104 Fontane Blätter 104 Literaturgeschichtliches, Interpretationen, Kontexte First Partition of Poland in 1772 friction with the Prussian state led to the beginning of emigration to Russia. Starting in 1874 when military service was being introduced in Russia and in Prussia for Mennonites, some Men­nonites in these two countries began leaving for Canada and the United States. From Switzerland Mennonites left for the Palatinate and Alsace in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries only to leave from there for the British colony of Pennsylvania beginning in the late seventeenth century. This southern flow of migration lasted all the way into the early twentieth century. Until the end of the nineteenth century Mennonites were the larg­est Christian minority in Germany who did not derive from Catholic, Lu­theran, or Reformed origins. The roughly 13,000 Mennonites in the prov­ince of Prussia were the majority of the 20,000 Mennonites in Imperial Germany. 51 Following the establishment of the North German Confederation the first Reichstag was elected on August 31, 1867. In October they discussed possible exceptions to military service to be included in the constitution. The government´s proposal was to allow only three exemptions, members of the Hohenzollern family, members of former ruling families, and Men­nonites and Quakers residing in the province of Prussia, because they al­ready had this exemption. The debate was quite lively. The National Liberal Adof Weber was adamantly opposed to the religious exemption, claiming that»Wer seine Heimath nicht vertheidigen will, der mag sie verlassen! Wer sein Vaterland nicht vertheidigt, der hat keins.« 52 As Socialists, August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht proposed abolishing not only the draft but the army altogether in favor of a citizens´ militia based on the Swiss model. Their proposal occasioned extremely boisterous protests from other mem­bers of the Reichstag. At the end of the debate the Reichstag voted to accept the first two exemptions and deny the third. 53 This decision created a deep division in the Mennonite community of provincial Prussia. The supporters of their traditional exemption travelled to Berlin multiple times to meet with king, crown prince, and many minis­ters and members of the Reichstag and Landtag. Bismarck was the one poli­tician who refused to receive them and he blocked their attempts to obtain a royal executive order that would nonetheless restore their exemp­tion. They also orchestrated petitions to the various parliaments. On March 3, 1868, they were offered noncombatant service in the army as an alterna­tive to regular service. After some initial hesitation, the majority accepted this offer. The minority continued to fight military service tooth and nail. Some emigrated to Russia which drew comments critical of the govern­ment in July 1868 in the Vossische Zeitung for letting these valuable citi­zens emigrate. David van Riesen gave up his German citizenship in 1871 in preparation of his emigration, but then stayed and escaped military ser­vice since he was no longer a citizen. A quick change in the law closed that