Walter Klarer

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Walter Klarer (* around 1500 in Hundwil , Appenzell Ausserrhoden , Switzerland ; † 1567 there ) was a Swiss Protestant Reformed pastor in Hundwil, Herisau , Gossau SG and Urnäsch , reformer in Appenzellerland , innkeeper and in 1565 the first chronicler of the Reformation in Appenzellerland .

Life

Klarer was a son of Wälti Klarer, whose profession has not been passed down. It was unusual for the time that he was able to attend school in St. Gallen from 1509 to 1515 . From 1515 to 1517 he studied in Schaffhausen and Bern , from 1517 to 1521 theology and canon law in Paris with a scholarship from the French king, who wanted to return the favor for the Swiss pay alliance. This course of study did not help Klarer much in the exercise of the pastoral profession, as he later noted.

In August 1522 Klarer gave his first sermon in Hundwil, displacing the old and conservative pastor Jakob Schenkli, because the Hundwiler wanted the young interpreter of the Bible Klarer. From 1522 to 1530 and 1543 to 1567 he was pastor in Hundwil. In 1525 he introduced the Reformation in Hundwil. From 1530 to 1531 worked as a pastor in Herisau, 1531 to 1532 in Gossau (SG) and from 1532 to 1543 in Urnäsch. In addition to his pastoral office, he worked as an innkeeper in Urnäsch and Hundwil in order to better secure his existence, and probably also as a jury judge.

Klarer played a major role in consolidating the Reformation begun by Jakob Schurtanner in the region of Appenzell. His close friendship with Joachim Vadian gave him important support . In 1528 he took part in the Bern disputation . In 1532 he was arrested on the orders of the St. Gallen abbot in Gossau, imprisoned in Rorschach , but soon after pressure from friends and after paying a fine he was released and expelled from the country. He was also the dean of the Reformed Appenzell Church and was part of the presidency of the St. Gallen Synod.

He survived many reformers and was buried in Hundwil after his death in 1567. A plaque on the Hundwil church commemorates his work in Hundwil.

Chronicle of the Reformation in Appenzellerland 1565

In 1565 Klarer wrote a short chronicle in letter form on the Reformation in the Appenzellerland on behalf of his parish colleague Hans Koller from Altstätten and the Zurich monastery administrator and canon Wolfgang Haller. Above all from memory, Klarer described events from 1521 to 1531 in it. It consists of a description of the religious conditions around 1521, a characterization of the leading comrades-in-arms and opponents and the temporal stages in the confessional religious struggle.

It is the only contemporary depiction of the Reformation in Appenzellerland, of which only copies are available. Although Klarer was clearly on the Protestant side, he wrote down the events largely historically correct.

The Appenzeller Chronicle of 1532 is also attributed to Klarer, but it is debatable whether this is really true.

Works

  • Action or Acta held disputation in Bern in Uechtland , 1528
  • Pastor Walther Klarer's history of the Reformation in the Appenzellerland , edited by HJ Heim, in Appenzeller Jahrbücher 8, 1873, pages 86-106

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Bernhard Rothen : Walter Klarer ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kirche.hundwil.ch archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Hundwil Church, accessed April 24, 2017.
  2. Andrea Vonlanthen: Mit Steinen against Pastor Hess , Interview with Josef Rechsteiner, ideaSpektrum April 20, 2017, pages 8-11
  3. Thomas Fuchs: Klarer, Walter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  4. Max Höhener: Studies on Appenzell Historiography , in Appenzeller Yearbooks N ° 99, 1971, pages 5–18: Walter Klarer - short biography
  5. ^ Reformation writing by Felix Frey at the Reformed Church in Herisau