Giethoorn was a town in the Dutch province of Overijssel, 1955 pop. About 2,500, of whom about 500 are Mennonites. Giethoorn was a separate municipality until 1973, when it became a part of Brederwiede. Giethoorn has long been the seat of a Mennonite congregation. Between 1563 and 1565 Leenaert Bouwens visited this congregation and baptized five persons. It is striking that many family names at Giethoorn consist of two syllables and end in a silent e: Doze, Haxe, Gorte, Hase, Kleine, Wuite. Blaupot ten Cate (Groningen II, 220-21) was of opinion that the congregation descended from the Flagellants. (The Flagellants were a medieval sect, which laid much stress upon asceticism and mortification of the flesh; in the 14th century they marched in large groups through Western Europe, flagellating their bodies; a number of them are said to have been directed to Giethoorn by the Bishop of Utrecht in order to break up die peat-moors here.) This is not very likely, but it is a fact that the congregation of Giethoorn, a picturesque village situated in a lake district,
with its canals, its numerous small and high bridges, its old-fashioned houses, both by its history and the characteristic manners and customs still in use in this town, took an exceptional place among the Dutch congregations. In former times Giethoorn was a predominantly Mennonite town. As late as 1838, 50 per cent of the population was Mennonite, but 1955 only 20 per cent.
By the end of the 16th century the congregation of Giethoorn was divided in two congregations, South Giethoorn and North Giethoorn. The smaller North congregation then belonged to the conservative Huiskoopers; in the 17th and 18th centuries it belonged to the Danzig Flemish Mennonites, and maintained close connections with the church of Danzig. Sometimes elders came from Danzig to Giethoorn to perform baptism and the Lord's Supper. This North congregation maintained the old practices of the ban and the simple life and clothing
