The Peasant War in Germany

come  with  pilgrims’  staves,  but  covered  with  weapons  and  ammunition,  in  one  hand  a
candle, in the other a sword and a pike or halberd, and the Holy Virgin will then announce
to you what she wishes you to do.” But before the peasants came in masses, the horsemen
of  the  bishop  seized  the  prophet  of  rebellion  at  night,  and  brought  him  to  the  Castle  of
Wuerzburg.  On  the  appointed  day,  34,000  armed  peasants  appeared,  but  the  news  had  a
discouraging effect on the mass; the majority went home, the more initiated retained about
16,000 with whom they moved to the castle under the leadership of Kunz of Thunfeld and
his  son  Michael.  The  bishop,  by  means  of  promises,  persuaded  them  to  go  home,  but  as
soon  as  they  began  to  disperse,  they  were  attacked  by  the  bishop’s  horsemen,  and  many
were imprisoned. Two were decapitated, and Hans the Piper was burned. Kunz of Thunfeld
fled, and was allowed to return only at the price of ceding all his estates to the monastery.
Pilgrimages to Niklashausen continued for some time, but were finally suppressed.
After  this  first  attempt,  Germany  remained  quiet  for  some  time;  but  at  the  end  of  the
century rebellions and conspiracies of the peasants started anew.
We shall pass over the Dutch peasant revolt of 1491 and 1492 which was suppressed by
Duke Albrecht of Saxony in the battle near Heemskerk; also the revolt of the peasants of
the  Abbey  of  Kempten  in  Upper  Suabia  which  occurred  simultaneously,  and  the  Frisian
revolt under Shaard Ahlva, about 1497, which was also suppressed by Albrecht of Saxony.
These  revolts  were  mostly  too  far  from  the  scene  of  the  actual  Peasant  War.  In  part  they
were struggles of hitherto free peasants against the attempt to force feudalism upon them.
We  now  pass  to  the  two  great  conspiracies  which  prepared  the  Peasant  War:  the  Union
Shoe and the Poor Konrad.
The rise in the price of commodities which had called forth the revolt of the peasants in
the Netherlands, brought about, in 1493, in Alsace, a secret union of peasants and plebeians
with  a  sprinkling  of  the  purely  middle-class  opposition  party;  and  a  certain  amount  of
sympathy  even  among  the  lower  nobility.  The  seat  of  the  union  was  the  region  of
Schlettstadt,  Sulz,  Dambach,  Rossheim,  Scherweiler,  etc.  The  conspirators  demanded  the
plundering and extermination of the Jews, whose usury then, as now, sucked the blood of
the peasants of Alsace, the introduction of a jubilee year to cancel all debts, the abolition of
taxes,  tolls  and  other  burdens,  the  abolition  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  Rottweil  (imperial)
court,  the  right  to  ratify  taxation,  the  reduction  of  the  priests’  incomes  to  a  prebend  of
between  fifty  and  sixty  guilders,  the  abolition  of  the  auricular  confession,  and  the
establishment  in  the  communities  of  courts  elected  by  the  communities  themselves.  The
conspirators planned, as soon as they became strong enough, to overpower the stronghold
of Schlettstadt, to confiscate the treasuries of the monasteries and the city, and from there
to  arouse  the  whole  of  Alsace.  The  banner  of  the  union  to  be  unfurled  at  the  moment  of
The Peasant War in Germany
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insurrection, contained a peasant’s shoe with long leather strings, the so-called Union Shoe,
which gave a symbol and a name to the peasant conspiracies of the following twenty years.
The  conspirators  held  their  meetings  at  night  on  the  lonesome  Hungerberg.
Membership in the Union was connected with the most mysterious ceremonies and threats
of severest punishment against traitors. Nevertheless, the movement became known about
Easter  Week  of  1493,  the  time  appointed  for  the  attack  on  Schlettstadt.  The  authorities
immediately intervened. Many of the conspirators were arrested and put on the rack, to be
quartered  or  decapitated.  Many  were  crippled  by  chopping  their  hands  and  fingers,  and
driven out of the country. A large number fled to Switzerland. The Union Shoe, however,
was  far  from  being  annihilated  and  continued  its  existence  in  secret.  Numerous  exiles,
spread  over  Switzerland  and  South  Germany,  became  its  emissaries.  Finding  everywhere
the same oppression and the same inclination towards revolt, they spread the Union Shoe
over  the  territory  of  present-day  Baden.  The  greatest  admiration  is  due  the  tenacity  and
endurance with which the peasants of upper Germany conspired for thirty years after 1493,
with which they overcame the obstacles to a more centralised organisation in spite of the
fact  that  they  were  scattered  over  the  countryside,  and  with  which,  after  numberless
dispersions, defeats,  executions  of leaders,  they  renewed  their conspiracies  over  and over
again, until an opportunity came for a mass upheaval.
In  1502,  the  bishopric  of  Speyer,  which  at  that  time  embraced  also  the  locality  of
Bruchsal,  showed  signs  of  a  secret  movement  among  the  peasants.  The  Union  Shoe  had
here  reorganised  itself  with  considerable  success.  About  7,000  men  belonged  to  the
organisation  whose  centre  was  Untergrombach,  between  Bruchsal  and  Weingarten,  and
whose  ramifications  reached  down  the  Rhine  to  the  Main,  and  up  to  the  Margraviate  of
Baden. Its articles provided: No ground rent, tithe, tax or toll to be paid to the princes, the
nobility or the clergy; serfdom to be abolished; monasteries and other church estates to be
confiscated  and  divided  among  the  people,  and  no  other  authority  to  be  recognised  aside
from the emperor.
We  find  here  for  the  first  time  expressed  among  the  peasants  the  two  demands  of
secularising  the  church  estates  in  favour  of  the  people  and  of  a  unified  and  undivided
German  monarchy  –  demands  which  henceforth  will  be  found  regularly  in  the  more
advanced faction of the peasants and plebeians.
In Thomas Muenzer’s programme, the division of the church estates was transformed
into confiscation  in  favour of  common  property,  and the  unified  German  empire, into the
unified and undivided republic.
The renewed Union Shoe had, as well as the old, its own secret meeting places, its oath
The Peasant War in Germany
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