WiederTäufer

Wiedertäufer, literally "rebaptizers," was a label used in the 16th century to describe a movement of Anabaptists who rejected infant baptism and demanded adult baptism as a public profession of faith. They emerged in the milieu of the Swiss Reformation in the 1520s, notably in Zurich and neighboring cantons, and quickly spread to southern Germany, Moravia, and the Netherlands. Adherents called themselves Baptists or Anabaptists, while opponents coined "Wiedertäufer" as a pejorative term.

Core beliefs included the voluntary, conscious confession of faith through adult baptism; a belief in a separate, voluntary church independent of the civil state; strict moral conduct; and, in many groups, nonresistance and separation from political power. The Schleitheim Confession (1527) presented a concise doctrinal statement of these principles and the practice of church discipline and dissent from civil oaths and violence. The movement was diverse; some groups adopted communal living and property arrangements, others avoided violence; feuds with authorities culminated in brutal persecutions.

Münster Rebellion (1534–1535) in the German city of Münster, where a radical faction attempted to establish a theocratic community, severely damaged the reputation of the Wiedertäufer and led to violent suppression by city and princes. The persecution that followed contributed to fragmentation and the emergence of separate Anabaptist groups such as the Mennonites (named after Menno Simons) and the Hutterites, who pursued more conservative, pacifist paths. In historical contexts, Wiedertäufer denotes the radical strand within the wider Anabaptist movement.