The exhibition in the Central Library shows the little-known but eventful history of Anabaptism in the Canton of Zurich with documents from the library's own collection and other institutions.

Zurich is the only city in which two world churches have emerged in the same decade, namely in the form of Reformed Protestantism and the Mennonite congregations.

Both can be traced back to the reformer Huldrych Zwingli (1484 - 1531) and his students. When the council approved the introduction of the Reformation in Zurich in January 1523, the later Anabaptists pushed for the reforms to be implemented quickly (abolition of images of saints and the Catholic mass). Zwingli and the council, on the other hand, proceeded rather hesitantly because they did not want to overburden anyone. Over time, the two camps became increasingly divided. On January 21, 1525, the Anabaptists even decided to practice adult baptism in their own ranks. Zwingli and the Council could not approve of this unauthorized action. The Council did not want to tolerate a second front alongside the conflict with the Catholic towns and tried to deal with the young movement by imposing bans. When this did not help, Felix Mantz became the first Anabaptist martyr to be drowned in the city of Zurich in 1527. Five more death sentences followed until 1614.

The history of the Zurich Anabaptists was subsequently marked by persecution, imprisonment, confiscation of property and expulsions. In the second half of the 17th century, the unpopular Anabaptists were almost completely expelled from the canton. Many fled to Alsace, the Palatinate and finally to the USA. Today, many of the descendants of the Zurich refugees gather there in hundreds of Amish and Mennonite communities.

The exhibition in the Central Library shows this little-known but eventful history with documents from the library's own collection and other institutions. It is being held to mark the 500th anniversary of the first adult baptism in Zurich (21.1.1525).


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.