Hans Landis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Landis (* around 1543 in Horgen , Canton Zurich ; † September 30, 1614 in Zurich ) was an Anabaptist teacher and preacher from Horgen in the Canton of Zurich. Hans Landis was the last Baptist to be executed in Zurich for his faith.

Life

Hans Landis was married to Margarete Hochstrasser, with whom he had several children. Arrested as an Anabaptist in 1608, he was able to flee on December 31 of the same year and returned to his home town of Horgen. Mayor Hans Rudolf Rahn and Antistes Breitinger invited Hans Landis and other representatives of the Anabaptist movement in January and February 1613 for two religious disputes at Wädenswil Castle . Following the disputations, Landis was arrested for the second time along with five other Anabaptists. Landis refused an offer to emigrate and was then supposed to serve the often fatal galley sentence in France for six years . He was taken to Solothurn on August 14th . After he was helped to escape, he returned home. He was arrested again in December 1613. In prison, Landis was able to write letters to friends and his wife, in which he asked, among other things, for a copy of the creed of the Mennonite Thomas von Imbroich , who was also executed .

Landis was finally sentenced to death on September 29, 1614 and beheaded the following day at the Zurich fish market. According to tradition, the executioner should have asked his forgiveness before the act. Hans Landis was the last Baptist to be killed in Zurich for his faith.

"I know nüt fil me zuo sawn, then I want to give all the men a gun, the sy zuo recognize iren sins kemind and atone, the sy would like to be sälig, that would like to guonen all the men."

- Hans Landis (last words)

The city confiscated his property and in 1615 ordered his wife Margarete to Zurich, where the 60-year-old widow was taken prisoner in the town hall. It was decided that she would be detained in the hospital in the expectation that she would change her mind.

Memorial plaque on the sea wall of the Schipfe

Today a plaque on the Limmat in Zurich commemorates him and other executed Anabaptists like Felix Manz . In the presence of City Councilor Robert Neukomm, on the occasion of the meeting day of the Reformed Churches and Anabaptists, the inauguration of a black basalt slab on the bank wall at the Schipfe took place on July 7, 2004 : «Here in the middle of the Limmat from a fishing platform from Felix Manz and five other Anabaptists in drowned during the Reformation between 1527 and 1532. The last Baptist to be executed in Zurich was Hans Landis in 1614. »

The song I made a beautiful new song in the formation reminds of his martyrdom. He is also mentioned in the martyr's mirror.

literature

  • Paul Kläui : History of the community of Horgen . Horgen 1952, pp. 185-193

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Kläui: History of the community Horgen . Horgen 1952, p. 187.
  2. ↑ EI 7.4, No. 93 - EI 7.4, No. 113 Anabaptist Files, 1615 (dossier). In: suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch. Retrieved April 25, 2014 .
  3. ^ Evangelical Reformed Churches in Switzerland: descendants of the Anabaptists asked for forgiveness ( memento of April 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ kath.ch: plaque commemorating Baptist opened , accessed January 12, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Landis, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss preacher
DATE OF BIRTH around 1543
PLACE OF BIRTH Horgen , Canton of Zurich
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1614
Place of death Zurich