Hans Waldmann was mayor of Zurich and Swiss military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

 leader. The son of a peasant in Zug, he married well and became Squire

Squire

The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...

 of Dubelstein.

Waldmann lead the Confederates in the Burgundian Wars

Burgundian Wars

The Burgundian Wars were a conflict between the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France, later involving the Old Swiss Confederacy, which would play a decisive role. Open war broke out in 1474, and in the following years the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the...

 defeating Charles the Bold with an army estimated at 12,000 men. As mayor of Zurich and a representative of the oligarchs in the Confederacy, Waldmann sought to impose higher taxes on neighboring rural villages which, taken together with a disdain for his reputed aristocratic excesses, led to a peasant revolt. 500 peasants from Knonau are said to have toppled Waldmann as mayor in 1489. Waldmann was beheaded on April 6, 1489 following accusations of financial corruption, foreign connections and sodomy.

The equestrian monument in front of the Fraumünster

Fraumünster

The Fraumünster abbey in Zurich was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zurich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority.- History :In 1045, King Henry III...

 (47.3698°N 8.5421°E) was unveiled on 6 April 1937 by the Kämbel guild

Zünfte of Zürich

There are fourteen historical Zünfte of Zurich, under the system established in 1336 with the "guild revolution" of Rudolf Brun...

, aiming to rehabilitate Waldmann who they proposed had been the victim of a judicial murder

Judicial murder

Judicial murder is the unjustified execution of death penalty.The term was first used in 1782 by August Ludwig von Schlözer in reference to the execution of Anna Göldi...

. It was the subject of controversy for artistic reasons, deemed by conservative critics as being overly modern for the historical city center.

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