Gerhard Ens receives Award of Excellence

Gerhard Ens spent most of his life in public service within the Canadian and Manitoba Mennonite communities.  Ens was honored in late January at the annual meeting of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada. He received the Award of Excellence for his life-long advancement of Mennonite History as a minister, teacher, editor, historical society/museum promoter, German and Low German broadcaster.

Ens began his career as a teacher in the village of Gnadenfeld, Manitoba where he taught 60 children in 8 grades in a one-room school.  During the Second World War as a committed conscientious-objector he opted for alternative service. He worked as an orderly in a mental hospital.  He returned to teaching at the Mennonite Collegiate Institute, in Gretna, Manitoba, where he served for 31 years. For ten of those years he served as principle.

Ens was a founding member of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society in 1958 and sat on the board of the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum from 1958-2004. In 1972 he was asked to produce a Low German radio broadcast to promote the centennial of Manitoba Mennonite settlement in Manitoba.  Very quickly this 15-minute program was lengthened to 30 minutes.  Ens continued broadcasting for 34 years. He was never paid for his broadcasts. In total he aired over 1400 programs on three radio stations.

In 1977 he moved to Winnipeg and began editing Der Bote, a Canadian based, German language paper.  Having been ordained in 1957, he was asked to become a lay minister at the Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church.  He preached and taught the German Bible Study there for 30 years.

Upon acceptance of the award Ens said this award was special for him.  Commenting on his Low German broadcasting Ens said; “Mennonites of the Low German persuasion have no homeland in Europe they call their home.  Low German has become a home where people can move in and out of and express themselves”.

The Mennonite Historical Society of Canada and its committees held 4 days of meetings at the Mennonite Heritage Centre in Winnipeg where representatives informed each other of their projects and continued their joint work with the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (www.gameo.org). The aim of this ambitious venture is to provide reliable information on Anabaptist-related (Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, Brethren in Christ) topics, including history, theology, biography, institutions and local congregations. Secular topics from an Anabaptist perspective and full-text source documents are also included.  Since its inception in 1996 it has gained the support of organizations like Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference. 

Conrad Stoesz
Centre for MB Studies/Mennonite Heritage Centre