Memory Center

The word Behalt derives from the German word behalten, meaning to keep or remember. At the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center, the Behalt Cyclorama is a 10-by-265-foot mural that illustrates the heritage of the Amish and Mennonite people from their 1525 Anabaptist beginnings in Zurich, Switzerland, and southern Germany to the present day.

The painted oil-on-canvas cyclorama — a 365-degree indoor pictorial mural — uses unique artistic techniques of line and color to illustrate multiple stories within a vast timeline and forms the centerpiece of the Heritage Center.

“As with any subculture, there is a unique worldview,” says Marcus Yoder, executive director of the center. “Five hundred years of history lie behind the Amish way, and this is a way to experience it through art.” He loves Behalt for its wonderful mix of art, history and inspiration, and the way it creates a complete learning experience about the Amish and Mennonites.

There are only four cycloramas still in the U.S. — 16 total in the world. But only Behalt was painted by a single person, Heinz Gaugel, a South German-born artist from Canada who became inspired by the Amish value of peacefulness while passing through Ohio’s Berlin village. He was so inspired by engaging with the Ohio Amish and learning their values that he poured his artistic talents and love of monumental art into a 14-year undertaking to complete the mural.

Behalt is carefully preserved by controlling the center’s humidity and lighting. Art experts and academics frequently visit to see how the eye and the mind can be brought together through its seamless artistic technique.

“It flows together,” says Yoder, author of the book “Cathedrals, Castles and Caves” about the Anabaptists.

Between 18,000 and 20,000 people from 120 nations see Behalt each year, bringing with them curiosity and a drive to experience something rare. Visitors receive a half-hour guided interpretive tour led by someone familiar with the community, as well as their own personal experience of a work that encompasses 1,260 different historical figures.

And there is more to see at the Heritage Center. Educational exhibits include an Amish barn — built the traditional way in one day — and a restored one-room schoolhouse. “Come and learn the subculture of the land,” Yoder says.