Ottilie Müntzer

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Ottilie Müntzer (born Ottilie von Gersen ; * before 1505, † after 1525), was a German nun and the wife of the reformer Thomas Müntzer .

Life

Nothing is known about Ottilie's parents so far, but she probably came from the noble Görschen family . First Ottilie appears as a novice in the Cistercian monastery of Beuditz near Weißenfels . It is not known whether she met Thomas Müntzer there when he was the confessor of the Cistercians in Beuditz between the end of 1519 and April 1520. Subsequently, she is said to have been a nun in the Cistercian convent of St. Georgen in Glaucha near Halle (Saale) , where she might see Müntzer again, who worked there as a preacher and chaplain from 1522 to March 1523. It is not known whether she was one of the 16 nuns who fled the Dominican nunnery in Wiederstedt in the spring of 1523 . In any case, shortly after Easter 1523 she married Müntzer, who had just been appointed pastor of the St. John's Church in Allstedt . The wedding was presumably performed by Simon Haferitz , a friend of Müntzer , pastor of the Wigberti Church in Allstedt. The first year of marriage seems to have been relatively calm. Müntzer held the mass with a German-language liturgy, operated a printing press in Allstedt (financed by an advance of 100 guilders) and it is believed that Ottilie supported him in writing the liturgical texts. On March 27, 1524, they had a son. During this time they took his impoverished and widowed father with them, whom Ottilie looked after until his death in 1524. Müntzer's mother had died in 1521.

During the year, the situation was precarious: the so-called "Allstedt covenant" organized supporters Miintzers the St. Mary's chapel in Mallerbach of had Monastery Nauendorf burned in the subsequent investigation by Johann , the brother of the Saxon Elector Friedrich fell, that the elector, patron saint of the Allstedter pastor's office, had not yet consented to Müntzer's appointment, which is why a presentation sermon was scheduled in the Allstedter castle chapel on July 13, 1524 , neither the famous “ prince's sermon ”, which was soon printed and sent to all countries Found favor with the princes and with Luther . On the night of August 7th to 8th, Müntzer had to flee Allstedt, where he advised the citizens of the city to worry about Ottilie and his newborn son.

Ottilie is said to have played a leading role in the activities of the "League", which was now dissolved at the request of the Prince. This is implemented on film in such a way that Ottilie sews the first rainbow flag for the insurgents , which later becomes the standard of the Bundschuh . Ottilie initially seems to have stayed in Allstedt. She only met her husband again in Mühlhausen in February 1525 . There the uprising was in full swing, the patrician city council had been replaced by the "Eternal Council" of the revolting citizens and peasants, Müntzer was the parish priest of St. Mary's Church and the family with Ottilie, who was meanwhile pregnant again, lived in the house of the Teutonic Order across from St. Ottilie is said to have been briefly imprisoned as a ringleader when a church service was disrupted in Mülverstedt .

However, the time they lived together was only short and ended in the catastrophe of the Battle of Frankenhausen on May 15, 1525, during which the peasants led by Müntzer were defeated and destroyed by an army of knights. Müntzer himself was initially able to escape, but was then caught, tortured and beheaded on May 27th. He had previously appealed to the citizens of Mühlhausen to hand over his legacy, especially his books and correspondence, to his wife and son. The request does not seem to have been granted, because on August 19, 1525, Ottilie wrote a letter to the Saxon Duke Georg the Bearded with a request in this regard.

As if that weren't enough, Ottilie was evidently raped in May 1525 by a lordsknecht of the princes, an act which even Luther, who was not squeamish about the proceedings with the rebels, expressed his disgust in his "Letter from the hard book against the peasants":

"When I heard that in Mühlhausen, among several great Hansen, one of the poor wife Thomas Müntzers, who is now a widow and pregnant body, asked to come to him, fell on her knees in front of her and said: Dear woman, let me ... . Oh, a chivalrous, noble act, committed on a wretched, abandoned, pregnant woman; that is a bold hero who is worth three knights. "

After Müntzer's death, Ottilie was completely destitute and defenseless, but not unobserved. In an instruction to his councilors for a meeting in Mühlhausen at the beginning of September 1525, Duke Georg ordered them to continue to be closely monitored. He also wanted to be informed immediately about the birth of the child.

It is possible that she subsequently stayed with relatives in Nordhausen or Erfurt . No further information about their fate or that of their children is known.

reception

Ottilie Müntzer appears as Müntzer's wife in several biographical films about Müntzer:

The fate of Ottilie Müntzer was designed in a historical novel by Juliane Bobrowski: Ottilie Müntzer . Novel. Berlin Union-Verlag 1989, ISBN 3-372-00272-5 .

Quote

“I am sad that we know so little about Müntzer's wife. I would like to know more, because these were women who stepped out of the monastery into the world and then married a former priest. So it took courage, you have to be very clear, because there were also fears that children from such relationships would be terribly deformed, for example if a runaway nun or a runaway priest married and fathered children. They were courageous women and - via the monastery - of course also educated women, they definitely played their part. "

- Margot Käßmann

literature

  • Rudolf Herrmann : Brother and successor of Thomas Müntzer in the city of Allstedt. In: “Laudate Dominum”: Eighteen articles on the history of the Church in Thuringia. Ceremony for the 70th birthday of Regional Bishop D. Ingo Braecklein. Thuringian Church Studies Vol. 3, Berlin 1976, pp. 137–144
  • Herbert von Hintzenstern : Thomas Müntzer in Allstedt. In: “Laudate Dominum”: Eighteen articles on the history of the Church in Thuringia. Ceremony for the 70th birthday of Regional Bishop D. Ingo Braecklein. Thuringian Church Studies Vol. 3, Berlin 1976, pp. 129–135, PDF
  • Inge Mager : Historical revival: theologians' wives as "helpers" of the Reformation. Presentation given on the occasion of the semester kick-off event for contact studies for older adults on April 7, 1999, PDF .
  • Friedrich Winterhager : Ottilie von Gersen, the wife of Thomas Müntzer . In: Christ und Sozialist / Christin u. Socialist CuS , 67th century (2014), Issue 1, pp. 28–36, Part II. In: Christ und Sozialist… CuS , 67th Jhg. (2014), Issue 2/3, pp. 43–51, Part III. In: Christ und Sozialist… CuS , 67th Jhg. (2014), Issue 4, pp. 43–47
  • Friedrich Winterhager: Ottilie Müntzer, b. von Gersen - an aristocrat at Thomas Müntzer's side. In: District of Mansfeld-Südharz u. State Center for Political Education of Saxony-Anhalt (Ed.): Thomas Müntzer. Not a side note to the story. Wettin-Löbejün 2017, pp. 235–247

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gersen is possibly a different spelling for Görschen . Compare Manfred Bensing: Thomas Müntzer. 4th edition Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1989, p. 49; Thomas Müntzer Edition: Correspondence , ed. Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, August 15, 2011, p. 558; Berent Schwineköper (Hrsg.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 11: Province of Saxony Anhalt (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 314). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-31402-9 , p. 156; Small writings on the history of the Reformation (1842–1880): Thomas Müntzer and the Peasants' War (1842–1878) , Böhlau-Verlag, 1990, p. 325; New communications from the field of historical and antiquarian research , Vol. XIV (1878), No. 2, p. 405
  2. ↑ The church was demolished in 1762 and replaced by the new Rococo building that is preserved today. See Hintzenstern: Thomas Müntzer in Allstedt. 1976, p. 130
  3. ^ Hintzenstern: Thomas Müntzer in Allstedt. 1976, p. 132
  4. ^ Thomas Müntzer - A film of German history , GDR film from 1956
  5. ↑ May 17, 1525 "Confession and letter to the Mühlhauser"
  6. ↑ Ottilia von Gersen: Letter to Duke Georg of Saxony. August 19, 1525. Dresden, State Archives. In: I, Thomas Müntzer, a servant of God. Historical-biographical exhibition of the Museum for German History Berlin, December 8, 1989 - February 28, 1990. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-362-00388-5
  7. ↑ Letter from the hard book against the farmers, section 117. In: All works: After the oldest editions. Vol. 24, Erlangen 1830, p. 318, online
  8. ↑ Mager: Historical revival: theologian wives as "helpers" of the Reformation. 1999
  9. ↑ In: Thomas Müntzer - Der Satan von Allstedt. TV documentary, Germany 2010
personal data
SURNAME Müntzer, Ottilie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gersen, Ottilie von (maiden name); Gersen, Ottilia from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nun and wife of the reformer Thomas Müntzer
DATE OF BIRTH before 1505
DATE OF DEATH after 1525