wikipedia german peasants war

Peasants' War, 1524–26, rising of the German peasants and the poorer classes of the towns, particularly in Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia. Compelled to leave Zwickau, Müntzer visited Bohemia, lived for two years at Alltstedt in Thuringia, and in 1524 spent some time in Switzerland. His revolutionary ideas frightened the rulers so much that they tried to arrest him, leading to another series of uprisings that ended in the Battle on the Frankenberg (German "Schlacht auf dem Frankenberg") in 1636. Engels details the complex class structure of Germany in the era of the peasant war, and explores the ambiguous role in it of the knights, lesser noblemen whose commitment to preserving their feudal powers overrode their alliances with the peasants. Sixteenth century Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a decentralized entity in which the Holy Roman Emperor himself had little authority outside of his own dynastic lands, which covered only a small fraction of the whole. Their luxurious lifestyle drained what little income they had as prices kept rising. The name derived from the small Upper Swabian village of Baltringen, which lies approximately 25 kilometres (16mi) south of Ulm in the district of Biberach, … The authorities hastened to put down such explosive aspirations, which posed the greatest threat to their traditional authority. In exchange, they received payments whose size the bürger determined after taking into account how long their labour had taken, as well as the quality of their workmanship and the quantity of products produced. Engels praises the historian Wilhelm Zimmermann's book The History of the Great Peasant War (1841–1843) as "the best compilation of factual data" regarding the Peasant War of 1525[5] and acknowledges that most of the material relating to the peasant revolts and to Thomas Müntzer has been taken from Zimmermann's book. Müntzer was to recognize that the recently diluted class structures provided the lower stratum of society with a greater claim to legitimacy in their revolt, as well as more scope for political and socio-economic gains. The emergence of the plebeian class strengthened lower-class interests in several ways. The steward had thought that the harsh sentence would frighten the peasants, but it only served to increase dissent and give sympathy to the rebels. Increased indignation over Church corruption had led the monk Martin Luther to post his 95 Theses on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, as well as impelling other reformers to radically rethink Church doctrine and organization. The Baltringer Haufen (also spelled Baltringer Haufe, German for Baltringen Band, Baltringen Troop or Baltringen Mob) was prominent among several armed groups of peasants and craftsmen during the German Peasants' War of 1524-1525. The Battle of Wurzach (German language: Gefecht bei Wurzach or Schlacht am Leprosenberg), was a battle during the German Peasants' War that took place near Bad Wurzach in the present-day county of Ravensburg in Upper Swabia. The evolving military technology of the late medieval period began to render the lesser nobility of knights obsolete. The German Peasants War was an attempted revolution in Central Europe during the 1500s The bürgers also opposed the clergy, who they felt had overstepped their bounds and failed to uphold their religious duties. Many towns had privileges that exempted them from paying taxes, and so the bulk of the burden of taxation fell on the peasants. The Peasant War in Germany (German: Der deutsche Bauernkrieg) by Friedrich Engels is a short account of the early-16th-century uprisings known as the German Peasants' War(1524–1525). Opposition to the privileges of the Catholic clergy was rising among several classes in the new late-medieval hierarchy, including the peasantry. The rebellion ultimately failed in the end and Emperor Charles V became much harsher. The introduction of military science and the growing importance of gunpowder and infantry lessened the importance of their role as heavy cavalry, as well as reducing the strategic importance of their castles. The religious dissident Martin Luther, already condemned as a heretic by the 1521 Edict of Worms and accused at the time of fomenting the strife, rejected the demands of the rebels and upheld the right of Germany's rulers to suppress the uprisings. It was the climax of a series of local revolts that dated from the 15th cent. Generations of traditional servitude and the autonomous nature of the provinces limited peasant insurrections to local areas. The Cudgel War was the 16th century peasant uprising in Finland, which was at that time … Ruined petty burghers also joined their ranks. The plebeians did not have property like ruined burghers or peasants. Thus embezzlement and fraud were commonly practiced and the patrician class, bound by family ties, became ever richer and more exploitative. They intended to attack on the Pentecost, but war had broken out two weeks earlier, when two Bavarian soldiers tried to steal a cow in Lembach. Although most of the peasants' demands were economic or political rather than religious, the Reformation sparked the explosion. Like the Roman Catholic Church, Luther practiced infant baptism, which the Anabaptists considered to be "neither scriptural nor primitive, nor fulfilling the chief conditions of admission into a visible brotherhood of saints, to wit, repentance, faith, spiritual illumination and free surrender of self to Christ.". Increased international trade and industry not only put the princes in conflict with the interests of the growing merchant capitalist class, but also broadened the base of lower-class interests (the peasants plus the new urban workers). Luther was cautious in not condemning the new doctrine out of hand, but advised Melanchthon to treat its supporters gently and to test their spirits, in case they should be of God. Multitudes were hanged in the streets, and many were put to death with the greatest tortures. The clergy, or prelate class, was losing its place as the intellectual authority over all matters within the state. [6] The Peasant War in Germany originally appeared in the fifth and sixth issues of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung-Revue, a political economic review edited by Karl Marx in Hamburg, and was later reissued in book forms. Now Luther turned the same weapon against the peasants, extracting from the Bible a veritable hymn to the authorities ordained by God—a feat hardly exceeded by any lackey of absolute monarchy. The total defeat of the rebels at Frankenhausen (May 15, 1525), followed by the execution of Müntzer and several other leaders, proved to be a merely temporary check on the Anabaptist movement. Guild taxes were exacted. The German Peasants' War was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising prior to the French Revolution of 1789. Princedom by the grace of God, passive resistance, even serfdom, were being sanctioned by the Bible. The lesser nobility and the clergy paid no taxes and often supported their local prince. Although technically potential burghers, the journeymen were barred from higher positions by the wealthy families that ran the guilds. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:German Peasants' War, Germany. The knights also considered the clergy to be an arrogant and superfluous estate, while envying the privileges and wealth that the church statutes secured. The motive (found in the Frankenburger Würfelspiel of 1625) was an escalation of the Bavarian kingdom's attempt to press the country into the Catholic faith at the time of the Thirty Years' War. Luther's reform was not radical enough for them. It failed because of the intense opposition by the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. The peasant movement ultimately failed, with cities and nobles making separate peaces with the princely armies that restored the old order in a frequently still-harsher incarnation under the nominal overlordship of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, represented in German affairs by his younger brother Ferdinand. Quickly defeated drained what little income they could from their territories joined in the country and fell under... 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