An End to Unity | The German Peasants’ War
Three centuries have passed and many a thing has changed; still the Peasant War is not so impossibly removed from our present struggle, and the opponents who have to be fought are essentially the same.
— Friedrich Engels, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg, published in 1850 —
Europe had languished in darkness since the fall of Rome, but a new dawn was on the horizon. Art, science, knowledge, and a new understanding of the wider world had come to the cities and towns of the Continent. The might of the Church and of kings was challenged by reformers and revolutionaries at the dawn of the modern world, and though these great transformational movements—the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Age of Discovery, and the Scientific Revolution—bettered the lives of millions, it led to new dangers and fresh troubles for mankind. This week and next, 15-Minute History will take you through three revolutionary movements in which the masses challenged the status quo, for better and for worse, and seek to understand how and why each ended in either failure or success. These revolutions were bitter and bloody, but they gave us our world today.
“Here I Stand”
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sat before his court in the city of Würms in April 1521. Opposite him stood a German monk, a troublemaker recently condemned by the pope as a heretic. The emperor’s scholars and priests from Rome had questioned Martin Luther for two days on his writings against the Church’s teachings, and the scholar had answered every question with a quiet fervor stemming from true belief. He had been given the previous night in his cell to pray and seek God’s wisdom before he would be forced to make his decision—to recant his heresy or face the Church’s wrath. Luther now stood before his earthly sovereign, and he gave his answer:
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason…I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.
Luther’s declaration led to his exile in a castle at Eisenach and a permanent split between his followers and the Roman Catholic Church—the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It also divided Charles’ Holy Roman Empire into two religious camps, one following the pope and the emperor and the other embracing the schismatic Luther. Thanks to the new invention of movable type, Luther’s followers had spread his message of dissent and a renewal of the Scriptures for Christians far and wide, and the Church was scrambling to counter these reformers.
Not every Protestant embraced Lutheranism because they believed in the Five Solas or agreed with Luther’s statements in the 95 Theses or any of his other books. Hundreds of small princes, mainly in northern Germany and especially in Prussia, saw Lutheranism as a political weapon to break free of the taxes and tithes required of them from the pope and the emperor. Religious divisions soon brought about political conflict within the decentralized Holy Roman Empire, and the consequences would be both dire and disastrous.
Two years after Luther’s confrontation with Charles V, two German knights, Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten, launched what became the Knights’ Revolt. The power and influence of the imperial knights in Germany had been declining since the end of the Crusades three centuries earlier as a new class of burghers or “people of the town” grew wealthy enough to challenge the feudal aristocracy’s central role in society. While the governments of England and France had brought this new “middle class” into line with taxes and regulations, the imperial government in Germany was too weak to pursue this course, and so the once-powerful knights were now objects of ridicule and even hatred. Sickingen and Hutten chose to attack the city of Trier in the Rhineland, to oust its archbishop who had opposed any reforms to give the knights more power and to proclaim a more powerful imperial state under Charles V’s leadership (though they acted without his permission or even knowledge). The Knights’ Revolt was crushed, but their willingness to take up arms in defense of their status in society would soon inspire a much larger group of people in Germany.
“The Priesthood of all Believers”
One of the key aspects of Lutheranism was that all Christians were equal in the eyes of God, which was a fundamental challenge to the authority of the medieval hierarchy of clergy, nobles, and peasants. For over a millennia, the Church had taught that only its priests could commune with God directly and that peasants must be subject to their parish clergymen in order to receive forgiveness of sins. Accordingly, peasants were usually forced into serfdom, a state of near-slavery where they were tied to the lands they worked with no freedom of action or choice of occupation.
As Luther’s teachings spread across Germany, hundreds of thousands of peasants embraced the “priesthood of all believers” and questioned why they should live in poverty as serfs while their lords and priests luxuriated in palaces and fortresses. The growing wealth of the burghers fueled this desire for equality as serfs saw some of their fellows break free of class restrictions, take on a trade, and begin to live a life that was truly their own. Again, the serfs and poorer peasants hoped to one day see reforms enacted that would lift them out of poverty and misery, but when they petitioned the emperor and their local lords for an easing of their feudal burdens, they were constantly rebuffed.
When the German peasants heard of the Knights’ Revolt, its leaders became their heroes because they had fought and died for their beliefs. Soon, small groups of peasants began to speak quietly of a massive rising against the imperial nobility and clergy that would break the chains of feudalism and bring true equality to all believers in Christ. Economic, political, and religious grievances came together in dangerous quantities and, like the elements of a bomb, soon burst forth in fire and destruction.
“The Scourge of the Peasants”
The revolt that became known as the Peasants’ War was not a coordinated strike at centers of imperial or clerical power, but rather a series of small uprisings, each inspired by the one before. The Peasants’ War began in the fall of 1524 in the town of Stühlingen when a local noble sent his serfs into the fields after a difficult harvest. About twelve hundred peasants came together and formed a militarized band, elected officers, and presented a list of demands to the lord for greater personal and economic liberties. The demands were later formalized into the Twelve Articles, issued by the Christian Association of Swabian peasants. The articles demanded basic liberties for all peasants in Swabia and is a watershed document in European history, the first charter of human rights published in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. Its full text is too long to be included in this podcast but is available on the 15-Minute History website with the transcript of this episode.
Within a few weeks, word had spread and much of southern Germany was aflame in revolution. At first, the lords had no choice but to comply with their serfs’ demands. The empire was at war with France, fighting in Italy and along the Rhine frontier, and few professional soldiers were available. Into this dangerous situation for the German nobility stepped Georg, Truchsess of Waldburg, a Swabian warrior who would soon be known as the “Scourge of the Peasants.” Georg mustered an army of about four thousand Landsknechte, or mercenaries, and placed his force at the disposal of any lord facing an uprising by the peasants. The German nobles in southwestern Germany united to form the Swabian League, and each pledged his full resources to the others to hold back the tide of revolution.
Against the Landesknechte stood a much larger peasant militia, and each side possessed some advantages in this conflict. The mercenaries were paid to fight, and this was their only job; the peasants, on the other hand, also had to care for their families and so served in the armed battalions for only one week each month and thus had less training and experience in the military arts. The peasants’ greatest advantage was their ability to quickly dig ditches and built makeshift fortresses out of wagons and hewn trees, which the Landesknechte could not break through. This was the peasants’ greatest weapon, but the mercenaries had one of their own: cavalry. Georg’s army could strike and move with much greater speed, and in the end this proved decisive in the war.
Georg von Waldburg was ruthless in battle and merciless in victory. From his first engagement against the peasants at Leipheim in April 1525 to his last battle at Königshofen three months later, he won every battle through a combination of effective troop deployment and feigning a desire to negotiate peace with the rebels. He dispatched one enemy force after another, pursuing the scattered remains of peasant armies back to their villages and then murdering anyone who had fought against him and, sometimes, even their wives and children.
Of course, in war there are often both tragedies and crimes on both sides, and the Peasants’ War was no exception. After capturing seventy nobles near Weinsberg, a band of rebels forced the prisoners to “run the gauntlet of pikes,” a common form of execution used by the Landesknechte in retaliation for the burning of a local peasant village. All seventy nobles were brutally stabbed to death and their bodies mutilated and thrown into a nearby stream. The massacre at Weinsberg had three long-term effects for the peasant cause. First, when Luther heard of it he wrote a tome called Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants and denounced them for resisting the good order in society provided by nobles and clergymen. This book would later be cited by many German leaders, among them Otto von Bismarck and Adolf Hitler, to claim that, for Germans, order was preferable to freedom. Second, the leader of the band which had orchestrated the massacre was deposed, and he was replaced by an unemployed knight called Götz von Berlichingen, a veteran of the empire’s campaigns in Italy who had lost an arm in battle. (He did not let this handicap stop him, though, and had personally fashioned an iron replacement arm, which he used to crush the skulls of many a foe in the field.) Finally, it spurred Georg and the other Swabian League commanders to commit further atrocities. In just one massacre of peasants at Frankenhausen, between three- and ten thousand peasants were hacked to death by Landesknechte after a battle in which only six mercenaries were lost.
In the end, the peasants’ rebellion failed as the empire’s free cities and principalities gave in to some demands or brutally crushed local revolts. Georg von Waldburg was made ruler of Swabia as a reward for his victory, and he spent the rest of his life traveling from one town to another demanding money from the surviving peasants who had rebelled against their masters. Götz von Berlichingen was captured by the Swabian League and imprisoned for several years before being freed on the emperor’s orders. The war had cost the lives of at least a hundred thousand peasants, and some historians believe the number to be closer to three hundred thousand. It was a disaster for Germany’s peasants and a major turning point in the history of the German nation.
Turning Point: An End to Unity
When you look at a map of Europe and how nations grew over the centuries, it is interesting to see how the states of Western Europe like England, France and Spain had roughly the same borders in the 16th century as they do today. The same is true of some countries in Eastern Europe like Poland and Austria-Hungary (at least until the Napoleonic Wars). But in the two major states of Central Europe—Germany and Italy—there was only a patchwork of small principalities and free cities until the second half of the nineteenth century. Italy is a separate issue, which we might come to in a future season, but Germany’s disunion is directly tied to the events of the Peasants’ War of 1524-25.
Martin Luther’s scathing denunciation of the peasant rebels in Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants echoed down through the centuries in the hearts and minds of all Germans. Luther denounced the rebels as more than just savages for murdering seventy nobles; he called them, among other things, “the worst blasphemers of God and slanderers of His holy name.” Luther believed that peasants had a duty to honor their oath to serve their feudal masters, and that nobles had every right to brutally suppress even the slightest hint of revolution. When the Swabian League unleashed Georg von Waldburg and, after the war, removed even the minimal rights once enjoyed by the serfs, they got the message. For the next two centuries, the German people would be devoted to their local rulers, would fight endless wars over mere miles of territory as one petty prince fought another for control of a hill. This would leave them utterly defenseless when mighty conquerors like Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte arose, and Germany became one large, blood-soaked battlefield in the Thirty Years’ War, the War of the Grand Alliance, and the Napoleonic Wars.
Moreover, the entire custom of German parenting and education emphasized obedience to one’s superiors in every aspect of life. Children were taught never to question authority. Employees never offered contrary views to their employers. Soldiers never refused to follow orders. When nationalist sentiments came to Germany after Napoleon’s conquests and was embraced by the Prussian Otto von Bismarck, the Germans marched in step as he launched three wars to unite Germany into a single nation. As we have covered in past episodes, this trend of servile obedience continued in the 20th century and produced results too tragic to recall here in our remaining minutes.
Of course, correlation does not equal causation, and one cannot claim that the Peasant War and Luther’s writings directly led to German disunity, then unity, then aggressive war-making. However, it is inarguable that the obedient nature of the German psyche was strongly influenced by the events of 1524-25, which is why the German Peasants’ War was one of the great turning points in European, and world, history.
The Twelve Articles, translated by James Harvey Robinson in Readings in European History, vol. 2. (Boston, etc.: Ginn & Company, 1904)
Peace to the Christian reader and the grace of God through Christ:
There are many evil writings put forth of late which take occasion, on account of the assembling of the peasants, to cast scorn upon the gospel, saying "Is this the fruit of the new teaching, that no one should obey but that all should everywhere rise in revolt, and rush together to reform, or perhaps destroy altogether, the authorities, both ecclesiastic and lay?" The articles below shall answer these godless and criminal fault-finders, and serve, in the first place, to remove the reproach from the word of God and, in the second place, to give a Christian excuse for the disobedience or even the revolt of the entire peasantry.
In the first place, the gospel is not the cause of revolt and disorder, since it is the message of Christ, the promised Messiah; the word of life, teaching only love, peace, patience, and concord. Thus all who believe in Christ should learn to be loving, peaceful, long-suffering, and harmonious. This is the foundation of all the articles of the peasants (as will be seen), who accept the gospel and live according to it. How then can the evil reports declare the gospel to be a cause of revolt and disobedience? That the authors of the evil reports and the enemies of the gospel oppose themselves to these demands is due, not to the gospel, but to the devil, the worst enemy of the gospel, who causes this opposition by raising doubts in the minds of his followers, and thus the word of God, which teaches love, peace, and concord, is overcome.
In the second place, it is clear that the peasants demand that this gospel be taught them as a guide in life, and they ought not to be called disobedient or disorderly. Whether God grants the peasants (earnestly wishing to live according to his word) their requests or no, who shall find fault with the will of the Most High? Who shall meddle in his judgments or oppose his majesty? Did he not hear the children of Israel when they called upon him and save them out of the hands of Pharaoh? Can he not save his own today? Yea, he will save them and that speedily. Therefore, Christian reader, read the following articles with care and then judge. Here follow the articles:
The First Article. First, it is our humble petition and desire, as also our will and desire, that in the future we should have power and authority so that each community should choose and appoint a pastor, and that we should have the right to depose him should he conduct himself improperly. The pastor thus chosen should teach us the gospel pure and simple, without any addition, doctrine, or ordinance of man.
The Second Article. According as the just tithe is established by the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New, we are ready and willing to pay the fair tithe of grain. The word of God plainly provides that in giving rightly to God and distributing to his people the services of a pastor are required. We will that for the future our church provost, whomsoever the community may appoint, shall gather and receive this tithe. From this he shall give to the pastor, elected by the whole community, a decent and sufficient maintenance for him and his, as shall seem right to the whole community. What remains over shall be given to the poor of the place, as the circumstances and the general opinion demand. Should anything further remain, let it be kept, lest anyone should have to leave the country from poverty. The small tithes, whether !5 An End to Unity | The German Peasants’ War By Jon Streeter ecclesiastical or lay, we will not pay at all, for the Lord God created cattle for the free use of man. We will not, therefore, pay further an unseemly tithe which is of man's invention.
The Third Article. It has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their own property, which is pitiable enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all, without exception, by the shedding of his precious blood, the lowly as well as the great. Accordingly it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free and should wish to be so. Not that we would wish to be absolutely free and under no authority. God does not teach that we should lead a disorderly life in the lusts of the flesh, but that we should love the Lord our God and our neighbor. We would gladly observe all this as God has commanded us in the celebration of the communion. He has not commanded us not to obey the authorities, but rather that we should be humble, not only towards those in authority, but towards every one. We are thus ready to yield obedience according to God's law to our elected and regular authorities in all proper things becoming to a Christian. We therefore take it for granted that you will release us from serfdom as true Christians, unless it should be shown from the gospel that we are serfs.
The Fourth Article. In the fourth place, it has been the custom heretofore that no poor man should be allowed to touch venison or wild fowl, or fish in flowing water, which seems to us quite unseemly and unbrotherly as well as selfish and not agreeable to the word of God. In some places the authorities preserve the game to our great annoyance and loss, recklessly permitting the unreasoning animals to destroy to no purpose our crops, which God suffers to grow for the use of man; and yet we must submit quietly. This is neither godly nor neighborly; for when God created man he gave him dominion over all the animals, over the birds of the air and the fish in the water. Accordingly it is our desire, if a man holds possession of waters, that he should prove from satisfactory documents that his right has been unwittingly [unwissenlich] acquired by purchase. We do not wish to take it from him by force, but his rights should be exercised in a Christian and brotherly fashion. But whosoever cannot produce such evidence should surrender his claim with good grace.
The Fifth Article. In the fifth place, we are aggrieved in the matter of woodcutting, for the noble folk have appropriated all the woods to themselves alone. If a poor man requires wood, he must pay. [ . . . ] It is our opinion that in regard to a woods which has fallen into the hands of a lord, whether spiritual or temporal, that unless it was duly purchased it should revert again to the community. It should, moreover, be free to every member of the community to help himself to such firewood as he needs in his home.
The Sixth Article. Our sixth complaint is in regard to the excessive services which are demanded of us and which are increased day to day. We ask that this matter be properly looked into, so that we shall not continue to be oppressed in this way, but that some gracious consideration be given us, since our forefathers were required only to serve according to the word of God.
The Seventh Article. Seventh, we will not hereafter allow ourselves to be further oppressed by our lords, but will let them demand only what is just and proper according to the word of the agreement between the lord and the peasant. The lord should no longer try to force more services or other dues from the peasant without payment, but permit the peasant to enjoy his holding in peace and quiet. The peasant should, however, help the lord when it is necessary, and at proper times, when it will not be disadvantageous to the peasant, and for a suitable payment.
The Eighth Article. In the eighth place, we are greatly burdened by the holdings which cannot support the rent exacted from them. The peasants suffer loss in this way and are ruined; and we ask that the lords may appoint persons of honor to inspect these holdings, and fix a rent in accordance with justice, so that the peasant shall not work for nothing, since the laborer is worthy of his hire.
The Ninth Article. In the ninth place, we are burdened with a great evil in the constant making of new laws. We are not judged according to the offense, but sometimes with great illwill, and sometimes much too leniently. In our opinion, we should be judged according to the old written law, so that the case shall be decided according to its merits, and not with partiality.
The Tenth Article. In the tenth place, we are aggrieved by the appropriation by individuals of meadows and fields which at one time belonged to a community. These we will take again into our own hands. It may, however, happen that the land was rightfully purchased. When, however, the land has unfortunately been purchased in this way, some brotherly arrangement should be made according to circumstances.
The Eleventh Article. In the eleventh place, we will entirely abolish the due called "heriot," and will no longer endure it, nor allow widows and orphans to be thus shamefully robbed against God's will.
Conclusion. In the twelfth place, it is our conclusion and final resolution that if any one or more of the articles here set forth should not be in agreement with the word of God, as we think they are, such article we will willingly retract if it is proved really to be against the word of God by a clear explanation of the Scripture. Or if articles should now be conceded to us that are hereafter discovered to be unjust, from that hour they shall be dead and null and without force. Likewise, if more complaints should be discovered which are based upon truth and the Scriptures and relate to offenses against God and our neighbor, we have determined to reserve the right to present these also, and to exercise ourselves in all Christian teaching. For this we shall pray to God, since he can grant our demands, and he alone. The peace of Christ abide with us all.
