Anabaptist Museum (Austria)

The Baptist Niedersulz Museum was opened in 2008 at the Museum Niedersulz. It is the first Austrian museum with a permanent exhibition on the history of the Hutterites and Baptist with a focus on wine district, South Moravia.

History of smallholders house

The smallholders house first appears in 1600 and 1774 in the service book of the rule Wilfersdorf as " Zuleuthstübl " on. From 1750 to 1819, it is registered in the Land Registry as "Little Häusl " as an apartment building with rooms and chamber, with stables, garden and shared pasture. In 2007 it was bought by Joseph Hienerth who encouraged the transfer to the museum village. The small houses house had a typical feature for its location on the outskirts of the village. Because of its location on a hillside in the Kellergasse parts of the stables and store rooms were dug into the mountain. Despite the cramped conditions typical in the wine district L- shape is recognizable: a Zwerchhof, with the transversely positioned living area, to which a short longitudinal tract with the stables followed. During the transfer of the house was entered on these features.

These rooms now house the first permanent exhibition on the history of the Hutterites, a religious Reformation movement, who settled around 1528 in the Liechtenstein possessions in South Moravia and neighboring wine district.

The Hutterites and the wine district

The movement of the Hutterites goes back to the Tyrolean Jacob Hutter, who sought a religious revival in the tradition of Balthasar Hubmaier. The trailer should be free to choose and confirm a recent baptism, hence the name Baptist. Principles were pacifism, community property and the separation of church and state. Your denial of Treueeids she made many rulers suspect and led to persecution. Found refuge in the Protestant areas of the Hutterites in Moravia, especially around Mikulov. There, the religionists lived in brother courtyards with up to 500 residents. In Moravia lived about 25,000 Hutterites. Due to their serious work, the Hutterites developed to excellent craftsmen. The particular type of Haban ceramics, white Zinnglasglasur decorated with bold color ornaments, was in bourgeois households as a holiday ceramic and is maintained in Moravia until today.

Finally, the Protestant nobles could no longer provide sufficient protection to the Hutterites. The Habsburg rulers demanded the extradition from the Moravian regions and as 1622 Franz von Dietrich Stein Cardinal in Mikulov was, put a tracking here. A collection of poems, the Falkensteiner songs that tell of such persecution and flight. They are sung to this day in Canada.

After the Battle of White Mountain, the Hutterites were expelled and settled in present-day Slovakia. These settlements have been preserved partly in Hutterite farm. After migration to Russia, the Hutterites moved to the new world. Their descendants, around 50,000 people are now living on farms brother in Canada and the United States. You maintain to this day its original language, which sounds similar to the Carinthian dialect.

Emergence of the Baptist Museum

The Baptist Museum, in cooperation of the museum village Niedersulz founded with the Hutterian Historical Society and furnished under the scientific direction of the historian and Baptist researcher Astrid of gentry. On 5 October 2008, the museum was opened.

The museum documents the history of the Baptist and records their tracks in the wine district and the adjacent South Moravia by. It shows examples of the high quality craftsmanship of the Baptist and issues Haban ceramics.

Installations document the persecution of the Hutterites. In excerpts the Falkensteiner song is presented, which is sung to this day. Audio installations give examples of the current Hutterite German.

Bibliography

• Reinhold Eichinger, Joseph F. Enzenberger: Baptist, and Hutterites Hutterites in Austria: Baptist Museum Niedersulz, VTR Nürnberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-941750-27-2 ( museum guide )
• Reinhold Eichinger, Joseph F. Enzenberger: Anabaptists, Hutterites and Habans in Austria: Anabaptist Museum Niedersulz, VTR Nuremberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-941750-28-9 ( museum guide)