Hans Lötscher ¹

  General Notes:

1. Family Name 1 Lotscher
Notes for Family Name Lotscher:
(Latschar, Lachat, Lorsch, Lortscher, Latschaw, Lotshaw, Leutscher, Letscher)

A Mennonite family name, derives from Latscher from Latterbach near Erlenbach in
the Simmental, canton of Bern, Switzerland.

The first member of this family known to have been an Anabaptist was Hans Latscher, who was born in Latterbach in 1601.

He wrote a hymn of 41 stanzas entitled "Ein sch?n new geistlich Lied."

In 1633 he married Anna Kammerer from Latterbach. The three oldest of their five children, Hans, Melchior, and Anna, were brought before the T?uferkommission in Bern because of their Anabaptist beliefs. They remained true to their faith and were
imprisoned.

The brothers Hans and Melchior escaped in 1667 but were soon returned to prison. After four years in prison at Bern they were sentenced to galley service with four
other Anabaptists in 1671-73. They returned to claim their inheritance from
their father, who had died while they were away, but
were refused it.

In 1667, while imprisoned at Bern, Hans Lotscher wrote a letter which is preserved in the Martyrs' Mirror (E 1129-30), in which he lists some 40 persons who met death in Bern because of their Anabaptist faith.

Abraham Lotscher, youngest brother of Hans and Melchior, immigrated to Holland in 1711, where the name soon became Leutscher. A number of his descendants have been Mennonite leaders in that country.

The family name takes the form Latscha and Latschar in the Palatinate and in
North America.

About 1714 Hans Heinrich
Lotscher emigrated from the Simmental to Alsace, and later to the Palatinate,
Germany, where he settled on K?hb?rncheshof near Katzweiler. His children settled in various Palatinate Mennonite communities.

One son, Johannes Franz, immigrated to Pennsylvania. The chief homes of the family in North America have been Berks Co., Pa. and Waterloo Co., Ont.

Source: http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/L387ME.html (Adapted by
permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyuclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 297)

Source: Adolf Fluri, "Die Lotscher von Latyterbach," in Beitrage zur Geschichte
der bernischen T Taufer (Bern, 1912)

Source: J. Latscha, Der Mann un sein Werk (Frankfurt, 1932)

Source: Mennonitisches Lexikon, "Latscha," "Loetscher";

Source: Theileman J. van Braght, The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs Mirror
(Scottdale, PA, 1951)






Notes for Hans Lotscher:
Hans Loetschar was an Antibaptist and published a poem called "A new Spiritual
Song" which is still kept in the state library in
Bern, Switzerland.
In 1667, three of the children of Hans and Anna Loetschar (Hans, Melchior and
Anna) were imprisoned in Bern because of their
Antibaptist beliefs. Hans and Melchior escaped but were recaptured. During his
imprisonment, Hans got access to the tower book,
a record of all of the Antibaptists who were martyred for their faith in Bern.
This list in 1711 was carried by Christian Kroppf
from Alsace to Holland. From Holland it was taken to Ephrata in Pennsylvania
where the Martyrs Mirror was published containing
the letter of Hans Loetschar.

Hans married Anna Cassandra Kammer, daughter of Marti Kammer and Margret Witwer, on 21 Jan 1633 in Erlenbach, Zurich, Switzerland. (Anna Cassandra Kammer was born on 10 Sep 1612 in Latterbach, Bern, Switzerland ² and died in 1657 ².)