Fischer, Gall (d. 1530)

Gall Fischer was a member of the Augsburg Anabaptist congregation, and after Huber's defection, a deacon with Hans Kiessling. He was a weaver, and had already reached an advanced age when he joined the congregation. He was baptized by Siegmund Salminger, but was soon thereafter captured. Because he recanted he was not executed, but with four others, including Eitelhans Langenmantel, was expelled from the city 18 October 1527. But he remained a member of the congregation after his expulsion, and in February 1528 he and Augustin Bader were sent to visit the newly formed congregation in Kaufbeuren. On Saturday before Easter, 11 April, about 40 persons met to worship in his house in Augsburg in his absence. On the next day the council struck the congregation an annihilating blow. They surprised them at a meeting in the home of the sculptor Doucher and seized 88 members, some of whom were executed and some after torture expelled from the city. Four women, in whose homes meetings had been held, had their cheeks burned through with hot irons; one of these was probably Elisabeth, Gall Fischer's wife.

Gall was likely wandering about in Swabia with Augustin Bader as a fugitive. The experiences of their dearest friends who were tortured and even killed, as for instance the leader of the Kaufbeuren congregation who had been chosen under their supervision and who was beheaded 13 June 1528 with five men who would not recant, and 30 men and five women who were either branded or whipped out of the city, all of whom Gall Fischer had baptized, weighed heavily upon the two men and confused them. On the basis of visions and dreams they proclaimed the imminence of the judgment and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. Their contacts with the Anabaptists, who rejected these new ideas, were entirely lost. At Läutern near Ulm, where they had found shelter in a barn, Fischer claimed to have received a great vision (see Bader, Augustin), upon which Bader furnished himself with royal insignia. The purchase of these objects aroused suspicion and on 16 January 1530 led to the arrest of the entire group of five men, three women, and eight children. The government feared revolution, and though the fears were proved groundless, Fischer was taken to Nürtingen and subjected to questioning on the rack. He maintained his loyalty to Bader throughout, and was executed about 26 March 1530 at Nürtingen.

Bibliography

Alt, Karl. Wiedertäufer in und aus Kaufbeuren. Ansbach: K. Alt, 1930.

Bossert, Gustav. "Augustin Bader von Augsburg." Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 10 (1913): 117 ff.

Bossert, Gustav. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, I. Band: Herzogtum Württemberg. Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte XIII. Band. Leipzig: M. Heinsius, 1930: 930-934, 953-955.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 v. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 648.

Roth, Friedrich.  Zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer in Oberschwaben:  III.  Der Höhepunkt der wiedertäuferischen Bewegung in Augsburg und ihr Niedergang im Jahre 1528.  Augsburg: In Kommission der J.A. Schlosserschen Buchh.  (F. Schott.), 1901: 31 ff.

Schornbaum, Karl. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, V. Band: (Bayern II. Abteilung). Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte XXIII. Band. Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1951.

Author(s)	Christian Hege
Date Published	1956

Cite This Article

MLA style

Hege, Christian. "Fischer, Gall (d. 1530)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Fischer,_Gall_(d._1530)&oldid=94649.

APA style

Hege, Christian. (1956). Fischer, Gall (d. 1530). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Fischer,_Gall_(d._1530)&oldid=94649.

---

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 333. All rights reserved.

©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.