Baltringer Haufen
Encyclopedia
The Baltringer Haufen was prominent among several armed groups of peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

s and craftsmen
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

 during the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

 of 1524-1525. The name derived from the small Upper Swabia
Upper Swabia
Upper Swabia is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Alb, Lake Constance and the Lech...

n village of Baltringen
Baltringen
Baltringen is a once autonomous village in Baden-Württemberg in the region of Upper Swabia, situated approximately 17 km north of Biberach. Administratively, Baltringen is part of the municipality of Mietingen...

, which lies approximately 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) south of Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...

 in the district of Biberach
Biberach (district)
Biberach is a district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Ravensburg, Sigmaringen, Reutlingen and Alb-Donau, and the Bavarian districts Neu-Ulm, Unterallgäu and the district-free city Memmingen...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In the early modern period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...

 the term Haufe(n) (literally: heap) denoted a lightly organised military formation particularly with regard to Landsknecht
Landsknecht
Landsknechte were European, predominantly German mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of Early modern Europe.-Etymology:The term is from German, Land "land, country" + Knecht...

 regiments.

Formation of the Baltringer Haufen

According to the account of a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

 from nearby Heggbach Abbey
Heggbach Abbey
Heggbach Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Heggbach, now part of the municipality of Maselheim in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.- History :...

, local peasants assembled and conferred in an inn at Baltringen for the first time on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 1524. From then on regular meetings took place, the number of attendants reaching 80 at the beginning of February 1525. Whereas in other regions the peasants met and discussed at markets, in Baltringen this occurred during the Fastnacht
Fastnacht
The Swabian–Alemannic Fastnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria....

(Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

) season, which aided conspirative gatherings in that peasants were wont to travel from village to village for eating and drinking, giving them the opportunity to discuss matters at hand. Drawing participants from the whole region, these meetings eventually became more regular, taking place every Tuesday with the number of attendants gradually swelling to 400, at which point meetings were beginning to be held in open space, the Baltringer Ried, a boggy area (now drained) just outside the village of Baltringen. On 3 or 4 February 1525 the peasants chose as their representative Ulrich Schmid (Huldrich Schmid), a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 from the nearby village of Sulmingen
Maselheim
Maselheim is a town in the district of Biberach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

, who hesitantly accepted the task.

The peasants' demands

Soon the authorities learnt of these meetings and representatives of the Swabian League
Swabian League
The Swabian League was an association of Imperial States - cities, prelates, principalities and knights - principally in the territory of the Early medieval stem duchy of Swabia, established in 1488 at the behest of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and supported as well by Bertold von...

,
an association of Imperial cities
Imperial City
-Places:* Imperial City, Beijing, the central section of Beijing* Imperial City , a walled fortress and palace in the former capital of Vietnam.* Free imperial city, city formally responsible only to the emperor in the Holy Roman Empire,....

, principalities, both ecclesiastic and secular, and knights, contacted the Baltringer Haufen. While the Imperial cities advocated negotiations and mediation, the princes pleaded for a strategy of violence. The Imperial League chose as their representatives Johann von Königsegg, Wilhelm von Köringen and the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Ulm, Ulrich Neidhardt, who met the peasants in the Baltringer Ried on 9 February 1525 asking them to write down their complaints. One week, later, on 16 February 1525, in the presence of between 10000 to 150000 peasants, a list of complaints was delivered in written form to the representatives of the Swabian League: more than 300 written complaints, one for each village.

The main complaint made by the Baltringen peasants was the fact that they were serfs
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...

. They also requested the reduction of rents and annual duties in kind
Payment in kind
Payment in kind refers to payment for goods or services with a medium other than legal tender ....

, as well as the abolition of death duty
Inheritance tax
An inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate of a person who has died...

. Furthermore, they asked not to be burdened with socage
Socage
Socage was one of the feudal duties and hence land tenure forms in the feudal system. A farmer, for example, held the land in exchange for a clearly defined, fixed payment to be made at specified intervals to his feudal lord, who in turn had his own feudal obligations, to the farmer and to the Crown...

 any longer and to be allowed to utilise timber from the forests. They also opposed the little tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

 but were prepared to pay great tithe in order to provide for the upkeep of their respective local priest.

Following the reply by of the Swabian League, delivered on 27 February 1525, Ulrich Schmid justified the peasants' demands by referring to the "Divine Law
Divine law
Divine law is any law that in the opinion of believers, comes directly from the will of God . Like natural law it is independent of the will of man, who cannot change it. However it may be revealed or not, so it may change in human perception in time through new revelation...

", the concept of which, as opposed to the Traditional (Old) Law, meaning the traditional legal norms, offered a completely new perspective in the legal relationship between lord and peasant. The political order had to be compared with the divine will as manifested in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

. By doing so, the peasant challenged the whole concept of traditional law. Ulrich Schmid, the representative of the Baltringer Haufen, rejected the traditional legal process through the Imperial Chamber Court to solve the complaints of the peasants. Theologians had to decide as to whether the peasants' demands were justified. Ulrich Schmid proposed that a group of men, learnèd and steeped in Christian lore, should decide what constitutes this "Divine Law". The representatives of the Swabian League concurred and announced that they would also pray to God in order to ensure that these learnèd men would be chosen. Ulrich Schmid hoped that regarding this issue he would be helped in Memmingen
Memmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...

 where he managed to recruit Sebastian Lotzer
Sebastian Lotzer
Sebastian Lotzer was a Memmingen journeyman furrier and scribe to the Baltringer Haufen, a peasant army during the German Peasants' War...

, a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

 furrier, to take on the role of clerk to the Baltringer Haufen. On 28 February 1525, the Baltringer Haufen officially declared its formation to the Imperial city of Ehingen
Ehingen
Ehingen is a town in the Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, situated on the left bank of the Danube, approx. 25 km southwest of Ulm and 67 km southeast of Stuttgart.-Statistics:...

 in a missive composed by Lotzer. The wording of this missive seems to imply that there may already have been contacts between Lotzer, who resided in Memmingen and had been active as clerk to the Memminger peasants, and Schmid well before the end of February 1525.

Formation of the Christian Alliance

On the initiative of Lotzer and Schmid, representatives of three peasants' armies, the Baltringer Haufen, the Allgäuer Haufen and the Seehaufen (based near Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...

), both of which had formed shortly after the Baltringer Haufen, met in Memmingen where they decided to merge and, on 6 March 1525, formed the Christian Association. In a letter they informed the Swabian League of the association's formation and declared their intention not to use violence while asking the League to refrain also from violence.
Based on the demands by the Baltringer Haufen and with the probable participation of the Memmingen preacher Christoph Schappeler
Christoph Schappeler
Christoph Schappeler was a German religious figure, the preacher at St. Martin's in Memmingen during the early 16th century, during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War. He tended to side with the poor, causing the senate to regulate his sermons in 1516. However, by 1521 the...

 the association worked out the most famous document of the Peasants' War, the Twelve Articles, in which the idea of "Divine Law" was combined with the peasants' demands. On 7 March 1525 Sebastian Lotzer, the Baltringers' clerk, also penned the Federal Ordinance (Bundesordnung), the Christian Association's draft constitution. On 15 and 16 March 1525, during further deliberation of the assembled peasants at Memmingen, a list of persons, who were supposed to evaluate and examine the peasants' wishes, demands and aims, and were to ascertain what actually constitutes "Divine Law" was published. It contains 14 names amongst which were well-known reformers such as Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

, Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...

 and Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli
Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of humanism...

 as well as Archduke
Archduke
The title of Archduke denotes a noble rank above Duke and below King, used only by princes of the Houses of Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine....

 Ferdinand
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

 of Austria and Frederick of Saxony
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Frederick III of Saxony , also known as Frederick the Wise , was Elector of Saxony from 1486 to his death. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria...

. The Swabian League rejected the list. It seems that this list was the main bone of contention in the negotiations between the representatives of the Swabian League and the peasants. A second, amended list was published on 20 March 1525 and presented to the Swabian League in Ulm on 24 March 1525. The names on this list were supposed to be less contentious, comprising persons of more local and regional importance. The following day, a new proposal, developed by the mayors of Kempten
Kempten
Kempten can refer to:* Kempten im Allgäu, a town in Bavaria, Germany* Kempten ZH, a district of the town of Wetzikon in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland* Kempton Park, Gauteng, a city in South Africa which was named after Kempten in Bavaria...

 and Ravensburg
Ravensburg
Ravensburg is a town in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre...

, was handed over to the peasants' representatives, containing demands for the dissolutions of the Christian Alliance, the formation of an arbitration court, distancing of the peasants from the idea of "Divine Law" and obedience to the authorities. The peasants were given until 2 April to decide on these counter-demands.

Escalation

The Swabian League had been in conflict with Duke Ulrich of Württemberg
Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg
Herzog Ulrich von Württemberg succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as Duke of Württemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503.-Early life:...

 for several years. As a consequence, at the beginning of 1525 the troops of the Swabian League commanded by Georg Truchsess von Waldburg (later known as Bauernjörg) were occupied in suppressing an attempt by Duke Ulrich to regain his throne. At the behest of Leonhard von Eck, the Bavarian chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

 and the most influential person within the Swabian League, negotiations with the peasants were to be stalled until the war against Duke Ulrich was successfully concluded, so that the League's troops deployed in this war could be utilised against the peasants. During the second half of March 1525 the Swabian League's military action against Duke Ulrich of Württemberg finally ended which freed forces to intervene in Upper Swabia. In a letter dated 25 March 1525 the Baltringer Haufen complained that soldiers belonging to the Swabian League had started to attack villages. They emphasised again that they demanded nothing but the application of the "Divine Law." The situation escalated after news that troops of the Swabian League, consisting of 8000 footsoldiers and 3000 cavalry, had arrived at Ulm reached the peasants on 26 March 1525. The same day the peasants looted Schemmerberg Castle which was in the possession of the Salem Abbey
Salem Abbey
Salem Abbey , also known as Salmansweiler and in Latin as Salomonis Villa, was a very prominent Cistercian monastery in Salem in the district of Bodensee about ten miles from Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Abbey:The abbey was founded in 1136 by Gunthram of Adelsreute Salem Abbey (Kloster or...

. The following day, as a reaction to the slaying by troops of the Swabian League of a landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...

 from Griesingen
Griesingen
Greisingen is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

 returning from Memmingen, 8000 enraged peasants stormed and looted, amongst others, Heggbach Abbey, Laupheim Castle, Untersulmetingen Castle
Untersulmetingen Castle
Untersulmetingen Castle is a small castle-like renaissance structure in the village of Untersulmetingen, now part of the municipality of Laupheim, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.- Location :...

 and Achstetten Castle
Achstetten Castle
Achstetten Castle is a classicist mansion in the southern German municipality of Achstetten in Upper Swabia.- Location :Achstetten Castle is located at an elevation of about 503 m in the southern part of the municipality close to the parish church St Oswald and Agatha, the 18th century country inn...

, the latter two were also burnt to the ground. The monasteries of Gutenzell
Gutenzell Abbey
Gutenzell Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in the municipality of Gutenzell-Hürbel in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The origins of the monastery are unknown...

, Ochsenhausen
Ochsenhausen Abbey
Ochsenhausen Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Ochsenhausen in the district of Biberach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.- History :...

, Wiblingen
Wiblingen Abbey
Wiblingen Abbey was a former Benedictine abbey which was later used as barracks. Today its buildings house several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm. The former abbey is located south of the confluence of the rivers Danube and Iller, south of the city of Ulm in the German...

 and Marchtal
Marchtal Abbey
Marchtal Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery in Obermarchtal in the Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The minster church of Saints Peter and Paul, the former abbey church, located on a prominent elevation, still dominates the landscape for miles around.-First foundation:In 776...

 were forced to support the Baltringer Haufen by provisioning the peasants with goods. At the same time intense diplomatic activities by the Upper Swabian cities were instigated in order to prevent a military confrontation between the peasants and the Swabian League by appealing to both parties to refrain from violence. In the end all these efforts were to no avail.

On 31 March 1525 troops of the Swabian League based at Erbach moved towards Dellmensingen in order to loot the village. Even though the commanding office of this detachment, Count
Landgrave
Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

 Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, had planned to cross the Danube with all his forces, he did not manage to have his artillery traverse the river and due to the boggy terrain the cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 could not be utilised either. Parts of the Baltringer Haufen, however, had been deployed at Dellmensingen. During the ensuing battle 50 soldiers of the Swabian League lost their lives. Consequently, the attacking troops retreated over the river Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

. Further skirmishes took place near Achstetten, Oberstadion
Oberstadion
Oberstadion is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

 and Zwiefalten
Zwiefalten
Zwiefalten is a municipality in the district of Reutlingen, located halfway between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. The former Zwiefalten Abbey dominates the town...

 during which several villages, after having been looted, were set ablaze by troops of the Swabian League. Following these first unsuccessful attempts to subdue the Baltringer Haufen, Georg Truchsess von Waldburg then turned to face the challenge of the seemingly more threatening peasant army that had formed near Leipheim
Leipheim
Leipheim is a town in the district of Günzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the Danube, 5 km west of Günzburg, and 17 km northeast of Ulm. The village Riedheim and the hamlet Weissingen are districts of Leipheim...

. During the ensuing battle, the Leipheimer Haufen was utterly defeated on 4 April 1525; their leaders, Hans Jakob Wehe and seven others, were executed by being beheaded
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...

 the next day. On 10 April 1525 the Swabian League's army under the command of Georg Truchsess von Waldburg departed Leipheim in order to return to Upper Swabia. The next day the army encountered a band of peasants near Laupheim who decided to make a stand on the hill where the local church stood. During the ensuing battle, the army of the Swabian League killed 150 farmers, scattering the survivors into the surrounding forests. This enabled Georg Truchsess von Waldburg to proceed to Baltringen where he arrived on 12 April 1525, accompanied by a force of 400 men. The remaining forces of the Baltringer Haufen between Biberach and Ulm capitulated unconditionally. In spite of orders by the Swabian League, the village of Baltringen was not burnt to the ground.

Aftermath

Some units (Fähnlein
Fähnlein
The Fähnlein was a military unit approximately equivalent to the company or battalion which was used in parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. The Fähnlein, meaning "small banner", consisted of foot soldiers that were organized under a single banner, hence the unit's name...

) of the Baltringer Haufen, however, took part in the Battle of Leipheim on 14 April 1525, whereas others had joined forces with the Seehaufen and the Allgäuer Haufen and were part of the forces confronted by Georg Truchsess von Waldburg in mid-April 1525 near Weingarten
Weingarten
Weingarten is the name of several places:* Weingarten, Württemberg, Germany** Weingarten Abbey* Weingarten , Germany* Weingarten, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany* Weingarten, Thuringia, Germany* Weingarten, Switzerland* Weingarten, Missouri, USA...

. The army of the Swabian League was clearly outnumbered by the peasants. Georg Truchsess von Waldburg did not dare to attack the Haufen and chose instead to negotiate. This led to the Treaty of Weingarten, a treaty between the Swabian League and the Seehaufen and the Allgäuer Haufen on 17 April 1525. The Swabian League, however, refused the subsequent application of the treaty's terms to the Baltringer Haufen.

After their military defeat, the peasants had to renew their oath of allegiance, followed by a wave of claims for compensation. The peasants form Baltringen were punished particularly severe: even though the village was not put to the torch as ordered by the Swabian League, they had to pay double the punitive damages other villages had to pay. Generally, villages that were thought to have been involved with or sympathetic to the Baltringer Haufen were ordered to pay fines. In Biberach, for example, the Spital, a charitable institution and at the same time a large landowner in Upper Swabia, imposed fines on 684 of its approximately 2400 subjects in 38 villages.

The leaders of the Baltringer Haufen, Ulrich Schmid, Sebastian Lotzer and Christoph Schappeler
Christoph Schappeler
Christoph Schappeler was a German religious figure, the preacher at St. Martin's in Memmingen during the early 16th century, during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War. He tended to side with the poor, causing the senate to regulate his sermons in 1516. However, by 1521 the...

, managed to save their lives by escaping to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

The immediate retribution of the Swabian League consisted of the execution of those leading figures of the uprising it managed to apprehend. Since most of the prominent figures of the Baltringer Haufen had eluded capture, the Swabian League resorted to executing a number of peasants as a deterrent. Yet, even six months later, in September 1525, Hans Burkhard von Ellerbach, the lord of Laupheim, had 14 peasants arrested, two of which were executed by decapitation.

Assessment

The Baltringer Haufen had a major influence on the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

 in Upper Swabia and beyond. Even though it was not successful in persuading the other Haufen to follow its demand of non-violence and its invocation of the "Divine Law", its leaders nevertheless suggested the merging of the three dominant peasant armies in the region to form the Christian Alliance. The influence and contribution of the Baltringer Haufen is clearly visible in the Twelve Articles and the Federal Ordinance both of which became the most important manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...

s of the German Peasants' War. The insurrection failed because the Baltringer Haufen supported a policy of non-violence until the arrival of the troops of the Swabian League and was therefore unprepared for a military conflict. Even though many of the peasants had some military experience and the Baltringer Haufen had artillery at its disposal, they lacked cavalry. What turned out to be even more important, however, was the lack of military and political leaders who were able to survey and assess the situation as a whole and combine the multitude of local complaints into an effective challenge the Swabian League had to reckon with. Differences in opinion between the three Haufen with regards to the Federal Ordinance meant that the Allgäuer Haufen and the Seehaufen did not come to the aid of the Baltringer Haufen once the Swabian League moved its troops against it. The Swabian League was well aware of this disunity. None of the various Haufen seemed to have been generally prepared to operate outside their own region, or come to the assistance of other Haufen under attack, which facilitated the suppression of the insurrection by the troops of the Swabian League. Yet, the peasants' uprising left its marks on Upper Swabia. Following the Treaty of Weingarten, a series of contracts between peasants and their lords was concluded with the result that the situation of the peasants slowly began to change for the better, economically as well as legally. In particular, the living conditions of the serfs
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...

 began to improve; serfdom was gradually to be phased out over the next centuries.

The Baltringer Haufen remembered

In the basement of Baltringen's town hall two rooms are dedicated to the commemoration of the Baltringer Haufen. The museum, called "Place of Remembrance for the Baltringer Haufen - Peasants' War in Upper Swabia", evolved out of a former single-room museum, called the "Peasants' War Parlour", founded in 1984, following a resolution by the local council, and designed by Franz Liesch. Its purpose was to document the history of the Baltringer Haufen. By doing so, Baltringen became the first place in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 to establish a museum dedicated to the Peasants' War. On the 475th anniversary of the events in 1525, the new premises, following a concept designed by Benigna Schönhagen, were opened on 7 April 2000 by Peter Blickle.

See also

  • German Peasants' War
    German Peasants' War
    The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

  • Bundschuh movement
    Bundschuh movement
    The Bundschuh movement was a loosely linked series of localized peasant rebellions in southwestern Germany. It played an important part in the German Peasants' War of the early 15th and 16th centuries. It was so called because of the peasant shoe the peasants displayed on their flag – symbolizing...

  • Peasants' War
    Peasants' War
    The Peasants' War was a popular revolt that took place in Europe during 1524–1525...

  • Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
    Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
    Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants is a piece written by Martin Luther, related to The German Peasants' War. The Peasants' War took place between 1524 and 1526, as a result of a tumultuous collection of grievances in many different spheres: political, economic, social, and...


Further reading


External links

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