For many centuries, peasant wars in Germany have been a regular occurrence. The villagers had no rights and could not express their dissatisfaction with any legitimate methods. The Reichstag and other state institutions of the Holy Roman Empire existed only for representatives of the upper classes.
Therefore, when the next generation of peasants began to suffer from hunger or excessive taxes, he had no choice but to take up arms. Such performances, as a rule, ended in the defeat of the discontented. But against the backdrop of the rest, the peasant war in Germany 1524-1525. differed in the wide scale of the uprising. Therefore, even today, she is interested in historians as the most detailed documented episode of her era.
Reasons for the war
At the beginning of the 16th century, several important changes took place in Germany, leading to another peasant uprising. The rural population has become even more dependent on their masters. Due to frequent wars with neighboring countries, the state increased the amount of taxes levied on peasants.
These causes are typical of rising social tensions. However, in the 16th century, an influential reformist church movement appeared in Germany. His main inspiration was the preacher Martin Luther, who was named after Lutheranism - one of the main directions of Protestantism. Proponents of reform advocated the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences, earnings on the flock, etc. Protestantism has become popular among the ordinary rural population.
Heresy of the Reformation
In the Middle Ages, peasant wars in Germany often began precisely because of the appearance of heresies. As a rule, at the head of such a movement were fanatics or holy fools. However, Protestantism found a response not only among the poor, but also within the burgher population of cities. Despite the ferment of minds, the central imperial power did not want to recognize the Lutherans, government officials called them heretics and outlawed them. The Roman Church was one of the pillars on which power in the Holy Roman Empire rested. This confrontation sooner or later had to grow into a real war.
The beginning of peasant uprisings
While taxes were increasing, the revenues of which went to the treasury of the Catholic Church, reformatory priests traveled to German cities preaching that the church should be more modest in its requests and should return to the early Christian tradition when the followers of Christ were poor.
The inevitable peasant war in Germany began in 1524. First performances erupted in the vicinity of Nuremberg. The furious villagers armed themselves and adopted a common charter, according to which they agreed to make all their food common and feed the poor. They also refused to work on the lands of the church (this was one of the duties introduced by the state). The first small groups of peasants easily dispersed after the army arrived there. However, violence against neighbors led to the fact that the uprising was expanding more and more due to the reckless actions of the authorities.
Twelve Articles
Several political programs drawn up by the rebels during the war became food for thought among left-wing political parties that emerged in the 19th century. Therefore, the Twelve Articles and other documents of that era were carefully studied and analyzed, including by Marxists. The most monumental study of the war was the book of William Zimmermann, "The History of the Peasant War in Germany", as well as a similar work by Friedrich Engels.
The Twelve Articles were agreed upon by the rebels on March 19, 1525, in the city of Memmingen in Swabia. There were several distinct groups of Protestants in this region. They decided to coordinate their actions and draw up a document that would become their resolution to power.
The demands of the peasants
The basis for the articles was the numerous complaints of rural residents about unbearable living conditions. All of them were combined and reformulated into social requirements (tax cuts, etc.). The documents of the peasant war in Germany are interesting in that Protestant theologians, who became authors of articles relating to the structure of the church, also had a hand in their creation. For example, it was required to give the community the right to choose its own priest. In addition, the rebels wanted their ministers to preach only the so-called clean Gospel, that is, not to depart from those theses that were written in the Testament.
This example shows that the Reformation and the peasant war in Germany were interrelated phenomena. Religious references can be traced in all the points presented in the Twelve Articles. The peasants, who did not find justice in disputes with state power, appealed to the Bible as the only law for all Christians.
Black squad Florian Gayer
While priests enlightened the peasants, some knights and people with military experience took the side of the rebels and turned out to be their commanders. One of these leaders was Florian Gayer. It was a German knight who led the units operating in Swabia.
Thanks to such people, the great peasant war in Germany not only took place, but was also regularly fueled by financial means. Gayer was originally from a noble family and received a considerable inheritance. With his money, he bought equipment and trained people in military art. Of these, a formation was drafted, called the Black Squad. It was created in Rothenburg in 1525. At the same time, a detachment led by Guyer himself went to Swabia, where he ravaged many castles of feudal lords and Catholic monasteries. This dealt a serious blow to the reputation of local princes, who still did not consider the poor as a serious threat. Now the feudal lords gathered a real army and sent it towards Ingolstadt. It was then that the peasant war in Germany reached its peak. In short, the feudal lords were seriously scared. It was they who could provide operational resistance in the province, while the emperor would have to spend a lot of time to send his own troops from the capital.
The defeat of the Swabian peasants
The armies of the Swabian princes and Florian Gayer clashed under the walls of Ingolstadt in May 1525. Among the peasants, the Black Detachment became the only combat-ready formation, but it was clearly not enough to withstand several professional feudal forces. The rebels were defeated, and Florian Gayer himself died a few weeks later, having been ambushed.
This knight became one of the national heroes whom the peasant war in Germany spawned. The date of his death was a day of mourning for all Protestants. Nevertheless, despite the defeat of the Swabian militias, many rebels were in other regions, so the peasant war continued. Germany for another year was absorbed in bloodshed and violence. The rioters were executed without any pity. In addition to high treason, they were accused of heresy, which further aggravated their situation. All peasant wars in Germany were a kind of reaction to dissatisfaction with the authorities.
Thomas Münzer
By the summer, the center of discontent moved to Thuringia. Peasant wars in Germany always ended in failure due to the fact that there was no one to lead the crowds of villagers. The fragmentation and inconsistency of actions was only at hand for the punitive imperial detachments. This time, the peasants had leaders who, as a rule, appeared from among the very reformist priests who were preaching the teachings of Martin Luther.
The peasant war in Germany was led by one of them - Thomas Münzer. At the end of 1525 he ended up in Mühlhausen. It was an imperial city in the north of Thuringia. It was here that the spiritual leader of the rebels began to preach his vision of Lutheranism. It was much like the future programs of the communists. The principle of "select and share" here has been implemented with all care.
Mühlhausen becomes the center of rebellion
Armed groups of ordinary people seized monasteries, churches and other property of the Catholic Church. In addition, burghers surrendered to the peasants, who, in fact, sided with them. A new government appeared in the city magistrate, it was represented by the most ordinary villagers, and not the expelled aristocrats.
Münzer himself did not take any formal post, but he became the spiritual father of the rebels and almost their patriarch. His sermons gathered thousands of supporters in city squares. The main motive in his rhetoric was the idea that the emperor’s power, supporting the church, mired in sins, was anti-Christian.
War in Thuringia
From the speeches of Münzer, the peasant war in Germany was fueled more and more. The participants in the uprising, however, were not warriors by profession and were most often poorly armed. This could cause problems in the future. Nevertheless, Münzer gathered the 8,000th army with which he went south to Franconia, where new supporters were waiting for him.
German princes for the year also prepared for war with the peasants. They gathered a trained and professional army, which in the spring of 1525 went to intercept Münzer to prevent him from connecting with supporters in the southern provinces. On May 15, the troops met. Imperial parliamentarians, in order to avoid bloodshed, offered the rebels to extradite Muntzer. The expected refusal followed, after which the fields in the vicinity of the city of Frankenhausen were covered in the blood of 6,000 dead peasants: they were poorly armed and not trained in battle. Because of this, the rebels became easy prey for cavalry and armored men.
Even more peasants were executed later during raids throughout Thuringia. While the battle was on, Muntzer managed to escape, but he was not at large for long. He was tracked down and chained. On May 27, 1525, the preacher was executed on Mühlhausen Square, which had previously been the center of the uprising.
Number of victims
In just two years of the uprising in different regions of the Holy Roman Empire, about 300 thousand peasants participated in the confrontation with the authorities, not counting the small detachments of knights that went over to the side of the villagers. About one in three rebels died in battle or was executed during the reactionary actions of the state. These figures indicate that the peasant war in Germany 1524-1525. was the largest-scale uprising of the population against its regime in the history of Europe until the French Revolution.
Effects
Despite the fact that the speeches were suppressed, and the leaders were executed or expelled from the country, the consequences for several decades echoed throughout the empire. Firstly, this was the first serious attempt of the Protestants to defend their interests and views. Even after the peasants were dispersed, Lutheranism remained a popular teaching among both the burghers and the poor. Subsequently, the banner of the Protestants passed to the small princes and knights who opposed the Catholic emperor for the next decades.
30 years after the peasant war, the Augsburg religious peace was concluded, which somewhat eased the position of the Lutherans. Already in the XVII century there was a large-scale Thirty Years War, almost all European countries were drawn into it. After its completion, the Protestants finally secured the right to profess their religion in the empire. The peasant war in Germany took place in 1524-1525, when the Lutherans who appeared were still too weak to defeat the central government.