Escape from the Reformation

Before the new doctrine of the faith finally established itself, violent disputes raged between the representatives of different theological directions. Adaptation, martyrdom or emigration – this choice faced believers whose ideas did not conform to the respective recognized doctrine. Individual groups decided to emigrate, certain regions developed into attractive vanishing points. Southwest Germany played an outstanding role for both.

Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig, a contentious lay theologian from Silesia, fled to the south-west of Germany after the final break with the Wittenbergers and also worked in Ulm. The Baptist Michael Sattler was charged with heresy in Rottenburg am Neckar in 1527. Even centuries after the beginning of the Reformation, Württemberg pietists resisted the supposed patronage of state and church.

The exhibition was conceived by the Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart and is under the patronage of the Minister for the Interior, Digitization and Migration, Thomas Strobl.