The later East Prussia offered a greater degree of religious freedom than many other European countries, a liberal attitude from which not only Jews benefitted. The Polish feudal lords, for instance, provided for the Catholic minority in the Protestant duchy. The Reformed sovereigns, who were in charge of a country with a Lutheran majority, preferred Huguenots, Scots, Swiss and people from Hesse-Nassau as settlers.
Mennonites lived in the Memel territory. With their rejection of military service and infant baptism – they only accepted the baptism of a responsible adult – they were persecuted many times but tolerated in East Prussia at times as good farmers and craftsmen.
This attitude continued in the 19th century, when in 1825 the foundation of Philippian villages on uncultivated land in the forests of Masuria was permitted. The Philippians were Old Believers of the Orthodox Church who were persecuted in Russia. In 1846 Julius Rupp founded one of the first Protestant free churches in recent times in Königsberg.
Illustration:
Mennonite church in Plauschwarren