War of the German Peasants

The war of the German Peasants ( of Deutscher Bauernkrieg ) is a Jacquerie which ignited the Saint Germanic Roman Empire between 1524 and 1526 in broad parts of Germany of the South, Suisse and Alsace. It is also called, in German, Rising of the ordinary man ( of Erhebung of the gemeinen Mannes ), or in French the revolt of the Bumpkins.

This revolt had religious causes, been dependant on the Protestant Réforme, and social in the continuity of the insurrections which regularly ignited the Holy roman Empire like those carried out by Joß Fritz.

The revolt of the peasants is supported by the Anabaptiste S of Münster. The movement born close to Schaffhouse (Bade) when peasants refuse with their lords a drudgery considered to be abusive. They obtain the support of Balthazar Hubmaier, priest of Waldshut converted with the Reform and sign a treaty of mutual assistance (August 15th 1524) reconciling the social objectives and monk. The revolt develops during the winter in Souabe, in Franconie, Alsace and in the the Austrian Alps. The peasants take castles and cities (Ulm, Erfurt, Saverne).

The peasants mix the religious claims (election of the priests by the people, limitation of the rate of said), social and economic (suppression of serfdom, freedom of fishing and hunting, increase in the surface of the communal grounds, suppression of the capital punishment). These claims are expressed in proclamation of the Twelve articles of the Master rope-maker Sebastien Lotzer de Memmingen: he denounces said them diverted of their object, the passage of the ground rent to the farming by the owner and claims reforms, without calling into question the system seigneurial (twelve articles).

It is generally estimated that approximately: 300000 peasants revolted, and that: 100000 were killed.

Political causes

The causes are multiple, initially political. At the 16th century, the Saint Germanic Roman Empire burst in a multitude of feudal seigniories, particularly in Germany of the south, and especially in Souabe, causing local competitions, commercial protectionisms, as many brakes to any economic development. The problems of the peasants fall under one time, a soil, realities of such landowner. The daily life of the peasants, overall identical, and miserable, is at the origin of the disorders.

Situation of the peasants

The peasants ensure the essence of the maintenance of the feudal system. Princely houses, Nobility S, civils servant, middle-class, and Clergé live labor force of the Paysan S. the number of the recipients does not cease increasing, just as the taxes, taxes and contributions: large Dîme, small dîme on the incomes and benefit, rents, customs, interests, successions, Drudgery S.

The economic problems, bad harvests, and the pressure of the land lords, reduce more and more peasants to the dependence, then with quasi a Servage, causing as many problems of tenant farming, and drudgery.

The old man oral right freely is interpreted by the landowners, or is ignored. One exproprie of the communes established since of the centuries, one reduces or abolishes Community legislations of grazing ground, of wood demolition, fishing, of hunting.

Situation in the empire

The nobility is interested in the changes of the living conditions of the peasants only when, necessarily, that concerns, and threatens, its advantages and privileges. The petty nobility, declining, and in loss of prestige, carries out its clean Mutinerie S. many the small noble ones try to survive as plundering knights, which accentuates the burden of the peasants.

The clergy opposes any change. The Catholicism, in this context, is a pillar of the feudal system. The religious organizations themselves are in general organized in a feudal way. No Monastère would exist without pledged villages, dependant, subjected. The receipts of the Church come mainly from the gifts and offerings, of the sale of indulgences, the dîme. The dîme is also an important source of incomes for the nobility.

The only attempts at reform, which aim at abolishing the feudal structures , come from the dynamic Bourgeoisie of the cities, but remain discrete, because of its dependence with regard to the Noblesse and of the Clergé.

Reform religious

The Église knows considerable dysfunctions. Many monks, called pejoratively let us curetons (Pfaffen) , carry out a true life of debauchery, by benefitting as well from the taxes and heritages from the rich population as taxes and gifts of the poor. To Rome, the access to the loads and dignities pass by the nepotism, the clientelism, and corruption. The popes act as war leaders, project superintendents, and patrons of beautiful arts.

This situation essuie criticisms of Hans Böhm, Girolamo Savonarola, then of Luther. When Dominican the Johannes Tetzel furrows Germany, in 1517, on the order of Albrecht, involved in debt archbishop of Mainz, and the pope Leon X, to preach, successfully, indulgences, and to sell certificates of indulgence, Luther is annoyed and written its 95 theses, that it posts, according to the legend, on the door of the church of Wittenberg.

Zwingli, with Zurich, and Calvin, with Geneva, supports that each human being can find its way towards God and the safety of his heart, without the intermediary of the Church. They thus shake the claims absolutists of the Catholic church, and validate the critics country-women: the clergy, oublieux of its doctrines, is, overall, of too.

The criticism of Luther is more radical, in its writing on the freedom of a Christian (1520): A Christian is the Master of all things, and the subject of anybody . This argumentation and its translation in German of the New Testament, in 1522, are the decisive catches for the rising of the population of the villages. Simple people can from now on blame the claims of the nobility and the clergy, until justified there by the will of God . The terrible situation of the peasants does not have any biblical base, and the reductions of the Old Right by the landowners is in contradiction with the true divine right: God makes push plants and animals, without human intervention, and for the whole of the men . And one can from now on assert the same rights as the nobility and the clergy.

Persons in charge

Many simple peasants dare to be raised against their lords, because of their conditions of tender, so varied are. The village higher class is the first to want changes. The persons in charge of communities, the judges of countryside, the craftsmen of village, the middle-class men of the fields (residing in small towns), support the revolt, and, a little everywhere, push the poor peasants to join the bands of peasants.

Themselves, the peasants want initially to re-establish the old traditional rights, and to carry out a dignified life of an human being, and, for the remainder, in the respect of God. Their claims shake the bases of the existing social order: reduction of the loads, abolition of serfdom.

History

Former insurrections

The situation of the peasants, in constant deterioration, is in the beginning many regional conflicts, quite front 1524. Country dissatisfaction grows bigger over several decades, and appears in a great number of regional risings, caused by the general situation, worsened by local additional problems. Among the very many small protest actions, one retains the following insurrections, implying the country world, or relating to it:

since 1291, rebellion of the confederation of noble against the Habsbourg,
1419-1420 and 1433-1434, war of the Hussites in Bohemia,
1476: Revolt around Hans Böhm, in Franconie,
1478: Insurrection in Carinthie,
1492: Riots in Allgäu,
1493: Conspiracy Bundschuh in Alsace,
1502: Conspiracy Bundschuh with Speyer,
1513: Conspiracy Bundschuh in Breisgau,
1514: Rising of Poor Conrad in Wurtemberg,
1517: Conspiracy Bundschuh in Black Forest,
1522-1523: Mutiny of the knights to the Palatinat…

The middle-class men also assert, and solidarize themselves with the peasants, in much of cities: Erfurt in 1509, Regensburg in 1511, Braunschveig, Speyer, Köln, Schweinfurt, Worms, Aachen, Osnabrück, etc

Almost all risings of peasants are repressed by the force. The long rising of the Swiss mountain peasants has been just completed, by a success. But the situation of the peasants does not improve any of any way. The reprisals are the most frequent continuation.

Climbing of 1524

In 1524, disorders emerge again, close to Forscheim, near Nuremberg, then with Mühlhausen, close to Erfurt. In October 1524, the peasants raise themselves with Wutachtal close to Stühlingen. Little time afterwards, 3 500 peasants travel towards Furtwangen. Into High Souabe and around the Lake of Constancy, that ferments for a rather long time; and in very little of time, in February and March 1525, are formed three bands of peasants out of weapons, with middle-class men and of the monks, for a total of 30 000 people.

12 articles

The three bands of High Souabe want an improvement of their living conditions, without war. They enter into negotiation with Souabe Alliance. Fifty their representatives meet in the free imperial city of Memmingen, whose middle-class sympathizes with the peasants. The leaders of the three troops seek to formulate the country claims, and to support them by arguments drawn from the Bible. March 20th, 1525 sees the adoption of the Twelve articles and the payment of their federation, at the same time recourse, program of reform and political proclamation. On the model of the Swiss confedaration, the peasants base the confederation of High Souabe: the bands must in the future stand as guarantors from/to each other, contrary to preceding risings. The two texts quickly are printed in quantity, and are distributed, for a fast widening of rising in all the south of Germany, and with the the Tyrol. The foundation of the confederation of High Souabe is presented to Souabe Alliance, with Augsburg, in the hope to make it take part in the negotiations as a of the same partner weight. After various plunderings and the assassination of Weinberg, the noble plain ones in the Alliance Souabe do not may find it beneficial any to take part in negotiations. The commercial family Fugger, of Augsburg, subsidizes Georg Truchsess de Waldburg-Zeil, called Bauernjörg , which with an army of 9.000 carters and 1.500 knights in armor wants to crush the peasants armed especially forgery and plagues.

The negotiation of the 12 articles is the pivot of the war of the peasants: their claims are there for the first formulated time in a uniform, and in writing fixed way. The peasants present themselves for the first interdependent time against the authorities. Until there, risings fail mainly because of the bursting of the insurrection and the insufficient supports. However, if the peasants had not negotiated with Souabe Alliance, but occupied a more important territory, they difficielement could difficielement have been beaten, because of their numerical superiority, and their claims would have been taken more with the serious one.

Each community parochial has the right to designate its Pasteur, and to relieve it if it behaves badly. Pasteur must preach the Gospel, precisely and exactly, removed from any human addition. Because it is by the Writing that one can go only towards God, by the true faith.
the pastors are remunerated by large the dîme (tax of 10%). A possible supplement can be perceived, for the poor of the village and the payment of the tax of war. Small the dîme is to be removed, because invented by the men, since the Lord God created the cattle for the man, without making it pay.
the long habit of serfdom is a scandal, since Christ all repurchased us, and delivered, without exception, of the shepherd to people placed well, by pouring its invaluable blood. By the Writing, we are free, and we want to be free.
It is against the fraternity and the word of God that the poor man does not have the capacity to take game, birds and fish. Because when the Lord God created the men, it gave them the capacity on all the animals, the bird in the air like fish in water.
the lords adapted wood. If the poor man needs something, it must pay it with the double of its value. Therefore, all wood which were not bought are allocated to the community, so that each one can provide for its requirements out of structural timber and firewood.
the drudgeries, always increased and reinforced, are to be reduced in an important way, as our parents filled them, only according to the word of God.
the lords should not raise the drudgeries without new convention.
Beaucoup of agricultural domains cannot support the tenant farming. Sizeable people must visit these farms, to estimate them, and to establish new rights of tenant farming, so that the peasant does not work for nothing, because any worker is entitled to wages.
the punishments by fine are to be established according to new rules. While waiting, it is necessary to finish some with the arbitrary one, and to return to the old written rules.
Beaucoup adapted fields and meadows belonging to the community: they should be given to the provision of the community.
the tax on the heritage is to be eliminated completely. Never again widowed and orphan must be made strip ignoblement.
If some article is not in conformity with the word of God, or appears unjust, it should be removed. One should not establish some more, which is likely to be against God or to cause wrong to the next one.

Unfolding

At the end of March 1525, the army of Waldburg-Zeil is assembled with Ulm. A little downstream, on the the Danube, close to Leipheim, around the preacher Jakob Wehe some 5 000 peasants, who plunder the surroundings of the cloister and the properties noble. The army of Souabe Alliance thus goes on Leipheim, where it carries it on April 4th on the band of Leipheim , after having in way massacred some bands of plundering peasants. The town of Leipheim must pour a fine. Wehe and the other gang leaders are carried out.

At the beginning of April also, the peasants meet in the valley of Neckar and the Odenwald under the direction of Jäcklein Rohrbach. The revolt, touches the Alsace mid-April 1525. Quickly the insurrectionists control most of the Alsatian territory. At Easter 1525, on April 16th, the band of the Valley of Neckar settles close to Weinsberg, where coleric Rohrbach let run the count Ludwig de Helfenstein, hated peasants, son-in-law of the emperor Maximilien I {{er}}, and its knights of anteroom. The very painful death of noble, to blows of spades and clubs, enters the history of the war of the peasants like the assassination of Weinsberg . It marks in a decisive way the image of the peasants, killers and plunderers, and is one of the main reasons so that many noble are opposed to the country cause. The town of Weinsberg is condemned to be burnt, and Jäcklein Rohrbach burned alive. After the business of Weinsberg, those of Neckartal and Odenwald are linked with the band of Taubertal ( Black Bande , ordered by noble the franconien Florian Geyer), to form powerful the Bande of the Claire Lumière , of almost 12 000 men. It is turned over, under the direction of the captain Götz von Berlichingen, against the bishops of Mainz and Würzburg, and the prince voter of Palatinat.

April 12th, the troops of Souabe Alliance stop the band, and beat it: the peasants are disarmed and subjected to a door amends.

April 13rd, Truchsess, with its army, must be folded up in front of the Bande of the Lake , very well formed and trained militarily, and meets the following day close to Wurzach the Bande of Allgau . He parlemente with them, and manages to convince them to give up their weapons. By the treaty of Weingarten, on April 20th, it grants to the two bands some concessions, the right guarantees to them to withdraw itself freely, and an independent arbitration court to regulate their conflicts.

April 16th, the peasants of Wurtemberg gather. The troop of 8 000 men enters Stuttgart, and continues in May on Böblingen.

The revolt extends then in Lorraine (see the article Rusticiade in Alsace and Lorraine). As of at the end of April the duke Antoine of Lorraine sets up a military forwarding to subdue the insurrection. Münzer, beaten the May 15th at the time of the Battle of Frankenhausen by the landgrave of Hesse, is carried out. The 16 and May 17th, the troops of the duke of Lorraine kill approximately 20 000 people with Lupstein, Saverne and Neuwiller. The May 20th, the battle of Scherwiller makes more 4 000 died among the peasants. The May 24th, the troops of the Duke are of return to Nancy where it is accommodated triumphantly. Repression continues in the south of the Alsace. The Anabaptiste S are crushed in Germany south (Ulm) by 5 000 mercenaries directed by Truchsess von Waldburg. Karlstadt takes refuge with Zurich near Zwingli.

With Hall and Gmünd also, small bands are formed. 3 000 partisans plunder the monasteries of Lorch and Murrhardt, and leave the castle of Hohenstaufen to Schutt in ashes. One plunders also the monasteries with Kraichgau and Ortenau, and one sets fire to the castles.

After the success of Weingarten, the Walburg-Zeils army passes in the valley of the Neckar. The peasants are beaten with Balingen, Rottenburg, Herrenberg, and on May 12th with Böblingen. It is the same on June 2nd with Königshofen for the Bande of Neckartal and the Bande of Odenwald .

May 23rd, a troop of 18 000 peasants of the Brisgau and the Black Forest seize the town of Freiburg-in-Brisgau. Extremely of this success, the leader, Hans Müller, wants to run in reinforcement to those which besiege Radolfzell, but not enough peasants follows it, the majority preferring to turn over to deal with their fields. The troop is then sufficiently reduced, to be beaten shortly after by the Large Duke Ferdinand of Austria. Waldburg-Zeil meets on June 4th close to Würzburg the Bande of the Claire Lumière of peasants franconiens. Given up the day before by Götz von Berlichingen, under an unspecified pretext, the private peasants of their chief do not have any chance. In two hours, 8 000 peasants are killed.

After this victory, the troops of Bauernjörg are redirected towards the south and carry it in Allgäu, at the end of July, on the last insurrectionists. In four months, the army of George Truchsess de Waldburg-Ziel traversed more than thousand kilometers.

The Battle of Frankenhausen, on May 15th 1525, is most significant of the battles of the war of the peasants. The insurgent peasants of Thuringe, under the direction of Thomas Müntzer, are completely demolished there by a princely army. Müntzer itself is made prisoner, and is brought on May 27th to Mülhausen, on the fortifications of Heldrungen. It there is tortured, and decapitated.

Many other small revolts are as much defeats, until September 1525, where combat and repressions all are completed. The emperor Charles V and the pope Clément VII thank Souabe Alliance for his intervention.

With the end of the year 1525, the revolt is subdued in Germany, then in 1526 in Austria.

Consequences

The consequences are hard for the insurrectionists. According to the estimates, only repression, 100 000 peasants find death. The surviving insurrectionists fall in imperial proscription, and thus lose all their civic rights, private, and the rights related to their stronghold: it is from now on of the outlaws. The leaders are condemned to death. Participants, and those which supported them have to fear the sorrows of the sovereigns, who showed themselves already very cruel. Many judgments speak about decapitations, torn off eyes, cut fingers, and other ill treatments. That which is left there with a fine, can be estimated happy, even if the peasants cannot pay the fines, because of the high taxes. Whole communes are private their rights, to have supported the peasants. The jurisdictions are partially lost, the festivals are prohibited, the shaven urban fortifications. All the weapons have to be delivered. The evening, the frequentation of the village inns is not authorized any more.

However, the war of the peasants, in a certain number of areas, has positive repercussions, such mean are. In certain fields, the dysfunctions are removed, by treaty, whenever the insurrection were done on the basis of more difficult condition (as in Kempten). The situation of the peasants improves clearly in many places, since the taxes are not any more to pour only with the landowners, but also directly to the sovereign.

The defeat of the peasants marks the beginning of the patrimonial increase in the victorious noble military chiefs. Georg Truchsess von Waldburg-Ziel obtains grounds into High Souabe. The captain of countryside Sebastian Schertlin von Burtenbach compensates himself on overcome to pay balances it his carters.

Independent associations of peasants, as that of the Tyrolean Michael Gaismair are condemned to the secrecy for several years. Many proscribed peasants survive during decades as bands of brigands in the forests. From this time a series goes back to stories on the origin of these bands. But there are no more important risings. For 300 years, the peasants do not revolt almost more. It is only with the revolution of March 1848 - 1849 that the objectives formulated in 1525 in the 12 articles can be essential.

Socio-economic consequences of the loss of 100 000 peasants, or 130.000 according to other estimates, are considerable, and prepare the stagnation of the 30 year old war .

The Song of Rosemont , ballade in Romance patois which celebrated the memory of this epopee arrived to us by the oral tradition (see Seigneurie of Rosemont).

War of the peasants and religion

Martin Luther

Even if the points of view of the reform are an essential justification for the risen peasants, Martin Luther clearly takes his distances with respect to the war of the peasants. Since 1521, he insists on separation between the temporal field and the spiritual field. With the reform, he wants a transformation of the Church, and not a " christianisation" world, contrary to Savonarole. Considered however, continuously, by the authorities, like person in charge of the events of the war of the peasants, it clearly establishes the distances, after the assassination of Weinsberg , compared to the insurrectionists: again, the hordes of peasants, killing and to plunder, it is necessary to pulverize them, strangle them, to bleed them, in secrecy and public, as soon as it can, as one must do it with insane dogs .

After 1525, Protestantism loses its revolutionary spirit, and reinforces the dominant social situations, with the dogma Soumettez you to the authorities.

Thomas Münzer

The former partisan of Luther, in opposition with him, gives an opinion for the violent release of the peasants, and, in Mühlhausen (Thuringe), where he is Pasteur, it activates itself, as an agitator and that defender of the insurrection. He tries to set up an equitable social order: suppression of the privileges, Dissolution of the monastic orders, shelters for without home, distribution of meal for the poor. Its efforts to link the various troops of peasants of Thuringe however do not succeed. In May 1525, it is captured, tortured, and finally carried out.

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