German Peasants War

Long before communist comrades and brothers, there was the brotherhood of the peasantry. The German Peasants' War (1524-5) was an early example of a religious revolt caught up in a class struggle. It was as much a war for the Reformation of the Catholic Church as it was a revolutionary insurrection against peasant oppression in the Holy Roman Empire. The conflict was one of the earliest of the Reformation and characterised the social, political and religious environment at the time. Let's see how the Protestant Reformation inspired the Renaissance's answer to communist revolution.

German Peasants' War Timeline

Let's first take a look at a timeline of the major events of the German Peasants' War.

Causes of the German Peasants' War

The German Peasants' War was caused by both a long-term discontent and oppression by the state and the Church and the immediate events of the Protestant Reformation. Let's look at these causes.

Long-Term Causes

Two significant long-term causes were Christian Humanism and and the class system of medieval Germany.

The Rise in Christian Humanism

The Renaissance (14-17^th century) saw a societal “rebirth” in Europe after the Middle Ages, and it was during this time that Greek and Latin texts were “rediscovered” and studied. This led to a rise in Christian Humanistic thought with the writings of Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus equated the humanist message of morality and community with the Christian faith and claimed that society must rise above its carnal state through education and piety to achieve godliness.

Fig. 1 Desiderius Erasmus, 1523. Erasmus developed Christian humanism movement and supported both Martin Luther and the Catholic Church. He was known as a mediator for Christianity in general.

Erasmus' writings had created a culture of Christian humanism which was sympathetic to peasants who were oppressed at the time, and appealed to religious reformers who wanted to challenge the Catholic Church's practices. The consideration of the peasantry helped to spur the revolutionary ideas that began the German Peasants' War.

Class System

During the 15^th century, the Holy Roman Empire was still very much a feudal society, where citizens' lives were dictated by their class and status. As society developed, the local ruling princes had further costs to deal with and so used their powers to raise taxes. They also consolidated their power over the lesser nobility, or knights, to secure their position. The knights responded by further exploiting their subjects, the peasantry, which were subjected to serfdom.

Fig. 2 During the 1500s, images of peasants in everyday life became popular. They were often depicted as drunkards brawling whilst at occasions such as weddings or feasts. The peasantry was often regarded by rulers as an amusing yet immoral underclass to be exploited.

Peasants were at the very bottom of the pile, taxed heavily by the princes and knights, alongside the 10% tithing tax instated by the Catholic Church. The clergy in each principality also held significant power as the intellectual and religious authority of the area, and took payments for indulgences and introduced further taxation to peasants. Furthermore, many peasants had to pay taxes to hunt or fish in the princes' territories, which they had previously had free access to. This generated the discontent that led to the revolts.

Short-Term Causes

The catalyst for the German Peasants' War was the Protestant Reformation.

Protestant Reformation

Luther's proposals for reform in 1517 started a religious movement throughout the Holy Roman Empire to challenge the Catholic Church and inspired other more radical reformers to further his message. These radical reformers used Christian Humanism to further challenge the political and social environment of the Holy Roman Empire regarding the peasantry.

Fig. 3 Martin Luther pinning his reforms to the Church door.

Peasants were inspired by the Reformation to change the social hierarchy, and thus began to stage revolts within their principalities. Some radical reformers, such as Huldrych Zwingli and Thomas Müntzer, supported the peasants, and Müntzer in particular took an active role in rallying peasants to the cause.

German Peasant War Leaders

Let's take a look at the different leaders involved in the German Peasants War.

The Peasants

The peasant revolts initially occurred spontaneously throughout the South and West of Germany, beginning in Stühlingen in 1524 after peasants refused their duties. Other areas started refusing to pay the Church's tithes, and a peasant leader eventually came forth: Hans Müller.

Fig. 4 Flag of the Holy Roman Empire. The German peasants marched under a banner of the Imperial colours of gold, black and red to symbolise they were under the control of the Emperor alone. They disregarded the princes and knights that were exploiting the peasantry, and were asking the Emperor's protection of their rights.

Müller gathered peasants together into an “evangelical brotherhood” to fight for the cause, and sent pamphlets to the German principalities to gain further support. He attracted attention from some discontented nobles throughout South Germany, such as Florian Geyer and Wendel Hipler, who supported the peasants. Radical reformer Thomas Müntzer saw in the peasants' revolt an opportunity to spread his ideas of religious and social upheaval, and offered advice to the peasant leaders.

Despite the support granted by these figures, the peasant armies were sizeable but vastly unequipped and untrained as they faced the Swabian League's army.

The Swabian League

The Holy Roman Empire created the Swabian League in 1488 to defend the interests of the Empire and maintain peace; it was based in the region of Swabia, in Southwest Germany. At the advent of the German Peasants' War, the Swabian League was called to quell the revolt.

The key figure of the Swabian League during the German Peasants' War was the Catholic Georg III, Truchsess von Waldburg who was nicknamed Bauernjörg (“Farmer Georg”) and “The Scourge of the Peasants”. He became known for his brutal defeats of the peasant armies throughout the war.

Philip I of Hesse was also a prince of the Swabian League, but had converted to Lutheranism. Despite this, he did not support the peasants' demands for social reform. Although he supported Luther's proposed religious reform, he regarded the peasantry as too radical in comparison.

The German Peasants' War raged across Germany as various groups arose in their principalities. The peasant armies were untrained, but still gained momentum with the prospect of enacting change. The war moved north from Stühlingen to Mühlhausen, which became the centre of peasant activity. In March 1525, peasants overthrew the governing council and established the “eternal council” with the peasants' interests at heart.

Fig. 5 The Swabian League mobilised against the peasant armies with skill and brutality, successfully quashing the peasant uprisings and killing thousands.

The Twelve Articles were formulated in Memmingen and published in March 1525. They stated the peasants' religious and secular demands, such as the ability to choose their pastors, reduce taxes, abolish serfdom, and the restoration of rights to fish and hunt on lands now controlled by princes. Using printing presses, the peasants distributed their demands and created a better, united philosophy among their ranks.

After the Twelve Articles were distributed, the peasantry formed military bands to fight the Swabian League.

German Peasants' War and Martin Luther

Martin Luther became a key external figure to the conflicts. He initially published his Admonition to Peace in response to the Twelve Articles in March 1525, which sympathised with the peasants' issues but pleaded that they be resolved peacefully.

After the wars began to rage following the Twelve Articles, Luther published another document: Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, in May 1525. In this contrasting text, Luther condemned the peasants' actions in the wars and called for the Swabian League to put down the revolts violently.

Fig. 6 This woodcut shows German princes capturing peasants after the revolt. Martin Luther can be blamed in part for inciting the brutal and vengeful retaliation of the princes during and after the German Peasants' War.

In the aftermath of the War, some peasants named Luther a traitor, as his publication had encouraged the princes to use excessive violence to quell the revolts. Luther published An Open Letter on the Harsh Book Against the Peasants in July 1525 to justify his words. However, he backtracked slightly by also condemning the extent of violence used by the princes to put down the rebellion.

German Peasants' War Effects

The German Peasants' War did little to enact the change that the peasantry was hoping for. Luther's denouncement of the peasants was used as an excuse by rulers to maintain the restrictions to the peasantry. After the War, peasants were left in an even worse situation as further exploitation and oppression was used in retaliation to the revolt.

The War also damaged the progress of the Protestant Reformation, as religious reform was one of the demands of the peasantry so rulers were harsher to other proposed reforms to the Catholic Church. Luther criticised Thomas Müntzer as an example of taking the Reformation “too far” and confirmed his position as solely a religious reformer rather than wanting to disrupt the political and social environment of the Holy Roman Empire.

German Peasants' War Historiography

The most interesting historiographical stance to the German Peasants' War came in the late 19^th century, when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels venerated the rebellion as an early example of a class struggle between peasants and their oppressors.

In Germany following the War, the peasants, Müntzer and their other supporters were often seen as inciting violence and an unfortunate, radical episode during the Protestant Reformation. When Marx and Engels called the struggle an early form of Communist struggle, the Peasants War gained popularity within socialist circles.

When Germany was split between capitalists and communist during the Cold War, the German Peasants' War was officially memorialised with an East German commission of a panorama painting of the 1525 conflict by Werner Tübke in 1987. This demonstrated the importance of the War within Communist ideology, and showed a different interpretation to the common historical view of downplaying the significance of the War for the Protestant Reformation.

Panorama Museum in Frankenhausen, Germany. It exhibited a panorama of the German Peasants' War in 1987, only a few years before the fall of the Berlin War and Germany was reunited. Wikimedia Commons.