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Sketch of 1876 Reinlander Meetinghouse

The Reinländer (Reinlaender, Reinlander) Mennoniten Gemeinde was a denomination founded in 1875 in Manitoba under the leadership of Aeltester Johann Wiebe (1837-1905) of Rosengart, Manitoba. This church was also commonly known as the Alt-Kolonier or Old Colony Mennonites because they were formed of immigrants from the Chortitza (the first or "Old Colony" in Russia ) and Fürstenland Colonies. Aeltester Johann Wiebe was originally from Fürstenland, Russia.

One bishop, five other ministers, and two deacons immigrated from Russia prior to 1880 and were accepted as leaders by the newly organized church. Twenty-two more were elected in Manitoba between 1876 and 1922. These thirty men are listed in the Reinlaender Gemeinde Buch as recorded by Bishop Isaak M. Dyck (1889-1969) of Mexico.

The first meeting house for this church was constructed in 1876 and used until the church came to an end in Manitoba with the migration to Mexico 1922-1925. The building was then taken over by the Blumenorter Mennonite church, which consisted of recently arrived immigrants from Russia in the 1920s. The Reinlaender Mennoniten Gemeinde in Manitoba dissolved about 1925 after all leadership had migrated to Mexico.

This church had 1648 members in 1891 and a total of 3948 souls which included the unbaptized children that belonged to church families. The membership peaked around 1899 with 2186 members and a total of 5640 souls.

In 1899, 49 families left for the Northwest (which became Saskatchewan in 1905). From 1900 to 1904, additional 125 families moved west. In 1904 the membership was 1885.

When the Manitoba Provincial Government passed its compulsory school attendance legislation in 1916, people of the Reinlaender Church who had gone along with the Manitoba Public School Act of 1890 which had created public school districts throughout the area that they had settled faced what many considered a further deterioration of their promised religious freedom. The issues related to public schools eventually led to the decision to emigrate. About two thirds of the entire Manitoba Reinlaender group emigrated to Mexico between 1922 and 1926 where they founded the Manitoba Colony. The remaining families were without church leadership after 1925 and so the "official" Reinlaender Mennonite Church ceased to exist in Manitoba. Unofficially the remaining group in Manitoba had one meeting place left for them which was in the village of Chortitz. Eventually this group reorganized in the 1930s and registered their denomination as the "Old Colony Mennonite Church of Manitoba."

Bibliography

Additional Information

Table 1

Service Record of Four Reinlaender Bishops

Table 2

List of Ministers

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