Historical note

David G. Rempel (17 November1899 to 27 June 1992) was born in the village of Nieder Chortitza, Chortitza Colony, in South Russia, where his parents Gerhard Rempel (1863-1919) and Maria Pauls (1867-1920) ran a store and grain-hauling business and encouraged their children to pursue higher education.  David attended the elementary school in his village, and graduated from the Chortitza Zentralschule (high school).  After beginning studies in the School of Commerce in Barvenkovo but then seeing the Russian Revolution and ensuing Civil War disrupting his plans to enter the family business, he attended and graduated from the Chortitza Lehererseminar (Teachers’ Training Seminary) in Rosenthal.  The situation with roving banditry worsened in the area, and Typhus took both his parents and brother Heinrich.  David taught elementary school from 1920 until 1922, when Soviet officials removed him from this position: his brother was a minister.  In 1923, David immigrated to Canada with his brothers John and Jacob, later followed by their sister Maria. 

After a year in Rosthern, SK, where he began his English studies at the German-English Academy, David went on to complete a BA at Bluffton College, Ohio, and an MA at the University of Wisconsin in 1930.  He earned a PhD in history in 1933 from Stanford University; his dissertation was titled “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia: A Study of their Settlement and Economic Development from 1789 to 1914”.  Dr. Rempel taught history at San Mateo Junior College (the College of San Mateo) from 1934 until his retirement in 1964, except for three years during World War II when he served as President Eisenhower’s military historian.  In 1962, he became one of the first North Americans to obtain access to the Soviet archives in Moscow and Leningrad; here he conducted detailed research on the Tsarist government’s records of settling colonists from the German lands and other areas of Europe in the 1760s, and then focused on the bureaucratic relationship between the Russian State and Mennonite settlers from Prussia during colonization efforts and activities from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century.  

In 1930, David Rempel married Laura Kennel (1901-1950); they had two daughters, Sonia and Cornelia, each of whom also earned a PhD (and donated this collection to the MHA).  Widowed in 1950, David married a widow Maria Ringelman Cavanaugh (1898-1984) in 1963.  For most of his life, David and his family lived in California, but visited his family and friends in Canada frequently.

After his retirement from teaching, Rempel was able to devote more time to studying and writing numerous articles, reviews, and critiques about Russian-Mennonite history. He implored his fellow writers (and “Reviewers, Commentators, Translators, Editors, and Publishers of Mennonite Writings”; see File #21 below) to base their accounts less on long-heard family stories or myths and more on evidence found in records.  Dr. Rempel gained his reputation as a distinguished professor of Mennonite history not least by highlighting information gleaned from archival records and insisting on evidence-based accounts of history.  He continued to support further scholarship in Russian-Mennonite history, to which he dedicated himself for many fruitful decades.  David G. Rempel died at the age of 92 in June 1992 in Menlo Park, California, leaving the Mennonite world a richer legacy of meticulous scholarship. 

Rempel’s research into his family history and accounts of his life can be found in the 356-page memoir A Mennonite Family in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, 1789-1923 published posthumously in 2002 by the University of Toronto Press.  His daughter Cornelia Rempel Carlson edited his manuscript.

Scope and content note

This collection consists of the 95 files which Dr. Rempel selected from the St. Petersburg Archive related to Mennonites which he requested to have microfilmed in 1962. The St. Petersburg (known as Leningrad at the time) Archive holds the documents of the Russian Senate (later referred to as the Duma) for the period of 1789 to 1917.  

The texual materilas consists primarily of material written by David G. Rempel about Mennonites in Russia: in correspondence with fellow historians and relatives, in unpublished manuscripts, and in published articles; several photographs are included.  In addition to this collection in the MHA, much of David G. Rempel’s papers can be found in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies Archives in Winnipeg, as well as in MHA (Vol. 6662-9 Al Reimer: Correspondence with David G. Rempel) and the MHA Microfilm Collection.  The language used in this collection is mostly English, with some High German, Low German, and Russian.  

The textual materials has been organized into four categories: correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and published works, with the photographs described last.  The donors presented the collection already organized,

Index terms

Creators

Adjunct descriptive data

Finding aids

Finding aid consits of a file list.

Notes

Custodial history

David G. Rempel had the 16 rolls of microfilm in his private possession until the early 1980s when it was donated to Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ontario. The microfilms duplicated and distributed to Mennonite archives by Tim Janzen in January 2003.

The textual materials created by historian David G. Rempel (and those with whom he corresponded) and one file of his brother John G. Rempel’s writings, all collected by his daughters Cornelia Carlson and Sonia Conly who then donated it to the Mennonite Heritage Archives in 2023.  

Physical description details

Described by Conrad Stoesz February 28, 2003, textual materials described by Helene Warkentin May 2025.

Language

Russian and German and English

Restrictions on access

No restrictions on access.

Other notes

Accession number: 2003-022, 2023-058

File List:

Dr. David G. Rempel's Microfilms of Mennonite Related Documents in the St. Petersburg Archives

In 1962 the noted Mennonite historian Dr. David G. Rempel (1899-1992) had the opportunity to do research in the State Archives of Russia located at the University of St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Russia. This archive is generally referred to as the St. Petersburg Archive and holds the documents relating to the Russian Senate (later referred to as the Duma) for the period of 1789 to 1917. Dr. Rempel chose 95 files which contained material relating to Mennonites from among those he reviewed and had the archive microfilm those files. The 16 microfilms that Dr. Rempel had made were in his private possession until the 1980s when he donated them to Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ontario. Dr. Rempel's original inventory of the files included in these microfilms and as well as the brief descriptions he wrote of the contents of each file has been edited by Tim Janzen and Sam Steiner and is the version of the inventory shown below on this web page.

Copies of the David Rempel's 16 microfilms will be distributed to the following archives and historical societies by January 2003:
1. Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2. Centre for M. B. Studies, Winnipeg, Manitoba
3. Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario
4. Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta, Calgary, Alberta
5. Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
6. Mennonite Historical Society of B. C., Clearbrook, British Columbia
7. Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas
8. Center for M. B. Studies, Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas
9. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, Nebraska
10. Germans from Russia Heritage Society, Bismarck, North Dakota
11. Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana
12. Center for M. B. Studies, Fresno, California
13. Mennonitische Forschungstelle, Weierhof, Germany
14. Mennonite Archive, Asuncion, Paraguay
15. Fernheim Colony Archives, Paraguay

In addition to the material that Dr. Rempel had microfilmed, a different microfilming project sponsored by four major Mennonite archives was carried out at the St. Petersburg Archive in 1996 and 1997 which resulted in the production of 29 microfilms. This collection of microfilms is generally referred to as the St. Petersburg Microfilm Collection and an inventory to these microfilms may be found at www.mhsc.ca. It so happens that there are 20 files found in Dr. Rempel's microfilms that also are found in the St. Petersburg Microfilm Collection.

Tuextual records 

Correspondence (Files often contain copies of both sides of the correspondence, much of which concerns their overlapping experiences and first-hand knowledge of Mennonite history, including material not found in their published works.)

1.      1. Correspondence with Dr. George K. Epp (1924-1997), Menno Simons College, Winnipeg. -- 1988-1992.

2.      2. Correspondence with Nikolai Klassen (1885-1975), Vancouver, BC, including 10 letters to and from Klassen’s daughter Margaret Klassen, St. Catharines, ON. Includes a photo of N. Klassen, newspaper clippings, and his funeral brochure. -- 1965-1976.

3.      3. Correspondence with Dr. Harry Loewen (1930-2015), U of Winnipeg. -- 1990-1992.

4.      4. Correspondence with the artist Henry Pauls, a relative (cousin?), and his wife Sara, Blytheswood, ON.  -- 1964-1992.

5.      5. Correspondence with Peter Rempel (1969- ), Moscow; includes a map, a family tree, and photos of his father and grandfather, both named Peter Rempel. 1982-1991

6.      6. Correspondence with Dr. Victor and Elizabeth Peters (1915-1998, and 1919-2011), Winnipeg. -- 1969-1992.

7.      7. Correspondence with Dr. James Urry, New Zealand, with one letter from Urry to Sonia.  1989 and 1994.

8.      8. One letter from “Cousin Olga” (Braun), Rabbit Lake, SK. – 1986.

Unpublished manuscripts

9.      9. D. G. Rempel: a 29-page manuscript titled “The Foreign Colonization Policies, ca. 1762-1862”, typed.  Included is information regarding the formation of policies intended to encourage and accommodate immigration of Western Europeans to South Russia, now Ukraine, a reference to the indigenous populations in the region (Cossacks, Nogai Tatars, etc.) in the reigns of Elizabeth (1741-1762) and Catherine II (1762-1792), an era of Russian expansion toward the southwest and the area’s colonization and agriculturization.  French Protestants, German Protestants and Catholics, Polish Catholics, later even some persecuted Old Believers, as well as English skilled workers were considered.  Catherine’s 1762 manifesto invited “foreigners, except Jews, to come to Russia…. also Russian fugitives from justice, army-deserters…and sectarians to return home.” (pp. 16-17).  “[T]he invitations appeared mainly in newspapers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, …in Holland, the German Free Cities, and in a few other small German states” (p. 17).  Rempel lists the 12 (interesting) rights and privileges, 1763, and a list of “available colonization lands” (pp. 18-19), then discusses weaknesses, successes, and details of the 1763 laws.  (Point 6 strictly prohibited proselytizing other Christians; i.e. Russian Orthodox.)  Over the second half of the eighteenth century, the plan transplanted “nearly one million Russian resettlers, while the much-touted invitation to foreign settlers brought only about 15,000 colonists to the same region…” (p. 29). – no date.

1010. D. G. Rempel: “The Founding of Foreign Colonies, circa 1764-1870”; in the original 36-page document and a copy, state strategies regarding foreign settlements in Tsarist Russia are discussed, with a focus on immigration and settlement of German and other colonists in the 1760s, and the state’s treatment of various non-Orthodox groups in Russia.  Rempel particularly emphasizes the strong prohibition of the Tsarist regime and state church against foreign colonists proselytizing members of the Russian Orthodox church. – no date.

11  11. “Jacob Esau Collection” in 3 parts is preceded by a letter from DGR to Paul and Esther Esau regarding Mennonite educational institutions in Canada, 1980.  The first manuscript in this Collection consists of “Recollection of my public life in Russia, 1884-1918”, a 20-page manuscript by Johann J. Esau (b. 1859 in Halbstadt, Molotschna, d. 1940 in Davis, California; see GAMEO), a mechanical engineer trained in Riga, Latvia, and who immigrated to the USA in 1922.  Der Bote featured several articles about and by him in 1970; see also Vol. 3345: 28-40 at the MHA, Winnipeg.  The second part, author unknown but presumably DGR, consists of 28 typed pages of 54 detailed footnotes accompanying the first article.  The third part is titled “Johann Esau 1859-1940” and begins with “Antecedents of the Esau Family”; at 21 typed pages long, no author indicated but likely DGR, it fails to cover Esau’s life in America. – pre-1940 and circa 1980.

12 12. D. G. Rempel: Stresses and Strains in the Early Years of the Khortitza Settlement With Special Emphasis on the Paucity of Mennonite Records and Scholarly Studies on this Period and the Negotiations Preceding the Emigration to New Russia, 180 pages typed, in four parts: Introduction, pp. 1-58; Final Negotiations. Approval of Land Grant and Special Privileges by Viceregent and Empress, April-September 1787, pp. 59-88; Return of the Deputies and Trapp. Joyous Reception and Enthusiastic Response to their Reports. And the “Prussian Plague.”, pp. 89-125; Trappe’s Recall. His Efforts to Minimize its Impact Upon the Emigrants and the Emigration Itself. His Moves to Evade the Recall Order, pp. 126-150; The Issue of Evangelism and Missionary Exploits in Tsarist Russia, pp. 151-180.  – no date.

1313. D. G. Rempel: “I Too was there, and Mead I Drank….”  An Analysis and Commentary on the Mennonite Film “And When They Shall Ask”; typed script, 166 pages.   – no date, ca. 1986.

14 14. Johann G. Rempel: “Hans im Glück”, a memoir by DGR’s brother John (1890-1963); typed, in German, 119 pages. – ca. 1963.

15 15. D. G. Rempel: “Aus Unserer Geschichte Russlands. Ihr Monopol der Missionstaetigkeit und die Mennoniten.” [From our History in Russia. Its monopoly regarding missionary activity and the Mennonites]; prepared for submission to Der Bote in 1968 but Rempel decided to forgo this effort to publish (see “Prefatory note” in # 16); 72 pages, typed, in German. – 1967.

16.  D. G. Rempel (3 documents in the original folder): “Prefatory note”, 2 pp., no date; “State and Church in Tsarist Russia. The Church’s Monopoly of Proselytism and the Mennonites”, typed, in English, 47 pages; and a 28-page, typed document titled “Introduction” (the mystery for the researcher will be, introduction to which of Rempel’s works?) – ca 1968-1978.

17. D. G. Rempel: “Mennonite Alternative Service and Expropriation Decrees” in 13 chapters: Mennonite Alternative Service System, pp.1-8; Mennonites in the Service of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, 9-18; Headquarters of the Mennonite Service with the Zemstvo Union in Moscow, 19-27; Anxiety over the Possible Loss of the Privilege of Alternative Service, 28-42; Service in Difficult Times and Under Severe Strains, 43-49; The Gathering Storm. Anti-German Colonist Sentiment. Proposed Restrictive Measures Prior to 1914, 50-66; The Reign of Nicholas II. The Stolypin Era, Its Effects Upon the Colonists, 67-84; Policies of Expropriation, 1914-1917. The Decrees of Liquidating the Landownership of German Colonists, 85-102; The Duma’s Attitude Towards the Decrees of 1915-1916, 103-122; Enforcement of the Decrees during the first half of 1916, 123-141; The Issue Once More Before the Duma, February-November 1916, 142-177; Renewed Enforcement of the Decrees and their Consequences July 1916 – February 1917, 178-1218; and Mennonite Efforts to Escape the Decrees, Conditional Success, pp. 1-37.  (Note: see also Vol. 6664-11 for Rempel’s 173-page manuscript “Mennonite Alternative Service System”, annotated by Al Reimer.) – ca. 1980.

1818. “Of Things Remembered”, a compilation by John and David Rempel in 5 parts: first, a detailed Table of Contents and Preface by DGR; [Part I “The Mennonite Alternative Service System”, by DDR, is missing, according to a note from the donors, but see the note in File # 17 above]; Part II “Wartime Recollections”, by JGR, published; Part III “From the Early Days of the Revolution. Moscow Recollections”, by JGR, [MQR, 91, (4)]; Part IV Mennonite “Revolutionaries”, by JGR and DGR, [JMS 10, 1992]; Part V Mennonite Makhnovtsy and the Machnovshchina in the Khortitza Settlement, with Special Emphasis on Nizhniaia Khortitza, by JDR and DGR. – ca 1950s to 1992.

19 19. A Russian-language excerpt from a book by D. T, Evarnitskii about Zaporozhkii Cossacks, from DGR’s library. – 1898.

20 20. “Just Memories” by John G. Rempel, “published in the 1920s in Der Bote”, translated by David G. Rempel: this consists of a one-page outline titled “Off (sic.) Things Remembered and a handwritten copy of several pages of excerpts on the topic, not the complete article; a collection of memoirs starting with “1. Farewell”, 2. “Our Farewell”, 3. “First Mobilization”, and “Why the Children?”; Parts 3 and 4 of John G. Rempel’s account of his experiences at the Fifth Mennonite World Conference, 1952; a copy of J. G. Rempel’s 85 page, German-language book Mein Heimatdorf Nieder Chortitza (published by Der Bote, nd); a 3-page, typed, incomplete article: “Summary of the 5^th Mennonite World Conference – August 10-15, 1952, attached to an email from Agnes (Rempel) Wall to Sonia (Rempel) and Rob, 17 May 2005; 2 copies of a letter from Gerhard Rempel to his brother Rev. John G. Rempel in Rosthern, SK, 1945, written in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and translated from German to English by J.G.R.’s daughter Agnes (Rempel) Wall; an article “A Search for Aunt Anganeta’s Daughter” by Agnes Wall; and 6 letters between cousins Agnes Wall and Cornelia Carlson. – ca. 1920s to 2005.

21.  D. G. Rempel: “A Plea for Questioning and Understanding.  Addressed to Reviewers, Commentators, Translators, Editors, and Publishers of Mennonite Writings”, 18 pages, typed.  – 1985.

Published works

22 22. David G. Rempel: “The Expropriation of the German Colonists in South Russia During the Great War”, Journal of Modern History, (Vol. IV, No. 1, March 1932, pp. 49-67). – 1932.

23 23. D. G. Rempel: “The Mennonite Immigration to New Russia (1787-1870)”, Mennonite Quarterly Review, (Vol. IX, No. 21, April 1935, pp.71-91). – 1935.

24 24. A copy of Mennonite Life, January 1969.  See pp. 8-28 for D.G. Rempel’s article “From Danzig to Russia”.  – 1969.

25 25. D. G. Rempel: “The Mennonite Commonwealth in Russia. A Sketch of its Founding and Endurance, 1789-1919.” Reprinted from The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Oct. 1973 and Jan. 1974, 97 pp. – 1974.

26 26. D. G. Rempel: “An Introduction to Mennonite Historiography”.  Reprinted from the MQR, Oct. 1974, pp. 409-446.  – 1974.

27 27. A photocopy of D.G. Rempel’s article “Response Concerning Russian Mennonite Medics During World War I” attached to a photocopy of The Mennonite Historian, Vol. XVIII, No. 4, December 1992, which includes this article. – 1991, 1992.

28 28. A copy of The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. LXXXIV, No. 2 (April 2010), a gift from James Urry, who quotes David G. Rempel extensively in his article “The Mennonite Commonwealth in Imperial Russia Revisited”, pp. 229-247. -- 2010

29 29. A copy of the Journal of Mennonite Studies, Vol. 10, 1992, which includes the article “Mennonite Revolutionaries in the Khortitza Settlement Under the Tsarist Regime as Recollected by Johann G. Rempel” that D.G. Rempel translated and annotated; with an Introduction and Postscript by DGR. – 1992.

D. G. Rempel: MQR 1992 ???

Photographs

30 30. Photograph collection: envelop containing 5 postcards of Chortitza with one or two addressed to Maria Rempel; b&w photos: 2 unidentified; one of the Einlage Church, one of Chortitza, one of Peter J. Thiessen family home in Chortitza 1903; of the big rock formation on the Dnieper, 2 of Sanitäter, one of both memorials to J. Höppner and J. Bartsch, and three large photos of scenes along the Dnjepr. – ca. 1900 and 1943.

31 31. Photographs in an enveloped marked “Hospital Train”: 15 photos and a few negatives of Sanitäter (medical orderlies) in Imperial Russia, 1916-1918, relating to Johann G. Rempel’s experiences in service. – 1916-1918.

32 32. A collection of 11 unidentified and 17 identified loose photographs and negatives relating mostly to sites formerly Mennonite villages on the former Molotschna Settlement in Ukraine “taken by James Urry in August 1988”; a battered paper bag (Palo Alto, California, Camera Shop) containing “prints and negatives of Molochnaia”– ca. 1900 and 1988.

33 33. Photographs in an enveloped marked “School”: 4 photos relating to Johann G. Rempel as a student, a newspaper clipping, and a copied photo of a group of students in Nieder Khortitza and Khortitza; 2 sheets to which 6 photos of J.G. Rempel and fellow students and teachers and descriptions have been fastened; 1 large photo of a group of male students from the Chortitza Zentralschule and teachers, 1906-07; 1 large photo of a group of high-school teachers in South Russia assembled in Schönwiese in 1908; photo of some former teachers – “A group of Chortitzer high school teachers in Chortitza and other colonies” assembled in Winnipeg in 1944. – 1900-1944.

34 34. Photographs and drawings: 2 photos of Mr, Esau, Ekaterinoslav, industrialist, 1909?, and someone identified in Russian; photo of a factory in Chortitza’ seven photos of farm equipment described in Russian, 2 sheets of copies of drawings of horse-drawn wheeled wagons.  – ca. 1900.