Mucker
The term Mucker has been used since the eighteenth century to characterize pious and pietistic people. In Brazil it was used to characterize a messianic movement in the German colony of Sao Leopoldo, Province of Rio Grande do Sul, more precisely in the locality of Leonerhof (in the present municipality of Sapiranga).
The word Mucker has meanings that range from “pious” to “false.” As far as we know, the term was used for the first time in Konigsberg to characterize the followers of Pastor Johann Wilhelm Ebel (1784—1861), who was influenced by the theosophy of Johann Heinrich Schonherr (1770—1826). In the Konigsberger Prozess that was also called the Mucker Prozess (1835—1841), Ebel’s pastoral rights were abrogated and he was accused of being a heretic. In the nineteenth century, the term was also applied to inhabitants of Niederlinxweiler (today a suburb of St. Wendel) in the Saarland. The Fuchs and Noe families, who would later be involved in the Mucker movement in Brazil, came from that town.From 1789 onward, several people of the congregation of Tambach in Thuringia refused to participate in worship services to partake in the Holy Supper, removed their children from school, and held separate religious meetings. They went to confession in a congregation outside Thuringia, where
they also had their children baptized. According to the Chronicle of the Tambach Community, these people were “peaceful, hard-working and otherwise loyal subjects” (Schroder 2003, 165). Their attitudes resulted from their resistance to orders issued by the general superintendent (Generalsuperintendent) Josias Friedrich Christian Loffler, who introduced a new catechism in 1788 and a new Lesebuch fur Stadt und Land (Reading Book for Town and Village) as well as a new hymnal in 1796. The inhabitants of Tambach submitted a petition to Duke Ernst II asking for the reintroduction of the old books.
Their petition was rejected, and they were “sentenced to abjure the old doctrine and to give up presenting themselves as separatists or to give up their citizenship and emigrate” (Chronicle of the Tambach Community, Schroder 2003, 165). Among those who emigrated were, according to the Chronicle of the Tambach Community, “the carpenter, Johann Liborius Maenz, his wife, three boys and two girls” (Schroder 2003, 165) who went to Sternberg in the territory of Wurzburg on April 16, 1799. The oldest son of Johann Liborius Mentz [sic] Andreas, born on May 12, 1789, emigrated to Brazil in 1825. He was married to Maria Elisabeth Muller, and their daughter Ja- cobina (1842—1874) later became the leader of the Mucker movement in Sao Leopoldo. Jacobina married the carpenter Johann Georg Maurer (1841-1874) in 1866.Between 1869 and 1874 the German colony in Sao Leopoldo was the stage of a messianic movement that involved only German immigrants and their descendants and had a violent epilogue, similar to what happened later in Canudos, state of Bahia, and in the so-called Contestado, a region in the states of Santa Catarina and Parana. Colonists were killed in a clash with the army and the National Guard, and later descendants of the Mucker were slaughtered in Nova Petropolis and Marques de Souza, state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Muckers of Ferrabraz Hill in Sapiranga were a group of around 150 people (adults and children) belonging to 10 families who gathered around Jacobina Mentz and her husband, Joao Jorge Maurer. Both were farmers, and Joao Jorge also worked as a carpenter and acted as a healer. Jacobina gathered her husband’s patients for home worship services in which the Bible was read and interpreted, hymns were sung, and prayers were made. At that time Ferrabraz Hill was a peripheral area in the colony of Sao Leopoldo that was based on the system of small farms. The practices of the Maurer couple were legitimized by quite a number of sympathizers, between 700 and 1,000, which is significant as the total population of the German colony was 14,000.
They were discriminated against by the population because of their piety and were persecuted by religious and civil authorities, as well as by economic leaders. From 1873 onward, they were blamed for a series of cases of arson and murder, which led to a clash with the army in June 1874 and to the rebels’ resistance against three attacks. This was followed by the killing of the leaders and many adherents, as well as the imprisonment and murder of others, extending until 1898. In the ensuing trial, no Mucker and none of their detractors was convicted. The labels of heretics, murderers, and madmen were also put on the descendants of the Muckers, thereby creating myths and silence, as well as humiliation and offense.Martin Norberto Dreher
See also Brazil; Brazil, Religion in; Pietism
References and Further Reading
Amado, Janaιna. A Revolta dos Mucker. 2d ed. Sao Leopoldo: Editora Unisinos, 2002.
Domingues, Moacyr. A Nova Face dos Muckers. Sao Leopoldo: Rotermund, 1977.
Schroder, Ferdinand. A imigraςao alema para o sul do Brasil ate 1859. Trad. E apresentaςao de Martin N. Dreher. Sao Leopoldo: Editora Unisinos, 2003.
Schupp, Ambros. Die “Mucker. ” Eine Episode aus der Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien von Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilien. Paderborn: Bonifacius-Druckerei, 1906.