500 Years Ago in Switzerland: Real Live Blog from the Original Venues

[barnhart]

Very interesting. Is it common for old houses to each have a well in front?

[Swiss Brah]

Very interesting. Is it common for old houses to each have a well in front?

No, only Anabaptist houses had them fitted for obvious purposes. Just kidding. It‘s not every house but there are many fountains in the area. Zurich has 1,200 fountains…

https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/de/umwelt ... unnen.html

[Swiss Brah]

At or around Thursday, 26 January 1525

In the week of 23 to 29 January, quite a few other Anabaptist meetings were held in Zollikon. One such meeting took place in Felix Kienast’s house at Rütistrasse 43, where Felix Manz baptized Jörg Schad. We do not know the exact date of that meeting, but the house still stands. It is a farmhouse. Most of the Zollikon Anabaptists actually were farmers: The number of people we know to have been baptized in Zollikon between 22 and 29 January is 35, 34 of which were men. Among those four were servants, which leaves 30 independent farmers.

[Swiss Brah]

Friday, 27 January 1525

Another meeting of the Zollikon congregation took place on this day at Hans Murer’s house at Bahnhofstrasse 3 in Zollikon. The lintel says 1553 but the building is much older. This is down by the lake, just a few meters below Ruedi Thomann’s place at Gstadstrasse. I will show the locations of these places on the historic map in the next post.

At this meeting, Brötli, Heinrich Thomann, Lienhard Bleuler, Konrad Hottinger and Hans Bruggbach‘s son were present, all of which were baptized by pouring by Brötli, with the exception of, once again, Heinrich Thomann.

Spoiler alert: We will see further meetings at this place in the coming weeks.

[Swiss Brah]

Sunday, 29 January 1525

It seems that Blaurock, one of the Anabaptist leaders and a bit of a hothead, was getting overly enthusiastic with all the great meetings of the week. On Sunday, he went to the Sunday service in the Zollikon church, repeatedly disrupting the service and shouting that he wanted to preach. Things escalated, with Blaurock waving a rod around until the bailiff threatened him with prison.

The Zollikon church lies in a beautiful setting above lake Zurich. I did not take pictures of the inside, because some kids were repeating for a representation and – unlike Blaurock – I did not want to interrupt them. On the historic map, the approximative locations of the venues discussed above are shown.

[Swiss Brah]

Monday, 30 January 1525

Blaurock’s antics did not pass without consequences: Town servants seized Blaurock, Manz and 25 farmers who had been baptized in the previous eight days on 30 January 1525. Manz and Blaurock were sent to the Wellenberg tower, the others to the recently closed Augustinian monastery that was repurposed as a prison. On February 8, the 25 farmers were released. Manz and Blaurock, however, remained in prison. The 25 had promised to recognize infant baptism and to refrain from any further believers’ baptisms in Zollikon. This basically meant that the Anabaptist congregation in Zollikon would not be going to grow any further.

There are no current pictures of the Wellenberg tower or the Augustinian monastery because these infrastructures are long gone. We have historic paintings of the tower and the monastery, see below. The tower would have been more or less where the road bridge now crosses the river. There is still a close called after the monastery: Augustinergasse, and even a Restaurant called after the Augstinians.

And so the story ends... or does it? We will see, watch this place…

[Swiss Brah]

Friday 24 February 1525

500 years ago, Blaurock was released from prison (see previous post). He met with the baker Heinrich Aberli in his workshop in the middle of the city of Zurich at Rennweg 27 / Kuttelgasse 2. He was joined by Hans Oggenfuss and Anton Roggenacher, as well as Jakob Hottinger, the leader of the Zollikon congregation. They celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. With Blaurock on the loose, the Anabaptist movement would soon gain traction again.

The house still stands. It was first mentioned in 1302. The strange decorations date from 1927.

[barnhart]

Fascinating. Could you translate the inscription?

[Swiss Brah]

Fascinating. Could you translate the inscription?

1302 mentioned in a document
1518 at our ladies (probably refers to a nunnery that was closeby, as a matter of fact an abbess pretty much ran the city pre reformation)
1801 at the sun time (likely a reference to the sun dial on the facade)
1927 painted for the 250 year jubilee of the Hammerstein pharmacy
1961/68 renovated
2005/6 renovate by the Joseph Scholz foundation

[Swiss Brah]

Sunday 26 February 1525

On this day, several things happened: (1) Anton Roggenacher (see previous post) was baptized by Blaurock in Stadelhofen (today part of the City of Zurich but quite close to Zollikon). (2) On the same day, a revival meeting was held at Hans Murer's house at Bahnhofstrasse 3 in Zollikon, a place we al-ready encountered (see above post from 27 January). There, eight women were baptized with the ladle. Seven of them came from Anabaptist families, namely the wife of Lienhard Bleuler, the wife of Rutsch Hottinger, the wife of Jakob Unholz, the wife of Jörg Schad, the wife of Fridli Schumacher, the daughter Trini of Konrad Hottinger, and Urseli Fryg from Balgrist. The spouses of the first five women mentioned had been imprisoned in the Augustinian monastery, as had the fathers of the two daughters Trini and Urseli. (3) On the same day, Blaurock baptized Heinrich Aberli (the baker, see my last post above) by sprinkling at Jakob Hottinger's house (whom we have also already encountered several times).

As you can see, the Zollikon congregation was getting very active again, despite their pledge of 30 January to refrain from any further believers’ baptisms in Zollikon. It seems that these activities went unnoticed for a moment, but not very long, as we shall soon find out.

Here are some additional photos of Hans Murer’s house.