| The Salt Miner: Joseph Schaitberger |
In Joseph's Words: Excerpts
Trostlied eines Exulanten (midi file)
Occasionally in history, there comes along an individual who puts honor and principle above their
own personal needs, a human being who believes in something so strongly that they enter into a
struggle armed with the knowledge that their beliefs may cost them those things which are dearest in
life and even life itself. One such figure was a man whose name few people today would recognize,
a name once familiar to a good part of the western world, that of Joseph Schaitberger. In this little
known chapter of human history, this figure played an integral role as a spiritual figurehead to not
only the Protestants of Salzburg, but to thousands of oppressed people everywhere.
Joseph Schaitberger was born in Dürrnberg in 1658, the middle of twelve children sired by local salt
miner Hanns Schaitberger and his wife Magdalena Thanner of Berchtesgaden. The mining cultures
of Dürrnberg and neighboring Berchtesgaden were one and the same, in fact, one tunnel deep in the
Dürrnberg mine actually went through the mountain to Berchtesgaden! From at least the mid-16th
century, dating to one Caspar Schaitberger, born around 1565, the Schaitbergers had been
associated with the salt mines. The miners earned employment benefits similar to those of today and
they embraced a profession filled with age-old traditions of song, dance, costume and custom.
It was Joseph's fate, by virtue of his birth to a miner, to take up the occupation in which rank and
privilege extended from father to son. This he did, and he descended into the salt caverns at the age
of fourteen, but only after being educated by his older brother Hans, a school master who later lost
his job because of his Protestant leanings and was forced to relocate to Switzerland. At age eighteen,
Joseph thus inherited the debt-ridden family home worth 1,000 thalers upon his father's death. A
voracious reader, Joseph continued to study the writings of Luther in depth, and as he grew older he
amassed a substantial library of over three hundred volumes, including works of Spener, Arndt,
Habermann and others. Most of the salt miners were crypto-Protestants, and the Archbishopric had
generally turned a blind eye to them because their work was vital to the treasury and because there
were other more crucial problems to address.
In 1683, Joseph married Magdalena Khaembl of Berchtesgaden, and they soon had two little girls.
Joseph gathered friends and neighbors to his house where he led small groups in song, prayer and
the discussion of books much as a lay preacher of today, and an extremely close bond developed
between the kindred spirits. However, there were changes in the mountain wind, and things were
good for only a short time before trouble brewed anew from Salzburg.
Under Archbishop Paris Hadrian's rule from 1619-1653, Protestants were at least allowed 3 years
until banishment, and some were allowed to take their possessions and their horses. But a few years
later, the new Archbishop Max Gandolph was not so generous.
Gandolph was born in 1622 of an old noble family in Ganz, Styria and was elected as Archbishop of
Salzburg in 1668. In the beginning of his rule, other problems took precedence over the Protestant
problem. In 1669, 62 Dürrnberger mine workers drowned in salt and on July 16, 1669, a landslide
killed 200 people. Gandolph had military worries as well: France occupied Lorraine in 1670, and
raised territorial claims to which Gandolph responded with a contingent. Also, the Turks threatened
Vienna in the year 1683. Lastly, the infamous Black Jacket witch trials where two hundred people
had been tortured and killed at the behest of Gandolph had just ended.
Gandolph was, above all else, an administrator with a zest for regulation and rules. Under his reign,
new regulations were issued in abundance and included, among other things, new police regulations,
fire prevention orders, safety ordinances, firearms laws, loitering rules, an alms order of 1678, a
cleanliness order for the roads and even a disease protection regulation in 1679. A cleanliness order
for religion was next, and after 1683, Gandolph turned his attention to the Protestant problem.
He inflicted even more oppressive measures against the secret Protestants, beginning with poor
farmers in the remote Deferegger Valley. Homes were raided for Lutheran books which were
burned when discovered. The owner's first offence was a hefty fine; with the second, the subject
was taken away to be "tested" to the Catholic faith in a grueling ordeal. Finally, about 1,000 people
deemed recalcitrant were forced to give up all they possessed and vacate their homeland at once.
They were cast out into the world with only the clothes on their back and with no provisions made
for them. To make matters worse, their minor children were ripped from their parents' arms and
kept behind by force, ostensibly to be reared in the ways of the true religion. The cruelty of these
actions spread horror to their neighbors, and fear and anger became palpable throughout the land.
In the strongly Protestant mining community of Dürrnberg, a rift soon developed between a local
friar and some of the Protestants. Salt miner Simon Lindtner could no longer restrain himself and
stomped out of a community meeting in disgust. Hearing that some of the miners had become more
vocal in their discontent, an inquiry was set up by the local Pfleger (administrator) of Hallein to
ferret out the biggest "instigators".
Gandolph had the radical Dürrnberg leadersarrested; Joseph Schaitberger, his brother-in-law Mathias
Kambl, Simon Lindtner and Ruprecht Winter were brought before the local court at Hallein and then
moved to a holding cell outside of Salzburg. After interrogation before the Royal Court, they were
sentenced to fifty days of hard labor, deprived of rest and forced to live on bread and water.
There were historically many uses for prisoners ("the Penitents") at Höhensalzburg, often breaking
rock on the Mönchsberg for various projects or operating the "funicular". In 1504, when Archbishop
Leonhard von Keutschach expanded and improved Höhensalzburg, thousands of roof tiles and other
heavy required building materials had to be transported up the mountain to the Fortress on top.
There was already a rudimentary rope and pulley system with wooden tracks, first described in a
1411 military book as a funicular, which transported goods up and down the length of the steep
mountain and into the fortress. Around 1520, Von Keutschach improved this system, making it the
oldest mountain railway still in operation in the world, albeit now in a modern form. The old
hand-operated, rope-worked system relied upon levers and spindles and was inspired by the
operation of mining cars. The incline was worked by prisoners who laboriously turned a capstan in
the courtyard. It took tremendous strength and a long time to pull the hemp ropes by hand so that
the train could make its steep journey, and sometimes the rope broke.
The men were assigned two old Capuchin monks who attempted to re-educate them in the Catholic
faith. Even though the Bishop graciously obliged their requests for a bible to comfort them, because
they would not recant their faith they received severe rebuke. During this time, Joseph speaks of
them being afraid for their lives as they were continually threatened with either death or being "sent
out on the wild seas" as slave labor on the Venetian galleys, a common, greatly feared punishment.
Unbroken, they were commanded to put their confession of faith into writing and hand it over to the
Bishop himself. This the men willingly did, having been led to believe that if they did this freely,
they would be protected by the Treaty of Westphalia and would be granted three years to sell their
homes and possessions before leaving their homeland.
Gandolph had other ideas. Determined to carve the heart out of the Protestant community for good,
he cleverly classified them as "cultists" so that they and their families would be unprotected by any
such treaty provisions. It would either be publicly recanting their faith or exile: leaving penniless
immediately. Their consciences prevented them from recanting, dictating that to do so would be to
betray the Word of God, and in a most painful and heart-wrenching decision, they choose exile.
own personal needs, a human being who believes in something so strongly that they enter into a
struggle armed with the knowledge that their beliefs may cost them those things which are dearest in
life and even life itself. One such figure was a man whose name few people today would recognize,
a name once familiar to a good part of the western world, that of Joseph Schaitberger. In this little
known chapter of human history, this figure played an integral role as a spiritual figurehead to not
only the Protestants of Salzburg, but to thousands of oppressed people everywhere.
Joseph Schaitberger was born in Dürrnberg in 1658, the middle of twelve children sired by local salt
miner Hanns Schaitberger and his wife Magdalena Thanner of Berchtesgaden. The mining cultures
of Dürrnberg and neighboring Berchtesgaden were one and the same, in fact, one tunnel deep in the
Dürrnberg mine actually went through the mountain to Berchtesgaden! From at least the mid-16th
century, dating to one Caspar Schaitberger, born around 1565, the Schaitbergers had been
associated with the salt mines. The miners earned employment benefits similar to those of today and
they embraced a profession filled with age-old traditions of song, dance, costume and custom.
It was Joseph's fate, by virtue of his birth to a miner, to take up the occupation in which rank and
privilege extended from father to son. This he did, and he descended into the salt caverns at the age
of fourteen, but only after being educated by his older brother Hans, a school master who later lost
his job because of his Protestant leanings and was forced to relocate to Switzerland. At age eighteen,
Joseph thus inherited the debt-ridden family home worth 1,000 thalers upon his father's death. A
voracious reader, Joseph continued to study the writings of Luther in depth, and as he grew older he
amassed a substantial library of over three hundred volumes, including works of Spener, Arndt,
Habermann and others. Most of the salt miners were crypto-Protestants, and the Archbishopric had
generally turned a blind eye to them because their work was vital to the treasury and because there
were other more crucial problems to address.
In 1683, Joseph married Magdalena Khaembl of Berchtesgaden, and they soon had two little girls.
Joseph gathered friends and neighbors to his house where he led small groups in song, prayer and
the discussion of books much as a lay preacher of today, and an extremely close bond developed
between the kindred spirits. However, there were changes in the mountain wind, and things were
good for only a short time before trouble brewed anew from Salzburg.
Under Archbishop Paris Hadrian's rule from 1619-1653, Protestants were at least allowed 3 years
until banishment, and some were allowed to take their possessions and their horses. But a few years
later, the new Archbishop Max Gandolph was not so generous.
Gandolph was born in 1622 of an old noble family in Ganz, Styria and was elected as Archbishop of
Salzburg in 1668. In the beginning of his rule, other problems took precedence over the Protestant
problem. In 1669, 62 Dürrnberger mine workers drowned in salt and on July 16, 1669, a landslide
killed 200 people. Gandolph had military worries as well: France occupied Lorraine in 1670, and
raised territorial claims to which Gandolph responded with a contingent. Also, the Turks threatened
Vienna in the year 1683. Lastly, the infamous Black Jacket witch trials where two hundred people
had been tortured and killed at the behest of Gandolph had just ended.
Gandolph was, above all else, an administrator with a zest for regulation and rules. Under his reign,
new regulations were issued in abundance and included, among other things, new police regulations,
fire prevention orders, safety ordinances, firearms laws, loitering rules, an alms order of 1678, a
cleanliness order for the roads and even a disease protection regulation in 1679. A cleanliness order
for religion was next, and after 1683, Gandolph turned his attention to the Protestant problem.
He inflicted even more oppressive measures against the secret Protestants, beginning with poor
farmers in the remote Deferegger Valley. Homes were raided for Lutheran books which were
burned when discovered. The owner's first offence was a hefty fine; with the second, the subject
was taken away to be "tested" to the Catholic faith in a grueling ordeal. Finally, about 1,000 people
deemed recalcitrant were forced to give up all they possessed and vacate their homeland at once.
They were cast out into the world with only the clothes on their back and with no provisions made
for them. To make matters worse, their minor children were ripped from their parents' arms and
kept behind by force, ostensibly to be reared in the ways of the true religion. The cruelty of these
actions spread horror to their neighbors, and fear and anger became palpable throughout the land.
In the strongly Protestant mining community of Dürrnberg, a rift soon developed between a local
friar and some of the Protestants. Salt miner Simon Lindtner could no longer restrain himself and
stomped out of a community meeting in disgust. Hearing that some of the miners had become more
vocal in their discontent, an inquiry was set up by the local Pfleger (administrator) of Hallein to
ferret out the biggest "instigators".
Gandolph had the radical Dürrnberg leadersarrested; Joseph Schaitberger, his brother-in-law Mathias
Kambl, Simon Lindtner and Ruprecht Winter were brought before the local court at Hallein and then
moved to a holding cell outside of Salzburg. After interrogation before the Royal Court, they were
sentenced to fifty days of hard labor, deprived of rest and forced to live on bread and water.
There were historically many uses for prisoners ("the Penitents") at Höhensalzburg, often breaking
rock on the Mönchsberg for various projects or operating the "funicular". In 1504, when Archbishop
Leonhard von Keutschach expanded and improved Höhensalzburg, thousands of roof tiles and other
heavy required building materials had to be transported up the mountain to the Fortress on top.
There was already a rudimentary rope and pulley system with wooden tracks, first described in a
1411 military book as a funicular, which transported goods up and down the length of the steep
mountain and into the fortress. Around 1520, Von Keutschach improved this system, making it the
oldest mountain railway still in operation in the world, albeit now in a modern form. The old
hand-operated, rope-worked system relied upon levers and spindles and was inspired by the
operation of mining cars. The incline was worked by prisoners who laboriously turned a capstan in
the courtyard. It took tremendous strength and a long time to pull the hemp ropes by hand so that
the train could make its steep journey, and sometimes the rope broke.
The men were assigned two old Capuchin monks who attempted to re-educate them in the Catholic
faith. Even though the Bishop graciously obliged their requests for a bible to comfort them, because
they would not recant their faith they received severe rebuke. During this time, Joseph speaks of
them being afraid for their lives as they were continually threatened with either death or being "sent
out on the wild seas" as slave labor on the Venetian galleys, a common, greatly feared punishment.
Unbroken, they were commanded to put their confession of faith into writing and hand it over to the
Bishop himself. This the men willingly did, having been led to believe that if they did this freely,
they would be protected by the Treaty of Westphalia and would be granted three years to sell their
homes and possessions before leaving their homeland.
Gandolph had other ideas. Determined to carve the heart out of the Protestant community for good,
he cleverly classified them as "cultists" so that they and their families would be unprotected by any
such treaty provisions. It would either be publicly recanting their faith or exile: leaving penniless
immediately. Their consciences prevented them from recanting, dictating that to do so would be to
betray the Word of God, and in a most painful and heart-wrenching decision, they choose exile.
| Joseph Schaitberger |
Salt Mining and Dürrnberg Salt Mining in History
Magic in Salzburg: Gandolph and his Witch Trials
The small group was cast into the bitter cold near Christmas of 1685, their small children taken to be
raised by Catholic families. Joseph's sister Maria Lindtner lost her first three children, and Joseph his
two little girls. From 1,000 parents driven from their homes from 1684 to 1686, no less than 600
children are said to have been taken away from their parents. Still weak from prison, Joseph had
only enough time to deed over his house to a friend, but after paying off debts, and with his assets
frozen by the church for the care of his stolen children, he received no money.
About one hundred of their friends, families, sympathizers and relatives, mostly miners, left with
them in small, homeless, penniless bands for Frankfurt, Augsburg, Ulm, Nürnberg and even to the
mines in Saxony, there being at this time no organized community of exiled compatriots from which
to seek comfort and refuge.The small group slowly made the hazardous journey through deep
snows, first to Regensburg to seek an audience with the Evangelical Estates, and then on to
Nürnberg, a bastion of Protestantism, where they arrived in May.
Nürnberg was a progressive, tolerant city of art, music and wealth and it offered a new beginning.
After finding shelter, Joseph initially found work as a porter and then as a wire drawer, an
occupation in Germany since the 14th century, and one which required immense human strength.
While Joseph toiled, Magdalena wouldn't survive the ordeal. She died of consumption and a broken
heart within a year, begging on her death bed for Joseph to get their children back, something he
would futilely attempt. In a twist of fate, Max Gandolph died unexpectedly near the same time as
Magdalena Schaitberger.
Meanwhile, in the remote mountain farms back in Salzburg, the quiet Protestant meetings which had
once been held in private houses now took place in even greater secrecy under the open sky. On
Sundays and public holidays, people crept up to a large rock in the woods near Dürrnberg to worship
together and read letters smuggled in from previously exiled relatives and from Joseph Schaitberger.
It is said that they met there with Joseph personally on at least one of his clandestine trips. He had
petitioned to have his children returned, but was rebuffed, and he made at least three trips back
home under cover of night, facing grave danger if caught, hoping to recover his stolen children. The
church had purposely separated them and then moved them around to foil any plans to retrieve
them. He succeeded only in getting his brother Balthaser out, but he had attained folk hero status.
On February 3, 1692 at Nürnberg's St. Lorenz Church, Joseph married his second wife, Catherine
Brockenberger, twelve years his junior. She was a fellow exile and the daughter of a saltminer whose
family had resided in Berchtesgaden for many generations. Less than a year later, their first born
son, Philipp Schaitberger, was baptised at St. Lorenz. They quickly had three more sons, but sadly,
they all died as infants and only Philipp would outlive his father. Catharina died in 1697, after only
five years of marriage and Joseph never remarried.
One thing the Royal Court back in Salzburg had not counted on was a simple salt minor having
extraordinary literary gifts! At no little risk of personal danger, Joseph worked feverishly night and
day, pouring out his heart and mind to his brethren back home to keep the faith no matter what.
Soon after Joseph's arrival in Nürnberg, on the initiative of a local preacher, he began to write a
number of Protestant tracts. They were at first printed individually as pamphlets and soon several
thousand copies were made and furtively dispersed to his former countrymen.
In 1710, he had them bound together into a book. The "Sendbrief" was a favorite book of the
Protestants in Germany and around Salzburg. It was joyously anticipated and wildly popular. It was
also hunted down and burned back in his homeland whenever found. In reaction to the Schaitberger
Sendbrief, the Salzburg Court Chancellery hired P.Maurus Liechtenhaimb of the Benedictine Order
and the University faculty to draft a ten page Catholic rebuttal called "The Anti-Schaitberger", but it
failed to make much of an impact.
In 1691, the Margrave of Baden and the Crown Prince of Brandenburg unsuccessfully intervened on
Joseph's behalf for his childrens' return, but although this came to nothing for Joseph, it managed to
help others, and through the mediation of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, some Defereggers who had
already disbursed to Stuttgart, Ulm, Göppingen, Herrenberg and Urach were at long last reunited
with their stolen children. Some romantic accounts claim that at least one of Joseph's daughters
eventually found their father and "fully embraced his Protestantism", but it remains unproven.
Joseph lived until the year of the greater Salzburg expulsion almost a half century later, and it is said
that a number of the Exiles in this group stopped to pay their respects to him shortly before his
death. As an old man, although he was not a native Nürnberger, he was able to reside at the
Lutheran Brothers house which had been set up in 1388 by Konrad Mendel to shelter "twelve poor
brothers". Joseph died peacefully in 1733 at 75 years of age and was buried at Friedhof St. Rochus.
By the time of his death, Austria had been all but cleansed of Protestants. His 'Neu Vermehrter
Evangelischer Sendbrief' was the most popular religious tract of its time next to the Holy Bible and it
remained a popular inspirational work for generations to come. It was published until the turn of the
twentieth century, the last major edition appearing in 1908 on the occasion of Joseph's 250th
birthday. It has recently been reprinted, however.
raised by Catholic families. Joseph's sister Maria Lindtner lost her first three children, and Joseph his
two little girls. From 1,000 parents driven from their homes from 1684 to 1686, no less than 600
children are said to have been taken away from their parents. Still weak from prison, Joseph had
only enough time to deed over his house to a friend, but after paying off debts, and with his assets
frozen by the church for the care of his stolen children, he received no money.
About one hundred of their friends, families, sympathizers and relatives, mostly miners, left with
them in small, homeless, penniless bands for Frankfurt, Augsburg, Ulm, Nürnberg and even to the
mines in Saxony, there being at this time no organized community of exiled compatriots from which
to seek comfort and refuge.The small group slowly made the hazardous journey through deep
snows, first to Regensburg to seek an audience with the Evangelical Estates, and then on to
Nürnberg, a bastion of Protestantism, where they arrived in May.
Nürnberg was a progressive, tolerant city of art, music and wealth and it offered a new beginning.
After finding shelter, Joseph initially found work as a porter and then as a wire drawer, an
occupation in Germany since the 14th century, and one which required immense human strength.
While Joseph toiled, Magdalena wouldn't survive the ordeal. She died of consumption and a broken
heart within a year, begging on her death bed for Joseph to get their children back, something he
would futilely attempt. In a twist of fate, Max Gandolph died unexpectedly near the same time as
Magdalena Schaitberger.
Meanwhile, in the remote mountain farms back in Salzburg, the quiet Protestant meetings which had
once been held in private houses now took place in even greater secrecy under the open sky. On
Sundays and public holidays, people crept up to a large rock in the woods near Dürrnberg to worship
together and read letters smuggled in from previously exiled relatives and from Joseph Schaitberger.
It is said that they met there with Joseph personally on at least one of his clandestine trips. He had
petitioned to have his children returned, but was rebuffed, and he made at least three trips back
home under cover of night, facing grave danger if caught, hoping to recover his stolen children. The
church had purposely separated them and then moved them around to foil any plans to retrieve
them. He succeeded only in getting his brother Balthaser out, but he had attained folk hero status.
On February 3, 1692 at Nürnberg's St. Lorenz Church, Joseph married his second wife, Catherine
Brockenberger, twelve years his junior. She was a fellow exile and the daughter of a saltminer whose
family had resided in Berchtesgaden for many generations. Less than a year later, their first born
son, Philipp Schaitberger, was baptised at St. Lorenz. They quickly had three more sons, but sadly,
they all died as infants and only Philipp would outlive his father. Catharina died in 1697, after only
five years of marriage and Joseph never remarried.
One thing the Royal Court back in Salzburg had not counted on was a simple salt minor having
extraordinary literary gifts! At no little risk of personal danger, Joseph worked feverishly night and
day, pouring out his heart and mind to his brethren back home to keep the faith no matter what.
Soon after Joseph's arrival in Nürnberg, on the initiative of a local preacher, he began to write a
number of Protestant tracts. They were at first printed individually as pamphlets and soon several
thousand copies were made and furtively dispersed to his former countrymen.
In 1710, he had them bound together into a book. The "Sendbrief" was a favorite book of the
Protestants in Germany and around Salzburg. It was joyously anticipated and wildly popular. It was
also hunted down and burned back in his homeland whenever found. In reaction to the Schaitberger
Sendbrief, the Salzburg Court Chancellery hired P.Maurus Liechtenhaimb of the Benedictine Order
and the University faculty to draft a ten page Catholic rebuttal called "The Anti-Schaitberger", but it
failed to make much of an impact.
In 1691, the Margrave of Baden and the Crown Prince of Brandenburg unsuccessfully intervened on
Joseph's behalf for his childrens' return, but although this came to nothing for Joseph, it managed to
help others, and through the mediation of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, some Defereggers who had
already disbursed to Stuttgart, Ulm, Göppingen, Herrenberg and Urach were at long last reunited
with their stolen children. Some romantic accounts claim that at least one of Joseph's daughters
eventually found their father and "fully embraced his Protestantism", but it remains unproven.
Joseph lived until the year of the greater Salzburg expulsion almost a half century later, and it is said
that a number of the Exiles in this group stopped to pay their respects to him shortly before his
death. As an old man, although he was not a native Nürnberger, he was able to reside at the
Lutheran Brothers house which had been set up in 1388 by Konrad Mendel to shelter "twelve poor
brothers". Joseph died peacefully in 1733 at 75 years of age and was buried at Friedhof St. Rochus.
By the time of his death, Austria had been all but cleansed of Protestants. His 'Neu Vermehrter
Evangelischer Sendbrief' was the most popular religious tract of its time next to the Holy Bible and it
remained a popular inspirational work for generations to come. It was published until the turn of the
twentieth century, the last major edition appearing in 1908 on the occasion of Joseph's 250th
birthday. It has recently been reprinted, however.
| In Greater Depth |
The Schaitberger Family (lengthy)
| Max Gandolph and Joseph Schaitberger |
