In January 2025, the Kolleg discussed the anniversary of the Peasants’ War with Gerd Schwerhoff and Lyndal Roper
In 1525, peasants in many regions of the Holy Roman Empire rose up against their rulers. To mark the 500th anniversary of the Peasants’ War, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg organised a public discussion and a masterclass in January 2025.
Gerd Schwerhoff, Senior Professor of Early Modern History at the Technical University of Dresden and Chairman of the Academic Advisory Board of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg, published two books on the subject last year, namely an impressive comprehensive account entitled ‘Der Bauernkrieg. Geschichte einer wilden Handlung’ [The Peasants’ War. History of a wild act] (C.H.Beck) and ’Auf dem Weg zum Bauernkrieg. Unruhen und Revolten am Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts‘ [On the way to the Peasants’ War. Unrest and revolts at the beginning of the 16th century] (UVK). Reason enough to invite him to a public discussion with EViR Director Ulrike Ludwig about the most important actors, motives behind, and the overall course of the Peasants’ War.
When initially asked about his personal fascination with the topic, Schwerhoff referred to his unease about the current state of research, stating that historic events had been buried under too many interpretations since the 1970s at the latest. Instead of proclaiming a ‘revolution of the common man’ (Peter Blickle) or an ‘early bourgeois revolution’ (GDR historical research), he would rather describe what actually happened and how contemporaries themselves perceived events.
Schwerhoff identified structural conflicts in rural society around 1500 and the Reformation as the roots of the uprising. The peasants’ obligation to provide compulsory labour and monetary levies to their landlords was a constant source of discontent. Serfdom was also emphatically rejected in the central catalogue of demands, the so-called Twelve Articles – even though it had ceased to exist in some regions. In addition, the secular rule of the clergy, which had already been lambasted as scandalous by Martin Luther, had led to a veritable anti-clericalism, which Schwerhoff described as the ‘guiding ideology of the rebellious peasants’.
In contrast to Luther, however, the peasants got serious and rebelled against their masters with armed force. It is, by the way, a cliché that they were only armed with pitchforks and flails. Due to the Landfolge, i.e. the duty to defend the land in the event of war, they were well equipped, lacking only artillery and horses. Well aware of this shortage, the peasants tried to avoid open battle against the lords, who would soon launch a counterattack. Even during raids, violence against people was much less common than material destruction and symbolic acts such as the plundering of monastic storehouses. According to Schwerhoff, contemporary accounts of the monastery raids could give the impression, ‘that the peasants were wading in blood, but they were actually wading through pools of wine’.
Schwerhoff described the Peasants’ War as a “wild act” due to the aspect of violence and the fact that it had no clear centre. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how quickly news spread through pamphlets and oral communication between the individual regions of the uprising, such as Swabia, Tyrol and Thuringia. At the same time, the lack of supra-regional coordination together with the discord within the peasant troops, were reasons for its eventual failure.
In an informative and entertaining discussion with Ludwig, Schwerhoff cut a path through the thicket of complex events and managed to captivate the numerous listeners for over an hour and a half. Many questions, for example about the long-term consequences of the uprising or the reasons why it did not take place in Westphalia, as well as several requests for book signings, illustrated the great response from the audience.
The following day’s masterclass on the Peasants’ War, organised by the Käte Hamburger Kolleg together with the SFB 1288 “Practices of Comparing” and the profile area “Pre-Modern History” at Bielefeld University, aimed at a more scholarly discussion. Alongside Gerd Schwerhoff, the second main guest was Historian Lyndal Roper from Oxford University, who has also recently published a highly acclaimed account entitled ‘Für die Freiheit. Der Bauernkrieg 1525’ [For Freedom. The Peasants’ War of 1525] (S. Fischer).
The first round of the discussion chaired by Ulrike Ludwig and Antje Flüchter (Bielefeld) asked about the relationship between chronological and systematic representations of historical events. In his commentary, Jan Siegemund (Bielefeld) referred to the usefulness of the history of events, as it produces basic knowledge for further research and at the same time is able to deconstruct interpretations of the history of ideas. Nikolas Funke (Münster) pointed out that conflictual events in particular had found their way into the archives and are therefore more in the focus of historiography than peaceful practice. Schwerhoff defended his approach of taking events as a starting point, as it is only once they are thoroughly analysed that systematic findings can be made. Roper, who focuses on the peasants’ quest for freedom in her book, pointed out that even purely chronological accounts are always interpretations. She argued that the Peasants’ War had revolutionary potential because it can be characterised as a moment in which the self-evident was called into question and the changeability of the existing order was demonstrated.
In the second round, the participants discussed the question of whether the Peasants’ War was a typical early modern phenomenon. Tilman Haug (Münster) wanted the uprising to be categorised in the transitional phase around 1500. Many aspects such as anti-clericalism, hatred of Jews or rural rebellions originated in the late Middle Ages; whereas the Peasants’ War was not a blueprint for subsequent conflicts. Malte Wittmaack (Bielefeld), on the other hand, saw typical early modern configurations at work, such as the peasants’ concept of freedom, the Reformation as the initial spark and book printing as a dissemination mechanism. Benjamin Seebröker (Münster) pointed out that, considering the force of the mass movement and its regional expansion, there were hardly any comparable events in the early modern period. At the same time, he deemed aspects such as the simultaneity of violent and legal conflict and the linking of religious and economic demands to be typical of the period.
In her reply, Roper also took up this both/and approach and expressed doubts as to whether the initial question made sense in the first place. In her view, the hatred of monasticism and the far-reaching aims of the peasants were certainly unprecedented. The participants of the masterclass were neither able nor willing to reach a consensus on the interpretation of the Peasants’ War. However, they agreed with Roper that the event was so far-reaching in terms of ideas, debates and social concepts that ‘the world was a different place afterwards than it was before’.
Lennart Pieper
Recording of the discussion with Gerd Schwerhoff (YouTube)
https://youtu.be/2yi74F8a87M
Zitieren als:
Lennart Pieper: “Struggle for freedom or wild act? In January 2025, the Kolleg discussed the anniversary of the Peasants’ War with Gerd Schwerhoff and Lyndal Roper”. EViR Blog, 18.03.2025, https://www.evir.uni-muenster.blog/peasantswar.
License:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Leave a Reply