COLUMN: Carillon Flashback July 10, 1985 – Steinbach lawyer writes third Mennonite history

Steinbach lawyer Delbert Plett hopes his third history book, The Golden Years, is a more favoUrable interpretation upon the Mennonite history of the Kleine Gemeinde than most histories of recent years.

The 350-page book follows the history of the Kleine Gemeinde (little church) from its founding in 1824 until a quarter century later.

The Kleine Gemeinde was the Russian Mennonite group which settled the Steinbach-Blumenort area in 1874. Two modern church groups, which have developed from the Kleine Gemeinde, are the Evangelical Mennonite Conference and the Church of God in Christ Holdemann.

The book, which uses extensive documentation from that era, is written from the viewpoint of the Kleine Gemeinde themselves, Plett said.

It develops the argument that the church represented a renewal movement among the Mennonites living in the Molotschna area of Russia.

The Kleine Gemeinde movement represented a return to the theological position of the Anabaptist-Mennonites of the 16th century, Plett said, adding members of the group saw themselves as restoring New Testament Christianity to the community.

Key figures in Plett’s book are Klaas Reimer, Heinrich Balzer and Abraham Friesen.

Reimer, who was born in 1770 and died in 1837, was the first bishop or Aeltester of the Kleine Gemeinde. He has often been given very negative ‘press’; Plett feels he has interpreted Reimer much more favourably.

Plett explains that Friesen, who was born in 1782 and died in 1848, was the second bishop.

“He was a consolidator and builder, who pulled the whole thing together and made it work.”

Balzer, who was born in 1770s and died in 1846, was the theologian of the trio, Plett said.

Plett reprints Balzer’s treatise Faith and Reason.

Plett noted most descendants of the Kleine Gemeinde living in the Steinbach-Blumenort area can claim Friesen and Reimer in their ancestry.

Previous books written by Plett are The Plett Picture Book and History and Events. Plett has recently completed the manuscript for a fourth book, Storm and Triumph.

History and Events reprinted manuscripts written by the Kleine Gemeinde between 1866 and 1876. The fourth will interpret the history of the church between 1849 and 1876.

Plett said his interest in the history of the movement began in the late 1970s, after he had become interested in his own genealogy.

While researching his first book, he found a “mass” of material on the history of the Kleine Gemeinde. Plett said he ensured that material was preserved by photocopying much of it, which he intended to hand over to an archivist or historian.

“After publishing Plett Picture Book, I thought, why not publish a few of those documents?”

The result was History and Events.

While writing the book, Plett practised law only half-time, as he spent the rest of his time in research and writing.

Actual writing of his latest book began in 1982, Plett said.

– with files from Tim Plett