Jakob Hutter — the hatmaker who made the communities work, and burned for it.
He arrived from Tyrol in 1533 to communities splitting over leadership and money, and in two years imposed the order of shared goods, appointed stewards, and common meals that still runs the colonies. Arrested at Klausen in 1535, he was tortured at Innsbruck and burned alive on 25 February 1536.
Hutter led for only about two and a half years and the movement carries his name because his order survived the leaders who came before and after him. The Chronicle records his death at length: arrested with his wife Katharina Purst near Klausen in the Tyrol on 30 November 1535, held at Innsbruck, whipped, put in freezing water and then in a hot room, given brandy poured into his wounds and set alight, and finally burned publicly on 25 February 1536. Katharina escaped, was recaptured, and was executed two years later. Hutterites read the account rather than venerate the man; there are no images of him, no relics, and no shrine, and the Chronicle spends as much space on obscure martyrs as on him.
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