98 Fontane Blätter 104 Literaturgeschichtliches, Interpretationen, Kontexte Although Fontane in May 1886 intended to place his Mennonite village in Dakota or Minnesota based on Lindau´s descriptions, two months later he wrote to his friend Georg Friedlaender that the second half of his novel would be set in Kansas, which was also not quite right since Indian Terri­tory was south of Kansas. From June 18 to the beginning of September he was in Krummhübel and finished the first draft there. 34 The reason for the switch was undoubtedly the additional information about Mennonites he had obtained via Hermann Gottlieb Mannhardt, the Mennonite pastor in Danzig, from whom he sought mission reports about the work among Indians that Lindau had reported. 35 Since A. J. Friedrich Zieglschmid´s 1942 article it has been clear that Fontane had acquired a great deal of authentic material from American Mennonites directly. H. G. Mannhardt had been pastor in Danzig since 1879 and knew Mennonite literature as well as anyone. His uncle and predecessor as pastor, Jacob Mannhardt, in 1854 founded the main Mennonite newspaper in Germany, Mennonitische Blätter. In 1874 H. G. Mannhardt´s second cousin Hinrich van der Smissen had taken over publication from Jacob Mannhardt. H. G. often wrote articles for the paper and as pastor of the largest urban con­gregation within the largest Mennonite settlement in Germany, he had good connections to the wider German-speaking Mennonite community that ranged from North America to Russia. 36 Via Mannhardt Fontane found the mission reports he sought. The Men­nonite mission to Native Americans started in 1880, but preparations had been underway since 1875. Zieglschmid listed three Mennonite newspa­pers as sources for Fontane, but two of these were merely reprinting orig­inal material which all derived from the work of David Goerz. In 1873 G­ oerz emigrated from a Mennonite settlement in Russia to Illinois and then on to Halstead, Kansas, by the end of 1875. He was thus just ahead of the large wave of Mennonite emigration from Russia and Prussia that started in 1874. As an immigration promoter, he founded the newspaper Zur Heimath in Feburary 1875. During that first year immigrants were given a free sub­scription. Mennonitische Blätter received a stack of free samples which they distributed to some of their own subscribers. Initially articles that were geared to helping immigrants were mixed with reports about efforts to set up mission work among Indians. Starting in 1877, however, Goerz divided these two areas of coverage. For mission supporters C. J. van der Smissen in Haysville, Ohio, an uncle of the editor of Mennonitische Blätter, began publishing Nachrichten aus der Heidenwelt. Goerz continued to publish Zur Heimath in Halstead, the paper that Lindau mentioned,»ein halbreligiöses Blatt, das in Halstead herausgegeben wird.« In 1882 the two papers were consolidated under a new title, Christlicher Bundesbote, with Goerz now serving as editor for the section on mission reports. There is