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.