Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)
Heidelberg, Baden, Germany (population 115,750 in 1955; 140,000 in 2006), formerly the capital of the Palatinate, seat of the oldest German university (founded in 1386), has been the seat of a small Mennonite congregation since 1921, which in 1953 had 38 baptized members and 4 children, with Richard Wagner as elder from the beginning. The congregation in the 1950s met on the first Sunday of the month. The Anabaptist movement was widespread in the Heidelberg area in the late 16th century, "particularly in Rohrbach, Leinen, Kirchheim, Nussloch and Wiesloch. Most of the members emigrated to Moravia (1603)" (Hege, 173). It died out about this time. The Baden-Pfalz volume of Anabaptist documents contains references to Anabaptists in the general area from 1568 on. The new Mennonite settlement in the region was established by immigrants from Switzerland about 1660. Since they were exclusively farmers they did not settle in the city proper, although some rented farm estates belonging to the city such as the Gutleuthof. The congregation in the immediate neighborhood was called Bruchhausen-Rohrbach, or at times Bruchhausen or Rohrbach; it existed from about 1664 to about 1880, when it dissolved. Huntzinger's Religions-, Kirchen- und Schulwesen der Mennoniten (Speyer, 1830) listed a total of 14 families with 71 souls as living in the Heidelberg district in the locations Nussloch, Handschuhsheim, Grenzhof, Rohrbach, St. Ilgen, and Gutleuthof, with only one member living in the city proper. Many mandates and regulations were issued from the electoral chancellery in Heidelberg, which was the capital of the Palatinate until 1720.
Bibliography
Hege, Christian. Die Täufer in der Kurpfalz: ein Beitrag zur badisch-pfälzischen Reformationsgeschichte. Frankfurt am Main: Kommissionsverlag von H. Minjon, 1908.
Krebs, Manfred. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, IV. Band: Baden and Pfalz. Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte XXII. Band. Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1951.
Maps
| Author(s) | Harold S Bender |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. "Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Heidelberg_(Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg,_Germany)&oldid=81846.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. (1956). Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Heidelberg_(Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg,_Germany)&oldid=81846.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 691. All rights reserved.
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