Furgge

Die Furgge, as it was originally titled, is a novel about the persecution of the Anabaptists in Switzerland in the early 18th century that is based on archival and historical research of the Emmental and the people who lived there, like Madleni Schilt and Christen Hirschi. The story has a contemporary frame that is told by a musician who, during a retreat from a demanding life in Zurich, discovers this hidden history from an elderly teacher. The shadow of the local mountain “die Furgge” today known as the Hohgant, looms over the text as both a hiding place for the persecuted and a symbol of home. This heart rendering historical novel is a fast moving collection of chronological vignettes that quickly change back and forth from the present to the early 18th century of Bern Switzerland’s Emmental region. Inquiring in Zurich in 1977 concerning Anabaptist ancestors I quickly heard disdain (or guilt) toward “those poor dirt farmers” who were of no great loss to Switzerland. Katharine Zimmermann through “Fugge” reveals the depth to which the state and its church of the early 18th century and earlier sought to punish and persecute any and all who challenged or turned from its authority and demands. Her ability to access ancient church records gives authenticity to the Swiss governmental state tie of baptismal registration for the sake of state military service for all males. I was impressed with the ease with which the author relates the forthrightness, even earthiness, of the mountain farm women’s lives and conversations. Readers will be amazed that ANY Mennonite, Brethren, or Baptist ancestors survived to arrive in the Americas. Along the way, I have absorbed other facts concerning their suffering and martyrdom, but I thank YOU, Katharine Zimmermann for following your desire to know more so that my heart may FEEL the struggle, the faith and the determination of the past which in turn strengthens my own faith and resolves in these current days.