Lötscher family

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Lötscher is the name of a widely ramified Mennonite family stemming from the Simmental in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. The progenitor was Hans Lötscher (see Leutscher and Latscha) of Latterbach near Erlenbach, born 1601, a pious man, author of the song, "Schön new Geistlich Lied" (41 stanzas), in which he gives examples from the Bible to warn his descendants and contemporaries of the spirit and confusion of the world. On 21 January 1633 he married Anna Kammerer of Latterbach. The three oldest of his five children, Hans, Melchior, and Anna Lötscher, were taken to the Anabaptist prison in Bern in 1666. The clergy on the Anabaptist Commission, including Abraham de Losea, were instructed to visit them diligently, teach them, and take away "their whims." Considering their youth, there was hope that "they might be led on the right way." But they persisted steadfastly in their faith.

Hans and Melchior escaped from prison in August 1667, but were soon recaptured and put into the orphanage in Bern. After four years of imprisonment they were put in irons and taken to Venice on 16 March 1671, with four other Mennonites as galley-slaves. Then they were lost sight of, except that in 1673 they were again in the canton of Bern to take over the inheritance from their father. They were refused.

In 1711 members of the family of the youngest brother Abraham were among the Mennonites immigrating to Holland, where the name was soon spelled "Leutscher." Several of his descendants became Mennonite preachers in Holland. One of them, Jan Isaak Lotscher, who died in September 1866 at the age of 94 years, had carefully kept the Swiss costume of his fathers.

Bibliography

Fluri, A.  "Die Lötscher von Latterbach." Blätter für bernische Geschichte, Kunst und Altertumskunde. Bern, 1912.

Geiser, Samuel.  Die Taufgesinnten-Gemeinden. Karlsruhe, 1931.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: II, 694 f.

Müller, Ernst. Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1895. Reprinted Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1972.


Author(s) Samuel Geiser
Date Published 1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Geiser, Samuel. "Lötscher family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=L%C3%B6tscher_family&oldid=118539.

APA style

Geiser, Samuel. (1957). Lötscher family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=L%C3%B6tscher_family&oldid=118539.



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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 400. All rights reserved.


©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

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