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  Historical Committee
Swiss
Place Stone near Schleitheim: Täuferstein a Symbol of
Reconciliation
by Reuben Miller
| In the hills between Schleitheim and Hemmental in the
canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, there is a stone marker that pays
tribute to the Anabaptists who met there almost five hundred years ago.
The Täuferstein, or “Anabaptist-Stone,” was placed there in early
2004,
and an official dedication ceremony was celebrated on the 28th of
March. I was fortunate to be there in a contingent of Mennonites from
the Kraichgau region of Germany, between the Rhein and the Neckar
Rivers. The Kraichgau is where many Swiss Anabaptists found refuge in
the decades after the Thirty Years War. |
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For Americans, it is all just Europe—but to Europeans each region has a
story, a people and relationships to other regions. In the Kraichgau,
you orient yourself by the Rhine: left [of the] Rhine, or right [of
the] Rhine, east or west of the river. In the Schaffhausen canton of
Switzerland, they determine their location according to the Rhine as
well, but to the north and to the south. Schleitheim is north of the
Rhine, on the border between Germany and Switzerland.
The village of Schleitheim is quiet, clean and conservative. The houses
stand with the certainty of centuries and the streets meander between
them, on a Saturday empty of the weekday traffic. We met our hosts, a
friendly Swiss couple with three children. As it is with Europeans, the
language of discourse must be established at the beginning of a visit.
“Do you understand Schwitzerduitsch?” our hosts inquired. “Limited,”
one of my companions replied. “Okay, then we will try to remember to
speak High German.” While the Swiss use standard German as an official
language in addition to French and Italian, Swiss German is the
language of everyday life. Our hosts were not Mennonites, and in fact
there are no Mennonites in Schleitheim. The last Anabaptists left
Schaffhausen in 1680 after 150 years of persecution. Under the
leadership of Michael Sattler in 1527, a group of peasants came
together to create a statement of group cohesion and ethical
clarification. Already anxious in a time of social upheaval and
significant armed conflict, the local authorities would have been
alarmed by the meeting and the ensuing document. The Wiedertäufer
or Täufer were committing illegal acts. Their refusal to obey laws
that were contradictory to their conscience put them in conflict with
the authorities at Schaffhausen, the local seat of regional power.
Some of today’s villagers in Schleitheim may be surprised that most
Mennonites have heard the name of their hometown. Yet for Mennonites on
continents far away from Europe, the Schleitheim Confession (1527)
represents one of the first documents of the forebears of the
Swiss-German Mennonites. But there is a movement today that aims to
recognize the Anabaptists and their plight five-hundred years before.
The Täuferstein memorial symbolizes the historical accountability
and reconciliation that is afoot among Christians in the Swiss state
churches. Saturday evening as we walked through the village at dusk,
our footsteps echoed on the facades of the buildings on the main
street. One could very well imagine the Täufer slipping out of
their homes, on their way to a meeting. We were given a special tour of
the village museum, giving special attention to the Täuferraum, a
planned permanent exhibit about the history of the Anabaptists in
Schleitheim.
We arrived the next day at the Täuferstieg path to
participate in a ceremony at the stone on the “Path of the
Anabaptists.” A crowd of 300 gathered at the site, along with a
Salvation Army brass quartet. Sabine Aschmann, a pastor of the Reformed
Church in Thayngen, addressed the group. She is one of the leaders in
the movement for historical accountability and reconciliation. “This
rough stone lies on the ground … not standing proudly, but laid flat,
low to the ground. Whoever wants to look at [the stone] must stoop. It
is a posture of humility that brings this stone into view. A posture
that we also know from the
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Anabaptists, who knelt before
their judges
and endured [and lived] according to the Sermon on the Mount.” Wolfgang Krauss, a representative from the German
Mennonites, spoke of the historical accountability for wearing the
uniform of the Kaiser and then the uniform of Hitler, the descendants
of the Swiss Brethren who lost the peace position after losing their
homes in Switzerland. I was asked to stand and be recognized as the
only North American Mennonite at the event. I felt honored, at least
nominally, to be a representative of the North American Mennonites at
the placing of a reconciliation memorial to the Anabaptists.
Like everything in Switzerland, the stone and the accompanying sign are
inconspicuous and understated. Perhaps that is in keeping with the
story of the Anabaptists during times of persecution: great
significance with little fanfare. After the ceremony I slipped into the
woods, down a slope and onto a different path, at a crossroads where
several paths came together. I stood there in the strange half-silence
of the forest, looking past the trees, seeing the path as it wound up
another hill towards an undisclosed precipice. There was a stream
somewhere further down the hollow. A powerful feeling came over me, to
be standing in the wooded neighborhood of the Anabaptists’ former
meeting place. Who walked here before? Had the companions of Michael
Sattler met here?
The memorial stone has peaks and valleys, like the landscape of the
canton of Schaffhausen. The Reformation also had peaks of “truth and
realization” and an “abyss which leads to deep wounds,” as Sabine
Aschmann said in her address at the memorial. The placing of a stone
was a high point for those involved in the movement to foster
historical accountability (historischen Schuld). Most of all,
participants at the Täuferstein dedication left the event with
increased historical awareness and a sense of having participated in
something meaningful and important. I know I did.
Photo captions:
1. Three hundred
gathered at Schleitheim by the “Path of
the Anabaptists” to dedicate a memorial to the Anabaptists. The placing
of a stone was a high point for those involved in the movement to
foster historical accountability. (Photo by Wolfgang Krauss)
2. Sabine
Aschmann, pastor of the Reformed Church in
Thayngen, speaks to the 300 gathered to dedicate the Anabaptist Stone:
“This rough stone lies . . . flat, low to the ground . . . a posture of
humility. We know this posture of humility from the Anabaptists, who
knelt before their judges and endured [and lived] according to the
Sermon on the Mount.” (Photo by Wolfgang Krauss)
Reuben Miller is coordinator of the
Military Counseling Network for the German Mennonite Peace Committee,
Bammental, Germany. His recent U.S. residence was Harrisonburg,
Virginia.
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Mennonite Historical
Bulletin
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Mission
Statement:
"God calls us to preserve our faith heritage, to interpret our stories,
and to proclaim God's work among us."
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