Johann Bartsch was born September 06, 1757 in Danzig, West Prussia. In 1786, at the age of 29, Jacob Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch were selected by their Prussian congregation to journey to South Russia to learn more about the free land promised by Catherine the Great. They were dubbed 'the Deputies". (For an interesting side story about their direct descendants, click here).

If the Russian offer was deemed to be acceptable, West Prussian and Danzig Mennonites planned to emigrate to the new land to escape from the injustices at home. The trip was long and dangerous. The two men first sailed to Riga, crossed over to the Dnieper River and set sail again in search of desirable land on which to settle.

They met Prince Potemkin, governor general of South Russia and Catherine the Great herself. The men selected an area of land near Berislav. The rich, level plain reminded them of the lowlands of the Prussian Vistula delta. On their way home, they stopped at St. Petersburg where they were presented to Prince Paul (Catherine's successor in 1796), and where they secured official confirmation of the promises made to them by Russian colonization agents.

A year later they were home, slowed down by Bartsch's frozen toes and Jacob's broken leg. Jacob and the other deputy relayed the information from Russia, and suggested that the promised land looked favorable.

By 1788, hundreds of Mennonite families were ready to depart. The migration began, and Jacob and Bartsch were among the first to leave. Following the lengthy journey, the Prussian Mennonites were distraught to learn that the fertile land selected for them by Jacob and the other deputy was unavailable, and that their new location, in the Chortitza area, was on arid wastelands.

Over the following year, the frustration at their situation proved to be too much for a small faction of the Chortitza pioneers. In their anger, the small group looked for someone to blame for their predicament. The two deputies, Jacob and Bartsch, were the obvious scapegoats, and were unfairly blamed for causing the hardships and for betraying the trust of their brethern.

The negativity escalated to the point where the two men were ex-communicated from their Flemish congregatio n. Jacob was even arrested and imprisoned for a period of time. Upon his release from prison, Jacob affiliated himself with a Frisian church and moved to the city of Alexandrovsk. Prior to his death he requested burial on his own estate on Insel-Chortitza, rejecting the cemetary of his former Flemish brethern.

Bartsch had long since asked the Flemish congregation for forgiveness, and had been reinstated into the church (Friesen, P.M., pp. 87-88, 114-118).

In 1889, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the colony, the great-grandchildren of the men who had thrown Jacob into jail erected a marble monument in his memory. The monument stood on Insel-Chortitza, on Jacob's burial site, for decades. Eventually, the Soviets made the decision to have it dismantled.

Through the efforts of Dr. Gerhard Lohrenz and Victor Peters, it was shipped to Canada where it now stands on the museum grounds in Steinbach, Manitoba.