Tiegenhof (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)
Tiegenhof (also known as Nowodwor, Nowodwór, Weiershof, and Weyershof; now known as Nowy Dwór Gdański; coordinates: 54.2166, 19.1166 [54° 13′ 0″ N, 19° 7′ 0″ E]; population in 1905, 2,872; in 2005, 9,984) is located in the area formerly known as the Gross-Werder, 18 kilometers (11 miles) northwest of Elblag (Elbing), 21 km (13 miles) northeast of Malbork (Marienburg), and 30 km (20 miles) east of Gdansk, Poland (formerly Danzig in West Prussia, Germany).
In 1562 the Mennonite emigration from the Netherlands to Tiegenhof began, at a time when the region was under the Polish crown. The king had borrowed money from Hans, Simon and Steffen Loytzen, a banking firm of Danzig, and given them the Tiegenhof area as security, whereupon the Loytzen brothers built a Hof on the Dutch pattern (a model farm with Dutch cows). The farm was initially called "the new farm," and later the Loytzenhof. In order to cultivate the region, which was largely marshy and covered with reeds and underbrush to such an extent that it was not arable, the brothers invited Dutch Mennonites to settle there to clear and drain it. After a certain number of free years the Mennonites were to pay for the lands they made arable at the rate of 52 Talers and 13 chickens per hide. In 1581 the Loytzen firm became bankrupt, and Ernst von dem Weiher took over the district. He completed the castle that the Loytzen brothers had begun; the farm was now called the Weiershof. In 1784 the castle was razed and a Protestant church was built. About 1760 the name Tiegenhof came into use.
Until 1772 the village was located in what was known as Royal Prussia (also known as Polish Prussia) in the Kingdom of Poland. The First Partition of Poland in 1772 resulted in the creation of a new province in 1773, called West Prussia, in which the village was located. The village was situated in the district (Kreis) of Marienburg until the establishment of the Free City of Danzig in 1920. The village came under the control of Nazi Germany during World War II until February 1945, when it was occupied by Soviet forces and returned to Poland.
The Prussian census of 1776 lists 46 Mennonite families in Tiegenhof with the following surnames: Allert, Bachler, Barg, Bestvader, Buhler, Claassen, Conrad, Cornelsen, Daniel(s), Doell, Fast, Friesen, Giesbrecht, Ginther, Haage, Hensel, Kliewer, Klingenberg, Leben, Lemcke, Neubauer, Neudorf, Neufeld, Oehmsen, Penner, Schellenberg, Schirling, Stobbe, Walcke, Warkentin, Werner, Wiens, and Woelke. In 1820 Tiegenhof had 1,694 inhabitants, of which 228 were Mennonite.
The central location of the town for the Mennonite congregations in the Gross-Werder area made it a convenient meeting place for conferences of the Mennonites of East and West Prussia, which frequently met here, and for Bible conferences.
"Familienforschung in Westpreußen." Hans-Jürgen Wolf. Web. 29 September 2012. http://www.westpreussen.de.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. IV, 329-330.
Regehr, Ernst. Geschichts- und Predigertabelle der Mennonitengemeinde Rosenort. 2d ed. Elbing, 1939.
Szper, Felicia. Nederlandsche Nederzettingen in West-Pruizen . . . . Enkhuizen, 1919: 95-113, 205, 221, 223.
|Richard D. Thiessen|
|Date Published||February 2013|
Cite This Article
Regehr, Ernst and Richard D. Thiessen. "Tiegenhof (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. February 2013. Web. 22 May 2019. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Tiegenhof_(Pomeranian_Voivodeship,_Poland)&oldid=144635.
Regehr, Ernst and Richard D. Thiessen. (February 2013). Tiegenhof (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 May 2019, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Tiegenhof_(Pomeranian_Voivodeship,_Poland)&oldid=144635.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 722. All rights reserved.
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