Margarete Koch

Margarete Koch (* around 1470 in Bad Hersfeld ; † 1537 in Burg Landeck ; pseudonym: the cookery woman ) was a traveling preacher of the East Hessian Anabaptists . It became known through the correspondence between the Hessian Landgrave Philip I and the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich I. It was about the question of how to deal with the Anabaptists in the Hessian-Thuringian border area.

Landgrave Philipp to Elector Friedrich for treating the Anabaptists Fritz Erbe and Margarete Koch in 1533

Life

As a woman, Margarete Koch was a special figure of the East Hessian Anabaptists , in the Hessian and Thuringian Anabaptist acts she is often called "the old cook-cook". When she turned to Anabaptism, she was already an elderly widow. She came from Bad Hersfeld or the vicinity of Hersfeld. In Hersfeld she was baptized by Melchior Rinck , soon after his release from Haina prison, in 1531, so she originally belonged to the Hersfeld Anabaptist group. Because of her Anabaptist activities she was expelled from the city and the Principality of Hesse. She then went to Vacha , possibly in the company of her teacher Melchior Rinck , but was soon expelled from Hesse for a second time. She went to western Thuringia, where she was accepted by a farmer named Fritz Erbe in Herda , a village belonging to the Hausbreitenbach office . She was able to develop her Anabaptist activity unhindered for over a year. Then the authorities got hold of it here too. On New Year's Day in 1533, she and Fritz Erbe were captured by the bailiff of Hausbreitenbach, Philipp Metzsch, in Erbe's house in Herda and imprisoned in Hausbreitenbach.

On May 1, 1533 she was interrogated by the two pastors Konrad Burbach ( Gerstungen ) and Martin Berstadt ( Berka / Werra ). But the hope that, as a result of the long imprisonment and the threatened punishment, she would be ready to withdraw, was in vain. Margarete Koch was therefore returned to her prison in Hausbreitenbach, from which Fritz Erbe was, however, transferred to Eisenach and the Wartburg a few weeks later . In another interrogation, which was carried out in Berka / Werra from July 19 to 21, 1533, "Margaretha Garkochin" was interrogated along with eighteen other supporters of the movement. With the statements made during this interrogation, she not only proved to be a loyal follower and docile pupil of Melchior Rinck, they also show a striking correspondence with those of the Anabaptists at Vacha on November 11, 1531. The questions put to her also related to baptism and the Lord's Supper, the status of property as well as the authorities and the past peasant revolt. Since Margarete Koch was not ready to withdraw this time either and at the end of the interrogation declared that she wanted to stick to her opinion, she was now returned to her prison in Hausbreitenbach.

Only a year later did the bailiff remind the elector of Fritz Erbe and Margarete Koch. Landgrave Philipp replied to a letter from the Elector on March 10, 1534: as long as he had no clear and unequivocal evidence that Fritz Erbe and the cookery were looking for rebellion alongside their Anabaptist error, he could not and should not punish them with a clear conscience. However, he was quite ready to deal with the two of them as he did with the Anabaptists at Sorga and expel them from the country, especially since he has hardly had any problems in his own country since they were expelled. The Elector Friedrich did not agree with this, of course, and demanded a more severe punishment. This changing correspondence only breaks off in October 1536. The Hessian files contain a report from the following year by Pastors Balthasar Raide, Hersfeld, Georgius Rupelius (Rüppel) and Casperus Mosebach, "Pastors" to Vacha and Heringen , as well as Ciriacus Ortleip, Pastor to Friedewald, dated May 22, 1537. From it it emerges that, on the basis of an order from the governor of Kassel, which was transmitted by the Vogt von Friedewald, the four pastors and "Margreten Garköchin" held a meeting on two different days in Friedewald - presumably at the castle there came. The first took place on the Friday after Exaudi (May 18), the second on the Tuesday after Pentecost (May 22) 1537. From this it can be concluded that after years of back and forth in Electoral Saxony, one was finally tired of the whole thing and Margarete Koch was expelled and handed over to the landgrave authorities.

As a result, she was arrested again, this time at Landeck Castle in the Landecker Amt . Meanwhile Margarete Koch, already weakened by the years of imprisonment in Electoral Saxony, endured the no less severe imprisonment at Landeck Castle for only a few weeks. She got ill. The landgrave therefore ordered that her detention be made easier and that she be temporarily moved to another location. After her health had improved, however, she was to be brought back to Landeck Castle. We do not know whether it came to this, as this is also the last piece of news available about the cook. But it is clear that she was still alive until mid-1537. It can be assumed that, as a result of old age and years of imprisonment, she suffered the same fate as Fritz Erbe and her master Melchior Rinck after years and died in prison. For, given the tenacity and steadfastness with which this woman clung to her Anabaptist creed for years, it seems impossible that she ever repudiated.

literature

• The position of Electoral Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse on the Anabaptist movement. Prof. Dr. Paul Wappler, Reformation History Studies and Texts (Issues 13 and 14), Münster 1910.
• The Anabaptist movement in Thuringia from 1526–1584. Prof. Dr. Paul Wappler, Contributions to the Modern History of Thuringia, Jena 1913.
• Ruth Weiß: The origin of the East Hessian Anabaptists. Archive for the history of the Reformation, Gütersloh, 1959, Volume 50, No. 1 and 2.
• Erich Geldbach: The origin of the East Hessian Anabaptists. Yearbook of the Hessian Church History Association, Darmstadt 1970, Volume 21.
• Heinrich Beulshausen: The history of the East Hessian Anabaptist communities. Contributions to German philology, W. Schmitz Verlag, Giessen 1981, volume 53/1 text volume, ISBN 3-87711-042-8 ; Volume 53/2 Notes, ISBN 3-87711-042-8 .
• Beate Elisabeth Schwarz: The Protestant Reformation in East Hesse. Mein Heimatland, History Journal, Bad Hersfeld 2016, Volume 55, October 2016.
• Documented sources on the history of the Hessian Reformation / 4. Anabaptist Acts 1527–1626. Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse (Volume 11.4), Marburg 2017.

Web links

• Website of the village of Widdershausen (private)