Who was Johannes Brenz?
What does the life of this reformer have to do with us today?
As part of art lessons, class 9b created several film sequences in the 2022/23 school year about the namesake of our school. Filming took place at original locations such as Brenz’s former home and at the Hohenlohe Open-Air Museum in Wackershofen. For the scenes, we were allowed to borrow costumes from the wardrobe of the Open-Air Theatre. The following pupils took part as actors (in alphabetical order): Behzad Amini, Laura Baierlein, Sarah Baierlein, Jonas Bay, Maximilian Dangelmayer, Jana Eisermann, Luisa Eisermann, Luisa Fritz, Yannis Häusermann, Mara Hopf, Furkan Kazanci, Max Kumpf, Luis Schmid, Rashid Sheiko, Muhamed Sheiko, Jule Wieland – thank you for your commitment!
Special thanks go to Leif Jäschke and Jonas Miermeister for camera, sound and editing.
Scene 1: University of Heidelberg
Johannes Brenz was born in Weil der Stadt on 24 June 1499. On 13 October 1514, at the age of 15, Brenz enrolled at the University of Heidelberg. Two of his fellow students in Heidelberg were Johann Isenmann (later pastor at St. Michael’s) and Michael Gräter (later pastor at St. Katharina in Hall).
Scene 2: Meeting Luther
On 26 April 1518, Martin Luther came to Heidelberg. During his appearance at the Heidelberg Disputation, Johannes Brenz sat in the audience. Afterwards, Brenz visited Luther at his lodgings in Heidelberg together with a fellow student. The encounter and the discussion with the Wittenberg reformer shaped his future path in life. Brenz was later also known as “Luther’s man in southern Germany”.
Scene 3: Education for all
On 8 September 1522, Brenz gave his trial sermon in St. Michael’s Church, and shortly afterwards he was called here as preacher. With care and good judgement, he set about reforming the church in Hall: alongside worship and marriage law, poor relief and schooling were close to his heart. Remarkable for its time: all children, girls included, should learn to read so that they could read the Bible for themselves. Lessons should also be fun for the children. Instead of rote learning, Brenz relied on questions and answers.
Scene 4: Peasants’ War
In April 1525, an armed band of peasants formed and seized several villages. The town of Hall was to be pressured into meeting the peasants’ demands. With a few unaimed cannon shots, the citizens’ militia dispersed the peasant band at the Gottwollshäuser Steige on 4 April 1525. Brenz arrived at the political position that he also advocated in the later religious conflicts: injustice does not justify rebellion. It could be a Christian duty to refuse obedience, but then they would have to be ready to bear the consequences. Brenz appealed to the town council to show mercy towards the defeated peasants.
Scene 5: In the Bridge House with Frau Kehrer and Frau Schäuffele
In December 1530, Brenz married the widow Margarethe Gräter (1501–1548). The couple had six children together. The two “gossips” in the Bridge House also talk about changes that Brenz set in motion: for example, sermons were no longer given in Latin but in German. Moreover, thanks to Brenz, there was no “iconoclasm” in Hall like in other places, where many works of art in churches were destroyed.
Scene 6: Witch hunts
When a hailstorm caused severe damage in Württemberg, calls for a witch hunt grew louder. But Brenz stressed that misfortune and calamity are also guided by God himself: hail and failed harvests were not the result of harmful sorcery, but a call to repentance. The authorities should not follow every accusation, and confessions extracted under torture were worthless. It was better to let a thousand guilty people escape than to condemn one innocent person.
Scene 7: Flight
On 24 June 1548, his 49th birthday, Brenz had to flee Hall – from Spanish troops hired by the Emperor to restore the “old” faith to power in the Protestant regions. Thanks to an anonymous warning, he narrowly escaped arrest: a councillor slipped him a note with the words: Fuge, fuge, Brenti, cito, citius, citissime (“Flee, flee, Brenz, quickly, quicker, quickest”). Brenz was on the run for four years. Meanwhile, his wife Margarethe, who was severely ill with tuberculosis, died on 18 November 1548. (The epitaph of Margarethe Brenz is today in St. Michael’s in Schwäbisch Hall. It was commissioned by her son and was originally set into a niche in the outer wall of this church.)
* That Brenz fled in disguise is documented for an earlier escape: on 20 December 1546, Brenz had to flee Hall for the first time. We adopted the disguise for 24 June 1548 for dramatic reasons.
Epilogue:
And what happened next to Johannes Brenz?
On 7 September 1550, Brenz married Katharina Isenmann in Dettingen an der Erms. Twelve children were born in this second marriage. At the end of the years of flight, Duke Christoph of Württemberg brought Brenz to Stuttgart as court preacher and reformer. From there, he shaped the church far beyond the region. When Brenz died in 1570 at the age of 71, he left behind not only a well-ordered regional church but also a large number of children and grandchildren from two marriages. At his own request, he was buried at the foot of the pulpit in the Stiftskirche in Stuttgart. Among his later descendants are some well-known names: Ludwig Uhland, Wilhelm Hauff, Hermann Hesse, Bertolt Brecht, Patrick Süßkind… The Bonhoeffer, von Weizsäcker and von Dohnanyi families are also descendants of the Württemberg reformer.