Our final project in 3D Design was actually a mix of fun and gruesome (that was because of the choice I made.)

The assignment was to create a museum space teaching about a doomsday prophecy or fears of the end of civilization. The topics the students were choosing were quite interesting (Y2K – I lived through that one, The 4 Horse Riders of Revelations, The Battle of Armageddon, The Cold War, an asteroid impact, the Mayan calendar, etc.) There was one very different one where one student took a children’s book about spaghetti overtaking the world. Click for the illustrated story.

I decided to be a bit different and find something from further back in history. The research on that was very interesting, indeed, but I settled on The Munster Rebellion of the 1530s because of the various elements it offered that lent themselves to a good story.

Munster Germany in the 1500s

The basic premise is that the Anabaptist movement split off a radical who, with a growing following, took over the town of Munster, Germany, saying the Lord was coming and this was to be His New Jerusalem. Easter was his doomsday prophecy. This original leader thought he was Gideon and ended up making a suicide run against the original Bishop who had put the city under siege. Another radical took over. Somehow the missed deadlines were overlooked by the followers and for over a year the new guys in charge lived high-on-the-hog and introduced polygamy (if the world was ending, I am not sure why they needed multiple wives. It wasn’t for procreation.)

Eventually they were overcome and the 3 living leaders were beheaded and strung up in cages on top of a church spire.

100 years later, their bodies were removed, but the cages remain to this day. Nice story, eh?

The Anabaptists went on to become the non-violent, modern day Mennonites and Amish.

My scenario…

The “baptismal” is a clay container I made in high school! It was fun to reuse it.