A stark and lonely gravestone marks the spot in Randolph (Chortitz) where Manitoba’s most important and significant Mennonite leader was buried 95 years ago. Gerhard Wiebe led his Bergthal people to Manitoba, a decision which drew the Furstenlander/Old Coloniers here as well, a total of 7000 people. During the 1920s many of their descendants moved to Paraguay and Mexico establishing blooming settlements which now spread out over Latin America with a population in excess of 100,000.

Meanwhile the Mennonites in Manitoba sponsored and welcomed their impoverished brethren fleeing starvation and anarchy in Russia, so that many of them settled here as well. In spite of continual emigration, the Mennonite communities in Manitoba presently number 60,000, or 6 per cent of the total population. They are well represented in all segments of Manitoba’s economy and society.

It is trite to say that without Gerhard Wiebe and his sincere and inspired leadership, none of this would have occurred. He was truly a father of Manitoba. Not as a political figure, like Louis Riel, who obtained reform by armed revolt, but as a social and cultural leader whose people built the Province and many prospering settlements in Latin America, brick by brick, and acre by acre of thriving farmland.

One would expect that every school child in Manitoba would know the name of Gerhard Wiebe. In fact, the very opposite is the case . . .