Christoph Kotter

Illustration of one of Kotter's visions from the Zwey wunder Tractlein edition of 1632

Christoph Kotter (Czech Kryštofer Kotter , sometimes also written Kötter ; * 1585 in Langenau near Görlitz , † 1647 in Upper Lusatia ) was a Czech visionary during the Thirty Years' War .

Kotter learned the white tanning trade in Görlitz and practiced his trade in Sprottau . On a trip to Görlitz on June 11, 1616, he had the first of a series of visions in which a messenger from heaven appeared to him in the form of a "hammer man" (ie ore miner), "a person in the form of a hammer man / in a gray skirt / and black boots / (...) a beautiful person / and lovely to look at ", and asked him to convey the message to the spiritual and worldly authorities that God was angry at the sins of mankind and those who would not repent Criminal court threatens.

In the years that followed, Kotter's faces take up images of the Johannes apocalypse and since the beginning of the Thirty Years War they have acquired an increasingly concrete political character, evoking the struggle between Habsburg Catholicism, seen as an eagle, and the Protestants, presented as lions, and thereby prophesying victory for the lions. After his return from a stay with the Elector of Brandenburg , Kotter was punished for three months in prison for his prophecies directed against Habsburg, put in the pillory and expelled from the country. He then fled to Upper Lusatia, gave no further visions and died in 1647 of hunger and poverty.

The first publication of Kotters Visione appeared in 1623 in a German-language pamphlet. In 1632 a Dutch translation was printed which claims to be based on a manuscript. Kotters visions were recorded in German by a priest and published anonymously in 1632 by Comenius in excerpts together with the visions of Christine Poniatovska . Comenius then included them in a Latin translation and in a more detailed version in his Lux in Tenebris collection (1657, expanded in 1665). An edition by Benedikt Bahnsen based on three manuscripts and back translation from Latin was published in Amsterdam in 1664. An English translation by the Puritan Robert Codrington († 1665) after the Latin by Comenius also appeared in London in 1664.

expenditure

• Johann Amos Comenius , Zwey wunder Tractätlein, whose first comprehends English apparitions and speeches to Christoph Köttern, white tanners for Sprotta in Silesia, a pious, simple-minded man who often happened in different stories. (...) The other heavenly revelations and visions of a God-fearing young woman from Bohemia, about the state of the Christian churches, their redemption and the terrible decline of their enemies. Anjetzo brought together the apostate and unrepentant for a serious warning, but for all those concerned and persecuted Christians for strong consolation (...), s. l., 1632
• Johann Amos Comenius, Lux In Tenebris Hoc est Prophetiae Donum quo Deus Ecclesiam Evangelicam (in Regno Bohemiae & incorporatis Provinciis) sub tempus horrendae eius pro Evangelio perseqvutionis, extremaeque dissipationis, ornare, ac paterne solari, dignatus est. Submissis de statu Ecclesiae in Terris, praesenti & mox futuro, per Christophorum Cotterum Silesium, Christinam Poniatoviam Bohemam, & Nicolaum Drabicium Moravum, Revelationibus vere divinis, from anno 1616 usqve ad annum 1656 continuatis. Quae nunc e Vernaculo in Latinum fideliter translatae, in Dei gloriam, afflictorum solatia, aliorumque salutarem informationem, ipsius Oraculi iußu in lucem dantur, p. l. 1657
• Johann Amos Comenius, Lux E Tenebris, novis radiis aucta: Hoc est Solemnissimae Divinae Revelationes, in usum seculi nostri factae (...) Per immissas Visiones & Angelica Dinaque alloquia, facta I. Christophoro Kottero Silesio, from Anno 1616 to 1624, II Christinae Poniatoviae Boheme Annis 1627, 1628, 1629, III. Nicolao Drabicio Moravo, from Anno 1638 to 1664, Amsterdam 1665
• Benedikt Bahnsen , Divine Revelations Such a simple-minded, pious man Christoph Kottern, Outside Silesia Through warhaft eight-year-old English apparitions (from Anno 1616 to 1624) (...), Amsterdam 1664
• Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus, Christiana Poniatovia, Nicholas Drabicius, Three famous German prophets, foretelling forty years agoe this present invasion of the Turks into the Empire of Germany, and the events that will ensue. (...) Translated out of the Latine by RC Gent (...), London: Robert Pawlet, 1664
• A general table of Europe, representing the present and future state thereof, viz. the present governments, languages, religions, foundations, and revolutions both of governments and religions, the future mutations, revolutions, government, and religion of christendom and of the world & c., from the prophecies of the three late German prophets, Kotterus, Christina , and Drabricius, & c., all collected out of the originals, for the common use and information of the English, [London?]: Benjamin Billingsley, 1670

literature

• Article Kotter, Christoph, in: Manual dictionary of German superstitions, Vol. 9 (1941, Ndr. 2000), Col. 78–81.
• Jürgen Beyer, Lay prophets in Lutheran Europe (c. 1550-1700) (Brill's series in church history and religious culture 74). Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2017, pp. 72, 155–158, 273, 277, 280f., 295f., 309f., 323.

Web links

• Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Apocalypse and Millenarianism in the Thirty Years' War , publication by the Westphalian Peace Research Center, Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association
• Oliver Chaline, The Battle of the White Mountain (November 8, 1620) , publication by the Westphalian Peace Research Center, Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association