“It is hard to believe how all the authorities, knights and rulers in all of Germany were so disheartened that even ten peasants without armor were able to occupy an invulnerable castle. - Then it turns around again that a single knight could capture ten peasants.”
Friedrich Myconius (1490-1546)
With these words the Gotha preacher and reformer Friedrich Myconius (1490-1546) described the turbulent events in the spring of 1525 in retrospect. He summed up the lack of understanding of many of his contemporaries about the seemingly out of joint world. The reason for this was the numerous uprisings, which kept the nobility and church representatives in suspense, especially in the southwest and in the center of Germany. With reference to the writings of the new protestant preachers, regional expressions of legal and social dissatisfaction soon led to a wildfire. The causes of the uprising varied from region to region as much as the social origins of the insurgents themselves. Nevertheless, the unrest became the first liberal movement in German history.
Up until the very recent past, the Peasants' War experienced a wide variety of interpretations and politically motivated instruments. Thuringia was not only the scene of a decisive turning point in the uprising, but also the final place of activity of the radical reformer Thomas Müntzer. For these reasons, the Thuringian state government decided to use the 500th anniversary of the German Peasants' War as an opportunity to host a Thuringian State Exhibition in Mühlhausen and Bad Frankenhausen in 2025.

Exhibition locations

Mühlhausen

St. Marien Museum | Müntzer Memorial

St. Marien Museum | Müntzer Memorial
The impressive Mühlhausen Marienkirche with the highest church tower in Thuringia is visible far beyond the city limits. As an architectural and historical monument, Müntzer Memorial and meeting place with religion and culture, the Marienkirche is closely connected with the fortunes of the city and its citizens. The building has been secularized since 1975 and has been used as a museum since. It houses a diverse exhibition, which has a lot to offer. In the side aisles of the church, the exhibition “Of unicorns and dragon slayers” on Thuringian art of the Middle Ages is currently showing valuable altars and sculptures. A separate area in the chapels is dedicated to the radical reformer and former preacher of the Marienkirche, Thomas Müntzer. The “Tower Museum” provides information on the history of the building and the restoration of the impressive church.

For the State Exhibition 2025, the exhibition area in the St. Marien Museum | Müntzer Memorial is dedicated to society and its changes at the beginning of the 16th century. Here, visitors are introduced to the historical living environments, existing social and legal systems and the social upheavals that occurred.
St. Marien Museum | Müntzer Memorial
Bei der Marienkirche
99974 Mühlhausen
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St. Marien Museum | Müntzer Memorial
Mühlhausen

Peasants' War Museum Kornmarktkirche

Peasants' War Museum Kornmarktkirche
The former monastery church “St. Crucis” is one of the most important mendicant churches in Germany that have survived to this day. It impresses with its simple architecture, which is determined by dimensions and proportions. The church, profaned in 1802, has been used as a museum and as a concert and conference venue since 1975. The permanent exhibition “Luther's Unloved Brothers”, which was redesigned in 2016, is currently providing information about the period of the Pre and Early Reformation and the Peasants' War in Thuringia. The crypt of the church now houses an exhibition area on the eventful history of construction and restoration of the former church. In addition, the cloister garden and a lapidarium with components from historical buildings invite you to linger.

During the State Exhibition 2025, the events and circumstances of the Peasants' War of 1524 and 1525 will be the focus of the Peasants' War Museum Kornmarktkirche. Visitors are introduced to the protagonists and the social challenges of the time starting from the peasants' demands and following the events that have been handed down. These challenges and historical questions with their uninterrupted topicality and relevance point directly to the present of every individual.
Peasants' War Museum Kornmarktkirche
Kornmarkt
99974 Mühlhausen
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Peasants' War Museum Kornmarktkirche
Mühlhausen

Museum of Cultural History

Museum of Cultural History
The main building of the Mühlhausen museums was originally built between 1868 and 1870 as a grammar school in the neo-renaissance style. However, since a local history museum was founded in 1928, the building on Lindenbühl has primarily been used as a museum. After extensive modernization in 2013, the house reopened as a cultural history museum. The redesigned permanent exhibitions currently show the most important pieces from the collection on the prehistory and early history of the Unstrut-Hainich district, the city's history and Thuringian art of the 20th century. Together with the redesign of the museum a modern museum educational concept was developed with listening and hands-on stations to discover, touch and have fun.

In the Museum of Cultural History, the State Exhibition 2025 turns to the interpretation and reception of the Peasants' War from the 16th century to present times. The sometimes conflicting interweaving of memory, confessional or political instrumentalisation and artistic interpretation is central to this part of the exhibition. Visitors are encouraged to question the freedom(s) of memory, science and art.
Museum of Cultural History
Kristanplatz 7
99974 Mühlhausen
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Museum of Cultural History
Bad Frankenhausen

Panorama Museum

Panorama Museum
The Panorama Museum is enthroned above the city of Bad Frankenhausen, a cylindrical structure that houses an impressive painting 14 meters high and 123 meters in circumference: the panorama picture »Frühbürgerliche Revolution in Deutschland« (Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany), painted by Werner Tübke (1929–2004) in oil on canvas from 1983 to 1987. With over 3,000 individual figures, the imposing work of art is one of the largest and richest in figures in modern art history and offers a lively panorama of the 16th century.

As part of the State Exhibition 2025, Tübke's original historical models will be placed alongside the central panorama painting and embedded in the epoch of Humanism, the Renaissance and the Reformation.
Panorama Museum
Am Schlachtberg 9
06567 Bad Frankenhausen
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Panorama Museum

Acadamic Advisory Board

PD Dr. Ota Halama

Research Associate at the Chair of Church History at Charles University in Prague

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Thomas Kaufmann

Professor of Church History at the Georg-August University in Göttingen; Chairman of the Association for the History of the Reformation

PD Dr. Stefanie Knöll

Head of the Kupferstichkabinett (Cabinet of copper engravings) of the art collections of Veste Coburg; private lecturer for Art History at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Colonel (GS) Prof. Dr. Matthias Rogg

Bundeswehr Leadership Academy in Hamburg; Professor of Modern/Contemporary History at the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Stefan Sonderegger

Professor of Medieval History at the University of Zurich; Project leader in the City Archive of St. Gallen

Dr. Evelien Timpener

Research assistant at the Historical Institute of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen

PD Dr. Ingrid Würth

Representative of the Professorship for Medieval History at the University of Leipzig

Contact Persons

Dr. Susanne Kimmig-Völkner

Director of Mühlhausen Museums
+49 (0)3601 85660
Dr. Susanne Kimmig-Völkner

Dr. Julia Mandry

Acadamic Coordinator of the Thuringian State Exhibition 2025
+49 (0)3601 856622
Dr. Julia Mandry

Gerd Lindner

Director Panorama Museum Bad Frankenhausen
+49 (0)34671 61910
Gerd Lindner
Design & Code ❤ zwetschke