Erbesbüdesheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)
Erbesbüdesheim, a village in Rhenish Hesse near Alzey, where there was a Mennonite church in the 18th century, since 1829 the Uffhofen congregation. The Martyrs' Mirror reports that in 1529, 350 Anabaptists were put to death at Alzey (Hege, 53ff.); this figure is questioned by Krebs. About 1550 Hutterites settled in the region of Kreuznach and Sprendlingen, near Erbesbüdesheim (Hege, 80). In 1568 there were still some Anabaptists in prison at Alzey, who received a letter of consolation from Peter Walpot in Moravia (Hege, 110). The congregation at Kreuznach is listed among the signatures of the Concept of Cologne (Rembert, 618). A list compiled at the end of 1610 counts 41 families in the region of Kreuznach, whose farms were confiscated because they were Anabaptists. Apparently during the next 30 or 40 years the congregation became extinct. The villages are unfortunately not named. After the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) this region was one of the first to receive Mennonite refugees from Switzerland.
In 1738 Mennonites are mentioned for the first time in the official lists drawn up in the Palatinate (Karlsruher Generallandesarchiv); seven families were living near Erbesbüdesheim on the von Rohan and Laroche estates, where they were received during the reign of Karl Ludwig (Karlsruher Akten, Rechtsverhältnisse). They were Jost (elder and younger) and Christian Eicher, Oswald Neff, Ulrich Leonhard, Hans Jakob Boxler, and Anna Andres, widow. Evidently the families living at Kriegsfeld, Michael Lichte and the widows of Michael Andres and Christian Fischer, also belonged to the Erbesbüdesheim congregation. The list of 1743 names a Johannes Schowalter family, and those of 1752 and 1753 the families of Valentine Dahlem (1749), at Nack (the castle) Jakob Stauffer and Christian Eymann (1751), at Schniftenbergerhof Jakob Heer (1747), and in 1759 a Jakob Neukumet family.
In the Dutch Naamlijsten (first mentioned in 1766, when the congregation is called Rheingrafenstein-Erbesbüdesheim-Weierhof) the following elders and preachers are listed for Erbesbüdesheim: Elder, Ulrich Ellenberger, 1743-67; Johannes Möllinger; Christian Stauffer; Christian Göbel; Heinrich Plätscher; Jakob Gaily (Galle), preacher 1762, elder 1767; Jacob Heer (no dates); David Hüthwohl, 1769-86; Christian Eicher, preacher 1786, elder 1798; and Jacob Galle, 1801-?
At first they held their services in the Nack castle, later at the Erbesbüdesheim castle. Until 1748 this congregation and the Weierhof congregation had the same preacher and a common alms fund. In the second half of the 18th century the Erbesbüdesheim congregation met at the Schniftenbergerhof. It is listed by this name in the records of the Ibersheim conference of 1803, which were signed by Christian Eicher for this church. When the Schniftenbergerhof was leased to a Protestant in 1824, Eicher offered the Mennonites the use of his house for their meetings. In 1829 the seat of the congregation was moved to Uffhofen . At present there are no Mennonites in Nack and Erbesbüdesheim.
Bibliography
Braght, Thieleman J. van. Het Bloedigh Tooneel of Martelaers Spiegel der Doopsgesinde of Weereloose Christenen, Die om 't getuygenis van Jesus haren Salighmaker geleden hebben ende gedood zijn van Christi tijd of tot desen tijd toe. Den Tweeden Druk. Amsterdam: Hieronymus Sweerts, 1685: II, 29.
Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 437. Available online at: http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 601.
Hege, Christian. Die Täufer in der Kurpfalz. Frankfurt, 1908.
Manfred Krebs, “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer am Oberrhein. I. Zum ältesten kurpfälzischen Wiedertäuferprozess 1527-1529,” in Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, n.s., Vol. 44 (Karlsruhe, 1981) 566-76.
Rembert, Karl. Die "Wiedertäufer" im Herzogtum Jülich. Berlin: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1899.
Risser, Johann, in Mennonitische Blätter, 1855, 51.
| Author(s) | Christian Neff |
|---|---|
| Nanne van der Zijpp | |
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. "Erbesbüdesheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Erbesb%C3%BCdesheim_(Rheinland-Pfalz,_Germany)&oldid=129554.
APA style
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. (1956). Erbesbüdesheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Erbesb%C3%BCdesheim_(Rheinland-Pfalz,_Germany)&oldid=129554.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 242. All rights reserved.
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