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Christian Christmann migrated to the Palatinate from Samerland in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, sometime before 1665. He was a Fuhrknecht, which probably means that he was a wagon driver. The word "knecht" means serf, or slave. "Fuhr" was probably the German word Fahr, meaning to drive.

Christian Christmann married Anna Christina Werner on November 24, 1665. It is possible that Christian and Anna were the parents of Johannes Christmann who was born three years later. However, there are no records of that fact other than the circumstantial evidence of time, location, and religion. Johannes Christmann is found living nearby in Dalsheim as an adult. One wonders just how many different Christmann families there were living so close together after the devastation of the Thirty Years War. I think the answer is not very many at all. Therefore Christian is very possibly an ancestor with a very interesting first name. He is found on a list of Swiss Immigrants and Huguenots that migrated to the Palatinate. The list survived World War II bombing raids.

Christian Christmann lived in Bad Duerkheim after the end of the Thirty Years War, which was the result of political ambition and religious fanaticism. The war decimated the population of the Palatinate and left in its wake a waist-land of destroyed towns, abandoned houses, disabled soldiers, vagrants, beggars, robber bands, gangs of former mercenaries, pestilence, and agricultural lands that had returned to the wild.

In an effort to rebuild and repopulate the area, the Palatine Elector, Karl Ludwig offered various incentives that included "religious toleration". This attracted Swiss Mennonites who were escaping renewed persecutions in Switzerland. It also attracted French Huguenots, Walloons, Waldenses, Tyroleans, and other refugees trying to take advantage of the opportunity. Eventually, the new population gave Karl Ludwig his workforce, and taxpayers.

Before too long, the Mennonites found out what religious toleration in the Palatinate really was- they had to pay an annual Mennonite "recognition tax". The new "Palatines", as they were called, had it rough. Princes with toll stations and tariffs at every river crossing and town controlled Germany. The Palatine peasants, like Christian Christmann, remained in servitude to a lord, and for many, their only hope was in God. However, God came in many colors, and which color was the right color was the subject of constant bickering.

Catholics and Protestants disliked each other and the Protestants came in two flavors, Lutheran, and Reformed who are also called Calvinists. The Mennonites and the Huguenots have their origin in a sect of the Swiss Reformed movement called the Anabaptists. The Amish also have their roots in the Anabaptist movement.

Since the persecutions of the Church in the first three centuries after Christ, no Christian group suffered greater persecutions than the Anabaptists. The beheading of Anabaptists became a public embarrassment for Swiss authorities.

Old fachwerk house in Bad Dürkheim :circa 1500's