Religion and Architecture Mingle in Germanic Countries

I was not ready for college immediately after high school, so I decided to go to Germany with the program Intermenno. Throughout my time there I enjoyed observing the Mennonites in Europe while working to plan the German Mennonite Youth Conference. While there, I gained insight on how different Mennonites are. For example, in the Netherlands some of the Mennonites would not consider Jesus the Son of God, while the largest Swiss Mennonite church was trying to ban a pop song about vampires. The Mennonite church in Germany is divided into two separate conferences. Planning a conference that both the North and South would find meaningful proved to be a struggle because there is almost a resentment between the two. The North would enjoy more artistic or intellectual forms of worship, like a play, while the South seemed more charismatic and would enjoy a praise and worship service.

The beliefs and behaviors of the different churches mirror the cultures to some degree. The Netherlands is famous for many things, two of which are their openness to prostitution and their legalization of soft drugs. Switzerland is also famous for things such as their resistance to change. Switzerland is basically an island within Europe, separated physically by the Alps and ideologically by their government, especially in the sense that they are not yet in the European Union. With each country’s laws, the actions of different Mennonites only make sense in that their different religious practices reflect their respective cultures.

When discussing this with my father, EMU professor Don Clymer, he made similar observations about how the culture reflects the religion. When going to Amsterdam, one of the first things someone might notice about the houses is that they all have huge hulking windows on both sides of the house. However, they make no attempt to hang curtains up, so anyone can literally see straight through the house. In Switzerland, on the other hand, the windows are usually small and shuttered up. As my father said, this observation is a good illustration of the cultures and the religious practices of these countries.