The Peasant War in Germany

occur to them to unite with the Wuerttemberg Gay Christian Troop, because previously the
peasants of Wuerttemberg and the Neckar valley refused to come to their assistance. When
Truchsess  had  moved  far  enough  from  their  home  country,  they  returned  peacefully  and
marched to Freiburg.
We  left  the  Wuerttemberg  peasants  under  the  command  of  Matern  Feuerbacher  at
Kerchief below Teck, from where the observation corps left by Truchsess had withdrawn
towards Urach under the command of Dietrich Spaet. After an unsuccessful attempt to take
Urach,  Feuerbacher  turned  towards  Nuertingen,  sending  letters  to  all  neighbouring
insurgent  troops,  calling  reinforcements  for  the  decisive  battle.  Considerable
reinforcements actually came from the Wuerttemberg lowlands as well as from Gaeu. The
Gaeu peasants had grouped themselves around the remnants of the Leipheim Troop which
had withdrawn to West Wuerttemberg, and they aroused the entire valleys of Neckar and
Nagoldt  up  to  Boetlingen  and  Leonberg.  Those  Gaeu  peasants,  on  May  5,  came  in  two
strong  columns  to  join  Feuerbacher  at  Nuertingen.  Truchsess  met  the  united  troops  at
Boetlingen.  Their  number,  their  cannon  and  their  position  perplexed  him.  As  usual,  he
started  negotiations  and  concluded  an  armistice  with  the  peasants.  But  as  soon  as  he  had
thus secured his position, he attacked them on May 12 during the armistice, and forced a
decisive  battle  upon  them.  The  peasants  offered  a  long  and  brave  resistance  until  finally
Boetlingen was surrendered to Truchsess owing to the betrayal of the middle-class. The left
wing  of  the  peasants,  deprived  of  its  base  of  support,  was  forced  back  and  encompassed.
This  decided  the  battle.  The  undisciplined  peasants  were  thrown  into  disorder  and,  later,
into  a  wild  flight,  those  that  were  not  killed  or  captured  by  the  horsemen  of  the  Union
threw  away  their  weapons  and  went  home.  The  Bright  Christian  Troop,  and  with  it  the
entire  Wuerttemberg  insurrection  was  gone.  Theus  Gerber  fled  to  Esslingen,  Feuerbacher
fled  to  Switzerland,  Jaecklein  Rohrbach  was  captured  and  dragged  in  chains  to
Neckargartach,  where  Truchsess  ordered  him  chained  to  a  post,  surrounded  by  firewood
and  roasted  to  death  on  a  slow  fire,  while  he,  feasting  with  horsemen,  gloated  over  this
noble spectacle.
From  Neckargartach,  Truchsess  gave  aid  to  the  operations  of  the  Elector  Palatine  by
invading  Kraichgau.  Having  received  word  of  Truchsess’  successes,  the  Elector,  who
meanwhile  had  gathered  troops,  immediately  broke  his  agreement  with  the  peasants,
attacked  Bruchrain  on  May  23,  captured  and  burned  Malsch  after  vigorous  resistance,
pillaged  a  number  of  villages,  and  garrisoned  Bruchsal.  At  the  same  time  Truchsess
attacked  Eppingen  and  captured  the  chief  of  the  local  movement,  Anton  Eisenhut,  whom
the  Elector  immediately  executed  with  a  dozen  other  peasant  leaders.  Bruchrain  and
Kraichgau  were  thus  subjugated  and  compelled  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  about  40,000
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guilders. Both armies, that of Truchsess now reduced to 6,000 men in consequence of the
preceding  battles,  and  that  of  the  Elector  (6,500  men),  united  and  moved  towards  the
Odenwald.
Word of the Boetlingen defeat spread terror everywhere among the insurgents. The free
imperial cities which had come under the heavy hand of the peasants, sighed in relief. The
city of Heilbronn was the first to take steps towards reconciliation with the Suabian Union.
Heilbronn was the seat of the peasants’ main office and that of the delegates of the various
troops who deliberated over the proposals to be made to the emperor and the empire in the
name  of  all  the  insurgent  peasants.  In  these  negotiations  which  were  to  lay  down  general
rules  for  all  of  Germany,  it  again  became  apparent  that  none  of  the  existing  estates,
including  the  peasants,  was  developed  sufficiently  to  be  able  to  reconstruct  the  whole  of
Germany  according  to  its  own  viewpoint.  It  became  obvious  that  to  accomplish  this,  the
support  of  the  peasantry  and  particularly  of  the  middle-class  must  be  gained.  In
consequence, Wendel Hipler took over the conduct of the negotiations. Of all the leaders of
the  movement,  Wendel  Hipler  had  the  best  understanding  of  the  existing  conditions.  He
was  not  a  far-seeing  revolutionary  of  Muenzer’s  type;  he  was  not  a  representative  of  the
peasants  as  were  Metzler  or  Rohrbach;  his  many-sided  experiences,  his  practical
knowledge  of  the  position  of  the  various  estates  towards  each  other  prevented  him  from
representing one of the estates engaged in the movement in opposition to the other. Just as
Muenzer, a representative of the beginnings of the proletariat then outside of the existing
official  organisation  of  society,  was  driven  to  the  anticipation  of  communism,  Wendel
Hipler,  the  representative,  as  it  were,  of  the  average  of  all  progressive  elements  of  the
nation, anticipated modern bourgeois society. The principles that he defended, the demands
that he formulated, though not immediately possible, were the somewhat idealised, logical
result of the dissolution of feudal society. In so far as the peasants agreed to propose laws
for  the  whole  empire,  they  were  compelled  to  accept  Hipler’s  principles  and  demands.
Centralisation  demanded  by  the  peasants  thus  assumed,  in  Heilbronn,  a  definite  form,
which, however, was worlds away from the ideas of the peasants themselves on the subject.
Centralisation, for instance, was more clearly defined in the demands for the establishment
of  uniform  coins,  measures  and  weights,  for  the  abolition  of  internal  customs,  etc.,  in
demands, that is to say, which were much more in the interests of the city middle-class than
in the interests of the peasants. Concessions made to the nobility were a certain approach to
the  modern  system  of  redemption  and  aimed,  finally,  to  transform  feudal  land  ownership
into bourgeois ownership. In a word, so far as the demands of the peasants were combined
into  a  system  of  “imperial  reform,”  they  did  not  express  the  temporary  demands  of  the
peasants but became subordinate to the general interests of the middle-class as a whole.
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