Nemschitz (Morava, Czech Republic)

Nemschitz (Nembschitz, Niemtschitz; Czech, Nemcice), the name of eleven villages in different parts of Moravia, three of which are mentioned in the Hutterian chronicles:

(1) Gross-Niemtschitz, on the left bank of the Schwarza between Nikolsburg and Nusslau. To this place the "Stäbler" came from Nikolsburg in 1529. From here they sent four messengers to the barons of Kaunitz at Austerlitz with a petition for admission, which was granted them. The trial of the miller Nikolaus Geyersbühler shows that there were Anabaptists there at a later period. "Although he could neither read nor write and was not a leader or preacher, he was sent by the brotherhood to his old home to bring Anabaptists to Moravia." He was beheaded at Innsbruck in 1566/7.

(2) Klein-Niemtschitz in the domain of Panowitz, in which Anabaptists had settled at Gurdau, Rackvitz, and Seitz, had a Hutterite Bruderhof, date of founding unknown, which was abandoned in 1559; the chronicles say that the Brethren were driven out and moved to Pellerditz; they opened a Bruderhof in that year under the Baron of Wickow.

(3) Klein-Nembschitz near Pralitz (in the chronicles usually called "Nembschitz bei Präles”; see Klein-Nembschitz), on the road from Brno to Znaim in the Kaunitz domain on the left bank of the Iglawa, noted for its fruit and vineyards. Baron Siegmund von Zastrizel gave the Brethren a Bruderhof here in 1562 with several gardens and a mill. This Bruderhof prospered and soon became one of the most important in the country. In 1564 three men were confirmed in the ministry: Klaus Braidl, a shoemaker, later head of the entire brotherhood, Valentin Horl, and Hans Langenbach; and Leonhard Dax, who was well known on account of his long imprisonment in Alzey, was chosen to the ministry. Here Leonhard Lanzenstiel, the head of the entire Moravian brotherhood, died in 1565.

An important institution of this Bruderhof (3) was Peter Walpot's school. Here he published on 15 November 1568, his famous address to the teachers which shows evidence of his pedagogical skill. To the "sisters in the cotton rooms" Paul Glock addressed his eighth letter written in prison in Württemberg in 1569. The skill of the craftsmen of the Bruderhof is proved by the order given in 1569 by the wealthy nobleman Albrecht von Boskowitz and Tchernahora for a fountain and water conduit to be connected with the city water system in the building of his new townhouse, at the price of sixty florins and five measures of wheat (copy of the letter in the private archives of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna.) In 1606 Niemtschitz suffered severe arbitrary violence at the hands of armies enroute to Hungary. Great offense was caused among the Brethren in 1610, when the bishop Georg Riedel had to be deposed because he neglected the duties of his office for experiments in alchemy.

This settlement was especially hardpressed in the Moravian uprising. After the inhuman treatment of the Pribitz Brethren at the hands of the Polish troops of the imperial army, the Brethren fled with their neighbors to Pausram.  The terrible distress of the Brethren, who were subjected to all sorts of mistreatment, is related in the Geschicht-Buch. On 28 December 1620 soldiers broke into the abandoned house and plundered it completely, "and burned the best buildings. What the soldiery did not find in the earth, the baron of Kaunitz, who should have protected the Brethren, had his men dig up and take away, so that they lost everything at once."

On 3 January 1621 two men who had ventured back to the ravaged house were cut down by soldiers. Nevertheless the Brethren began again in March to live there and to build; then soldiers came again and robbed them, and raped two sisters. Again the Brethren began anew, and then some troops of the Brno garrison broke in on 15 July, "plundered everything and took away 35 loads of booty, grain and all that they found." After the suppression of the rebellion Niemtschitz fell to Cardinal Dietrichstein, who had this Bruderhof as well as those in Nikolsburg and Tracht completely plundered even before the general expulsion of the Anabaptists.

Bibliography

Beck, Josef. Die Geschichts-Bücher der Wiedertäufer in Oesterreich-Ungarn. Vienna, 1883; reprinted Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1967.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 252 f.

Loserth, Johann. "Der Communismus der mährischen Wiedertäufer im 16. and 17. Jahrhundert: Beiträge zu ihrer Lehre, Geschichte and Verfassung." Archiv für österreichische Geschichte 81, 1 (1895).

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.

Author(s)	Paul Dedic
Date Published	1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Dedic, Paul. "Nemschitz (Morava, Czech Republic)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Nemschitz_(Morava,_Czech_Republic)&oldid=145926.

APA style

Dedic, Paul. (1957). Nemschitz (Morava, Czech Republic). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Nemschitz_(Morava,_Czech_Republic)&oldid=145926.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 822-823. All rights reserved.

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