Штайнбах, Манитоба: История и современность города

Steinbach (/audio=En Steinbach. oga/'/s//t//aɪ//n//b//æ//k/) (Plautdietsch: /ˈʃte̞nbax/) is the third largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada and, with a population of 17,806, the largest community in the Eastman region. The city, located about southeast of the provincial capital of Winnipeg, is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Hanover to the north, west, and south, and the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie to the east. Steinbach was first settled by Plautdietsch speaking Mennonites from Ukraine in 1874, whose descendants continue to have a significant presence in the city today. Steinbach is found on the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, while Sandilands Provincial Forest is a short distance east of the city. Steinbach's economy has traditionally been focused around agriculture; however, as the regional economic hub of southeastern Manitoba, Steinbach now has a trading area population of about 50,000 people and significant employment in the financial services industry, automobile sales, tourism, retail, and manufacturing. The city had a population growth of 11.1% between 2016 and 2021 and has gained national recognition as an immigration destination of Canada and a model for immigrant integration in the country. Steinbach's stony brook was drained sometime after settlement. Low German Mennonites named the town Steinbach in 1874, after a village also called Steinbach in Borosenko colony, Ukraine. A bison trail ran alongside the Steinbach Creek on the far eastern edge of the Canadian prairies, a trail that was used by First Nations people for a number of years after settlement. In 1873, the Mennonites sent delegates to North America to investigate and negotiate terms of immigration. After touring a number of locations in North America, many of the delegates decided to move their people to Kansas, however, the more conservative groups were persuaded to settle in the new Canadian province of Manitoba, because the Canadian government was more generous in their guarantees of religious freedom. In 1873, a Privilegium was signed between the Mennonite delegates and the Canadian government, and a year later Mennonites started to arrive in the region. The document guaranteed, among other things, military exemption, freedom of religion, private schools, and land, known as the East Reserve. In the year following the signing of the Privilegium, Mennonites from the Bergthaler and Kleine Gemeinde groups immigrated to Manitoba, aided by Ontario Mennonite Jacob Yost Shantz, and founded dozens of villages in the East Reserve.

Steinbach's original 18 Mennonite settler families were almost entirely of the new Kleine Gemeinde sect of Mennonites, a small conservative minority known for being gifted farmers. They left the Borosenko colony (a newly formed offshoot of the larger Molotschna (or Milk River) colony) in Russian occupied Ukraine This left the community without religious leadership for some time. After a plague of grasshoppers destroyed the crops in 1876, residents of Steinbach met in Blumenort to discuss the possibility of migrating to Minnesota or Nebraska. However, 60 year old matriarch Elizabeth Rempel Reimer persuaded the group to stay in Steinbach, a stirring and historically significant speech which signified the important role of women in the community and resulted in Steinbach's continued survival as a community, unlike dozens of other East Reserve villages which have since disappeared. The death of Rev. Barkman left Steinbach without religious leadership for a number of years, creating a vacuum that made the villagers receptive to John Holdeman when he visited in 1881. After Holdeman's visit, many locals from the Kleine Gemeinde joined his new church, Church of God in Christ, Mennonite. This was the first of many schisms and revivals in Steinbach and eventually the town would be known for having dozens of churches, many of them different variations of Mennonite, a dynamic that has shaped the city's character. In 1911, the Kleine Gemeinde church, who had met in the village school up until this point, constructed a building on the south end of the village. Entrepreneurs took advantage of the business opportunities at the time and several small businesses sprang up. Many other important and large businesses developed as well, helping to establish Steinbach as a regional service centre for the area. By 1915, Steinbach had grown to a population of 463 and continued to attract immigrants from Europe. After the First World War, Borden banned Mennonites and other pacifists from immigrating to Canada. Moscow Road, which had been pejoratively named to refer to the Russlander Mennonites who lived there, was later renamed McKenzie Avenue after the Prime Minister who had allowed them to come to Canada as refugees. In 1931, local man Abraham Loewen founded the Loewen Funeral Chapel, the first funeral home in southeastern Manitoba, which decades later was taken over by his son Ray Loewen, who built the company into the Loewen Funeral Group, before its eventual downfall as depicted in the 2023 film The Burial. In 1941, the Steinbach Credit Union opened, partially in response to the difficulty in obtaining loans from the larger banks. In 1958, Leonard Barkman was elected mayor and served until 1970. In 1960, the Kleine Gemeinde church building, which by then was called the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, burned to the ground. The same year, the last traditional Mennonite housebarn in Steinbach was torn down by A. D. Penner. In 1970, the year of Manitoba's centennial, Steinbach was visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. In May 1980, Steinbach's first shopping mall, Clearspring Centre, opened on the north end of the community. The mall was named after the historic English and Scottish settlement in the area. In fall of 1982, Steinbach drew considerable attention after the school board cancelled a scheduled rock concert in the local high school by Queen City Kids. Hundreds of students staged a protest as a result of the cancellation. The incident was alluded to years later in the work of novelist Miriam Toews. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Aussiedler Mennonites, who had remained in the Soviet Union (particularly Siberia and Kazakhstan) throughout much of the 20th century, or who had resettled in Germany during the 1970s, began to immigrate to the area and continued to do so through the 1990s and early 2000s. Some of these people had converted to the Baptist church during the decades in the Soviet Union. Over all, Steinbach's growth slowed somewhat during the 1980s and early 1990s in comparison to the rate of growth in decades before or since. In 1996, Les Magnusson was elected mayor of Steinbach, the first non ethnic Mennonite to hold that position. Magnusson was a vocal opponent of attempts in Steinbach to allow liquor sales.

With Les Magnusson as mayor, Steinbach was incorporated as a city on 10 October 1997. It was rebuilt less than a year later with the assistance of Dutch millwrights. Steinbach attracted prominent attention in 2004 when Mennonite author Miriam Toews, who was born and grew up in Steinbach, published her novel A Complicated Kindness. The book became a bestseller, exploring a fictionalized town modelled after Steinbach. It won the 2004 Governor General's Award for Fiction, and was selected as the 2006 book for Canada Reads, the first book by a female writer to be chosen. Steinbach continued to grow during Magnusson's tenure and, after the election of Chris Goertzen as mayor in 2006, became one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. Steinbach gained national recognition from such newspapers as The Globe and Mail, which described the city as an immigration "hotbed" of Canada and a model for immigrant integration. During March 2013, the city gained national attention when several community members, such as the Southland Community Church and Steinbach Christian High School expressed opposition to provincial Bill 18, an anti bullying bill that would require the accommodation of gay straight alliance groups in schools, including faith based private schools. On 13 September 2013, Bill 18 passed without amendments. Partially in response to this issue, the city's first Steinbach Pride parade was held in 2016. While initially expecting about 200 people, approximately 3,000 people attended the event. This was brought about in part by the fact that not a single elected official from the area attended or endorsed the event. Ongoing rapid growth meant that the city needed more land and space in order to sustain itself. This led the city to negotiate an annexation of from the Rural Municipality of Hanover in 2015, the first major annexation for the city since 1979. Steinbach was affected by the COVID 19 pandemic beginning in August 2020, with the virus affecting community members, several businesses, and eventually an outbreak at Bethesda Place, the personal care home at Bethesda Regional Health Centre. By November 2020, Steinbach briefly had the highest per capita rate of Covid infections in Canada. The Bethesda Regional Health Centre was reportedly overwhelmed and out of beds on November 13, 2020, with patients having to be triaged in their cars.

Despite being prohibited by local churches, Steinbach had alcohol sales, including beverage rooms, throughout the early 20th century. In 1950, however, Steinbach citizens voted to prohibit all liquor sales in the community, although a drinking establishment on Main Street called The Tourist Hotel was allowed to remain, until it closed in 1973. In February 2008, Steinbach Council voted in favour of opening a liquor store in the city. Eventually, the first Liquor Mart in Steinbach opened in March 2009, on PTH 12 North, operated by the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission. The most recent public vote was held in October 2011. In this referendum, voters agreed to accept, by a large margin, the following three licences: beverage rooms, cocktail lounges, and private club licences. In 2018, after the Canadian government legalized cannabis, Steinbach residents voted to deny the licensing of retail cannabis stores in the city.

As the economic centre of Southeastern Manitoba, service/retail industries employ the majority of the working population. Large manufacturing plants, especially those operated by Barkman, Bausch and Loewen Windows (which is also headquartered in Steinbach), create a significant number of jobs. Since the 1950s, Steinbach has been known as a centre for automobile sales, marketing itself as the "Automobile City". Steinbach has a diversity of jobs and industries within the community. Its rapid growth rate, combined with the lowest taxes in the province by mill rate, has made the community an increasingly popular place for both workers and employers. This combination has helped many different mid sized and large sized businesses in manufacturing, transportation, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, retail, and financial services such as the Steinbach Credit Union, to grow with the city. Aside from intensive pig and chicken barns there are numerous small, family, dairy farms that dot the area. Crops grown on the fertile farmland surrounding Steinbach primarily include canola, corn, alfalfa, as well as barley, soybeans, oats, and wheat.

Approximately twenty four per cent of Steinbach residents claim German ancestry, though this may include those from Germany itself or of Mennonite background, which would more accurately be described as Dutch. In 2021 Canadian census, nearly 20 per cent of the community reported Mennonite ethnicity. + Top 10 Ethnic Origins (2021)2016201120062001Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage) European 13,055 74.28 12,670 81.56 11,460 86.92 9,880 91.06 8,410 93.13 Indigenous 1,755 9.99 1,055 6.79 655 4.97 530 4.88 360 3.99 Southeast Asian 1,640 9.33 1,165 7.50 690 5.23 225 2.07 125 1.38 South Asian 515 2.93 155 1.00 130 0.99 110 1.01 30 0.33 Latin American 220 1.25 105 0.68 35 0.27 20 0.18 10 0.11 African 210 1.19 200 1.29 120 0.91 35 0.32 30 0.33 East Asian 90 0.51 95 0.61 50 0.38 30 0.28 60 0.66 Middle Eastern 10 0.06 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Other/multiracial 90 0.51 85 0.55 45 0.34 20 0.18 15 0.17 Total responses 17,575 98.70 15,535 96.96 13,185 97.49 10,850 98.05 9,030 97.86 Total population 17,806 100.00 16,022 100.00 13,524 100.00 11,066 100.00 9,227 100.00

Steinbach is unusual in that there are no railways or rivers passing through town, so transportation to and from Steinbach has always been by road. The city is located approximately 50 kilometers southeast of Winnipeg, in a direct line. There are two principal highways serving the city, Provincial Trunk Highways (PTH) 12 and 52, which intersect at downtown Steinbach. Travelers coming from Winnipeg can take the Trans Canada Highway (PTH 1) east for 40 kilometers, turning south at PTH 12 and continuing for 20 kilometers. This entire route consists of four lane limited access highways. Alternatively, travelers can also take PTH 59 south from Winnipeg and then take PTH 52 east to Steinbach. PTH 12 south from Steinbach is single lane and ends at the American border at Sprague. Steinbach is situated on an alternate route between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Ontario which is named MOM's Way.

The City of Steinbach owns and maintains Steinbach Airport, a federally registered aerodrome located north of the city. The runway is and has an asphalt surface. The runway is serviced with lighting and a beacon for night time use. Fuel and servicing are available on site and are provided through the Steinbach Flying Club. The airport also features aircraft tie downs, a heated lounge building and restroom facilities. Additionally, Harv's Air Service operates Steinbach (South) Airport, a private aerodrome south of the city. The main runway is and has an asphalt and turf surface. An additional runway measuring intersects the main runway to the north. It is then sent to a water treatment plant that was upgraded in 2006. Treated water storage is located in a tall elevated water tower that was built in 1972 and an additional underground water storage unit in 1999; combined they provide the community with of treated water. As of 2019, it was the city's largest infrastructure project in its history. The school system in Manitoba is dictated by the province through the Manitoba Public Schools Act. Public schools follow a provincially mandated curriculum in either French or English. The schools in Steinbach consist of three Early Years Elementary Schools: Woodlawn, Southwood and Elmdale which provide education from kindergarten through Grade 4. Grades 5 through 8 are currently provided by two newly formed Middle Schools: Stonybrook Middle School (formerly Steinbach Junior High School) and Clearspring Middle School (established 2012). Steinbach Regional Secondary School is a large public high school providing Grades 9 through 12 education for Steinbach and the surrounding region; it is the second largest school in Manitoba. Steinbach Christian Schools, a private school, offers all grades (Kindergarten – Grade 12). Steinbach is home to the evangelical Anabaptist college Steinbach Bible College, which shares a campus with Steinbach Christian Schools. It also has a post secondary learning campus called Eastman Education Centre, which offers courses from Red River College, University of Winnipeg, Assiniboine Community College and Providence University College.

Opening in 1967, and undergoing numerous expansions since then, the Mennonite Heritage Village is Steinbach's foremost cultural facility and tourist attraction. It provides a glimpse at the life of Mennonite settlers through a reconstructed street village and interpretive displays. Its Dutch windmill, which was rebuilt (with help from Dutch millwrights) after the 1972 replica was destroyed by arson in 2000, is a recognized symbol of the city. The Mennonite Heritage Village's Pioneer Days festival, and the accompanying parade, has existed each August since the 1970s. Steinbach's 'Summer in the City' festival is held on Main Street each June. The Steinbach Arts Council has showcased Steinbach arts and culture, of various types, since the 1980s. The Johann G. Barkman Heritage Walkway, stretching along Elmdale Drive, is named after an early long time mayor, and features plaques and other historic markers documenting the life of early Steinbach along the, now dry, Steinbach Creek. Steinbach has had a public library since 1973, although serious efforts to establish a regional library began in 1968 when Mary Barkman organized a Friends of the Library group. In 1997, the library moved into its own newly constructed building and was renamed Jake Epp Library. Jake Epp, former MP of Provencher, had appointed the very first Library Board in 1973. Mary Barkman, a key figure in the founding of the Library, was also honored at the opening ceremony. After his death in 1998, the library revealed a plaque and reading garden honouring former local teacher Melvin Toews, father of author Miriam Toews and subject of her book Swing Low: A Life. A major library expansion was completed in 2012. Steinbach is known for having a significant place in the world of Mennonite literature. Arnold Dyck was the editor of the German language Steinbach Post in the early 20th century and the first writer to use Plautdietsch as a written language. In the 1970s and 80s came the work of poet Patrick Friesen, author of The Shunning and many other works, novelist and literary critic Al Reimer, author of My Harp is Turned to Mourning and the Kleindarp stories, and Roy Vogt, founder of the Mennonite Mirror and the Mennonite Literary Society. Beginning in the 1990s, Steinbach's most well known author Miriam Toews has written numerous award winning and bestselling novels, some of which are set in Steinbach. Her non fiction book Swing Low: A Life is set in Steinbach, while her bestselling novels A Complicated Kindness and All My Puny Sorrows, as well as the film adaptation of the book, are set in the fictional East Village, widely regarded to be based on her hometown. In 2016, Steinbach writer Andrew Unger started The Unger Review (formerly The Daily Bonnet), a website that publishes satirical Russian Mennonite news stories, and published the novel Once Removed in 2020, which draws on fictional elements of Steinbach. Steinbach has also been home to novelist Byron Rempel, memoirist Lynette Loeppky, poets Lynnette D'anna, Luann Hiebert, and Audrey Poetker, as well as historians Royden Loewen and Delbert Plett, among others. Regional cuisine unique to Steinbach would include various Mennonite dishes such as vereniki, farmer sausage, sunflower seeds, yerba mate and roll kuchen. Mennonite homes frequently serve a light lunch on Sundays called faspa consisting of deli meats, cheese curds, pickles, buns, and dessert such as plautz. These items can be found at restaurants that specialize in Mennonite food, such as MJ's Kafe and the Livery Barn Restaurant (at the Mennonite Heritage Village), as well as in local homes, community and church events, and on the menu of many other local restaurants. In 2018, Steinbach became a sister city with Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which is near where all of Steinbach's pioneering families immigrated from in the 1870s. In 2021, the Public Brewhouse and Gallery opened on Main Street in Steinbach, the first brewery to open in the former dry community, and the first privately run art gallery in the southeast. Steinbach is the headquarters of both the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, formerly known as the Kleine Gemeinde, and the Christian Mennonite Conference, formerly known as Chortitzer Mennonite Conference. The city has among the most churches per capita of any city in Canada, at one for every 500 people. Steinbach is home to at least 22 churches and while many of the smaller churches are Mennonite, the majority of Steinbach's current population no longer attend a Mennonite church, and the largest churches in the city, such as the Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church, Southland Community Church, and Crossview Church, are either non denominational or evangelical and are not part of Mennonite denominations.

Currently, Steinbach's oldest media outlet is The Carillon, an award winning weekly newspaper founded in 1946 by Eugene Derksen that covers the news of Southeastern Manitoba. Steinbach also has three radio stations run by Golden West Broadcasting: AM 1250 is an easy listening station, Mix 96.7 FM plays current pop hits, and CJXR FM is a country station. Steinbach is also home to Die Mennonitische Post, one of the last remaining German language newspapers in North America. Started by Jacob S. Friesen in 1913 and taken over by Arnold Dyck in 1924, Steinbach was also home to the German language Steinbach Post for many decades.

First organizer by local banker T. G. Smith, Steinbach has had recreational baseball since 1955. Steinbach is home to a number of baseball diamonds, most notably at the A. D. Penner Park. The city is home to teams such as the Carillon Sultans.

The Eastman Raiders football club, based in Steinbach, was formed in 1991. There are now over 260 athletes, ranging in age from 7 to 22, playing in the Raiders program. In 2009, the Eastman Raiders midget team captured their first championship with a 20–9 victory over the St Vital Mustangs. The most notable football player from Steinbach is star CFL running back Andrew Harris.

The Steinbach Curling Club opened in October 2014 and is located adjacent to the T. G. Smith Centre. It has five sheets and hosts a variety of different leagues, including a successful junior program. The current rink replaced the previous one that was built in 1948 and located across the street. A number of Steinbach curlers have gone on to have success at the provincial and national level, most notably Brier winners Vic Peters and Chris Neufeld. Steinbach has also hosted two Safeway Select Provincial Men's Curling Championships (2006 and 2010).

The Steinbach Fly in Golf Club is an 18 hole golf course adjacent to the local airport. Quarry Oaks Golf and Country Club, Girouxsalem Golf and Country Club, and Ridgewood South Golf Course are just outside the city.

Steinbach is home to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Steinbach Pistons. The Pistons have won three Turnbull Cups (2012–13, 2017–18, 2022 23) and one ANAVET Cup (2017–18). The Pistons also participated in the 2013 Western Canada Cup, 2018 Royal Bank Cup and 2023 Centennial Cup. The Steinbach Huskies senior hockey club have been a fixture in the local hockey scene since the 1920s. The Junior Huskies are eight time champions of the Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League. The Huskies qualified for the 1979 Allan Cup finals as Western Canadian champions, but lost the best of seven series 4–1. Steinbach's minor hockey teams are known as the Steinbach Millers. Steinbach has hosted the Allan Cup, Canada's senior 'AAA' hockey championship, twice in 2009 and 2016. The 2009 Allan Cup featured two Steinbach based teams, the host Steinbach North Stars and the Manitoba champion South East Prairie Thunder competing in the tournament. The Prairie Thunder advanced as far as the championship game, which was broadcast nationally on TSN, but lost in double overtime. Three years later, the Prairie Thunder captured their first ever national title at the 2012 Allan Cup. The 2016 Allan Cup was also held in Steinbach, hosted by the Prairie Thunder. Notable professional hockey players from Steinbach include Jon Barkman, Ken Block, Paul Dyck, Dale Krentz, Jeff Penner, Sean Tallaire, and Ian White, as well as NHL coach Ralph Krueger.

Steinbach is home to a number of soccer teams, including the men's Hanover Kickers, who play in Manitoba's Premier League Two, the Hanover Strikers who play in Major League Two of Manitoba Major Soccer League, and the Hanover Hype playing in the Winnipeg Women's Soccer League. The city also has a Futsal league that operates during the winter. The 40 acre Steinbach Soccer Park, opened in 2009, contains 5 full size soccer pitches.

The Steinbach Aquatic Center adjacent to nearby A. D. Penner Park, opened in 2002 and contains an indoor pool with waterslide as well as an outdoor pool open seasonally.