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The Mennonite Cemetery

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Why is there a cemetery in the Geisberg, a hamlet originally located on the municipal territory of Altenstadt – now part of the municipality of Wissembourg?

In fact, it’s a rather unusual denominational cemetery, linked to the local Mennonite community. This curiosity dates back to the mid-18th century, and bears witness to the challenges posed by the settlement of Anabaptist farmers in the Outre-Forêt region.

While in Alsace they were recognized for the quality of their work, these Swiss immigrants with their discreet morals and austere appearance sometimes provoked more mixed reactions among locals, between curiosity and mistrust, against a backdrop of agricultural rivalries.

Moreover, through their refusal to baptize children or bear arms, or their attachment to the separation of church and state, the Mennonites attracted the hostility of Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed religious authorities, who saw them as heretics and sectarians.

For this reason, they were often forbidden to be buried in parish cemeteries, or relegated to the plots of non-Christians or suicides.

Altenstadt was an exception to the rule, since before the creation of this cemetery on the Geisberg, Mennonite farmers were able for some years to bury their dead in the parish cemetery, in a dedicated plot 1. But in general, they preferred to bury their dead near their farms: in a garden, an orchard, a meadow…

Around 1750, Michel Philippe de Weber (1697-1777), the second owner of the Geisberg, made a plot of land available for use as a cemetery. The cemetery was enlarged in 1863 and again in 1883, when the present access road was acquired.

Today, the cemetery remains the property of the Geisberg Evangelical Mennonite Church, and is maintained by residents of the hamlet. Like those on the neighboring farms of Schafbusch (Steinseltz) and Dieffenbach (Riedseltz), it is still in use.

Here, the oldest tombstones date back to around 1850; but these are not the oldest graves, which were previously devoid of headstones, and could only be seen from a mound of earth.

The headstones that can still be read do not feature the typical ornamentation found in other Mennonite cemeteries – around 50 in eastern France. Instead, they often feature Bible verses which, in this quiet spot in the shade of a lime tree, invite meditation and bear witness to a living faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Notes:

  1. Cf: Correspondence of September 23, 1760 between parish priest François Casimir Avril and the bishop of Speyer.

 

Illustrations:

  1. “I know that my Redeemer lives” Job 19:25
  2. At the dedication of the Böhr family tombstones, 1880-90. A hop field is clearly visible in the background. Private collection (Jean Hege).
  3. Extract from a deed of sale dated 1863: sale of a plot of land to the “Compagnie des Mennonites du Geisberg”. Archives of the Geisberg Evangelical Mennonite Church (EEMG).
  4. Detail of a gravestone, old motif.
  5. Detail of a tombstone detail: verse on a modern grave.

 

Further information:

Werner ENNINGER and Michèle WOLFF, Lieux d’inhumation mennonites dans l’Est de la France (Presses de l’Université de Essen), 3 vols. from 1992 to 1995, AFHAM.