Ulrich von Hutten

Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523) was an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church and adherent of the Lutheran Reformation. Hutten studied theology at the University of Greifswald.

Unlike Martin Luther, von Hutten tried to enforce reformation by political and military means, too.

Hutten tried to convince Erasmus of Rotterdam to side with the Reformation. Erasmus refused to take sides, and he also refused to see Hutten when the latter came to Basel in 1523, ill and impoverished, to see him.

For the final 15 years of his life, Hutten was suffering of syphilis of which he died in seclusion on the isle Ufenau on Lake Zurich.

Hutten's refuge to Ufenau and his death are the subject of a poem by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Huttens letzte Tage.