Cornelius Krahn, Dutch Anabaptism: Origin, Spread, Life and Thought (1450–1600) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968). Christopher’s own copy. Krahn was Christopher’s great-uncle by marriage: Cornelius Krahn - the family’s historian of Dutch Anabaptism.
What the front matter says (photographed 2026-10-31)
- Scope (jacket flap): the origin and spread of Anabaptism 1450–1600, “between Antwerp and Danzig; Cologne and London”, including influences from Wittenberg, Zürich, Strassburg, Antwerp, Emden, Cologne and Münster.
- Preface: Dutch Anabaptist “refugee settlements and churches had been established along the North Sea and the Baltic Coast from Emden and Hamburg-Altona up to the mouth of the Vistula River” before the Netherlands won independence. Anabaptism was brought to the Low Countries by Melchior Hofmann, coming from Strassburg in 1530; Menno Simons and Dirk Philips then consolidated the movement. This is the route of The Wiebe faith trail - Friesland to the Vistula.
- Sources: 25 pages of footnotes (pp. 263–288), a selected bibliography (pp. 289–291) and a detailed index (pp. 292–303). Krahn worked mainly in the Bethel College Historical Library and Archives (which “has most of the books and archival materials used”), the Amsterdam Mennonite archives and the University Library of Amsterdam, with research leaves in the Netherlands in 1953–54 and 1963–64. Preface signed at North Newton, Christmas 1967.
- pp. 1–5 (ch. I): the Low Countries’ geography; the Frisians predominant in the north; Amsterdam as the link between the Baltic cities and Flanders, with Low Countries ships trading “between Lisbon and the mouth of the Vistula River” (p. 3); Charles V made “lord of Friesland” in 1524 and taking Groningen and Drenthe; Philip II from 1555 and Alva’s inquisition (p. 5): the persecution the first Dutch Mennonites fled.
Contents, mapped to the vault
| Pages | Chapter / section | For |
|---|---|---|
| 1–20 | I. The Low Countries During the Middle Ages | background |
| 21–43 | II. The Dawn of a New Day; II.B.3 Cologne and Münster (35); II.B.4 East Friesland (37) | 1530 Melchior Hoffman baptizes at Emden |
| 44–79 | III. The Evangelical Sacramentarian Reformation; III.A.3 Wittenberg and Zürich (52) | Swiss and Dutch roots |
| 80–117 | IV. Melchior Hofmann: A Prophetic Layman: Strassburg (87); The Anabaptist Apostle to the North (91); The Great Commission (93); The Sign of the Covenant (95); Hofmann and the Melchiorites (111) | Emden 1530; where the two family roots touch (Strassburg) |
| 118–164 | V. Anabaptism at the Crossroads: Centers and Spread of Melchioritism (118, 124); Münster (135–164); Menno and Münster (150) | Muenster, the Dutch Mennonites, the 1711 Swiss and the Wiebes |
| 165–206 | VI. Gathering a Christian Fellowship: A Refuge in East Friesland (175); A Lasco and the Anabaptists (177); In the Pincers of Charles V (180) | Emden as refuge |
| 207–251 | VII. Growth and Molding of the Brotherhood: From Antwerp to Danzig (207); A Refuge in the North (207); The Escape: London and Danzig (211); The Hanseatic Cities, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg (214); Wismar (229); Relationship to the German Mennonites (234) | the Wiebe migration to the Vistula; Hamburg, Altona and the Hansa |
| 252–262 | VIII. Conclusion; The Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists (253) | both family roots compared |
| 263–288 | Footnotes by chapter (ch. VII: pp. 282–287) | archival sources |
| 289–291 | Selected Bibliography | |
| 292–303 | Index (persons, places, topics) | see below |
What the index shows (read 2026-10-31)
No family surnames
The index has no Wiebe/Wybe, Epp, Fieguth, Penner, Claassen, Toews, Wiens or Reimer, and no Adam Wiebe (Dutch names are indexed under the given name; none matches). Krahn’s book is about the movement and its leaders to 1600; it will not name the founding Wiebe. Its value is the setting: where and when Dutch Mennonites settled in Prussia.
The Prussian settlement, by index entry (almost all on pp. 216–220):
| Entry | Pages | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Danzig | 150, 193, 199, 207, 214, 216–220, 224, 228 f., 246 | the Wiebes’ city and congregation |
| [[Elbing | Elbing]] | 63, 216 f. |
| Marienburg | 216 | the Werder, home of the Fieguths, Claassens, Toewses |
| Ellerwald | 218 | Elbing lowland Mennonite settlement |
| Thiensdorf-Markushof | 218 | Mennonite congregation near Elbing |
| Hoppenbruch | 217 | early Dutch settlement by Danzig (see Reimer’s 1619 list) |
| Neu-Schottland | 217 | Danzig suburb where Mennonites lived |
| Rossgarten, Preussisch-Holland, Thorn, Culm, Graudenz | 216 (Culm, Graudenz also 220) | the wider Vistula settlement |
| Drausen Lake | 217 | lowlands drained by the Dutch |
| Edzema, Philip (Frese) | 217 | the locator of Danzig’s first Dutch settlement contract (1547) |
| Leenaert Bouwens; Menno Simons; Dirk Philips | 217, 219 f. | their visits to the Vistula congregations |
| Gnapheus, Willem | 216, 218 | the Dutch humanist schoolmaster at Elbing |
| Frisian / Flemish Mennonites | 214, 258 / 212 ff. | the two branches the Wiebes’ congregations belonged to |
| Szper, Felicia; Kuhn, Walter | 217; 219 | modern historians of the Dutch settlements in Prussia |
| Vistula River; West Prussia; Teutonic Order | 207, 216, 227 f., 250; 216; 216 | |
| [[Harlingen | Harlingen]]; Groningen; Emden | 230, 233 f.; 220, 222; 217 f., 228 ff. |
| Hamburg; Altona; Krefeld | 226 f.; 226; 214, 228 | Hamburg, Altona and the Hansa; Krefeld → Germantown |
The Swiss side (Ramseyer, Neuenschwander, Miller lines): Swiss Anabaptist 252; Switzerland 50, 53, 163, 235 f.; Zylis (Upper German / Swiss Brethren) 187, 235–237; High German Mennonites 235, 237, 253; Strassburg conference 237; Palatinate 251; Peasants’ War 36, 41, 93, 98, 131, 190; Ausbund 199; shunning 234, 237. Key pages: 235–237 (Dutch and Swiss–South German Anabaptists) and 252–254 (The Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists).
Bibliography leads for the Prussian story: Walter Kuhn, Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit II (Köln, 1957); Robert Dollinger, Geschichte der Mennoniten in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg und Lübeck (1930); J. P. Müller, Die Mennoniten in Ostfriesland vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert (1887); Mennonite Life, ed. Krahn (1946–67).
Chapter VII.A, pp. 207–220: “From Antwerp to Danzig” (photographed 2026-10-31)
Krahn’s own account of how Dutch Anabaptists reached the Vistula. Page references are to his text; his footnotes 25–40 (pp. 282–284) give the archival sources.
| Page | What Krahn says |
|---|---|
| 207 | By Hofmann’s death (1543) his followers were spread “along the Baltic Coast from Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg to Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula River”, helped by persecution and by the Hanseatic sea links “from Antwerp to Danzig” |
| 208–210 | Persecution in Flanders and Brabant: Leenaert Bouwens baptized 225 people there in 1554–56 and 367 more by 1565; over 800 Anabaptists executed in the south; the rest fled north or recanted. Philip II and Alva (from 1567) |
| 211 | ”A Refuge in the North”: perhaps 60,000 religious refugees fled south to north |
| 213 | Swiss Anabaptists “survived only in remote areas where they pursued agricultural endeavors” (the Ramseyer and Neuenschwander world); Dutch Anabaptism was urban, tolerated, and kulturfreundlich |
| 214 | The Frisian–Flemish split spread “along the North Sea and the Baltic coast wherever Mennonites resided”. It was so deep that in 1788, when Danzig-area Mennonites planned to move to Russia, the Russian representatives urged them to drop the distinction and come as one group |
| 216 | The first refugees in the Vistula Delta “came primarily from the Low Countries and particularly the southern part where the persecution was most severe”, some via East Friesland, Holstein and Mecklenburg. Tolerated for their skill in draining swamps and as farmers and weavers. Settled first between Danzig, Marienburg and Elbing, then up the Vistula to Graudenz, Culm, Thorn and near Warsaw. “About half of the Mennonites of the world today originally came from the Vistula River area directly or via Russia.” 1527: Duke Albrecht’s Dutch settlement near Preussisch-Holland (failed) |
| 217 | Most settlers “ultimately went to the Danzig Werder (lowlands)”. In 1535 Danzig asked Amsterdam, Antwerp, Enkhuizen and Emden to stop Anabaptists boarding ships for Danzig. Expelled from the city, Mennonites settled in the suburbs Neu-Schottland and Hoppenbruch (under the bishop of Leslau, who wanted artisans after a fire). Visited there by Menno Simons, Dirk Philips and Leenaert Bouwens. Philip Edzema (Frese), a Mennonite, was sent to the Low Countries to recruit settlers for the drainage between Drausen Lake and Elbing; he and Herman van Bommel acquired land in the Danzig Werder. A large stream of refugees reached Elbing in 1531 (Szper) |
| 218 | Another group in 1536; in 1550 Elbing citizens complained, and the Dutch were allowed to settle the uninhabited Ellerwald near Elbing. Menno visited Prussia in summer 1549 and wrote on 7 Oct 1549 to the “Elect and Children of God in the Land of Prussia” about a “severe quarrel”; the copy survived in the Thiensdorf-Markushof church |
| 219 | Dirk Philips heads the list of ministers of Danzig’s Gemeynte Godts; he left Danzig for Emden in 1567 and died there in 1568. Jan van Sol (23 Dec 1550): about 100 arrived that year; they kept small, movable businesses and carried letters of recommendation; deacons ran mutual aid. Walter Kuhn: 1527–1578 about 750 families, some 3,000 people, came to Danzig and East and West Prussia, most of them Mennonites |
| 220 | ”Of 567 Prussian Mennonite names, at least five hundred were of Dutch background” (the surname survey bound with Penner 1963, by Gustav Reimer). Dutch language kept into the 18th century, longest in Danzig. Amsterdam–Danzig ties shown by trial records of 1539–52: many Amsterdam Anabaptists were sailors making repeated trips to Danzig, others had relatives there; the Rametsteegje in Amsterdam was where “strangers from various places” left “every morning to travel east”. By 1600 rural settlement was nearly over. Moravian Anabaptists settled near Culm and Graudenz in 1535 |
Two points to weigh against the vault
- Where the refugees came from. Krahn stresses the southern Low Countries (Flanders, Brabant); Horst Penner (1963) stresses Friesland, Groningen and Emden. Both can be true for different waves. “Wiebe” is a Frisian given name, so the Wiebe founder fits Penner’s northern stream better. See The Wiebe faith trail - Friesland to the Vistula.
- The Danzig letter’s date. Krahn gives 1535; Penner gives 1534 (with the 2 May 1534 Missiva entry). Krahn’s footnote 26 (p. 283) should show which document he used.
pp. 221–237 and the chapter VII footnotes (photographed 2026-10-31)
| Page | What Krahn says |
|---|---|
| 221–223 | Rostock and Wismar: Obbe Philips settled at Rostock as a barber-surgeon and left the Anabaptists about 1540; a group coming directly from Groningen was expelled from Ribnitz in 1556; Wismar a refuge until the Wismar Resolutions of 1554 |
| 224 | From Lübeck “many went on … to Danzig”; Menno lived in Lübeck and Wismar; an Anabaptist printshop in Lübeck |
| 225–226 | Fresenburg near Oldesloe (estate of Bartholomäus von Ahlefeldt, from 1543): Menno’s last home and printshop; refuge until Altona opened |
| 226–227 | The Roosen family (Coord Roosen of Jülich-Cleves, to Steinrade near Lübeck; descendants to Altona 1612): Krahn’s example of a typical Mennonite family’s movements |
| 227–228 | Rural Schleswig-Holstein (900 at a night meeting at Lütjenburg, 1554), Eiderstedt, Glückstadt (1616), Friedrichstadt (1623), Altona (1601, the Grosse Freiheit); Mennonite trades city by city (Danzig: business; Emden: grain, shipping, whaling, distilling; Krefeld: linen and silk); the Vistula Mennonites “and later in the steppes of the Ukraine” in agriculture |
| 229 | Leenaert Bouwens’ baptism list 1551–1582: 10,386 baptized in 182 places from Antwerp to Danzig (cf. Vos - Baptism itinerary of Leenaert Bouwens (1915)) |
| 234 | The Harlingen meeting; strict vs. moderate (Waterlanders) on the ban and shunning, “particularly in family life” |
| 235–237 | The Swiss link. The Dutch quarrels were watched “by those in the Cologne area, in Strassburg, Switzerland, and Moravia”. The High German Mennonites (Zylis, Lemke Cremer) met Menno at Wüstenfelde in 1556. At Strassburg in 1557 about fifty elders from congregations in Switzerland, Moravia, Württemberg and Alsace (some of 500–600 members) agreed on shunning but added that husband and wife should not be separated by shunning; some had known the Swiss martyr Michael Sattler. Menno and Dirk Philips rejected the moderate view, and the Dutch leaders later excommunicated the High Germans. This is the root of the Swiss/South German vs. Dutch split, and an early form of the shunning dispute that produced the Amish in 1693 (1693 The Amish split) |
Chapter VII footnotes (pp. 282–287), the useful ones:
- n. 26 (the Danzig letter, p. 217): Krahn’s source is Horst Penner, Ansiedlung mennonitischer Niederländer (1940), pp. 9 f. So both dates come from Penner; Penner’s 1963 English text gives 2 May 1534 with the archive reference. Treat 1534 as correct; Krahn’s “1535” is probably a slip.
- n. 33: “Flemish Mennonite Church Record of Danzig (Gemeynte Godts), Bethel College Historical Library.” Krahn used an original Danzig Flemish congregation record held at Bethel (now the Mennonite Library and Archives). Lead for the Wiebe side.
- n. 37: the Danzig Flemish record changed from Dutch to German in 1784; Mennonites leaving for Russia took Dutch Bibles, hymnals and the Martyrs’ Mirror, some now at Bethel.
- n. 35: Horst Quiring, “Die Danziger Mennoniten”, in A Legacy of Faith (1962) 192–96; n. 36: Herbert Wiebe, Das Siedlungswerk (1952); n. 28: Felicia Szper (1913), Karl-Heinz Ludwig (1961), and Penner on Philip Edzema.
- n. 49: Gerrit Roosen’s 1709 memoir, typewritten copy at Bethel.
pp. 230–233 and the Conclusion, pp. 252–254 (photographed 2026-10-31)
| Page | What Krahn says |
|---|---|
| 230 | Bouwens’ baptisms by period: 1551–54: 861; 1554–56: 693; 1557–61: 808; 1563–65: 4,499; 1568–82: 3,509. Over 2,000 in Harlingen, over 500 in Dokkum and Emden. The Wismar meeting of 1554 (Menno, Dirk Philips, Bouwens, Gillis van Aken) |
| 231 | The nine Wismar Agreements: marrying outside the church meant being “put out”; shun the excommunicated, including in business; a spouse should shun an excommunicated partner unless prevented by “weak conscience”; members may carry a stick or sword on a journey but not “handle weapons on orders of the magistrate” (early nonresistance) |
| 232–233 | [[Franeker |
| 252 | Swiss Anabaptists “separated directly from the emerging Reformed Church led by Ulrich Zwingli”; Dutch Anabaptism grew from the Sacramentarian movement of the Low Countries. “Dutch Anabaptism is related to Swiss Anabaptism from which Melchior Hofmann indirectly received his Great Commission” |
| 253 | ”The Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists”: the Swiss began with Zwingli (1525) and spread to South and Central Germany, Moravia and Tyrol; Strassburg sheltered most leaders, and there Hofmann joined them before carrying the faith to the Low Countries. Contact “particularly between Cologne and Strassburg”. Both sought a disciplined brotherhood; they differed on how far it could be realized, and on Hofmann’s end-times and Christology, which faded after Münster. Writings crossed both ways: Menno’s Foundation Book in German in 1575, Dirk Philips’ Enchiridion, and the Martyrs’ Mirror “used to this day by the more conservative American Mennonite groups” |
| 253–254 | ”A spirit of genuine brotherhood between the two became apparent when during the early eighteenth century Swiss Mennonites had to leave their country because of persecution and found aid and shelter in the Netherlands. Some stayed and others were helped to proceed to Pennsylvania.” |
Why this matters for the family
Krahn’s conclusion describes the exact point where Christopher’s two lines meet: the 1711 Bernese exiles (1711 The Rhine exodus from Bern) were sheltered and funded by the Dutch Mennonites, the same Frisian-Dutch church that had planted the Vistula congregations of the Wiebes. The Swiss lines (Ramseyer, Neuenschwander, Miller) and the Dutch-Prussian Wiebe line share one ancestry of faith, through Hofmann at Strassburg (1529–30), and touched again in Dutch aid to the Swiss in 1710–11. See Plague, Reformation and the Peasants’ War - where the family stands.
Photographed pages
Other photos in Attachments/Books/Krahn 1968 - Dutch Anabaptism/: jacket flap, contents (pp. VII–IX), preface (2 pp.), pp. 1–5, pp. 207–237, 252–254 (conclusion) (Danzig, Hanseatic cities, Swiss link) and footnotes pp. 282–287, bibliography pp. 289–291 and the whole index pp. 292–303 (added 2026-10-31). Phone originals (HEIC) are kept in the originals subfolder, which is not committed to git.
Next pages to photograph
- pp. 207–220 (photographed and summarized 2026-10-31)
- Footnotes pp. 282–287 (2026-10-31)
- pp. 230–233 (2026-10-31)
- pp. 252–254 (2026-10-31)
- Footnotes for ch. VII, pp. 282–287 (Krahn’s sources for Danzig) task/human
- pp. 37–40, 91–112, 175–180 (East Friesland, Hofmann in the north, Emden as refuge) task/human
Record compiled 31 October 2026.
About this research
Supporting documentation is linked throughout. This project is an exercise in AI-assisted research and development, and I haven’t manually verified every link or conclusion. All transcriptions and translations of Swiss parish records were made with AI, and their accuracy should be treated accordingly.