Klaus Hottinger

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19th century fantasy portrait

Klaus Hottinger (* in Zollikon ; † March 9 , according to other sources on March 26, 1524 in Lucerne ) was a Zurich iconoclast and is considered to be the first Reformation martyr in Switzerland.

Life

Klaus Hottinger is first mentioned in 1519 as a shoemaker in Zurich. Early on he belonged to the group of radical reformers around Ulrich Zwingli and was an active member of the Castelberg reading group . With provocative actions he tried to accelerate the course of the Zurich Reformation. In March 1522 he was one of the participants in the legendary sausage dinner / fasting break in Christoph Froschauer's office . In the same year he had to answer together with Konrad Grebel before the council because of preaching disorders. When he, together with Hans Ockenfuss and Lorenz Hochrütiner, removed the wooden wayside cross in front of the Stadelhofen mill (now a district of Zurich) in the autumn of 1523 , he was summoned to the council again. This, although the cross had obviously been given to you by the owner of the mill, Heini Hirt, and you had asked three councilors. Despite the pledge to donate the wood or the proceeds to the poor, after six weeks in prison he was banned from Zurich territory for two years for iconoclasm .

Hottinger evaded the county of Baden and is said to have used the opportunity everywhere to do propaganda for the new faith in private rooms and inns. In February 1524, Hottinger was arrested and interrogated in Klingnau . At the request of the Federal Bailiff Heinrich Fleckenstein, he was transferred to Baden and later to Lucerne. Despite the intervention of relatives and friends from Zurich, Hottinger was executed by sword on March 9, 1524 in Lucerne, sentenced according to other sources on March 9, and executed on March 26.

The execution of Hottinger was hyped up by Heinrich Bullinger and after him by the entire Reformed historiography as a testimony to the new faith. Hottinger himself was branded the “first evangelical martyr” in the Swiss Confederation. Because of his circle of friends and his behavior, Hottinger is now more likely to be counted among the Proto-Anabaptists . It was probably only because of his early death that he escaped the evangelical persecution that his former companions were later exposed to.

Heinrich Bullinger gives the Hottinger case a lot of space in his Reformation history and devotes a total of three chapters to it. He portrayed Hottinger as the actual trigger for the picture debate of the Second Zurich Disputation. In the copy of Bullinger's Reformation story from 1605/1606, the text was also illustrated with six powerfully colored miniatures.

  • Hottinger and his companions overturn the Stadelhofen crossroads. Illustration from the early 17th century

  • Hottinger is arrested in Klingnau.

  • The convicted person is taken to the place of execution in front of Lucerne.

  • Klaus Hottinger is executed in Lucerne.

literature

  • Peter Habicht : Executed because of a wayside cross: Klaus Hottinger is made a martyr of iconoclasm . In: Cécille Dupeux, Peter Jezler, Jean Wirth (eds.): Iconoclasm. Madness or God's will? , Bern 2000, pp. 312-312.
  • Peter Burschel: Border crossing as disenchantment. The productions of the iconoclast Klaus Hottinger († 1524) . In: Fludernik, Monika / Gehrke, Hans-Joachim (eds.): Crossing borders between cultures. Würzburg 1999, pp. 213-226.
  • Thomas Schärli: The eventful last two years in the life of Niklaus Hottinger, shoemaker from Zollikon, beheaded in Lucerne in 1524 . In: Zolliker Jahrheft , 26 (1984) pp. 26–40.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bächtold (HLS)
  2. ↑ a b Hottinger, Klaus (d. 1524) , on Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online , August 16, 2013
  3. ^ Arnold C. Snyder: The Birth and Evolution of Swiss Anabaptism, 1520-1530. In: Mennonite Quarterly Review 80 (2006), pp. 501-645.
  4. ↑ Peter Niederhäuser (Ed.): Persecuted, Displaced, Forgotten - Shadow of the Reformation , Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-0340-1445-8 , p. 104
  5. ^ Lee Palmer Wandel: Voracious Idols and Violent Hands: Iconoclasm in Reformation Zurich, Strasbourg and Basel. Cambridge, New York 1995. ISBN 0521663431 , pp. 71ff.
  6. ↑ Norbert Schnitzler: Iconoclasm - Iconoclasm. Theological picture controversy and iconoclastic action during the 15th and 16th centuries. Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3770530526 , p. 131ff.
  7. ^ Emil Egli : Swiss Reformation History, Volume I, Zurich 1910 pp. 254-256
  8. ↑ See Schärli (1984), p. 40.
  9. ↑ See Andrea Strübind: Eager than Zwingli. The early Anabaptist movement in Switzerland. Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-428-10653-9
  10. ^ Johann Jakob Hottinger, Friedrich Salomon Vögelin (ed.): Heinrich Bullinger's Reformation History. Volume 1, Frauenfeld 1838, pp. 145–151. Digitized
  11. ↑ See Habicht (2000), p. 312f.
personal data
SURNAME Hottinger, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Zurich iconoclasts
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Zollikon
DATE OF DEATH March 1524
Place of death Lucerne