Konrad Helt

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Konrad Helt ( Latinized Conradus Heltus ) (* late 15th century in Nuremberg ; † 1548 in Heidelberg ) was a German Augustinian hermit and Martin Luther's superior during his years as a monastery in Wittenberg.

Live and act

Helt's matriculation at the University of Wittenberg is dated November 26, 1512; on January 20, 1516 he acquired the degree of a Magister artium there .

On May 30, 1519, Konrad Helt was first attested as prior of the Augustinian Hermit Monastery in Wittenberg, and he held this office until February 1522. He lived in the archaeologically examined, partially preserved prior apartment in the Black Monastery (today Lutherhaus Wittenberg ).

Luther occasionally said of his prior:

"Our Helt rules well and builds, but [only] the kitchen, because he still takes care of the stomach, afterwards he will also take care of the head." (Letter to Martin Glaser, Prior zu Ramsau, May 30, 1519)

As a result of Gabriel Zwilling's sermons at the beginning of November 1521, while Luther was at the Wartburg , a group of monks left the monastery almost simultaneously. Helt therefore turned to Elector Friedrich the Wise for help :

"Besides such mild preaching [...] to me, almost all my brothers have been about reth and verfurt, so that except in XIII against the oath that si got and sworn to the order, and upon request and permission from the highest rulers apart from the closte [r] and threw off the dress of the order ... "

“By such mild sermons [...] almost all the brothers were persuaded and seduced me, so that 13 of them, against the oath they swore to God and the Order, and without the request and permission of their rulers [left the monastery ] and threw off the dress of the Order ... "

Konrad Helt left Wittenberg to protest against the Reformation. After a stopover in Nordhausen , he came to the Augustinian Hermit Monastery in Heidelberg and was prior there until the end of his life. “In the end he was alone and only fought for his retirement.” The monastery was destroyed in the War of the Palatinate Succession ; today it is the university square .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wieland Held , Siegfried Hoyer : Sources for Thomas Müntzer . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3-374-02180-2 , p. 40 .
  2. ↑ Martin Brecht : Martin Luther: seine Weg zur Reformation, 1483-1521. Vol. 1, Calwer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7668-3310-3 , p. 124
  3. ↑ Ute Mennecke: Luther as Junker Jörg . In: Luther yearbook . No. 79 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-87444-8 , pp. 86 .
  4. ^ Heinz Scheible : Contributions to the Church History of Southwest Germany . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-17-023597-7 , pp. 102 .
  5. ^ Heinz Scheible: Contributions to the Church History of Southwest Germany . S. 19 .
personal data
SURNAME Helt, Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heltus, Conradus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Augustinian hermit and Martin Luther's superior during his monastery years in Wittenberg
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH 1548
Place of death Heidelberg