Trail throws light on Emmental’s dark past

The view from Trachselwald castle today swissinfo.ch

A new signposted trail winding through the hills of the idyllic Emmental countryside crosses a former battleground of the post-Reformation period.

Beginning just after the railway station in Sumiswald, the trail heads up to the town’s Protestant church, one of the scenes of the 16th-century dispute between the authorities and recalcitrant Anabaptists.

A plaque on the church wall is a “memorial to the executed Anabaptists of Sumiswald, 1529-1571” and includes the name of farmer and leading Anabaptist teacher Hans Haslebacher.

Haslebacher and other members of this radical movement refused to accept the new state-run church and insisted on adult instead of infant baptism. This led to their imprisonment, torture, expulsion and even execution.

The trail is part of Anabaptist Year in canton Bern. The aim is to highlight the history of the movement – today divided mainly into the Mennonite church and Amish groups – and the persecution of its followers at the hands of the Swiss authorities, primarily in the Emmental.

This is why the church in Sumiswald is a good starting place for the heritage trail.

The story passed down through the centuries tells how the village pastor once remarked during a sermon that the Anabaptists would be wiser to give birth to dogs or calves than children since they would not allow them to be baptised. An angry Haslebacher stood up and challenged the pastor.

His life and death have been well documented by his direct descendants and can be seen on the family farm, which is a 30-minute walk away. Gertrud Haslebacher-Bangerter has converted a storage shed into an exhibition space devoted to her ancestor, who in 1571 became the last Anabaptist in canton Bern to be executed.

Family tree

On display is the family tree, the words of the Haslebacher song which is still sung by the North American Amish, a print depicting the jailed Anabaptist, his bible and numerous objects from the farm.

Haslebacher-Bangerter is particularly proud of the three bibles in the showcase. The oldest dates back to 1553. “As long as I can remember, this bible was always on the sideboard in our living room,” she says.

The 16th-century rebel was the first and last Anabaptist in the family. “His immediate descendants re-joined the state-run church, probably out of fear of the authorities.”

Although neither she nor her husband is member of any of the churches which evolved from the Anabaptist movement, they are honoured to be able to welcome North American Mennonites and Amish making a pilgrimage to their ancestral homeland.

Castle prison

The trail leads past Sumiswald’s castle before a gentle ascent takes walkers towards the next village, Trachselwald.

Following paved roads and then hiking paths, it winds through woods and skirts farmland on its way to Trachselwald castle. A dark chapter of Anabaptist history was written here: an imposing fortification crowning a hilltop.

The building belongs to canton Bern but is up for sale. While its future may be uncertain, its past is firmly anchored in Anabaptist annals. “Trachselwald castle was once a prison and used mostly to hold Anabaptists,” explains guide Therese Sommer.

Death-boxes

“The Anabaptists were kept in cells known at the time as death-boxes,” Sommer explains, during a tour through the dank and dusky tower. Crawling into one of the cells to demonstrate the conditions, she lies on her back and puts her hands and feet into the clamps.

Sommer leads various theme tours such as the one of Trachselwald castle and others on the lives of prominent Emmental sons such as 19th-century pastor and writer Jeremias Gotthelf.

“The Mennonites and Amish want to come to terms with the past,” she says, explaining their pilgrimages. “They want to see the castle, to pray and sing, and to let the atmosphere sink in. These are very poignant moments.”

swissinfo, Susanne Schanda

Key facts

Events are being held throughout canton Bern and northwestern Switzerland to remember the persecution of Switzerland’s Anabaptists.
An international gathering was held in the Emmental from July 26-29.
There are believed to be around 600,000 descendants of Swiss Anabaptists living in North America.

Anabaptist beginnings

In 1525, former associates of Ulrich Zwingli began to baptise adults, and these “Swiss brethren” as they became known rejected the new reformed church and founded congregations independent of the state.



Similar movements soon developed across western Europe. Followers, who would be called Mennonites after Menno Simmons, an Anabaptist leader from the Netherlands, were persecuted for refusing to participate in the state-run church.



Internal divisions led a radical faction, the Amish, to split in 1693. Members took their name from Anabaptist leader Jakob Ammann, who came from canton Bern’s Simmental valley.



There are 14 Mennonite congregations in Switzerland today, with around 2,500 members.