Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / The Kraichgau Peasants: Germany's 1525 Uprising
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you've got a good sense of Germany's big turning points — the Reformation, the hyperinflation, the fall of the Wall. But there's an upheaval that started the very same year as the Reformation and ended with a hundred thousand dead, and it's barely mentioned outside of Germany. I'm talking about the Peasants' War of 1524–1525. Luna: The one Luther famously turned against? Lucas: Exactly. And that's the crazy part — Luther's ideas about Christian freedom and the priesthood of all believers had electrified the countryside. Peasants read his pamphlets and thought, wait, if we're all equal before God, why are we still serfs? Why do we owe the lord three days of forced labor a week? Lucas: So in early 1525, across the region we now call Baden-Württemberg — especially the Kraichgau, a hilly area between Heidelberg and Heilbronn — peasant bands started organizing. They drew up lists of grievances. The most famous is the 'Zwölf Artikel' — the Twelve Articles — printed in Memmingen in March 1525. It became the most widely distributed pamphlet of the entire Reformation era. Lucas: In terms of actual print runs, yes. Over 25 editions in just two months. The Twelve Articles demanded things like the right to choose their own pastors, the abolition of serfdom, the right to hunt and fish on common land. They were remarkably moderate — they cited Scripture for every demand. They even offered to withdraw any article that could be proven un-Christian. Lucas: But the nobles weren't interested in debating theology. By April 1525, the uprising had spread from the Kraichgau into the Black Forest, into Swabia, into Franconia. At its peak, over 300,000 peasants were in arms, organized into roughly a dozen 'Haufen' — bands with names like the 'Evangelical Brotherhood' or the 'Christian Union.' Luna: And they had leaders, right? Not just random farmers. Lucas: Some were elected captains. In the Kraichgau, a farmer named Wendel Hippler emerged as a key organizer. But the most famous leader was Thomas Müntzer — a radical theologian who'd broken with Luther. Müntzer believed the apocalypse was at hand and that the peasants were God's instruments to purge the godless rulers. He'd been preaching in the Thuringian town of Mühlhausen, and in May 1525 he led a rebel army into battle at Frankenhausen. Luna: That didn't end well for them. Lucas: It was a massacre. The Swabian League — a military alliance of princes, knights, and imperial cities — had raised a professional army under Georg Truchsess von Waldburg. At Frankenhausen on May 15, 1525, the peasants were poorly armed and outmaneuvered. Eight thousand were killed; Müntzer was captured, tortured, and executed. Luther, meanwhile, had written a pamphlet titled 'Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of the Peasants' — urging the nobles to crush them like mad dogs. His language was savage. Lucas: Other battles followed. The Swabian League moved through the Kraichgau, burning villages and hanging ringleaders. In the town of Weinsberg, the peasants had killed the local count in a particularly humiliating way — they made him run a gauntlet of pikes. That gave the nobility a propaganda gift. By July 1525, it was over. The rebel leaders were dead, and the survivors faced mass executions or fines. Serfdom was actually reinforced — it would last in some parts of Germany until the nineteenth century. Luna: So the peasants ended up worse off than before. Lucas: Much worse. The uprising left a deep scar. For centuries, German historians either ignored the Peasants' War or treated it as a senseless bloodbath. It wasn't until the twentieth century — especially in East Germany — that it was reclaimed as a forerunner of socialist revolution. But the truth is more complicated. These weren't proto-communists. They were farmers and artisans who believed the Gospel had set them free, and they demanded that the social order reflect that. Lucas: You know, something I think about when we dig into an episode like this — we're able to spend the time on these stories because the show is listener-supported. No ads, no sponsors. Just people who chip in a little each month at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small group, but it makes this possible. Luna: Yeah, I think that's part of why we can go deep on a topic like the Kraichgau peasants — without having to rush to a commercial break. Lucas: Exactly. And now, back to the aftermath. The Peasants' War had a strange epilogue. One of the rebel commanders, Götz von Berlichingen — the knight with the iron hand — later claimed he was forced to lead the peasants against his will. He wrote a memoir that made him a folk hero. But his legend, like Müntzer's, is a reminder that the Germany we know was forged not just by princes and reformers, but by thousands of ordinary people who risked everything for a world they'd never see. Luna: And whose names we mostly don't know. Lucas: Right. The Kraichgau farmers, the women who carried food to the camps, the scribes who copied the Twelve Articles — they're the real story. And maybe next time you're driving through Baden-Württemberg, past those rolling hills, you'll remember them.