Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen

Stefan Sonderegger

“Herscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen” – this is the title of today’s cantata. If we direct our gaze towards the sky, towards the ceiling of this church, built from 1779 to 1782, we are made aware of who reigns in heaven. The ceiling painting, which is before you on a sheet from a beautiful text by Mrs Eisenhut, shows Christ in a circle of lights surrounded by groups of people from four continents: Asia at the top left, followed by Europe, America and Africa. In his right hand Christ holds a scripture. On it is written, “Turn to me, all the ends of the earth, and you will be helped, for I am God and no one else.” This is an invitation addressed to all the people of the earth. It is a Christian claim to autocracy.

The groups of people of the four continents are recognisable as worldly rulers and dignitaries with their elaborate clothing and with the attached symbols of power such as the crown. In the group of Europe with the eight people, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790, is depicted at the bottom left. The Emperor is the only nobleman in the European group. Next to him, two women stand out. With their traditional costumes they are recognisable as Appenzell women. One of them is most probably the co-founder of this painting, Ursula Wolf-Zellweger. She is standing directly behind the emperor, towering over the others and pointing with self-confident gestures towards the ruler of heaven. The picture programme in the sky of the Trogen church is an impressive reflection of the circumstances of the 18th century. The roles are clearly assigned: Ruler in heaven is Christ, rulers on earth are, with God’s blessing, the politically and economically powerful. – With a wink of the eye, a group picture of the “leaders of the world”, quasi a G-20 summit.

Ladies and gentlemen, the roles are clearly distributed this evening as well. The interpretation and performance of the cantata is in the best hands imaginable with the conductor and the musicians. I, on the other hand, am a historian and speak to this place in that role. What was this village, which many of you visit monthly, like at the time Bach composed his cantatas?

The word “ruler” in the cantata title is associated with the verb “to rule”. The word “to rule” is ambiguous. It ranges from to rule someone to to rule something. These are big differences. The first means to rule and exercise power over others. The second means to be able to do something. Both meanings are perfectly suited to the prevailing conditions in the 18th century in Europe and especially in Trogen, and thus to what I am going to say this evening.

First, on the subject of ruling someone in the sense of dominating and exercising power:

Trogen was a centre of power in the 18th century. I am not only thinking of the Landsgemeinde that took place here. Today, the Landsgemeinde is often cited to explain the long tradition of popular power in what is now Switzerland. From a historical point of view, however, it is wrong to cite the Landsgemeinde for this purpose; it is totally overrated in terms of popular power. The Landsgemeinde gave the voters hardly any powers apart from taking the oath and electing the state officials. The decision on new laws was not in the hands of the Landsgemeinde, but of the councils. These authorities exercised power and passed laws every year, which were proclaimed from the church pulpits. In the absolutist Ancien Régime, as everywhere else in Europe, the regents also ruled in the Landsgemeinde towns. They issued decrees on every area of life, for example on gambling and dancing, smoking, the behaviour of unmarried daughters and on church attendance, which was compulsory and still filled the churches on Sundays. Ruedi Lutz and with him all organists and pastors would possibly be grateful if the law still existed in which the authorities ordered: “The singing of the psalms and spiritual songs shall be sung in loud voices by men and women in the churches. The disciples who sing in inns and elsewhere and remain silent in the churches are to be admonished by the parish priests and superiors to sing in the churches as well, in the case of an offence with a fine of £5.” The population did not have the right to petition or speak at the Landsgemeinde. In the period from 1600 to 1730, the authorities did not bring a single issue to the Landsgemeinde on their own initiative. The few decisions taken by the Landsgemeinde had to be enforced by the people through tumults.

Incidentally, one can hardly speak of a “Landsgemeinde democracy” not only in Appenzell, but in the entire Confederation until the 19th century, but rather of a “Landsgemeinde aristocracy”. What is meant by this becomes clear when one looks at the list of those gentlemen who occupied the most important political functions. For generations, many political offices were in the hands of a narrow group of leaders whose members were not peasants or weavers but, as internationally networked merchants, belonged to the social and economic elite and held sway. As an example, in addition to the Zellwegers, I would cite the Ausserrhoden trading families Tanner and Wetter; the locals among you are familiar with them. In the 200 years between the division of the land into Reformed Outer Rhoden and Catholic Inner Rhoden from 1597 until the French Revolution, the Tanners held the office of Landammann for 67 years, the Wetter for 48 years and the Zellwegers for 74 years. One must bear in mind that some of these families married each other and thus accumulated political power, so to speak. If one adds other higher offices, then the Zellwegers from Trogen were involved in the political leadership of the country for almost 200 years without interruption. This strong position of the Zellwegers had a positive effect on Trogen, as we shall see.

To the second subject, to rule in the sense of to dominate something:

Political rulers were often also economic “governors” not only in Trogen, but throughout Europe. What is meant by this? “Regierer” was the formerly used term for the authorised partners in the internationally operating textile trading companies. They governed the business by issuing instructions to their staff as bosses. However, the road to this economic pinnacle was hard. The most important prerequisite was tireless diligence. This meant constantly calculating, keeping books, writing letters, giving instructions and gathering information about prices and the market. Especially the arithmetic and bookkeeping was very different from today. The currencies were much more different compared to today’s euro age. Dozens of coins from all parts of Europe were also allowed in Trogen in parallel and had to be converted to each other. This calculation was already complicated enough. But it became even more complicated because it could happen that coin types were banned from one day to the next because coin counterfeiters had been at work.

Another prerequisite for successful economic “governors” was worldliness; that meant learning foreign languages, here especially French, because France was the most important market for eastern Switzerland. Educational travel and years abroad were prerequisites for reaching the top. It is known, for example, that young Basel merchants spent a year travelling from Basel via Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, to Berlin, Hanover, Lübeck, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, Lyon, Geneva and back home. Even as a teenager, one was literally thrown in at the deep end: In 1785, a 17-year-old Zellweger was entrusted with the management of the Lyon branch. Anyone who did not have a thick skin and great self-confidence in addition to professional competence had a difficult time. It is said of the partners of the largest and best-known textile trading company in southern Germany in the Middle Ages, the Great Ravensburg Company, that they did not fear any competitors in the world, even though they waited like packs of hungry dogs for every opportunity to tear each other apart.

Another prerequisite for success was functioning and fast communication over long distances. This was an enormous challenge in a time without telephone and e-mail. At that time, the letter was the fastest means of communication in trade networks, which in the case of the Zellwegers meant above all in the triangle of Trogen, Lyon and Genoa. According to Maya Zellweger, who is researching her gender in her as yet unpublished doctoral thesis, the business correspondence of the Zellweger merchants in Trogen comprises around 39 000 copies of business letters to approximately 3800 business partners in over 500 locations. From the head office in Trogen, a letter was sent weekly, usually on Monday, to the business branch in Lyon, the centre of sales, and later also to Genoa. These letters had to be answered by the branches there with the same regularity. This regular correspondence reveals the business model. This did not consist of a wholesale business with the management of an extensive stock of goods, as one would expect, but rather cloth was purchased from the home weaving families of Eastern Switzerland on the basis of specific orders. If the weekly letter failed to arrive, which was very rare, people in Trogen became nervous. Without information from Lyon about the sale and payment of goods with bills of exchange, which were cashed in banks in Augsburg or St. Gallen, the Zellweger trading houses in Trogen were helpless, even blind, in their purchasing. The same applied to purchasing in Genoa. Cotton from the global trade was purchased in the Italian port metropolis in response to concrete orders from customers in eastern Switzerland. Obtaining these orders was the responsibility of the head office in Trogen. Purchasing, selling and paying for the goods were interlinked at extremely short notice. If one of these three points failed, bankruptcy was imminent in extreme cases. Success and failure could quickly alternate. Loans, crises and bankruptcies were part of everyday life. It should not be forgotten that it was not only the merchants who were affected, but also a large part of the population. For textile merchants were the most important employers, and the fate of thousands of weaving families in the entire region hung on the fabric thread.

Finally, I turn my gaze back to the picture on the church ceiling. The fact that the donor of the ceiling painting, Ursula Wolf-Zellweger, had herself portrayed right behind the emperor is certainly a staging of the high self-confidence of the bourgeoisie. But that alone is not enough to explain it. It is a tradition that has existed for centuries that benefactors visibly stood up for culture, public spirit and, as in our case, for Christian values with their example. The brother of the founder Ursula Wolf-Zellweger depicted in our painting, the later Landammann Jacob Zellweger-Wetter, could well have been included in this group picture of the “leaders of the world”. He had heavily financed the construction of the church. As a representative of European commercial capitalism, he was at the head of the Appenzell textile trading houses. His trading area stretched from Malta to Moscow, and he had isolated business relations with the Spanish colonies in America and India. This rich cosmopolitan Jacob Zellweger owned trading houses in Lyon, Genoa and Trogen. The bourgeois palazzi in Trogen are inspired by the architecture of Genoa. Genoa is called “Genova la superba”, the “proud one”. Some of this proud cultural grandeur has been transferred to Trogen thanks to the linking of global trade with regional production in eastern Switzerland.

The Zellwegers of Trogen were not only entrepreneurs and employers for thousands, but they also left us one of the most important Reformed sacred buildings in Switzerland with this church and a village image of national importance with the piazza surrounded by the palazzi. As benefactors, they put money into the public domain. They financed educational and social institutions. This family was not unique. And it would not be in the present day either. Leadership in the combination of politics, business and philanthropy has a long tradition, especially in Ausserrhoden. The cultural commitment that we can enjoy this evening confirms this and is part of this liberal culture that has grown and been lived over centuries. We would like to express our sincere thanks for this.

This text has been translated with DeepL (www.deepl.com).