Born: 1484 (circa), Switzerland
Died: 16 December 1538
Country most active: Switzerland
Also known as: Anna Rheinhard, Anna Zwingli, Anna von Knonau, Anna Wynzürn
This biography was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Anna Reinhart (also given as Anna Rheinhard, l. c. 1484-1538) was a young woman of Zürich known for her exceptional beauty who secretly married one John von Knonau in 1504 after his father forbade their relationship. When von Knonau’s father learned of their marriage, he disinherited his son, who then joined the Swiss mercenaries to make a living. He returned from the wars in ill health and died, leaving Anna with a son, Gerold. When Huldrych Zwingli came to Zürich in 1519, he discarded the Church liturgy and began reading directly from the Bible, making him a popular minister. Anna was a member of his congregation, and he took an interest in helping her and her son. They were married in 1524, but in secret since Zwingli was a priest and was supposed to remain celibate. When news of their marriage broke, they were censured, and Zwingli responded by defending clerical marriages and the state of marriage in general as sinless. Anna supported and cared for Zwingli throughout their time together, arranging for bodyguards when he left the home and helping him proofread his translation of the Bible. After he was killed in the Kappel Wars in 1531, she was taken under care by his successor Heinrich Bullinger (l. 1504-1575) and his wife Anna until her death from illness in 1538.