Amish European Heritage Tour – Emmental and Landtetur

By John Sharp, Tour Leader

The lovely and historic Wurtzbrunnen church in Emmental. After reviewing our unhappy history (many Anabaptists were scolded, fined and exiled by the Morals Tribunal here), we sang together. Afterward our host families took us home for the night.

Landtetur, the point of exile. When fines, branding, imprisonment, hard labor, torture and executions failed to rid the canton of Anabaptists, Bern authorities in 1710 and 1711 herded them onto boats from this port. They were sent down the Aare and Rhine Rivers to the Netherlands, but many escaped along the way to return home or to settle in the Palatine. A few reached Amsterdam where they were warmly received by Dutch Mennonites.

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