Sojourn 5: Lorraine, France- Land of my Forbearers

Sojourn 5: Lorraine, a department in northeastern France 

I cannot make a visit to northern France without passing by the Jantzi homestead near Bistroff in the Lorraine department of France. Lorraine was also the scene of some horrendous warfare during World War II. That war happened one hundred years after my ancestors, along with most of their community, had emigrated to Lewis County, New York. The emigration was motivated primarily out of a desire to live in a country where there sons would not be forced to participate in carnage such as this.

 

My hosts during these four days were Frieda Oesch and Christine Beck. I met Frieda probably 20 years ago through Mennonite Your Way connections. She lives in Diessen. Christine is from nearby Creutzwald and I met her in 2009 at Mennonite World Conference in Paraguay. She was at the conference last year in Harrisburg, where we started plans for this tour of France. Here on a sightseeing day out we stopping by a German ice cream shop to indulge in the goodies.

 

The Jantzi homestead near Bistroff. We are not sure how long the Amish community was in this area, but perhaps for 150 years. Here they were refugee peasants from Switzerland, eking out a hand to mouth existence, working for a wealthy landowner. In 1830’s the Amish community of Bistroff emigrated to northern New York state.

 All over northern France there are reminders of the tragedy and futility of war. Casualties of World War II, both civilian and military are at least 60 million. Near the village of Bistroff, in St. Avold there is a U.S. military cemetery where 10,500 U.S. soldiers are interred in 113 acres of neatly manicured lawns. It’s a place of hushed silence where visitors are encouraged to contemplate the lives and sacrifice of those who died for this noble (?) cause.  

 

A spacious memorial chapel on a knoll above the cemetery attempts to some how put together the incredible horrors of war with faith in God, patriotism and eternal life. At the front of the chapel above the altar with a cross is the body of a soldier, a war casualty ascending to heaven under the approving gaze of four patron saints of U.S. civil religion: King David, King Arthur, the Roman Emperor Constantine and George Washington. 

 

This engraving on one of the chapel walls is a concise statement of the myth of redemptive violence: These millions died so that, us who remain are, presumably, able to live in peace and freedom. For further comment please go to my essay-  Redemptive violence vs. Redemptive love  & grace found elsewhere in Gospel Feet.

Another grim reminder of the savagery of World War II is in a secluded woods near Creutzwald where the Nazis maintained a concentration camp for Ukrainian refugees during the German occupation of northern France 1939-44. Here at least 23,000 Ukrainians were slaughtered by the Nazis. The Nazi military who operated the camp lived in these, now decayed, substantial buildings, enjoying their exalted position of Aryan superiority.

This cemetery near Creutzwald has a walled-off plot that helps us understand why Mennonites have nurtured a separate and unique ethnicity: The Catholic state/church would not allow Anabaptists to be buried in the community cemetery but they did concede to granting them to be buried in an adjoining walled-off area.

Sojourn 4: Visit in Alsace & Lorraine, Northeastern France

Sojourn 4 brings me to Wissembourg, up in the northeast corner of France bordered by Germany. The focus of this sojourn is the Alsace region of France, an area rich in Anabaptist history and still the home of numerous Mennonite communities.

My host, Theo Hege, happily obliged to take me on a tour of a region about 40 miles southwest of Strasbourg that was once home to thriving Anabaptist/Amish communities during the 18th & 19th centuries. They were drawn to this area from Switzerland and Germany where they were free to practice their nonresistant faith. In fact, the Amish schism had its beginning here in 1693 in the town of Ste. Marie aux Mines. Among those Amish settlements a bit further west, was Bistroff, home of my maternal ancestors who along with hundreds of other Amish families in Alsace and Lorraine migrated to North America. Today there are only remnants and monuments of those communities. The most faithful and devout Amish migrated. Those who remained, for the most part eventually gave up Anabaptist connections and have been absorbed by the surrounding French culture. 

Theo & Suzy Hege. I have known
them for a few years and have had a great welcome in their home. Theo
chauffered me around on two tours in the Alsace-Lorraine area visiting
Mennonite historical sites and other points of interest.

Wissembourg, situated on the Lauter river, soon merging with the Rhine, is a typically modern European city with shopping centers, MacDonald’s and bars. But at it’s heart is the well preserved medieval town built around the cathedral, castle, grist mills and monastery, all enclosed  by defensive fortifications and moat. The photos below are scenes from within the ancient bourg where one can wander and imagine that the year is 1216 instead of 2016.   

 

This region, with a radius of 20 miles, is high in the mountain forests in secluded valleys. The Anabaptists found refuge from persecution and the freedom to live the stille im lande life they so much desired.

An oak tree planted by Anabaptist settlers some 300 years ago is the landmark for the Salm community.

 

A contemporary drawing of the interior of an Amish home with child asleep on a bed.

 

The Kupferschmitt farm in the Salm community. Kupferschmitt was a 17th century Amish leader.

 

The gravestone of Nicholas Augsburger, a Salm community leader, born Sept. 8, 1800; died April 4, 1890

 

A bucolic scene from across the Salm community

 

Ste. Marie aux Mines, birthplace of the Amish church has named one of it’s principal streets after it’s renown son: Jacob Amman, leader of the Amish schism. Quilts are the town’s claim to fame. Now the quilting capital of Europe, Ste. Marie aux Mines sponsors an annual quilt festival in September. The standing-only room crowd fills the town’s narrow streets, drawing quilt fans from around the world.

 

The region is home to a few small Mennonite communities. This is the chapel for the Mennonite community at Bourg-Burche

 

This same region, during the 1940’s has the tragic history of being the site of a Nazi concentration camp. The Stuthof camp claimed thousands of lives, most of them French citizens who resisted the German occupation of France.

 

A solid rock medieval burial coffin at the Cathedral abbey in Wissembourg. The well-being and preservation of the deceased has a major preoccupation of mankind throughout our history.

 

This obelisk, only a few hundred yards from the Geisberg Mennonite church, commemorates the five times the fields around the church have been a battlefield between France and Germany.

 

How can anyone observe this incredibly gorgeous, yet fragile, transitory creature and still say there is no Divine Creator? A butterfly grazing on a butterfly bush in Wissembourg, France.

 

Would you like a painting of a bowl of vegetables or the portrait of vegan?  You get both with this one by a noted Italian artist of the 18th century. 

Sojourn 3- Ten days in the Jura region of northwest France; cradle of 16th century Swiss Anabaptism.

Anabaptism had its Swiss beginnings near Zurich in 1525. From there it spread to several regions of Switzerland, South Germany and Austria. Shortly after that Anabaptists were severely persecuted by both Protestants and Catholics in most of the Swiss confederation and they were banished from living in the populated areas of Switzerland but they were allowed to live in the dense forests in the mountains above 3000 ft. elevation.

That accounts for why most Swiss Mennonite church communities are in the high rural mountainous areas today.

Cedric and Jolanda Geiser were my hosts for the 10 day stay in Switzerland. They have two teenage children and operate a beef cattle farm near Neuchatel. I had met the Geiser family a year ago at MWC, Harrisburg and it was there we started making plans for this visit.

The Geisers are a wonderfully hospitable family and went out of their way to enable me to see and do the things that interested me in Switzerland.Typically Swiss, the Geiser house and barn are all under one roof (although other buildings have been added to accommodate some of the animals). The first dwelling on this farm was built 800 years ago by Cathari refugees from France. The current structure was built in the mid 1600’s and extensively updated in 1992. I had a cozy room up on the 3rd story under a roof dormer.The Bern banishment order of 1711. From the beginnings of Swiss Anabaptism in 1525 until 1750 persons converting to Anabaptism stood a strong risk of being driven from their property and their possessions confiscated. They were forced to take refuge in the more tolerant areas of Alsace and Lorraine in France. Beginning with the 1800’s Swiss Mennonites who were unwilling to compromise their faith made mass migrations to North America to escape persecution and discrimination.

Another option was to move into the forest highlands of the Swiss Jura mountains above 3000 ft. elevation. For this reason most Mennonite communities today are found high in the Jura mountains. The rural, agricultural pictures in this blog are all from that upcountry region.

Jura wildflowers




Cedric is following his Simmental beef herd from the barn out the maple lined lane and into the pasture.


Images of Cedric’s livestock.







Mennonite farm homes in the high Jura

Cattle watering trough available to cattle in either pasture divided by a stonewall cleared from the pasture.

Anabaptist Historical Sites

The Anabaptist bridge. The bridge is at a rugged mountain site where two sheer walls of rock were separated by geologic movement. The space between the walls was bridged many centuries ago as a pedestrian short cut. The bridge had a span of 14', and was 20’ above the dry creek bed below. During the persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries the space under the bridge provided a secluded site for Anabaptists to gather for worship.


The stone arch bridge was built in 1834 to replace a wooden span. The stone bridge collapsed in 1924 and in 2011 the Swiss Mennonites developed the site as a point of historical interest.



The new steel floor bridge with protective side rails and the descriptive signs in French, German and English makes the site a very interesting point to visit. For a more complete explanation please enlarge sign text.



The rock walls of the meeting place are engraved with encryptions of those who frequented the site centuries ago. Encryption experts have yet to decipher these engravings.



The Anabaptist Cave. Some 7 or 8 miles along the same mountain crest from the above bridge is another secluded worship site where the Anabaptists were able to meet undetected during the 17th & 18th centuries.

Some 400 years later an anonymous 21st century Swiss Anabaptist descendent sits in the cave contemplating the Anabaptist spiritual heritage he is passionate about sharing with believers in West Africa.


The Jeanqui Mennonite Church (Sonnenberg Congregation) houses an archive of significant collection of documents related to Swiss Mennonite history.



This Froschauer Bible (German) printed in 1744 in Strasbourg, France is a special Anabaptist edition. The title page for Genesis offers an engraving of covenantal sacrifice. The Froschauer Bible was the Anabaptist edition of choice because some of the wording regarding baptism and sanctification favored Anabaptist understandings.



A 1534 Froschauer Bible with scenes from the Apostle Paul’s life surrounding the publisher’ imprint.



Another Froschauer Bible but this one the front page has the printer’s mark cut out. Why? Because Swiss government authorities representing the State church could come around anytime hunting Anabaptists. The police would ask to see the household Bible and if it had the Froschauer imprint that was a dead giveaway that the family was Anabaptist. And since the police were illiterate they were easily put off if they did not see the Froschauer trademark.



The Dirk Willems engraving from a 1780 edition of Martyrs Mirror. The Martyrs Mirror first published in 1660 and still in print, remains an integral part of many Amish and Mennonite home libraries.



Ernest Geiser a Mennonite pastor from Tavannes, Switzerland was our guide for the archives. Here he is talking to my hosts, Cedric & Jolanda on the front bench of the Jeanqui meetinghouse.



An old Swiss military arsenal soon to be transformed into the Tavannes Mennonite meetinghouse. How’s that for an example of swords to pruning hooks ?



In the same compound with the meetinghouse is also the home for the NGO Digger. They build a remotely operated rototiller looking machine that explodes landmines. This model is ready to be sent to a war zone so that mined land can once again be made safe for agriculture.

The 16th century Reformation: The other side.



At the highest point of the city of Neuchatel stands the power house of the medieval world: the Count’s chateau and the Catholic church. This church called the Collegial started life in the 12th century as a Catholic cathedral.



But in 1523 William Farel a powerful Reformation leader appeared and convinced the Neuchatel city council to abandon the Catholic church and become Reformed. The Canton, city and cathedral all came under the Zwingli’s Reformed Church. This highly symbolic sculpture shows Farel holding the Bible on high and under his feet he is crushing the images and holy relics of the formerly Catholic cathedral.




The nave of the cathedral looks much like it did before the Reformation, but the apse looks desolate and bare compared to what was there under the Catholic regime. Gone are the ornate altars, golden crucifixes suspended from on high, flickering votive candles, chairs for the hierarchs, the host cupboard and all the sacred accouterments necessary for the mass.
The Collegial has preserved the memorial to the 13th century Count Louis with his 3 wives, his sons and grandchildren in perpetual adoration and prayer for his soul. This cenotaph was spared destruction in the Protestant reformation because the Count’s decedents sympathized with the Reformers.





The pulpit and the new organ. By Divine appointment I arrived in the church just minutes before the organist began his rehearsal for the Sunday service. I was wondering how I would be able to get in on an organ recital on this trip. And there it was: the organist, me and 3 other visitors in this massive vaulted space; what a treat.


The gargoyles. All over Europe on medieval buildings, especially churches, you will see these grotesque stone creatures peering down. They simply carry rain water away from the walls of buildings. But they have a tradition of warding off evil spirits.
In conclusion it needs to be said that since 2007 much discussion and listening has gone into a process of bringing reconciliation, peace and forgiveness between Mennonite and Reformed churches in Switzerland.