Melchior Hoffman: preaching and long imprisonment

Melchior Hoffman was a furrier from the Schwäbisch Hall region who became an itinerant preacher during the Reformation. His work carried him through northern Europe before his association with Anabaptism. The supplied panel remembers his extensive preaching, his arrest at Strasbourg in 1533, and a confinement lasting more than ten years.

Hoffman urged repentance and expected Christ’s return, assigning prophetic significance to Strasbourg. His message influenced the early Dutch movement, while later followers took different paths. His imprisonment and writings belong to the setting in which Obbe Philips, Dirk Philips, and Menno Simons emerged. The exhibit gives approximately 1494–1544; the historical reference uses approximately 1495 and questions the precise death date. Those uncertainties remain visible rather than being converted into exact lifespan claims.