The Peasant War in Germany

Chapter 1
The Economic Situation and Social Classes in Germany
The German people are by no means lacking in revolutionary tradition. There were times
when  Germany  produced  characters  that  could  match  the  best  men  in  the  revolutions  of
other countries; when the German people manifested an endurance and energy which, in a
centralised  nation,  would  have  brought  the  most  magnificent  results;  when  the  German
peasants  and  plebeians  were  pregnant  with  ideas  and  plans  which  often  made  their
descendants shudder.
In  contrast  to  present-day  enfeeblement  which  appears  everywhere  after  two  years  of
struggle  (since  1848)  it  is  timely  to  present  once  more  to  the  German  people  those
awkward but powerful and tenacious figures of the great peasant war. Three centuries have
flown  by  since  then,  and  many  a  thing  has  changed;  still  the  peasant  war  is  not  as  far
removed  from  our  present-day  struggles  as  it  would  seem,  and  the  opponents  we  have  to
encounter  remain  essentially  the  same.  Those  classes  and  fractions  of  classes  which
everywhere betrayed 1848 and 1849, can be found in the role of traitors as early as 1525,
though on a lower level of development. And if the robust vandalism of the peasant wars
appeared in the movement of the last years only sporadically, in the Odenwald, in the Black
Forest, in Silesia, it by no means shows a superiority of the modern insurrection.
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Let  us  first  review  briefly  the  situation  in  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  Sixteenth
Century.
German industry had gone through a considerable process of growth in the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Centuries. The local industry of the feudal countryside was superseded by the
guild  organisation  of  production  in  the  cities,  which  produced  for  wider  circles  and  even
for  remote  markets.  Weaving  of  crude  woollen  stuffs  and  linens  had  become  a  well-
established, ramified branch of industry, and even finer woollen and linen fabrics, as well
as silks, were already being produced in Augsburg. Outside of the art of weaving, there had
arisen those branches of industry, which, approaching the finer arts, were nurtured by the
demands  for  luxuries  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastic  and  lay  lords  of  the  late  mediaeval
epoch:  gold-  and  silver-smithing,  sculpture  and  wood-carving,  etching  and  wood-
engraving,  armour-making,  medal-engraving,  wood-turning,  etc.,  etc.  A  series  of  more  or
less  important  discoveries  culminating  in  the  invention  of  gunpowder  and  printing  had
considerably aided the development of the crafts. Commerce kept pace with industry. The
Hanseatic League, through its century-long monopoly of sea navigation, had brought about
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the emergence of the entire north of Germany out of medieval barbarism; and even when,
after the end of the Sixteenth Century, the Hanseatic League had begun to succumb to the
competition of the English and the Dutch, the great highway of commerce from India to the
north still lay through Germany, Vasco da Gama’s discoveries notwithstanding. Augsburg
still  remained  the  great  point  of  concentration  for  Italian  silks,  Indian  spices,  and  all
Levantine products. The cities of upper Germany, namely, Augsburg and Nuernberg, were
the  centres  of  opulence  and  luxury  remarkable  for  that  time.  The  production  of  raw
materials  had  equally  progressed.  The  German  miners  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  had  been
the most skilful in the world, and agriculture was also shaken out of its mediaeval crudity
through  the  blossoming  forth  of  the  cities.  Not  only  had  large  stretches  of  land  been  put
under cultivation, but dye plants and other imported cultures had been introduced, which in
turn had a favourable influence on agriculture as a whole.
Still,  the  progress  of  national  production  in  Germany  had  not  kept  pace  with  the
progress  of  other  countries.  Agriculture  lagged  far  behind  that  of  England  and  Holland.
Industry  lagged  far  behind  the  Italian,  Flemish  and  English,  and  as  to  sea  navigation,  the
English, and especially the Dutch, were already driving the Germans out of the field. The
population was still very sparse. Civilisation in Germany existed only in spots, around the
centres  of  industry  and  commerce;  but  even  the  interests  of  these  individual  centres
diverged  widely,  with  hardly  any  point  of  contact.  The  trade  relations  and  markets  of  the
South differed from those of the North; the East and the West had almost no intercourse.
No city had grown to become the industrial and commercial point of gravity for the whole
country, such as London was for England. Internal communication was almost exclusively
confined  to  coastwise  and  river  navigation  and  to  a  few  large  commercial  highways,  like
those  from  Augsburg  and  Nuernberg  through  Cologne  to  the  Netherlands,  and  through
Erfurt to the North. Away from the rivers and highways of commerce there was a number
of  smaller  cities  which,  excluded  from  the  great  trade  centres,  continued  a  sluggish
existence  under  conditions  of  late  medieval  times,  consuming  few  non-local  articles,  and
yielding  few  products  for  export.  Of  the  rural  population,  only  the  nobility  came  into
contact  with  wide  circles  and  new  wants;  the  mass  of  the  peasants  never  overstepped  the
boundaries of local relations and local outlook.
While in England, as well as in France, the rise of commerce and industry had brought
about a linking of interests over the entire country, the political centralisation of Germany
had succeeded only in the grouping of interests according to provinces and around purely
local centres. This meant political decentralisation which later gained momentum through
the exclusion of Germany from world commerce. In the degree as the purely feudal empire
was  falling  apart,  bonds  of  unity  were  becoming  weakened,  great  feudal  vassals  were
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