Heinrich Hübert, the first elder of the Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church, was born in Münsterberg, one of the newer villages of the Molotschna settlement in southern Russia. From here he moved to Liebenau, where he became the manager and owner of a treadmill, and served as presiding officer of the village council for a number of years. In 1861 he sold his business interests at Liebenau largely because of the pressure of his creditors, no doubt due to his affiliation with the newly organized Mennonite Brethren Church. Later on he changed his residence to Blumenort, and from there moved to the new Kuban settlement in 1873.

Hübert received his education in the Zentralschule of Ohrloff under Tobias Voth, who inspired in Hübert a love for music, poetry, and nature study. Hübert was a habitual reader of the new books from the circulating library sponsored by Voth, and was inspired by the writings of men like Hofacker, Krummacher, and Spurgeon. In his home congregation, the Ohrloff Mennonite Church, he was held in high esteem until he became a signatory of the Ausgangs-Schrift of the newly formed MB Church on 6 January 1860. Hübert's part in the first struggles of this new movement is not exactly known, but his name is affixed to such documents as the Ausgangs-Schrift, addressed to the Mennonite elders of the Molotschna; the explanation of the Brethren written to the leaders of the churches of Ohrloff and Halbstadt on 19 March I860, in which they replied to the charges that the new group was interpreting the Bible one-sidedly, and respected no existing church organization; the explanation to the Fürsorgekomitee; and the inquiry directed to the Mennonite elders of the Molotschna on 1 January 1861, requesting permission to move away from the Molotschna settlement.

30 May 1860 was designated by the new church for the election of ministers in the home of Jakob Reimer, where 27 members cast their votes, 24 for Heinrich Hübert as the first preacher of the MB Church. Hands were laid on Hübert by the oldest brother of the group, Franz Klaassen, of Elisabethtal. He was ordained elder in 1868 in the home of Cornelius Neufeld in Neukirch by Johann Fast of Rückenau.

Movements of a highly emotional nature (die Fröhlichen), which threatened to make inroads upon this new group, were firmly restrained and in 1862 officially condemned by Heinrich Hübert and his assistant, Jakob Becker.

When Hübert was imprisoned at Tokma by the Russian government on a false charge that he had baptized a Russian, the emotional forces gained control and dismissed Hübert from his office. His case was reviewed, however, in 1865, and repentance on the part of those responsible for ousting Hübert opened the door for his reinstatement. The group, not knowing what to do, cast lots which turned in favor of Hübert's reinstatement. When released from prison he resumed his duties until he immigrated to the Kuban settlement, after having ordained Abraham Schellenberg, the elder of the MB Church in the Molotschna. In the Kuban area he was leader of the MB Church until May 1877, when he ordained Daniel Fast as his successor and retired because his health had been seriously impaired during the ten months of imprisonment. In 1895, at the age of 85, he died.

Hübert is said to have been the deepest thinker in the Brethren group of that time, and, although he was handicapped in his public ministry because of a weak voice, his sincere faith more than compensated for this deficiency and succeeded in inspiring faith and Christian living in the newly formed MB Church.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 825. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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