ENGELBRECHT, en"gel"breH', HANS: German mystic; b. at Brunswick Easter Day, 1599; d. there 1642. In his youth he was an apprentice to a weaver, and had little education. Even at an early age he was of a melancholy disposition, and in 1622 fell seriously ill, his disease culminating in spasms accompanied with hallucinations. Excommunicated as holding heretical doctrines of the Lord's Supper, he fled from Brunswick in 1625, and sought to work in Winsen-an-der-Aller, Lüneburg, Hamburg, and Holland, but was everywhere persecuted, although comforted by new visions and converse with the angels. Returning to Brunswick in 1631, he vainly endeavored to become reconciled with the clergy and again left the city. At Hamburg he had himself imprisoned to prove his divine power by fasting for a week. He was driven from Glückstadt by troops, and shortly before his death returned to Brunswick. His writings, based on his visions, are as follows: Eine wahrhafftige Geschicht und Gesicht vom Himmel und der Hellen (Brunswick, 1625); Göttlich und himmlisch Mandat (Bremen, 1625); Brief an M. Hartkopf, Seniorem in Hamburg (1640); Ein christlich Schreiben an die Gelahrten; Ein Gesicht vom neuen Himmel und Erde; and Antwort, wie man Gott im Neuen Testament fragen soil (1641); Gesicht von den drey Ständen; Gesicht von dem Berg des Hells und dem Wasser der Sünden; and Schreiben an Popke Popkes. A complete edition of the works of Engelbrecht appeared at Brunswick in 1686 (Eng. transl. by F. Okely, Northampton, 1780).

(FERDINAND COHRS.)

 

Bibliography: P. J. Rehtmeyer, Braunschweig Kirchen-Historie, iv. 417 sqq., 472 sqq., Brunswick, 1715; G. Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie, iii. 217 sqq., Frank-fort, 1729; W. Beste, in ZHT, 1844, pp. 122.