Anton Unterährer

Anton Unterährer , called Mettlentoneli , (born September 5, 1759 in Schüpfheim ; † June 29, 1824 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss carpenter, miracle doctor and founder of the antinomist sect of the Antonians , not to be confused with the Antoniter Order, which is also often referred to as the Antoniter Order .

Life

After only a short period of schooling, Unternährer learned the trade of a carpenter and also worked as a journeyman for some time. Around 1775 he came to his godfather's farm and worked there for thirteen years, among other things as a farmhand and dairy farmer.

At the beginning of 1788, Unternährer went to Paris to study painting at the École des Beaux-Arts . But since he had neither talent nor influential sponsors, this plan was doomed to failure. As a day laborer, he worked for a short time at a barometer and thermometer maker and then tried to become self-employed in this profession.

Unterährer returned to his hometown Schüpfheim via Calais and earned his living with carpentry and the manufacture of thermometers. He also tried - albeit in vain - to establish a private school in Schüpfheim (under his direction). In the winter of 1788/89 he married and started a small trade in medicinal herbs , roots, etc. For this he tried to self-taught form by literature for physicians. As far as he could afford, he also took a few private lessons with a doctor in Schwarzenegg .

In spring 1799 he and his family settled down as a doctor in Hürselen near Münsingen BE . In the same year, Unternährer came before the military court in Bern for " agitation against military service" . As an alcoholic , he was sentenced to ten weeks in prison; but only admonished because of the agitation.

After Unterährer had served his imprisonment, he settled in Amsoldingen near Thun . There he invited interested people to religious events in his house from the spring of 1800 and during one of these he announced the end of the world for 1802 . Because of this announcement, his supporters, now officially called Antonians , developed into a mass psychosis . In the meantime, Unternährer had also written his Judgment Booklet , a religious book. He wanted to have this printed in the Helvetic National Printing House in Bern, but due to a court order it was confiscated during production. However, his followers were able to bring a few copies to safety.

In his judgment book , Unternährer declared himself to be the judge of the world , since he was destined to do so as the incarnation of Jesus Christ . There he settled sharply with the secular institutions and their representatives. Unterährer called them "children of the devil, brood of snakes, fornicators, adulterers and idolaters" etc., since they were all not appointed by God. Due to the lack of divine legitimation, they would be judged and "dismissed" by Unterährer. He admitted that he was subject to the government in flesh, but not in spirit. The supreme commandment of Unternährer was the command of love: "Be fruitful and multiply" ( Genesis 1, 28). For him, this commandment was primarily of a pragmatic nature, as he postulated free sexual intercourse between siblings in faith, regardless of whether they were married or single. He justified this commandment with the fact that Christ was the end of the law and as a result he and his believers were no longer under the law.

These ideas led to immediate imprisonment, until Unterährer was brought to Lucerne in 1805 . Since he was still considered an alcoholic in court, he was released back to Schüpfheim without conviction. Since his following grew from that point on, he was locked up again in Lucerne without a trial until 1811. In the summer of 1811 he was released and settled in his home town under permanent police supervision until 1819.

At this point in time, at the request of the government in Bern, Unterährer was imprisoned again in Lucerne for “immoral sectarianism”. The Lucerne court found Unternährer to be “... now harmless to the common good”, but it still kept Unternährer in custody until the end of his life. The court martial in Bern bore the costs.

During his imprisonment, Unternährer wrote several papers that were smuggled out of prison. He died on June 29, 1824 in the prison in Lucerne. His writings were collected by followers and printed in 1835 under the title Here is the Lord and given away to his followers.

Soon after Unterährer's death, the Antonians dispersed and joined other groups. With his Schwarzenburg Forest Brotherhood , Johannes Binggeli is considered a successor to Anton Unternährer. Also on this line was the Christian Community Friedensburg , which from 1929 resided on the Stollberg in Littau under the direction of O. Witzig . Since Witzig had failed to arrange his successor, this community dissolved itself because of the dispute over it around 1935.

Attempts to explain

According to the report of the lawyer and criminal psychologist Georg Sulzer, for whom it was easy to inspect the old court files, Unterährer served his sentence in an underground dungeon that was so narrow that he always had to stand or sit in the same place. This is presumably an exaggeration, but it is on record that the prison conditions in Lucerne at that time in no way corresponded to humane views. Sulzer concludes his report: "This is how both Catholic Lucerne and Protestant Bern treated this unfortunate man who believed himself to be divinely inspired."

For the parapsychologist Rudolf Passian , Anton Unternährer is a tragic case of obsession . Today such a person would no longer be imprisoned, but the admission to a mental hospital is just as unsatisfactory, since it is not a question of mental illness, which Georg Sulzer also expressly emphasizes in his report. The szt as episcopal commissioner. appointed priest Thaddäus Müller gave the accused of religious heresy a very favorable testimony. In his report of May 25, 1805, it says: “Unterährer shows decency, modesty, and submission in his conduct and is far from raw, defiant behavior. He also does not have that sinister being, which otherwise religious enthusiasts are characterized by, but is cheerful, friendly and eloquent. In his lecture, which is so clearly defined and finished, there is not the slightest trace of an aberration of the understanding to be perceived. A severe punishment, such as B. of a malefactor, he does not deserve. "

Works

• Judgment Booklet
• Here is the Lord. The perfect testament of the scriptures. The true return of Christ. Opened and revealed by the Spirit of Truth. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Comforter, Reconciler and Judge of the whole world . Collected by Anton Grießen. Bümpliz 1917.

literature

• Walther Unternährer: Anton Unternährer. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Sergius Golowin: The herbal doctor as a revolutionary in The fantastic history of free Switzerland. Funny oath comrades . Fischer Media, Münsingen-Bern 1998. ISBN 3-85681-402-7
• Hermann Rorschach : Two Swiss sect founders (Binggeli, Unterstährer). After lectures in the Swiss Society for Psychoanalysis . International Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Leipzig 1927.
• Jolanda Cécile Schärli: Striking religiosity: prayer healings, cases of obsession and enthusiastic sects in Catholic and Reformed areas of Switzerland . Lucerne 2012. ISBN 978-3-656-18617-5
• Walther Unternährer: Anton Unterstährer, the Mettlentoneli (1759-1824) and the Antonians . Self-published, Schüpfheim 2000.
• Walther Unternährer: The Unternährers from Schüpfheim and their history . Self-published, Schüpfheim 1990.

Web links

• http://www.relinfo.ch/antonianer/info.html

References

1. ↑ Susanne Müller: 3.1 Commandment of love and 3.4 Abolition of authorities, judges, pastors, teachers and schoolhouses in Antonianer. Anton Unterährer . Rüti ZH 1999, http://www.relinfo.ch/antonianer/info.html (accessed on April 7, 2015).
2. ↑ Georg Sulzer: Light and shadow of the spiritualistic practice . Leipzig, 1913.
3. ^ Rudolf Passian: Farewell without Return? 3rd edition 2005, Reichl Verlag, pp. 288–289.