View source for Landeck (Tyrol, Austria)

Landeck is a town (pop. 2007 7,633) in the [[Inn Valley (Austria)|Upper Inn Valley]], [[Austria|Austria]]. It was one of the centers of the [[Anabaptism|Anabaptist]] movement in northern [[Tyrol (Austria)|Tyrol]]. In 1529 Bartlma Has was examined on a charge of Anabaptist inclinations; he was probably put to death. At least the martyr list in the <em>Geschicht-Buch</em> mentions a blood witness in Landeck. In 1539 a group of Anabaptists including a widow were questioned on the rack.

An indication of the strong growth of the movement is the series of Anabaptists imprisoned during the following years; they were "safely kept in the dark dungeon with warm water or goat soup made with little fat, otherwise fed once a day on bread and water." In 1543 some escaped; one of these was Hans Prugger, who was to be taken to the galleys via [[Hungary|Hungary]]; in 1544 [[Mändl, Hans (d. 1561)|Hans Mändl]] escaped after 22 weeks of imprisonment with frequent trials on the rack, by beating his foot-chains with stones until he could slip out of them, and letting himself down on the rope used to bring up his food. In the 1540s several groups from Landeck migrated to [[Moravia (Czech Republic)|Moravia]]; their property was secured by the government for the use of the children they left behind. In 1556 there was a larger emigration.

In 1574 the Moravian [[Hutterian Brethren (Hutterische Brüder)|Hutterites]] sent a special epistle to Landeck. Up into the 1580s there is mention of Anabaptists at Landeck.
= Bibliography =
Beck, Josef. <em>Die Geschichts-Bücher der Wiedertäufer in Oesterreich-Ungarn</em>. Vienna, 1883; reprinted Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1967.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. ''Mennonitisches Lexikon'', 4 vols. Frankfurt &amp; Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 608 f.

Loserth, Johann. <em>Der Anabaptismus in Tirol</em>. Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1892.

Wolkan, Rudolf. G<em>eschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder.</em> Macleod, AB, and Vienna, 1923.

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