Ortenburg, a village in upper Carinthia (Kärnten in German), Austria, in which a small Anabaptist congregation was founded in the 16th century. Its preacher was Michael Matschidl, who was seized there with his wife and Hans Gurtzham in 1546, examined by the parson of Villach, and put into prison in Vienna. In a poem of twenty stanzas, published by Beck (131-36), Matschidl describes his seizure in Ortenburg and the execution of his fellow captives Hans Staudach, Leonhard Schneider of Kaufbeuren, Blasius Beckh, and Anthoni Keim (see Glait, Oswald) of Gunzenhausen. Beck (121-23) gives two moving letters written by Matschidl on 21 November and 5 December 1546, from his prison to the brotherhood in Moravia. The congregation in Ortenburg was dissolved after the death of its preacher.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 88. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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