Jacob Hoeppner
Jakob Hoeppner ( born January 3, 1748 in Danzig, West Prussia, † March 4, 1826 in Khortytsia, Ukraine) was one of the delegates, who together with Johann Bartsch on behalf of the West Prussian Mennonites in Russia for new settlement areas. They performed their duty by under difficult circumstances.
Life
The situation of the Mennonites in West Prussia had greatly deteriorated. During the First Partition of Poland in 1772 their settlements fell to Prussia. In several edicts them land acquisition were banned and imposed further restrictions. Already on 22 July 1763 German -born Catherine the Great had issued a Manifesto, which promised new settlers land and religious freedom. 1786 invited the ambassador Georg von Trappe by order of Empress Mennonites one to settle in southern Russia. Thereupon Johann Bartsch and Jacob Hoeppner were sent out to look for new settlement areas for emigrating Mennonites. Before she left, there were difficulties with the Danziger Council, which sought to prevent the exodus. Nevertheless Hoeppner and Bartsch traveled as emissaries of the Russian government to Russia, where they also met the Prince Potemkin and the Empress personally. They settled on a fertile area of settlement in Berislav.
At her instigation, emigrated 1789 228 poor families with horse-drawn carts, and later on barges, on an arduous journey to southern Russia (now Ukraine) from. But instead of getting their original area of settlement, possessed of Prince Potemkin, after whom the term has been named Potemkin villages that the Mennonites on the island Khortytsia should settle on the river Dnepr. This area was in the possession of the princes, and it may well be accepted for personal motives. Anyway, this area was nothing compared to the promised land, whereupon the resentment of settlers erupted at Hoeppner and Bartsch. They got little thanks for their efforts. Jakob Hoeppner was even thrown from the Russian government for alleged embezzlement of capital to prison and exiled to Siberia. A year later he was allowed to return.
Hoeppner settled on the island Chortitza, where he actively participated with his family on Mennonite life. When he died there, he was not buried in the cemetery, but at his request on his own land, because the people had treated him so badly. 1889 a monument to him was erected on his grave in honor. This monument is now in the Open Air Museum Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach ( Manitoba ), Canada.