Drummer of Niklashausen
Encyclopedia
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...
known as Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
. The year of his birth is unknown, for peasants such as Böhm living during the 15th century, were not considered significant contributions to the written historical record. However, Böhm's inconspicuous existence changes things abruptly.
One night in 1476, in the German town of Niklashausen
Niklashausen
Niklashausen is a district in the German municipality of Werbach, located in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg at the border to Bavaria, Germany...
, the village where Böhm was a shepherd
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
and street entertainer, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary. Böhm's conversations with one of the most powerful and beloved saints, inspired him to burn his drum in a medieval ritual, the Bonfire of the Vanities
Bonfire of the Vanities
Bonfire of the Vanities refers to the burning of objects that are deemed to be occasions of sin. The most infamous one took place on 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in...
; a public demonstration in which people threw their possessions, their vanities, into a communal bonfire to signify their dependency on God and adherence to the cult of poverty. More importantly the Virgin's apparition told him to preach the virtues of life. Her message was that of social equality.
Specifically, Böhm was to preach on the sins of the clergy, peasants and pilgrims should not pay rents to them and eventually, Böhm called for their death. Furthermore, Böhm was to promote the abolition of forced labor, tolls
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
, levies
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
and other payments to the nobles. The woods and waters of the earth were to be held in common for the use of people, not just the rich. Böhm's sermons, to level society, were radical in a highly structured hierarchal society and were deemed by the power brokers of the time, the clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
and nobles, to be dangerous. Thus, when in short time, tens of thousands of peasants from all over Germany converged on Niklashausen to hear the "Drummer Boy's" speeches, the authorities sensed a real and eminent threat. The resulting peasant revolt
Peasant revolt
Peasant, Peasants' or Popular is variously paired with Revolt, Uprising and War and may refer to :*Daze Village Uprising 209 BC*Yellow Turban Rebellion 184...
began in early May 1476 and culminated with the heresy trial and execution of Böhm on July 19, 1476.
Böhm's story represents the dissatisfaction and resentment of peasants for their physical condition and only avenue to which they could voice their frustrations, through structuring of religious or spiritual paradigms. Historian Richard Wunderli in his book, Peasant Fires the Drummer of Niklashausen, provides a detailed study of Böhm and the Nilkashausen peasant revolt of 1476 and is a great resource for understanding the abstruse peasant mentality.
What little is known about Böhm is obtained from surviving historical documentation of his enemies, namely the clergy and nobles, such as Count Johann of Wertheim, Archbishop Dieter von Isenberg of Mainz, and Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg
Rudolf von Scherenberg
Rudolf II von Scherenberg was Bishop of Würzburg from 1466 until his death.Rudolf von Scherenberg was the son of Erhard von Scherenberg and Anna von Massbach. On April 30, 1466, he was appointed as bishop to replace Johann von Grumbach. He was confirmed as bishop on June 20, 1466...
of Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
. The story was chronicled in 1514 by Johannes Trithemius
Johannes Trithemius
Johannes Trithemius , born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.-Life:He...
.
Sources
- The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. II: Basilica - Chambers.
- Hans Böhm und die Wallfahrt nach Niklashausen im Jahre 1476, C. A. Barack, Würzburg, 1858;
- Reformers before the Reformation, i, 377–392. C. Ullmann, Edinburgh, 1877
- Politische und religiöse Volksbewegungen vor der Reformation, pp. 10 sqq., E. Gothein, Breslau, 1878
- Die religiösen Sekten in Franken vor der Reformation, pp. 57 sqq., H. Haupt, Würzburg, 1882.
- Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen, Richard Wunderli, Indiana University Press