Category: Anabaptist History
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Introduction to Anabaptist Origins — Reagan Schrock
Reagan Schrock introduces Anabaptist Origins, a ten-part documentary series created with Dean Taylor and Steve Russell to make the first hundred years of Anabaptist history more accessible, explaining how filming on location in Switzerland and Germany brings the story to life.
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From Compromise to Conviction: The Story of Jacob Ammon — Ephraim Renno
Ephraim Renno gives a historical overview of Jacob Ammon and the early roots of the Amish movement, describing seventeenth-century Europe, the growth of Anabaptism in the Bernese Oberland, persecution from the Reformed state church, and the zeal that led to the Amish division.
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The Mennonite Nazis, Part 2 — Chester Weaver
Chester Weaver continues the Mennonite Nazi story by showing the consequences of German Mennonite compromise with nationalism and Adolf Hitler. He describes how Mennonite definitions of neighbor narrowed along ethnic lines, and how silence and cooperation made Mennonites complicit.
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The Mennonite Nazis, Part 1 — Chester Weaver
Chester Weaver begins a two-part account of German Mennonite support for Nazism by asking why a people with an Anabaptist heritage of nonresistance could become loyal to Adolf Hitler. He traces the story through lost two-kingdom teaching, ethnic German pride, theological liberalism, and fear of communism.
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The Russian Mennonites’ Story: The Golden Era — Chester Weaver
Chester Weaver gives an overview of the Russian Mennonite “golden era,” tracing Dutch Mennonite migration from the Netherlands and Prussia into Russian settlements. He explains their agricultural success, self-government, wealth, education, renewal movements, and the dangers that came with prosperity and isolation.