Gall fisherman

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Gall Fischer , also written Gall Vischer (* 15th century ; † March 26, 1530 in Nürtingen ), was a weaver , supporter of the Anabaptist movement and briefly a leading figure in the Augsburg and Kaufbeur Anabaptist communities. He became a companion of the chiliast Augustin Bader , on whom he had a not insignificant influence. Like this and other members of the Bader circle, he suffered a martyr's death due to his beliefs .

Life

When Gall Fischer joined the Augsburg Anabaptist Congregation in 1527, he was already old. His date of birth must therefore be set in the last third of the 15th century. Little can be learned about his origin and his life story. It is known that he earned his living as a weaver and was married to a woman named Elisabeth.

augsburg

The question of how Gall and Elisabeth Fischer came into contact with the Augsburg Anabaptists has not yet been answered. There is only evidence that the Fischer couple was baptized by Sigmund Salminger , who came from Munich . Salminger was a former Franciscan priest who had received baptism from Hans Hut in March 1527 . Immediately after his baptism, Fischer was appointed deacon of the community. He performed this service together with Hans Kießling . A close and - as the future would show - fateful connection existed between him and Augustin Bader . Both belonged to Hans Hut's confidants, referred to as the “strong ones”, and knew that they had been privy to his eschatology in a special way . During the so-called Augsburg Synod of Martyrs , which took place from August 20 to 24, 1527 and the leading Anabaptists from southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria took part, Gall Fischer made his house available. It was one of at least three meeting places for the Anabaptist Conference.

In the autumn of 1527 fishermen and other Anabaptists were arrested for their beliefs and subjected to an embarrassing interrogation . In the face of the threat of the death penalty, Gall Fischer renounced his convictions and was expelled from the city on October 18, 1527, along with four other Anabaptists (including Eitelhans Langenmantel ). Even after his expulsion, he secretly remained a member of the Augsburg Anabaptist Community, which sent him to Kaufbeuren with Augustin Bader in February 1528 to help set up the newly established Anabaptist community there. Matthias Maireck , one of the heads of the Kaufbeur Anabaptist community, had asked for this help.

House of the Daucher family on Hinteren Lech 2

In the days before Easter 1528, several Anabaptist meetings took place in Augsburg, which were held in private houses. So they met on the Saturday before Palm Sunday for a sacrament celebration in the basement of the house of the Baptist Barbara Schleifer and then for a meeting to which Georg Nespitzer had invited and which was about the clarification of theological doctrinal questions. At this point in time, Nespitzer was still completely under the influence of Hutsche theology, which was based on Thomas Münzer and was characterized by a "burning near expectation" of the second coming of Christ . Hut (and probably also Nespitzer) reckoned that the judgment of God against all wicked would begin with Pentecost in 1528. On the Saturday before Easter (April 11, 1528) another meeting took place - this time in the house of Gall Fischer, who at that time was on the mentioned mission trip. Georg Nespitzer and Claus Schleifer chaired the worship service, at which some of the faithful were baptized. They agreed to meet for the Easter service on the following Sunday in the house at Schleifergasse 10 , the apartment of the married couple Hans and Susanna Daucher . The meeting was denounced to the city authorities. Nespitzer and his fellow elder Hans Leupold must have foreseen the impending danger. Both warned the congregation, but most of the worshipers stayed. The city council ordered armed police and had the house surrounded. Access took place after about an hour. 88 people were arrested, put in irons and taken to the town hall. Among them were 39 non-resident Anabaptists who were expelled from the city with the whip on the following day, some even after being marked with "the fire on their cheeks". Elisabeth, the wife of Gall Fischer, was probably among the branded people.

Kaufbeuren and Esslingen

On the occasion of his stay in Kaufbeuren, Gall Fischer baptized at least 40 people. Together with Augustin Bader, who also stayed in Kaufbeuren for a short time in February 1528, he gave the new community an organizational framework and appointed heads, including Martin Burkhard . In the early summer of 1528, troops of the Swabian Federation commissioned to persecute Anabaptists arrived in Kaufbeuren. They captured 41 followers. Six people who did not revoke their beliefs were beheaded on June 13, 1528. Among them was the aforementioned Martin Burkhard. The other prisoners (30 men, 5 women) were branded or driven out of town.

Gall Fischer had left Kaufbeuren long before these events and made his way to Esslingen , where he met Augustin Bader again. With him and another Baptist named Hans Koeller , he moved to Strasbourg to exchange ideas with fellow believers there about eschatological questions. There they met the peasant war preacher Oswald Leber , who, according to a Jewish messianic revelation by Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi, had named the year 1530 as the date for the return of the Messiah . However, this prediction does not seem to have completely convinced Bader at this point in time. He returned to Augsburg before Pentecost 1528, as Hut had named this date for the return of the Messiah in his prophecies.

Strasbourg and Basel

Gall Fischer initially stayed in Strasbourg, where a number of Augsburg Anabaptists stayed, including the goldsmith Laux Kreler , the cutler Hanns Krafft and the weaver Steffen Mangolt . On August 13th, Fischer, Krafft, Mangolt and other Anabaptists were subjected to an interrogation, at which the Strasbourg reformers Wolfgang Capito and Martin Butzer were also present. The following indirect statement from the interrogated person can be found in the minutes:

"Say, be without sin and in Christ, and as a user believed that he was not praying: 'Lord, do not lead us into temptation,' replied such, that temptation is a contestation of the flesh."

- From the Strasbourg books of history

Fischer's further stay remains in the dark for a good year. In the second half of 1529, however, he and his wife must have been in Basel , because coming from there he arrived in Lautern on November 11, 1529 . The Fischer couple were accompanied by Hans Koeller and Oswald Leber and their families.

Lautern and Nürtingen

Augustin Bader stuck to Hutsch's end-time teachings despite the predictions that did not come true, but modified them. From Lautern he contacted Jewish scholars in Günzburg and Laupheim to confirm the end times he had calculated. A community fund , a so-called common sack , was set up to fulfill the last great mission. This also included the production of special robes. It is said of Gall Fischer that he brought 130 guilders into the joint fund.

About fourteen days after his arrival in Lautern, Gall Fischer received a "dream face", the focus of which was Augustin Bader. At a later interrogation he explained that he had seen how the house shared by the Anabaptists had opened up and how royal insignia had descended on Bader. The interpretation of this vision was done by Bader himself. Here there was talk of his future role in the Thousand Years of Peace and of the royal descent of his newborn son. The production of royal insignia was then commissioned from Ulmer goldsmiths. This included a gold belt, a gold-plated dagger and a gold-plated sword, as well as a crown, scepter and chain of office.

The commissioning of this royal dignity became known aroused the suspicion of the authorities, who suspected a political overthrow attempt. On January 16, 1530, Bader, Fischer, and the other members of their eschatological community were arrested. Among them were five men, three women and eight children. While Bader was being brought to Stuttgart, Gall Fischer was subjected to several embarrassing interrogations in Nürtingen. He was sentenced to death and executed by the sword on March 26, 1530.

Christening succession

At Gall Fischer the line of baptismal succession goes through Sigmund Salminger (March 1927), Hans Hut (Whitsun 1526), Hans Denck (spring 1526), Balthasar Hubmaier (Easter 1525), Wilhelm Reublin (January 1525), Jörg Blaurock (January 1525) to Konrad Grebel (January 1525). The dates in brackets indicate the respective baptism date. Evidence of this can be found in the biography articles of the persons mentioned.

literature

  • Karl Alt: Anabaptists in and from Kaufbeuren , Ansbach 1930
  • Gustav Bossert: Augustin Bader von Augsburg , in the journal Archive for Reformation History 10/1913, p. 117 ff.
  • Gustav Bossert: Sources for the history of the Anabaptists , Volume I: Duchy of Württemberg , Volume XIII in the series sources and research on the history of the Reformation , Leipzig 1930, pp. 930–934; 953-955.
  • Christian Hege, Christian Neff: Mennonite Lexicon , Bad 4, Frankfurt and Weierhof; Karlsruhe 1913-1967, p. 648.
  • Friedrich Roth: On the history of the Anabaptists in Upper Swabia , Volume III: The high point of the Anabaptist movement in Augsburg and its decline in 1528 , Augsburg 1901, p. 31 ff.
  • Karl Schornbaum: Sources for the history of the Anabaptists , Volume V: Bavaria, II. Department , Volume XXIII in the series sources and research on the history of the Reformation , Gütersloh 1951.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The evidence for Elisabeth Fischer can be found in Christian Hege (1950): Salminger, Siegmund (d. 16th century . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; for Gall Fischer in Christian Hege (1956): Fischer, Gall (d. 1530) In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
  2. ^ Christian Hege (1957): Kiessling, Hans (16th century) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
  3. ↑ Werner O. Packull : On the development of the southern German Anabaptists , in: Controversial Anabaptists. 1525-1975. New research (Ed. Hans-Jürgen Goertz), ISBN 3-525-55354-4 , p. 170.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Schäufele: The missionary awareness and work of the Anabaptists. Represented from Upper German sources , Volume XXI in the series Contributions to the History and Doctrine of the Reformed Church (Eds. Paul Jacobs, Walter Kreck et al.), Neukirchen-Vluyn 1966, p. 149.
  5. ↑ See Werner O. Packull: Mysticism and the early South German-Austrian Anabaptist movement 1525-1531 , Scottdale, Pa. 1977, p. 131f.
  6. ^ Stefan Dieter: The imperial city of Kaufbeuren in the early modern period. Studies on economic, social, church and population history , Volume 2 in the Kaufbeurer series of publications (published by Stadtarchiv und Heimatverein Kaufbeuren eV), Thalhofen 2000, ISBN 3-934509-02-9 , p. 64.
  7. ↑ Tina Saji: Christian Social Reformers , New Delhi 2005, ISBN 81-8324-008-9 , p. 294.
  8. ↑ Gerhard Maier: The Revelation of John and the Church , Volume 25 in the series Scientific Studies on the New Testament , Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-16-144132-X , p. 245.
  9. ^ A b Hans Guderian: The Anabaptists in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000 year celebration of the city of Augsburg. Pfaffenhofen 1984, p. 75f.
  10. ^ Christian Hege : Burkhard, Martin (d.1528) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; accessed on August 8, 2013.
  11. ^ Christian Hege : Fischer, Gall (d.1530) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; accessed on August 8, 2013.
  12. ↑ Anselm Schubert: Baptism and Kabbalah. Augustin Bader and the Limits of the Radical Reformation. Gütersloh 2008, p. 66ff
  13. ^ Rebekka Voss: Controversial Redeemers: Politics, Ideology and Judeo-Christian Messianism in Germany 1500-1600 , Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-56900-9 , p. 143.
  14. ↑ See also Manfred Krebs / Hans Georg Rott: Sources for the history of the Anabaptists , Volume VII ( Alsace I. Part. City of Strasbourg 1522–1533 ), Heidelberg 1959, p. 181 (note 7)
  15. ↑ From the Strasbourg books of history (1528); quoted from Manfred Krebs / Hans Georg Rott: Sources for the history of the Anabaptists , Volume VII ( Alsace I. Part. City of Strasbourg 1522–1533 ), Heidelberg 1959, p. 181 (further references to the citation p. 182)
  16. ↑ Anselm Schubert: Baptism and Kabbalah. Augustin Bader and the Limits of the Radical Reformation. Gütersloh 2008, p. 141.
  17. ↑ Anselm Schubert: Baptism and Kabbalah. Augustin Bader and the Limits of the Radical Reformation Gütersloh 2008, pp. 142ff.
  18. ^ Robert W. Scribner: Religion and Culture in Germany. 1400–1800 (Ed. Lyndal Roper), Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-35171-2 , p. 238.
  19. ^ Christian Hege : Fischer, Gall (d.1530) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; accessed on September 3, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Gall
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vischer, Gall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Follower of the Anabaptist Movement, Chiliast
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1530
Place of death Nürtingen