Lembach (Alsace, France)
Lembach, a village west of Wissembourg in Lower Alsace, near the border of the Palatinate. The region is mountainous and picturesque with many old ruins. There were once many Mennonite families here. At the close of the Thirty Years' War Swiss Mennonite refugees settled here, welcomed by the barons of Fleckenstein to rebuild their extensive lands in Lower Alsace. They held their meetings on the Froensburg, an estate at the foot of Froensburg castle; some of the Palatine Mennonites met with them. The membership steadily declined. Emigration to Bavaria, Poland, and America took large numbers; the fact that they lived widely scattered hastened the decline. When Froensburg passed into other hands the congregation met in a rented hall at Hirschtal in the Palatinate, and finally on the Fleckensteinerhof in Alsace. When this farm also passed into non-Mennonite hands the members no longer met. There were only a few families left. The Palatine families went to Ixheim (Zweibrücken), the Alsatians to Geisberg. The last elders of Lembach were Peter Jordy of the Fleckensteinerhof and Joseph Guth of the Barenbrunnerhof near Busenberg.
Bibliography
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 636.
| Author(s) | Pierre Sommer |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1958 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Sommer, Pierre. "Lembach (Alsace, France)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1958. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lembach_(Alsace,_France)&oldid=95744.
APA style
Sommer, Pierre. (1958). Lembach (Alsace, France). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lembach_(Alsace,_France)&oldid=95744.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 319. All rights reserved.
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