Main board: "Die Furgge"
“I think I’ll never see Mount Furgge again,” Christen had said up there and then he was gone, took Bänz by the hand, extending the cane on which their names and the children's were engraved. Andres had followed him, he too with a cane and satchel. Praise God, they were already on the other side of the border. The Catholics wouldn't harm them. Madleni returned on her own to the Berne region, advised by Ueli Still to leave the night before.
Katharina Zimmermann
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"Die Furgge" 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.[1]
Madlenis husband Christen has to leave. He takes their sons with him, Madleni stays on the farm with the girls.
“I think I’ll never see Mount Furgge again,” Christen had said up there and then he was gone, took Bänz by the hand, extending the cane on which their names and the children's were engraved. Andres had followed him, he too with a cane and satchel. Praise God, they were already on the other side of the border. The Catholics wouldn't harm them. Madleni returned on her own to the Berne region, advised by Ueli Still to leave the night before. Here, on the seat by the stove, she and Christen had sat. Madleni had roasted apples, the ones from the sweet apple tree, had cut them in half until they were all gone. The children had long since gone through the hatch door up into the attic. She and Christen had remained seated, had talked about the harvest, about the barley and the corn that could have fully ripened that beautiful autumn and they also talked about themselves, how good they had it together since Christen was now with the Anabaptists. He got up every morning so differently, thinking of how much God loved people, Christen had said. And since he was no longer a Tribunal member who had to punish people, he could take pity on anyone who fell. (…)
And then there was a knock on the door. (…)
Ueli Still was standing there, the Tribunal member from Schangnau. After Christen had brought in a light and had poured out some holder schnapps and Ueli had swirled it round his mouth to taste it and cleared his throat—then it came. Madleni remembers every single word he said.
He was bringing bad news, said Ueli and still did not know at the time it would hit him too. Someone had seen Christen going into the Sunday night meeting and had informed His Lordship.
Which lord? I only know one Lord, Jesus, and it is Him I will obey and no one else, Christen had retorted heatedly.
Well good, he told the preacher and because the Honorable Gentlemen…
Don't teil me about honorable gentlemen, they are not one bit honorable, and if they want me to give my oath I will not give it.
Christen, I have not come the long way up here into the valley—the end of the world—and at night to quarrel with you. I have come, as it says in Matthew, to talk about the end of the world. There are two violent fellows prowling around, and they have the job of catching local Anabaptists. They asked about the list at the parsonage. Christen, you are at the top of the list.
Well, then I'll stay back here. Surely no one would dare arrest me here on my own soil.
(…)
Christen, I have come to tell you: Leave! Leave as fast as possible, even tonight! Take Madleni with you and leave the children here. Someone will look after them.[2]
[1] Katharina Zimmermann, Die Furgge, Blurb, translated by Ruth Schwertfeger.
[2] Furgge, p.110-112.