freiheyt 1525

Faith and piety were the guides of the people at the beginning of the 16th century. The individual everyday life was dominated by a fixed sequence of holidays and rituals. The family shaped the private social situation both in the city and in the country. The switch from payment in kind to payment in cash was followed by falling agricultural prices with a simultaneous increase in the value of commercial products. Although the government's striving for order increased, social tensions and participation conflicts became more explosive. In this situation the farmers wanted to improve their living conditions by reducing taxes, reviving old rights and strengthening the village communities.

In February 1525 the farmers in Memmingen in Upper Swabia wrote the “Twelve Articles of the Peasantry”, which bundled their social, economic, legal, political and religious demands. The peasants demanded the abolition of serfdom, the abolition of compulsory labor and taxes, the return to old freedoms and rights and the free choice of pastors. The articles were widely distributed throughout the German-speaking region. They became a paradigm for numerous communities and are considered to be one of the first written demands for human and freedom rights.

The uprisings began in the Black Forest region in 1524 and spread to the south and north. Centers were on the Upper Rhine, in Alsace as well as in Upper Swabia, Württemberg, Franconia and Thuringia. The uprising events did not result from interregional agreements. In many places the “Twelve Articles” became the guideline and formulation aid for local demands. Unsuccessful negotiations were followed by the unloading of the conflict with raids, arming and various threat scenarios. The refusal to obey led to military counter-attacks by the rulers and ended usually with the often bloody suppression of the rebellion.

The theologian Thomas Müntzer saw himself as a prophet and interpreted the uproar in terms of apocalyptic end-time expectations. He viewed the peasants as God's tools to restore Christian order and, if necessary, also viewd radical processes as acceptable. As a charismatic preacher, he accompanied the Thuringian rebels into battle in Frankenhausen and defeated the princes with them on May 15, 1525. Thomas Müntzer was subsequently captured and executed outside the city of Mühlhausen on May 27th. To this day he is a theologically and socially controversial personality.

Early on the rebels based themselves on the Reformation movement around Martin Luther - his statements seemed to vouch for the legality of the rebellion. The farmers in the south of the country even took this as an opportunity to demand the abolition of serfdom. A demand that was immensely explosive for the entire social order of the time. The rebels hoped that the new religious teachers in Wittenberg would stand by their side, which turned out to be a fallacy. Luther had only theological context in mind and not the secular living situation of the peasants.

Many of the farmers involved were executed or mutilated and punished with loss of property and exile. Supporting communities and cities had to pay fines and were in some cases robbed of their privileges. Arming peasants was banned. An exact number of deaths of the rebels is not known - it is generally assumed that around 70,000 victims were killed. The destruction and looting was also completely devastating for numerous castles and monasteries. On the part of the authorities, the sovereign self-image had been shaken to the core, so that for decades a fundamental mistrust of the subjects prevailed.

The Peasants' War remained anchored in social memory as a defining event. Subjectively interpreted, it served religious, social or political argumentation over time. As early as the Wittenberg reformers, the reception of the events, sometimes emotionally charged and tendentious, continued well into the 20th century. Later on, it was political and ideological influences that often made it difficult to get a clear view of the facts. Corresponding interpretations and representations can be found in a wide variety of writings, works of art, performances or even everyday objects.