Krefeld: refuge, work, and Mennonite community

Mennonites settled at Krefeld early in the seventeenth century and developed linen and silk weaving. Their trade extended beyond the city. The exhibit links their prosperity to protection and favorable taxation under Prussian rulers. Krefeld also became a point of departure for families who sailed on the Concord to Pennsylvania in 1683.

The relationship between economic usefulness and religious protection is visible in the royal visits remembered by the city. Krefeld’s municipal history identifies the visitor in 1751 as Friedrich II, Frederick the Great, and describes his contacts with the von der Leyen silk manufacturers. The exhibit’s wording “Friedrich Wilhelm II” is not repeated here as a verified identification; the municipal account supplies the corrected name.

Krefeld’s place in this history is therefore both a refuge and a migration junction. Some believers built enduring congregational and commercial lives there, while others carried their faith and skills across the Atlantic.