1789 · event
Settlement at Chortitza
Communities established in the Russian Empire developed several church traditions and later migrated to the Americas and elsewhere.
The Chortitza settlement followed an extended process of invitation, investigation, and travel. The exhibit records that Prussian Mennonites sent Jacob Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch to examine land in 1786. An initial party left in 1788 and joined a larger company of families; after wintering in camp they resumed the journey in early 1789.
By 1800 the panel places about four hundred families in fifteen villages at Chortitza. Letters preserved by Mennonite Heritage Archives connect the settlers with the Prussian congregations they had left, including correspondence dated 1789. Their new home became a starting point for later colony histories and migrations, while the establishment of Molotschna in the next generation added another important center.
Sources for this history: [1] [2] [3] [4]
