PIETY AND BROTHERLY UNION: JUNG‐STILLING AND THE MENNONITES | CU Experts

ABSTRACTDuring his time at the Kaiserslautern Kameral‐Hohe‐Schule (1777–87), Johann Heinrich Jung‐Stilling came into personal contact with Swiss‐Mennonites. His acquaintance with members of the faith group, together with his own religious belief, of a distinctly Pietistic nature, significantly shaped the positive attitude toward Anabaptism reflected in his fictional texts. This article presents an investigation of Jung‐Stilling's experience of spiritual kinship with Mennonites and his reading of Mennonite research which informed his narrative works, particularly Das Heimweh (1794). Despite prevailing anti‐Mennonite/Anabaptist sentiments in the eighteenth century, Jung‐Stilling praises the faith group's Christian foundations and way of living in his literary texts. The following analysis offers insight into the author's concept of ethical community and brotherly union as well as an explanation for the popularity of his utopian novel among nineteenth‐century Mennonite migrants to Central Asia.

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