GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: [GERMANNA] (1136)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 05:33:29 -0400

The eleven hundred and thirty-sixth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

I am going to interrupt the miniseries on the emigrants from the Siegen
area for a special note on Hans Herr and the Hans Herr House. The tourist
season starts on April 1 but since the Mennonites go to church on Sunday
there are no tours on Sunday. In accordance with my volunteering schedule,
I am usually to be found there on the first Saturday of each month and that
is where I will be found today.

I would not be surprised if a German national visits today. Last year on
the first Saturday a German student came. I invited him home for dinner and
an overnight stay with us which he accepted. Then he volunteered to show us
Heidelberg when we were there last May. And we did meet him. We had dinner
and walked the philosopher's walk which we could never have done on our own.

Hans Herr was an Anabaptist though by 1710 he probably distinguished
himself as a "Mennonite" (as opposed to the Amish branch). The Anabaptists
had originated in Switzerland but they were not appreciated there. In fact
they were severely persecuted in a variety of ways including death. A very
common reaction to them was to export them out of the country. For a while,
in the last half of the seventeenth century, they were welcomed in Germany
because the voids in the populations created by the Thirty Years' War. By
the time 1700 came, exportation to Germany was not an option because of the
growth of population there.

At this time Franz Michel started looking for places in America to form
Swiss colonies to have a place to send the Anabaptists. Christoph von
Graffenried, needing a venture to recover from his debts, joined Michel and
his associates in this colonization scheme. In addition, Graffenried
promoted the idea of developing the silver mines that Michel thought he had
found. For this purpose, they sent Johann Justus Albrecht to Siegen to
recruit the miners. This was the start of the exodus that took place in
1713. Had it not been for the Anabaptists which Switzerland wanted to
expel, there would have been no Germanna Colonies.

Sometime prior to this, Hans Herr appears to have left Switzerland and
settled on a farm called Unterbiegelhof not far from Wagenbach. If you
walked across the back of the farms, it would be only about three miles
from the farm where George Utz and Johann Michael Volck lived to
Unterbiegelhof where Hans Herr was living. Hans Herr, and other Mennonites,
left in 1709 and the news must have circulated around the neighborhood to
Wagenbach. So in a way Hans Herr influenced the Germanna Colonies.

My interest in Hans Herr originates with my sympathy for the reformers. It
could not have anything to do with the fact that my daughter married a
descendant of Hans Herr or that the marriage was in the Hans Herr House.

So plan on coming out to the Hans Herr House in Lancaster County (in
Pennsylvania). It is southeast of the town of Lancaster and west of
Strasburg. Until next fall, it is open every day, except Sundays.

John Blankenbaker
http://www.germanna.com/
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhis1.html
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genelea/gerhist/index.html

This thread:

• [GERMANNA] (1136)Germanna Colonies, History of by John Blankenbaker <>