Lengbach (Wienerwald, Niederösterreich, Austria)

Lengbach, Austria, is located in the Wienerwald. The first mention of Lengbach appears in an apology of the government councilors to an accusation made by the king, dated 4 March 1528, which says that they were holding several Anabaptists in Lengbach, awaiting instructions from the king on what was to be done with them. Persecution in Moravia was bringing many Anabaptists to Lower Austria, where the marshal Dietrich von Hartitsch was hunting them down. It was, however, not the marshal but the clerk of Neulengbach, the knight Blasius Notlitsch (died 1547; his tombstone is still near the altar of St. Sebastian in the Ansbach church) who succeeded in capturing them. On 3 June 1528 he reported to the government that with the aid of Gryss, master of the hunt, he had brought to Lengbach 33 newly baptized persons, who had been living for three weeks in the forest "on a high mountain"--16 men and 17 girls and women. Most of them were very young; only four were past 40. There was among them a furrier who had assumed the priestly role of baptizing. As much as he had been able to understand "in haste," none would desist from his error. In conclusion the knight requested, "Since other people draw a salary for annihilating and crushing the new sect," he should also be rewarded.

The king decided that the cost must be borne by the magistracy, but the prisoners must be turned over to Hartitsch, who soon afterward executed 18 men and women. Although the court records are silent on this point, there must have been other Anabaptists here, for the chronicles list 45 executions in Lengbach, of a total of 105 for all of Lower Austria, Vienna included.

Bibliography

Loserth, J. "Die Wiedertaufe in Niederosterreich von ihren Anfangen bis zuni Tode Hubmaiers (1525-28)," in Blatter des Vereins fur Landeskunde von Qesterreich XXXIII (1899): 417-435.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: 686.

Wolkan, Rudolf. Geschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder. Macleod, AB, and Vienna, 1923.

Zieglschmid, A. J. F. Die älteste Chronik der Hutterischen Brüder: Ein Sprachdenkmal aus frühneuhochdeutscher Zeit. Ithaca: Cayuga Press, 1943: 232.

Author(s)	Paul Dedic
Date Published	1958

Cite This Article

MLA style

Dedic, Paul. "Lengbach (Wienerwald, Niederösterreich, Austria)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1958. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lengbach_(Wienerwald,_Nieder%C3%B6sterreich,_Austria)&oldid=119749.

APA style

Dedic, Paul. (1958). Lengbach (Wienerwald, Niederösterreich, Austria). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lengbach_(Wienerwald,_Nieder%C3%B6sterreich,_Austria)&oldid=119749.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 321-322. All rights reserved.

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