1700–1743; expulsion in 1711 · event
Anabaptist hunters and the expulsion from Bern
Bounties, confiscation, hidden worship, and forced migration shaped the lives of Swiss Anabaptists in the early eighteenth century.
Also searchable as: Anabaptist Hunters · Expulsion of Swiss Brethren · Bern · Rhine · Palatinate
Bern authorized armed hunters to find Anabaptist believers, especially preachers. A bounty rewarded captures; property could then be confiscated and the prisoner expelled. The exhibit dates this organized pursuit to 1700–1743. Believers sought hidden places for worship, including mountain caves, rather than surrendering the convictions that had brought them into conflict with the authorities.
In 1711 the canton chartered boats to carry Anabaptists north on the Rhine. The exhibit records four boats carrying about four hundred people to the Netherlands. The recently divided Amish and Swiss Brethren sometimes resisted traveling on the same boats, showing that outward persecution did not erase painful disagreements within the brotherhood.
Many of the Swiss Brethren or Mennonites subsequently returned toward the Palatinate, while Amish refugees settled in Dutch territory. The route from Bern through the Rhine and the Netherlands therefore represents both enforced removal and the rebuilding of congregational life. The exhibit records the discontinuation of the special police force in 1743.
Sources for this history: [1]
