Die Walserin

A family wanders through the centuries. In the year 1300, the young Walser woman Barbara leaves the poverty-stricken Lötschental, marked by natural disasters, with her husband and fellow travelers, and settles in the back Lauterbrunnen Valley, where the settlers establish Mürren, Gimmelwald, and the hamlet of Ammerten. In the 18th century, Ammerten becomes deserted, but not the families who bear that name. They settle in the front Lauterbrunnen Valley. However, by the end of the 19th century, economic difficulties arise there as well. In 1879, Elisabeth Ammeter emigrates with her husband and children to the Caucasus. Around the turn of the century, Anna Stücker travels from Thun to Georgia and marries Elisabeth's son Fritz there. During the Russian Revolution, the family is expropriated and faces increasing persecution. As a result, the Ammeters must leave Georgia in 1929. Anna makes a detour to Thun and then follows the rest of the family to Canada. Only Elisabeth's youngest daughter, Martha Siegenthaler-Ammeter, returns permanently to Switzerland and experiences a difficult new beginning in the Emmental during the 1930s and 1940s. The author weaves together different time levels into an impressive family saga spanning several centuries, exemplifying many emigration stories in Switzerland.