Hubmaier, Balthasar

Born circa 1485, in Friedberg, near Augsburg; died Mar. 10, 1528, in Vienna. Figure of the Reformation in southwest Germany; participant in the Peasants’ War of 1524–26.

Hubmaier adhered to a radical interpretation of the teachings of H. Zwingli. He became a preacher in Waldshut in 1521 and joined the Anabaptists. In 1524 he met and was profoundly influenced by T. Munzer. With the outbreak of the Peasants’ War he came into close contact with the insurgents. Hubmaier planned a policy that coupled the revolutionary ideas of Munzer and the Anabaptists with radical Zwinglian principles on the political independence of communities. He fled Waldshut when the revolt was crushed. In 1527 he was seized by the Hapsburg authorities and burned to death in Vienna.