Lake Thun and the Oberland Anabaptists: the world that made the Amish
Written 2026-11-01 at Christopher’s request: a general story of the Anabaptists of Lake Thun and the Bernese Oberland, the culture and economy they lived in, and how those may have shaped the ideas that became the Amish. It is backdrop, not genealogy. No ancestor of Christopher has yet been documented living on Lake Thun. Facts from the vault’s sources are cited; the “why” sections are interpretation and are marked as such.
Why this place matters to the family
- Jakob Ammann, founder of the Amish, was born in 1644 at Erlenbach in the Simmental valley above the lake. He lived at Oberhofen on the north shore, then moved to Alsace about 1680 (1693 The Amish split).
- D. Paul Miller’s Miller, Mast, Hochstetler, Stutzman, Mishler and Holly lines were Amish. The elder Jacob Hochstetler (c.1666–c.1722) signed petitions beside Ammann in 1701–02.
- The Miller-side family story places an English girl’s confinement on Lake Thun (English ancestor recollection (Miller side)).
- Schlabach/Slabaugh (D. Paul’s line through John Slabaugh (elder, immigrant)) is an Amt Thun name. Two Reformed Schlappach families, from Frutigen and from Erst in the Amt Thun, sailed on the 1711 boats (1711 Rhine exodus - full passenger roster). That is a name match, not a link.
The place
Lake Thun lies where the Aare leaves the Alps. Thun, the town at its outflow, had been ruled by Bern since the 1380s, and the lakeshore districts were governed by Bernese bailiffs (Landvögte) from castles at Thun and Oberhofen. Above the lake rise the Oberland valleys: the Simmental, the Frutigtal, Interlaken and Hasli.
How people lived (the 1711 boat lists give their trades):
- Vines on the north shore. Oberhofen, Hilterfingen and Sigriswil faced the sun across the lake. Several 1711 emigrants are listed as Weinbauer, vine-growers: Christ. Schilling and Hans Bauer of Oberhofen, and Hans Ruf of Sigriswil.
- Cattle and cheese in the valleys. Simmental cattle-breeding and summer pasturing on the high alps were the Oberland’s wealth. Most emigrants were Landmann or Bauer (farmer). Their dairy and stock-breeding skills later made Anabaptists sought-after tenants in Alsace, the Palatinate and Pennsylvania.
- Crafts: weavers (Anna Schmied of Frutigen, Weberin), tailors (Ammann himself; Hans Meier of Sigriswil), shoemakers and a glazier.
- Mercenary service. For centuries young Oberland men hired out as soldiers to France and other powers, and Bern drew pensions from the contracts. Fighting for pay was an ordinary living there.
The upheavals behind it
| When | What | Effect on the Oberland |
|---|---|---|
| 1528 | Bern adopts the Reformation by state decree (1528 Bern adopts the Reformation and outlaws Anabaptists) | The Oberland was the most reluctant part of the canton. Interlaken and Hasli rose against the change that year, and Bern put the revolt down by force. Religion was imposed from the capital. |
| 1528–1571 | Anabaptists outlawed; executions until 1571 (1571 Last Anabaptist execution in Bern) | Martyr ballads such as Haslibacher’s (Ausbund 140) kept the memory alive. |
| 1653 | The Swiss Peasants’ War (Emmental and Entlebuch) | Bern crushed the revolt and tightened control of the countryside. Dissent of any kind became dangerous. |
| 1659 | Bern creates the Anabaptist Chamber (1659 Bern creates the Anabaptist Chamber); mass arrests (1659 Anabaptists arrested at Dürsrüti (Ausbund hymn 139)) | Paid informers and “Anabaptist hunters”; fines, confiscation, prison. |
| 1671 | Expulsions to the Palatinate (1671 Expulsion of Bernese Anabaptists to the Palatinate) | Families scattered north down the Rhine. |
| c.1680–1693 | Ammann converts and moves to Alsace; the split of 1693 (1693 The Amish split) | The Oberland and Alsace congregations follow Ammann; the Emmental follows Hans Reist. |
| 1690s | Cold, hungry years of the Little Ice Age | Harvest failures across Europe sharpened poverty and pressure on land. |
| 1710 | Bern tries to ship Anabaptist prisoners to the American colonies by way of Holland and England | The transport collapsed on the Rhine and the prisoners were freed in the Netherlands (1711 The Rhine exodus from Bern). |
| 1711 | The Rhine exodus: an amnesty to leave with their property | Mostly Ammann’s Oberland party sailed. The Thuner boat carried 77 people (from Sigriswil, Hilterfingen, Oberhofen, Thun, Steffisburg) and the Oberländer boat 68 (Frutigen, Simmental). |
| 1712 | Louis XIV expels Anabaptists from Alsace (1712 Louis XIV expels the Anabaptists from Alsace) | Amish families moved again: to Lorraine, the Palatinate, Montbéliard, then Pennsylvania (1727–1750s). |
| 1798 | Old Bern falls; religious freedom (1798 Old Bern falls; religious freedom) | Too late for the emigrants. |
How the setting may have shaped Amish ideas (interpretation)
These are reasonable readings, not proven causes. Historians argue about how far circumstances, and how far conviction, drove the 1693 split.
- Converts are strict. Ammann was not born Anabaptist. He grew up in the Reformed state church and was baptized as an adult around 1680. The Oberland congregations were younger and had more first-generation converts than the Emmental’s old Anabaptist families. Converts tend to draw sharp lines, and Ammann’s demands drew them: strict shunning (Meidung), communion twice a year, foot washing, plain dress and untrimmed beards.
- A Reformed habit turned inside out. Every Bernese parish had a morals court (Chorgericht) that disciplined drinking, dancing, quarrels and absence from church. Ammann’s church kept the same instinct for discipline but took it away from the state: the congregation, not the bailiff, would judge and exclude. Shunning was church discipline without a sword.
- Hiding needs friends; fleeing does not. In the Emmental, Anabaptists survived because Reformed neighbours (the Treuherzigen, “true-hearted”) hid them and warned them of raids. Hans Reist’s side refused to say such friends were lost. Ammann did. Congregations that had already left for Alsace no longer depended on sympathetic neighbours, and could afford a harder line on who was saved.
- Rejecting the oath and the sword meant rejecting the local economy. Bern required oaths of loyalty and militia service, and the Oberland lived partly on mercenary pay. Refusing both cut people off from citizenship and from a common way to earn a living. That pushed Anabaptists towards what they did best, careful farming, and towards landlords who valued it over conformity.
- The Dutch example. In Alsace the Swiss met the Dutch Mennonite Dordrecht Confession (1632), which already taught foot washing and shunning. Ammann’s program drew on it. The Amish are a Swiss–Dutch hybrid born on the road.
- Persecution makes boundaries. The Anabaptist Chamber’s informers, the fines and the deportations of 1659–1711 taught that the world was hostile. A church that sets itself apart in dress, discipline and marriage is easier to keep together under that pressure, and harder to absorb when the pressure ends. That separateness is still the Amish signature.
An English thread in the Bern story
England does appear in the Bern Anabaptist story. The 1710 plan was to send Bernese Anabaptists to the British colonies by way of the Netherlands and England. In the same years Bernese colonists under Christoph von Graffenried went through London to found New Bern, North Carolina (1710). Dutch, Prussian and British diplomacy pressed Bern for the 1711 amnesty. None of this links to an English girl on Lake Thun. It does show that Bern, the Oberland and England were in contact, which could explain how an “English” element entered a family story.
Where Christopher’s family fits
- Documented: the Amish lines on the Miller side descend from the movement Ammann founded. The elder Jacob Hochstetler stood with Ammann in Alsace in 1701–02.
- Not documented: any ancestor born or living on Lake Thun. The Mast and Mishler lines come from the Schwarzenburg district (Guggisberg, Wahlern), west of Thun, not from the lakeshore.
- Open leads:
- Schlabach: compare the Frutigen and Erst Schlappach families with the 1733 Pink Mary Schlabachs.
- Hilterfingen parish registers (Bern catalog 220149) and the Oberhofen castle Anabaptist papers, 1703–23 (STAB B III 194b) for any English mother or foundling.
- The Gonser–Varnes branch, which D. Paul’s memoir says was English (English ancestor recollection (Miller side)).
Sources
- Müller - Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer (1895) (the 1711 lists and the 1710 deportation)
- Swiss Mennonite Conference - Bernese Anabaptist History outline
- Gratz - Bernese Anabaptists and their American descendants (1953)
- 1711 Rhine exodus - full passenger roster
- General background on the Bernese Oberland, the 1528 Oberland revolt, the Chorgericht and the Dordrecht Confession: standard Swiss and Mennonite histories (e.g. the Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz and the Mennonite Encyclopedia). Not separately checked online this session.
Record compiled 1 November 2026.
About this research
Supporting documentation is linked throughout. This project is an exercise in AI-assisted research and development, and I haven’t manually verified every link or conclusion. All transcriptions and translations of Swiss parish records were made with AI, and their accuracy should be treated accordingly.