© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated November 10, 2010)
Nicolai Thiessen (1874-1949) was born in Schoenfeld, South Russia to Nicolai Thiessen (1844-1918) and Helena Friesen (1845-1883). He studied theology at St. Chrishona, Switzerland. He advanced his preparation for mission work through language study in Holland in 1904. Then in 1905 he went to Java, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia today) as a missionary. He married Johanna Schmalz in 1907. They had 4 daughter together before she died in 1912. A year later he married her sister Lydia Schmalz, who had become the primary caregiver of the younger children. Together they had another 4 daughters.
Nicolai Thiessen served as a missionary with a Dutch Mennonite Association in Java for 32 years, retiring in 1937. In 1938 he visited his siblings in Canada that he had not seen since June 1905 in Russia. He also visited Mennonites in West Prussia before the start of World War Two in 1939. During the war years, he stayed in Eindhoven, The Netherlands with his daughter Helena, where he met many Mennonite refugees who later immigrated to Canada.
Nicolai Thiessen died on 9 June 1949 at Yseldoarm, The Netherlands. His wife died just the next year on 17 Jan 1950 in Apeldoorn, Gelderland, Netherlands. (See Mennonitische Rundschau, 3 Aug 1949, p. 5; 15 Feb 1950, p11.
This fonds contains 120 letters that Nicolai Thiessen received mainly from his father, Nicolai Thiessen (1844-1918) and siblings of Schoenfeld, Russia, during the years that he served as a missionary in Java, Dutch East Indies (named Indonesia after 1949). (A few letters are from other friends or acquaintances.) The letters contain hints about the nature of the mission work and preparation for it, and also they tell of conditions in Russia from 1905-1917. The letters contain information about the economic, political, social and religious life in the Mennonite colonies in South Russia. Deaths in the community are often reported. There are several letters written a brother from the Forestry Service camp. One letter is dated 1924 and one 1935.
German (typewritten transcription available); Inventory file list available.
The letters in this collection were probably brought to Canada by Missionary Nicolai Thiessen in 1938 and given to his siblings who had emigrated from Russia and settled in Manitoba. Here the letters circulated between various siblings and eventually came to reside with Peter and Anna (Thiessen) Friesen of Pigeon Lake. Rudy Friesen, their son, brought them to the Heritage Centre in 2008, where volunteer Jake I. Friesen, transcribed and prepared typewritten copies of the hand-written Gothic letters.
German (Gothic hand-written)
Arranged and described by Alf Redekopp, November 2010.
None to access
Rudy Friesen of St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba.
Acc. No. 2008-089