Munster, Germany, 1534-1535.
Rothbard describes it in chapter 5.6 of his History of Economic Thought. Some excerpts:
“After two months of severe and unrelenting pressure, a combination of propaganda about the Christianity of abolishing private money, and threats and terror against those who failed to surrender, the private ownership of money was effectively abolished in Munster. The government seized all the money and used it to buy or hire goods from the outside world. Wages were doled out in kind by the only remaining employer: the theocratic Anabaptist state.
Food was confiscated from private homes, and rationed according to the will of the government deacons. Also, to accommodate the immigrants, all private homes were effectively communized, with everyone permitted to quarter themselves anywhere; it was now illegal to close, let alone lock, doors. Communal dining halls were established, where people ate together to readings from the Old Testament.
This compulsory communism and reign of terror was carried out in the name of community and Christian ‘love’. All this communization was considered the first giant steps toward total egalitarian communism, where, as Rothmann put it, ‘all things were to be in common, there was to be no private property and nobody was to do any more work, but simply trust in God’. The workless part, of course, somehow never arrived.”
“Capital punishment was decreed for the high crimes of: murder, theft, lying, avarice, and quarrelling(!)”
“Compulsory polygamy was a bit too much for many of the Munsterites, who launched a rebellion in protest. The rebellion, however, was quickly crushed and most of the rebels put to death. Execution was also the fate of any further dissenters. And so by August 1534, polygamy was coercively established in Munster.”
“No one was allowed to leave town, and any caught plotting to leave, helping anyone else leave, or criticizing the king, was instantly beheaded, usually by King Bockelson himself. By mid-June [1535] such deeds were occurring daily, with the body often quartered and nailed up as a warning to the masses.”