We can say, generally, that the Low German Mennonite movement can trace its origins to the Dutch Lowlands during the first quarter of the 16th century. Already by mid-century, some Mennonites were moving into the areas in and around Gdańsk (Danzig) and Elbląg (Elbing). And shortly after mid-century point, some Mennonites were already moving into the Vistula River valley lowlands By the early 17th century, they had spread all along the approximately lower 100 miles of the Vistula River valley from the Baltic Sea coast, all the way south to Toruń. And in the very last decades of the 18th century, they began moving into lands held by the Empire of Russia.
Very often, these people are called Russian Mennonites. I don't particularly like this term. It's not exactly a misnomer in my mind, but I don't feel it's the best term we can use. Alternately, these people are called Dutch Mennonites, Vistula Mennonites, Prussian Mennonites, or Low German Mennonites. These people lived in "Poland" for much longer than they lived in "Russia". Many of them can trace ancestors living in Poland for more than 200 years while the time in Russia may have only amounted to c75 years. In my opinion, Low German Mennonite is the best term to use.
Of course, the term "Poland" is just a little problematic too. Polish geography and history are really complicated and trying to quickly describe this area is really difficult. Poland proper actually includes lands farther south - 100 miles south of the Baltic coast. Greater Poland is the area surrounding Poznań and Lesser Poland is the area surrounding Kraków. These Vistula River areas where most of the Mennonites lived have actually been called Pomerania or Pomerelia or Kashubia or Kuyavia or Chełmno Land or Warmia (and just a little farther south, Masovia too). Prussia, traditionally, was the delta area, particularly to the east of the river. But these areas came to be dominated by the Poles since at least the 13th century. (No, I'm not even going to get into Teutonic Knight domination between the early 14th century until 1466) Certainly by the time the Mennonites came to live there, the Vistula delta and valley were controlled by the Poles and I feel the best way to describe this region, during the Mennonite Era, is Polish Prussia. Today, the area is controlled by Poland. And now that we have all these messy definitions out of the way, I'll simply use the terms "Poland" and "Low German Mennonite".
Obviously, Poland is a very important place for Low German Mennonites. Poland is where their culture grew and flourished and today, in order to understand your Low German Mennonite ancestors, it's crucial that you learn about the areas where they lived in Poland. The very best way to do that is to travel to Poland.
I've been asked many times to compile a list of Mennonites sites in Poland. I've resisted doing that until now in the fear that I'll leave an important site out. However, I will put together the following list because I cannot find a similar list anywhere else that I would be happy with. For instance, you can find biking trails or "Mennonite Trails" online (see: https://polskanarowerze.pl/szlak-mennonitow/). You can also find things like this (https://izi.travel/en/d2d7-mennonites-poland-common-heritage/en) or this (https://greenvelo.pl/en/detal/1403-greenvelo-mennonites-trail), but none of these really suit my needs or give me enough background information. The IZI tour is put together by three friends of mine - certainly in my opinion, three of the best Mennonite historians in Poland today. It's an absolutely fantastic tour but it's just a little bit outdated now. It lacks a couple sites - one stunningly important one - that is very important to me and those three historians will immediately know what I'm talking about. And if you're new to traveling in Europe, or don't feel comfortable driving a car in a foreign country, the annual tour given by the Mennonite Polish Studies Association is a wonderful and enlightening experience (https://mla.bethelks.edu/information/mpsa.php) and would absolutely be worth your money.
The following list will include sites from the Baltic coast all the way to Warsaw. This is not something a person would probably tour with a bicycle. But certainly a visitor from North America could easily tour these sites with a car. But word of advice: before you travel to Poland to visit your ancestral sites, make sure you know where your ancestors lived. If you consider yourself a "Russian Mennonite", your ancestors did indeed live in these Vistula areas. Don't just visit sites I list here. Do the research and get yourself to the proper places.
Here's my list. This is not a ranking of "best" or "most important" or anything like that, it's just simply a list. We'll call it the Rod Ratzlaff Low German Mennonite Heritage Path and divide it into two sections; Delta and Valley/Masovia (although Tragheimerweide will be included with the Delta to make it into a tidy two section list). First is just a general list and then with the next two blog entries I'll repeat the list along with a lot more details.
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
Valley/Masovia
11. Montau Church, Mątawy (Montau); 53°34'32.0"N 18°44'58.2"E
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
13. Przechówko Cemetery, Przechówko; 53°23'26.2"N 18°23'17.7"E
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
