Menno-Blatt, a 4-page (9 x 11 1/2 in.) Mennonite periodical in the German language, issued monthly for the Fernheim settlement of Paraguay since 1930; its editor and publisher until 1955 was Nikolai Siemens. He was succeeded in 1956 by Peter Klassen. The first issue was December 1930, preceded by a 2-page Flugblatt in October 1930. The small hand press, which was a gift of the Mennonite Central Committee, was first set up in Lichtfelde in the home of the typesetter Peter Rahn, and later in the home of the editor in Friedensruh, until it was placed in its permanent quarters in Filadelfia. Originally a 4-page supplement, Kämpfende Jugend, was added, but later discontinued. The economic distress caused by drought and grasshoppers in 1935-1937 compelled them to discontinue the youth supplement. In content the Menno-Blatt served all the Mennonites in the Chaco as an informative journal to keep them in contact with each other and with their friends and brethren in Europe and North America. This paper was perhaps unique in the history of Mennonite colonization, in that it appeared in the first year of a new settlement in a primitive country and continued its publication even in the crises of pioneering. In 1955 it was taken over by Fernheim Colony and made an official publication.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 585. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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