The Peasants’ War of Thomas Müntzer

In Mühlhausen he organized a group called the Eternal Covenant of God. After another expulsion he went to Nürnberg, where further writings were published. He then went on to Hegau and Klettgau, the area where the Peasants’ War (an abortive revolt in 1524–25 against the nobles over rising taxes, deflation, and other grievances) was beginning, and stayed through the winter in Griessen.

His experience with the rising insurrection impelled him to go back to Mühlhausen, which became the centre of the uprising in central Germany (after the overthrow of the governing council and the formation of what the insurgents called an “eternal council” in March 1525). During the uprising, Müntzer even assumed command of the local troops.

Müntzer dismissed resistance to his understanding of reform as a revolt against God. He believed that only if the common people were to realize the law of God within themselves, and place group interests above those of the individual, would they be capable of demonstrating the will of God externally for the transformation of society. Müntzer’s work was concerned mainly with the religious and ethical training of the peasants and teaching them to comprehend his concept of a future society without social and legal distinctions. During the rebellion, which he may have understood as the final struggle between good and evil, Müntzer tried to relate the concerns of the peasants, tradesmen, and commoners with that of the liberation of all Christendom. The collapse of the revolt seemed to him the judgment of God on the as yet unpurified people but not the defeat of his idea of a new society. Müntzer was taken prisoner, tortured, and, on May 27 at the princes’ camp at Mühlhausen, was tried and executed.