distance.

Recently, I came across fantastic old photos that give an idea to what Chelmno looked like centuries ago.  These photos are likely from the inter-war period, before the deprivations and destructions of WWII and the communist era.  Photos Here.

This photo in particular fascinates me.

And it's interesting that we can compare it very much with a modern photo from Wikipedia.  Obviously, both photos are focused on the buildings of Chelmno, but I'm looking at the landscape in the distance to the north.

The most interesting thing to me is that we can see how the surrounding landscape has evolved over the last century.  We cannot see Przechowko from this angle, but we still get a real good idea about how Przechowko has changed.  Notice the lack of trees in the old photo.  We can see the Vistula not too distantly beyond the city walls (north).  And the view here is towards the northeast whereas Przechowko would actually be directly north from this view (this view is obviously taken from the tower of the Church of the Assumption).  (Another interesting point is that the Chelmno Rod is bolted onto the backside of the Ratusz, obviously in the new photo.  If you look carefully, you can also see it on the old photo too.)

Notice the lack of trees on the north side of the Vistula.  We read here and there about the fact that no trees - or very few trees - were present at Przechowko in centuries past.  This photo would seem to be witness to that fact.  In the modern-day photo, obviously, the whole area is absolutely filled with trees so it's hard to get a good handle on the topography of the land.  But this early-century photo really gives a feel for what our ancestors' perspective would have been.

Zwiastun Ewangelicki

The Mennonite community at Przechowko established daughter colonies in a manner not seen with other Mennonites communities in Poland.  Settlements in Jeziorki and the Netzebruch were established already in the mid-18th century.  Others moved towards Masovia and then Volhynia in the late-18th century.  In 1820, a large group left Przechowko and established Franzthal in the Molotschna Colony, and then in 1821 came those remaining, establishing Alexanderwohl (of course, a small number stayed in the Przechowko area).

Replacing the Mennonites were Lutheran (Evangelical) Hollenders who moved into the Mennonite housebarns in the village.  Many of these Lutherans had already lived in the area for a long time; indeed, there was likely more fluidity between these Lutheran groups and the Przechowko Mennonites than we modern Mennos would like to believe.  These Lutherans inhabited the village, then, until modern times – right up until WWII.

As a consequence, obviously, the cemetery at Przechowko is not exclusively a Mennonite cemetery with the largest number of “new” markers being Lutheran.  In fact, there would be a very large contingent of “Przechowko descendants” who would be Lutherans instead of Mennonites.

The oldest periodical in the country of Poland is the "Zwiastun Ewangelicki" (The Evangelical Herald) which has been published since January 15, 1863.  Among Polish Protestant periodicals, it has the widest reach and largest circulation.  Every two weeks, this publication brings readers articles that build faith, hope, and love, and inform about events in Poland and abroad and they’ve done this for more than 150 years.

This month, the Zwiastun Ewangelicki has published a story focused on the restoration of the Przechowko cemetery where so many of the Lutheran descendants would be buried. 

https://zwiastun.pl/2026/07/pamiec-przechowka/

Old Flemish Mennonite Path in Poland

Mennonites can find various travel routes to follow to help them visit sites of interest in Poland.  In my opinion, the best one available is this one: https://izi.travel/en/d2d7-mennonites-poland-common-heritage/en.

Alternatively, a person could take the tour arranged by the Mennonite Polish Studies Association (https://mla.bethelks.edu/information/mpsa.php).  This is a wonderful tour and would absolutely be worth the money.

I've been to Poland a good number of times now and I've done extensive research on the Old Flemish Mennonite congregation centered at Przechowko.  The above tours will take you to Mennonite sites across Poland but they will not focus on this Przechowko group.  Below, and with succeeding blog entries, I will create a list of sites in Poland that would focus just on this Przechowko group.

Gdansk - entry site for Mennonites into Poland.  Early baptismal candidates would have needed to travel to Groningen to be baptised and Danzig would have been the port used.

Hulshoff travel path (Petershagen, Schotland, Montau/Gruppe, etc)

Przechowko area: Vistula left bank: Przechowko, Konopat, Beckersitz, Vorwerk, etc.  House foundations, cemetery.  Swiecie City.

Przechowko area: Vistula right bank (Schonsee area): Schonsee cemetery, Dorposch, Ostrower Kaempe, etc.  Chelmno City.

Jeziorki

Netzebruch: Brenkenhofswalde, Franzthal

Elbing and Marienburg (Malbork): when the Alexanderwohl group traveled to North America in 1874, they traveled through these two cities by rail (Kaliningrad-Elbing-Malbork-Starogard).

Deutsch Wymysle/Sady and the museum at Wiacemin

Torun museum, specifically, the Niedwitz house which is so very similar to the Przechowko house.

Warsaw.  In 1820, when the group left Przechowko, they encountered the Tsar near Warsaw, probably at Powatzki.  Prot Potacki also encountered Mennos who would become the Michalin settlers at the marked in Warsaw.

Krakow.  In 1874, the group led by Tobias Unruh passed through the Krakow train station on their way to North America

Bonus: Karolswalde

Low German Mennonite Heritage Path: Vistula Delta and Valley/Masovia

 Rod Ratzlaff's Low German Mennonite Heritage Path: Vistula Delta and Valley/Masovia 

Low German Mennonites began settling in areas along the Vistula River valley, south of where the Nogat splits from the Vistula River, sometime soon after the mid-16th century.  Some of the congregations were established right about the year 1600 but the first settlement may have been right about the area directly across the Vistula from Grudziądz (Graudentz).  By the early 17th century, congregations were established at Montau, Schoensee, Przechowko, and Obernessau, with another valley congregation placed at Tragheimerweide in the early 18th century (see the previous blog post with the Delta portion of the travel Path).  All of these congregations except Przechowko were adhered to the Frisian sect so the culture (Mennonite culture, that is) of the Valley, as opposed to that of the Delta, was somewhat different.  Again, as in the Delta, Mennonites almost always co-habitated villages with local Lutherans or Catholics.  According to the 1772/3 Prussian census, the only village inhabited exclusively by Mennonites was Przechowko (Przechowko was also the only congregation/village with a Polish name).  And then, the earliest evidence we have for Mennonite settlement in Masovia is in 1785 when Przechowko congregants settled at Sady.

Link to the map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1OCzRo5OpT9n8fFhhQ7-Z1nhoHqyOWB0&usp=sharing

11. Montau Church, Mątawy (Montau).  This church represents a later time period for this congregation; this building constructed in the 19th century even though the congregation can trace its history back into the last decades of the 16th century.

12. Montau-Klein/Gross Sanskau-Gross/Klein Lubin-Dragass villages (Mątawy-Wielkie Zajączkowo-Wielki Lubień-Dragacz); Vistula River Dike: 53°29'51.8"N 18°44'15.5"E; Vistula River access point: 53°29'34.2"N 18°44'26.7"E.  The way these villages were laid out deserves explanation and these Montau congregation villages illustrate the point well.  Many Mennonite will be familiar with the way Molotschna villages were organized in New Russia.  Johann Cornies made sure all the houses were lined up exactly and spaced evenly.  There's a joke saying that if you'd open all the doors to all the houses in those villages you'd be able to look through the doorways of each house from one end of the village to the other.  However, the villages in Polish Prussia were different.  Houses were spaced irregularly and they were not aligned with one another.  They were also oftentimes placed upon their fields rather than having fields stretch out behind or beside the village.  The villages were themselves just a group of farms until a convenient border naturally appeared (perhaps a waterway of some sort) and then the next village began, so villages butted right up against one another.  This stretch of villages, driving along the 207 from Montau south to Dragass illustrates this layout.  

And there are numerous points along the Vistula where you can get a good look at a dike.  Near Dragass, at about 53°29'51.8"N 18°44'15.5"E, is one of these points.  If you've read this far, then you're a Low German Mennonite and you need to understand about these dikes.  Your ancestors built and maintained them.  They were absolutely crucial to survival in these flood-prone areas so take a good look.  If you're particularly bold, there are spots like this one where you can drive up the path to the top and you can continue driving along the top of the dike.  And if you take a look at your GPS, you might notice areas where the level of the ground is actually lower than the level of the river on the opposite side of the dike.

And again, if you've read this far, this Vistula should be very important to you.  Take the crossing to the other side of the dike at 53°29'51.8"N 18°44'15.5"E and follow the road down to the edge of the river.  Sit there and take it it.  Walk to the edge of the water and at least dip your hands in it.  Seriously, take off your shoes and wade it just a little.  One thing, as "Russian" Mennonites, that we may have forgotten is how important water was to our ancestors.  As Low German Mennonites, water and water management is in our blood.  In the Russian colonies, Mennonite life became all about wheat and sheep.  But before that, during the Polish era, Mennonite life was all about water management (building dikes and canals and mills).  Mennonites were all about controlling water and, indeed, that's why they were imported into these Vistula lowlands in the first place.  Take a good look at the dike here, and the Vistula River as well.

Finally, at this stop at the Vistula, look up and you'll see the granaries and fortress of Graudentz across the river.  This is the view your ancestors had as they worked their fields or tended their gardens.  

13. Przechówko Cemetery, Przechówko; 53°23'26.2"N 18°23'17.7"E.  I could write pages and pages about this cemetery.  Mennonites left Przechowko by the 1830s although, inevitably, some intermarried with local Lutheran Hollenders who moved in to replace these Mennonites.  The Lutherans lived in the Mennonite housebarns and likely built their own structures.  The last residents of Przechowko moved out in the early 2000s and the village grounds became a dumping ground, existing in the shadow of the cardboard factory across Bydgoska Street to the north.  The last internments in the cemetery were probably in the 1990s.  As such, the cemetery became forgotten... and thus was preserved.  We started a restoration project in the early 2020s and wrapped up in summer 2025.  More grave markers were discovered than anticipated (more than 130 have been located) and the cemetery became perhaps the largest collection of in situ 18th century grave markers in the whole country.  It's an astounding place.  A large memorial stone was carved by a member of the family which last lived in the village.  If you tromp around through the trees, you can find the foundation of the last housebarn.  The custodian of the cemetery will now be the City of Swiecie but the fine folks at the Lower Vistula Parks Complex will also keep close watch over it.

Standing in the cemetery is a profoundly moving experience.  If you have ancestors buried here, take some quiet time in this place and appreciate the history - the oldest authentic Mennonite cemetery in Poland - for that matter, in the world (but Lutherans and an occasional Catholic are also buried here).  I'll put right here special thanks to Michal and Mark for all their help with this cemetery.  Michal showed it to me and Mark opened up Poland to me.  I've spent a good deal of time working with this cemetery and, now that the project is "complete", I'll admit that I also spent a good deal of money to achieve this project.  

I'll honestly say that achieving this project has been a highlight of my life.  Mennonites oftentimes overlook cemeteries sometimes because perhaps a fancy headstone or some sort of memorial candles or flowers are seen as too prideful.  I'll humbly disagree.  "I would give my bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked. If I saw one of my people who had died and been thrown behind the wall of Nineveh, I used to bury him." (Tobit 1, 16-22).  I don't want to get into theology too much but burying the dead, ensuring the deceased are laid to rest respectfully, is one of the corporal acts of mercy.  And this has been practice for most Jews and Christians since the beginning of time.  I hope that, with the work I've done or caused to be done, in the Przechowko cemetery, that I've accomplished something good.  That was certainly my intent.  Enjoy Przechowko cemetery because it's a sacred spot and there's no other place like it on earth, nor will there ever be.

14. 1791 Mennonite Cottage, Chrystkowo (Christfelde); 53°19'15.8"N 18°19'01.2"E

15. Schönsee Cemetery, Sosnówka (Schönsee); 53°24'45.4"N 18°37'12.5"E

16. The Nickelstein, Szynych (Schöneich); 53°25'20.3"N 18°39'50.6"E

17. Hollender Ethnographic Museum, Wielka Nieszawka (Obernessau), outside of Toruń; https://etnomuzeum.pl/o-muzeum/dla-zwiedzajacych/lets-visit-the-ethnographic-museum/

18. Vistula Settlement Open-Air Museum, Wiączemin Polski; https://muzeumplock.eu/pd-21-maja-wstep-do-skansenu-jest-platny/

19. Deutsch Wymyśle Church, Nowe Wymyśle (Deutsch Wymyśle); 52°25'36.3"N 19°50'20.2"E

20. Warsaw Market; 52°14'59.7"N 21°00'42.9"E  Michalin founded 1791

Low German Mennonite Heritage Path: Vistula River Delta

Rod Ratzlaff's Low German Mennonite Heritage Path: Vistula River Delta

1. Gdańsk

2. Danziger Kopf, Żuławki (Fürstenwerder); 54°17'07.0"N 18°58'20.2"E

3. Palschau (Palczewo) windmill; 54°10′06.2″N 18°52′21.9″E

4. Orłowo (Orloff) Arcaded Werder house; 54°12'05.4"N 19°03'40.4"E

5. Zulawy Historical Musuem, Nowy Dwór Gdański (Tiegenhof); https://zph.org.pl/

6. Mały Holender restaurant, Żelichowo (Petershagen); https://www.malyholender.pl/

7. Rosenort Cemetery, Różewo (Rosenort); 54°11'33.0"N 19°10'38.4"E

8. Elbląg 

9. Heubuden Cemetery, Stogi (Heubuden); 54°04'15.1"N 18°58'49.6"E

10. Tragheimerweide Cemetery, Barcice (Tragheimerweide); 53°52'01.3"N 18°56'37.8"E

The Vistula River delta area, basically a triangle from Gdansk to Eblag to Malbork (or the conjunction of the Nogat and Vistula Rivers), is basically the area our ancestors would have called the Gross Werder.  This was the area of highest Mennonite concentration back in the day and you'll still find many remnants of Mennonite culture today.  Back then, the Flemish sect dominated the delta area with congregations located at Danzig, Baerwalde, Tiegenhagen, Ladekop, Rosenort, Elbing, and Heubuden.  The only Frisian congregations were at Orlofferfelde, Danzig, and Elbing (both Danzig and Elbing had both Flemish and Frisian congregations).  These people spoke Low German on a daily basis and began settling in the area by the mid 16th century.  By the late 18th century, they inhabited a great many villages across the Gross Werder - far too many to list here - although none of these villages was inhabited exclusively by Mennonites.  The following sites include a good variety of churches, cemeteries, and houses, representing both the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite sects.

Link to the map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1YvAQp2FgHGWeymzL58kv3GNBJMQaaJw&usp=sharing

1. Gdańsk.  Any good Mennonite tour of Poland really needs to include significant time in Gdansk.  Low German Mennonites, this is your home city; more so than Amsterdam or Halbstadt or any other place you can think of.  This is the first place Mennonites came to in Poland and it would continue to be the port of entry for additional Mennonites arriving from the Dutch lowlands.  Maybe you won't find much now that's overtly Mennonite but this is where your ancestors walked and arrived and did their initial business.  Spend some time walking along the canal waterfront.  Go out to the Wiebe Bastion and look at examples of Van der Blocke art (were Wiebe and Van den Blocke really Mennonites?).  Too back Zum Lachs is now closed but certainly sit down at a restaurant and sample a shot of Goldwasser.  Walk through the Long Market and gaze at the Artus Court building where Georg Hansen was interrogated in 1678.  Walk out to the former general locations of the Flemish and Frisian meeting houses (although you won't find any Mennonite traces today but the Flemish site was just outside the Petershagen Gate while the Frisian was just outside the Neugarten Gate).  Climb to the top of the tower of St. Mary's Church where you can get a bird's eye view of all these places.  And most of all, visit the unified Mennonite church building, just west of the walls of the old city, which is undergoing restoration even as I'm writing this.

Just as much as any of these activities, simply sit in a cafe or on a bench along the waterfront and soak in the atmosphere.  Sit quietly and pay attention.  This is exactly the place where your ancestors walked centuries ago.

Wiebe Bastion: https://www.gdansk.pl/wiadomosci/Bastion-Wiebego-i-Baszta-Nowa-czyli-spacer-po-terenie-dawnych-fortyfikacji-Gdanska,a,117016

Van den Blocke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_den_Blocke

Goldwasser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwasser

Artus Court: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artus_Court

Gdansk Mennonite Church: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Danzig_Mennonite_Church_(Gdansk,_Poland)

2. Danziger Kopf, Żuławki (Fürstenwerder).  By the later end of the Mennonite era in Poland (maybe the 18th century), Mennonites were building these great, wonderful houses with large arcade additions on the front of the original Dutch-style longhouses (housebarns).  As you travel around the northern Vistula area, you'll stumble upon many of these, restored and unrestored, and these are a wonderful remnant of our ancestors' culture.  Moving forward here I'll call them Arcade Werder House (or similar).  An amazing example of a restored Arcade Werder house is the Danziger Kopf, owned and restored by my friend Mariusz Wisniewski.  Stop and see it if you can, it's well worth it.

3. Palschau (Palczewo) Windmill.  I haven't actually visited the Palschau windmill myself, and I honestly don't know if it's still standing.  But this is (or was) one of the last examples of a Dutch windmill in the Vistula area.  Our ancestor built windmills in the Dutch style in order to pump water and to mill grain.  Dutch style windmills (according to a Dutch friend) rotate only at the cap at the top.  A Polish style windmill may rotate the entire structure from a pivot point near the base.  Thus, perhaps the Dutch mill is more stable and less apt to collapse to one side or the other.  In centuries past, mills like this one were common all along the river delta and valley and are a really striking remnant of Dutch and Low German Mennonite culture.  

4. Orłowo (Orloff) Arcaded Werder House.  This is another example of an Arcaded Werder House.  You'll probably see many such houses as you drive around but just make real sure you stop and look at a couple of them.  They're all just a little different so you need to appreciate them.  This particular one is located in the village of Orloff and was occupied by a Loewen of some sort.  Orloff became the namesake for villages in the Molotschna and Barnaul colonies, as well as Canada (I think).

5. Zulawy Historical Musuem, Nowy Dwór Gdański (Tiegenhof); https://zph.org.pl/.  This is a great museum located in Tiegenhof, which was an important center for our Mennonite ancestors.  Talk to my friend Lukasz Kepski about getting a personal tour if possible.  While the museum isn't purposely geared toward Mennonites, by default it has a lot of Mennonite stuff in it since there were so many of them in the area.

6. Mały Holender restaurant, Żelichowo (Petershagen); https://www.malyholender.pl/.  It's an amazing experience to visit this restaurant, located in a restored Werder house brought onto this site from someplace east of Elbing (I think).  You can eat a great meal, and then wander around the building a little, as well as outside too.  The last time I was there, they were constructing a mill outside and you can even wander around a little more and find remnants of the old Petershagen cemetery.  The proprietor has revived the popular Mennonite liquor, Machandel, brought by the Mennonite Stobbe family from Holland in the 18th century (yes, Mennonites produced a great deal of quality alcohol in Poland back in the day).  The Maly Holender is absolutely the best place to sample Machandel, and here you can do it properly, with a dried plum skewered onto a toothpick.  Elsewhere in Nowy Dwor Gdanski you can still find the Stobbe family granary.

7. Rosenort Cemetery, Różewo (Rosenort).  You'll find remnants of many Mennonite cemeteries throughout the Werder.  This one is notable because a stone has been erected to memorialize Cornelius Warkentin who was elder here and instrumental in moving Mennonites to Imperial Russia beginning in the late 18th century.  I remember on my first trip to Poland, standing in this cemetery and hearing a hymn sung in German to dedicate this memorial stone.  Hearing the hymn sung in German, in that setting, literally had me crying like a baby and I'm glad I had sunglasses on because it was even a little bit embarrassing.  When you stand in these cemeteries, soak it all in and understand how profound the moment is.

8. Elbląg.  That's Elbing to us Mennonites.  Elbing was a rival to Danzig in importance for our ancestors since the guilds and administration back in the 17th and 18th centuries were more friendly to Mennonites here.  And it's here in Elbing where you'll find what is perhaps the single most stunning example of Mennonite culture still standing.  Back in the day, a Mennonite church couldn't have a steeple or look like a church in any way.  Lutheran guild officials or Catholic administrators or landowners accepted the Mennonites because they were an economic boon.  However, these same officials absolutely did not want Mennonites to proselytize because they didn't want additions to the non-combatant population.  Thus, limitations were placed on their churches and some of the structures became known as "hidden churches".  Walking along on the street, you'd never even know the building behind the door is a church.  You can still find some of these in The Netherlands, but the only one you'll find in Poland is here in Elbing.  And, interestingly enough, this building was one of the few to survive WWII bombings (seriously, you can find pictures from the '40s and this church is still standing while everything else is just destroyed).  The Elbing hidden church is an absolute gem and a must-see for any Mennonite visiting Poland.  A later, 19th century Mennonite church is also located just west of the old town.

Elbing Church: https://aroundus.com/p/12355496-12-garbary-street-in-elblag

9. Heubuden Cemetery, Stogi (Heubuden).  The congregation at Stogi was one of the largest in the Gross Werder and the cemetery is one of the best preserved.  There are more grave markers here than any other Mennonite cemetery in the delta, most of which represent internments from the 19th century.  

10. Tragheimerweide Cemetery, Barcice (Tragheimerweide).  This entry would fit better on the next list; Tragheimerweide is usually considered a Valley congregation, but it rounds out a tidy 10 sites for this half of the list.  Tragheimerweide was the latest of the original Mennonite congregations to be established.  Congregants from nearby Montau left the area in 1713 for the Memel River lowlands (then in the Kingdom of Prussia) but returned to the Vistula (Royal Prussia, semi-autonomous province of the Polish Crown) in 1724, establishing this congregation south of Sztum (Stuhm).  This cemetery actually served the residents from Zwanzigerweide while another nearby cemetery served those residents from Schweingrube.  In my opinion, this is the more worthwhile of the two to visit.  Similar to the Heubuden cemetery above, this cemetery largely includes19th century memorial stones.