Eva von Buttlar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eva Margaretha von Buttlar (born June 22, 1670 in Barchfeld , Thuringia, † April 27, 1721 in Altona ) was a mystical- libertine sect and gave its name to the group that became known under the name Buttlarsche Rotte .

Life

Originally a maid of honor in Eisenach , she separated in 1697 after her conversion from her husband, the court master Jean de Vésias, with whom she had been married since 1687, in order to join separatist circles. With the theology student Justus Gottfried Winter and the medical student Johann Georg Appenfeller , she founded a Philadelphian community in Allendorf on October 2, 1702 , which later had around 70 members, the “Christian and Philadelphian Society”, which announced the imminent dawn of the millennium . After the Pietist edict of the Hessian Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel , which forbade separatist private meetings, the group left Allendorf in 1702 and settled in the County of Wittgenstein , first in Glashütte near the Lahn spring, then on a count's court in Saßmannshausen near Laasphe .

The group was rejected and viewed with suspicion by Pietists such as Spener and Francke , but also by numerous separatists living in Wittgenstein, such as Hochmann von Hochenau . In November 1704, the group members were arrested on charges of fornication, blasphemy, abortion, and double infanticide, and were charged in 1705. In March 1705 they managed to escape from imprisonment in Wittgenstein Castle .

On November 3, 1705, Winter declared Eva the fiancé of the Holy Spirit and Appenfeller the divine Son. In 1706 the hustle and bustle of the group reached its last climax in Lügde near Pyrmont. Expelled from there by a court ruling, moved from Buttlar, meanwhile married to Appenfeller, to Altona , where she and her husband called themselves Brachfeld and no longer caused offense. In 1713 she gave birth to her only child, a son, allegedly 13 months after the death of her husband. He was referred to as the "Messiah". The partnership still existed after her death in April 1721, but now its trace is lost.

Alleged beliefs

Von Buttlar shared with the Philadelphian groups of this time the resolute rejection of the constitutional church and any confessional restrictions, with separatist groups the contempt for worship and sacrament .

Almost everything that went beyond that, at least in its effects, is summarized under the umbrella term of sectarian-sexualistic libertinism , in particular the interpretation of the Sophia speculations and the myth of androgynous primitive man. With Winter as “God the Father” and Appenfeller as “Son”, Butlar should have represented the visible “heavenly Trinity ”, himself as “heavenly Sophia”. With the practical application of the mystical idea of ​​the marriage of the spiritual person with the heavenly Sophia, developed by Jakob Böhme and above all by Johann Georg Gichtel , the physical union with her, the “mother Eva” as the “ pool of Bethesda ”, is accomplished and the androgynous "Creation state" restored, the "carnal intermingling is seen as something holy" (winter) and thus also made binding for the members of the "Rotte" for the practice of faith.

Eva von Buttlar is considered to be unique in the radical nature of her libertinism and the epitome of libertarian pietism. However, there is no self-portrayal, the image of Eva von Buttlar and her group handed down to posterity is mainly based on the so-called teaching points of Winter and the Hoff Meisterin , which were written by the short-term group member Johann Reuter and later revoked, as well as the 1705 in Laaspher based on them Allegations made in court proceedings. Thomas Hoeren suspected in his work Pietism in front of a court - The Trial against the Buttlarsche Rotte (1705) that the indictment was unjustified and that the Buttlarsche Rotte would have historically deserved an acquittal. He pointed out that the secondary literature never acknowledged the interrogation records. From these it emerged that all members of the Buttlarschen Rotte had sharply rejected the most important of the allegations made against them. In particular, Buttlar defended himself against the charge of fornication and fornication. She only had a relationship with Winter, which she never denied. But Christian Thomasius alone believed among her contemporaries that most of the accusations were "falsely fabricated by their revealed enemies". Thomas Hoeren saw the close relationship between Winter and the (still married) Eva von Buttlar as the real core of the offense, which was expanded with ever new horror stories.

See also

Literature (in chronological order)

  • Detailed Description of the new nonsense, which the Pietists also committed and founded less time ago than in 1705 and 1706 against all official edicta [...] 1707
  • EF Keller, The BR (ZHTh 19, 1845, 591-612)
  • Max Goebel, History of Christian Life in the Rhenish-Westphalian Church II, Coblenz 1852 [ND Giessen / Basel 1994]
  • Ludwig Christiany, E. v. B., the Messaline u. Muckerin as the prototype of the »soul brides«. A Contribution to Knowledge of the Mysteries of Pietism , 1870
  • Heinrich Heppe:  Buttlar, Eva von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 654 f.
  • Ernst Benz : The perfect person according to J. Böhme. 1937 (on the mystical-theological basis).
  • Rüdiger Mack, Libertarian Pietism: The walks of the pastor's widow Wetzel . In: Pietism and Early Enlightenment , 1984
  • Fritz Tanner, Marriage in Pietism , Zurich 1952
  • Heinrich Laag:  Buttlar, Eva Margaretha von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 80 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Thomas Hoeren : Pietism in front of the court - The trial against the Buttlarsche Rotte (1705) , in: Yearbook for Westphalian Church History 89 (1995), 27 - 44 ( online as PDF )
  • Barbara Hoffmann : Radical Pietism around 1700. The dispute about the right to a new society , Frankfurt 1996 (most comprehensive new presentation)
  • Willi Temme : Crisis of the Body , Göttingen 1998 [= work on the history of Pietism, vol. 38]. (Theological processing of the events in Wittgenstein and the prehistory).
  • Ulf Lückel : Eva von Buttlar (1670–1721), in: Andreas Kroh / Ulf Lückel (ed.): Wittgensteiner Pietismus in Portraits , Bruchsal 2003.
  • Barbara Hoffmann:  BUTTLAR, Eva von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume NN, Bautz,, Sp. NN.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Inge Grolle : Buttlar, Eva von . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 73-75 . (2010)
  • Ulf Lückel: nobility and piety. The Berleburg Counts and Pietism in their territories. Vorländer Verlag, Siegen 2016.

Historical novel about Eva von Buttlar:

  • Roland Adloff : Evens Buch , Kreuztal 1995 - paperback edition by Blanvalet-Verlag Munich in several editions from 2000.

The Buttlarsche Rotte is mentioned in detail in the following novel:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulf Lückel: Nobility and piety. The Berleburg Counts and Pietism in their territories. Vorländer Verlag, Siegen 2016, pp. 20, 49, 56, 61–64.
personal data
SURNAME Buttlar, Eva von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buttlar, Eva Margaretha from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mystery
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1670
PLACE OF BIRTH Barchfeld , Reign of Schmalkalden
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1721
Place of death Altona