An apocryphal story says that the German Peasant War of 1525 started over snail shells.
It’s never been easy to be a peasant, but in Germany in the late 1400s, things were getting steadily worse. Demands from the lords grew ever more extreme. Taxes increased, lords demanded a larger share of the harvest and refused to allow people to move without permission and an extra payment, and peasants were required to pay if they wanted to marry someone outside of their village. And to worsen things, Heriot, or death taxes, became more extreme. All the while, restrictions on foresting and fishing were making it harder to feed the family. People were hungry. There were skirmishes and protests but no real organization.
Then, in 1524, Countess Lüpfen demanded that her peasants spend a holiday collecting 1200 snail shells. She and her ladies would use them as thread spools. This injustice was enough to spark a war.
Ok, that’s a nice story, but of course, it’s not just about snails.
The German Peasant War of 1525, the Bauernkrieg
The rebellion was a long time coming, and in 1524, the stars aligned. Luther had just translated the Bible, Gutenberg’s movable type printing press made spreading the word much easier, and the Holy Roman Emperor and his Army were away fighting the Italian Wars. Peasants organized and wrote the Twelve Articles stating their grievances, and by 1525, they took up arms against the establishment.
In the end, they lost (spoiler alert), and over 100,000 people lost their lives. Hundreds of monasteries and castles were destroyed and plundered. However, the legacy of the Peasant War, including their demands and ideas of equality and brotherhood, still echoes today.
The Lead Up to the German Peasant War
The lead-up to the German Peasant War was a slow burn. After the Plague Years, the reduced population in Germany meant that those who remained could advance in status. A sort of restructuring of the class system led to the emergence of a larger merchant class. Now it looked like this.
Nobility at the Top
Lesser Nobles just below them.
Clergy and the growing Merchant Class in the Middle
Peasants at the bottom.
Peasants paid a tithe (or 10% of income) to the Church to support the Clergy. But in addition to this, the Nobility required support, and the Lesser Nobles, Clergy, and Merchant Class were all tax-exempt. This meant that the Peasant class was supporting everyone with their taxes and food production. The Feudal lords who used to work the land now sat back and let the lower classes do the work while they collected more and more revenue from rent.
Taxes and demands from the lords in different regions of Germany varied depending on their own systems or needs, but essentially, wealth tended to move upward.
They also increased their power and wealth by creating new conditions that tied the peasants or serfs to the land. Increased Heriot or death taxes meant that when a peasant died, his tools or best clothes would go to the lord rather than his family, and marriage laws meant a serf couldn’t marry onto another lord’s property without paying for his freedom. Peasants couldn’t take wood from the forests or fish from the ponds. Hunting was for nobility. Peasants worked harder than ever but were left hungry while those above them feasted.
Martin Luther and the 95 Thesis
In 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, calling for changes within the Catholic Church. Then Luther refused to back down at the Diet of Worms. (For more about this -> Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation). This questioning of authority swept through Germany like lightning. People saw Luther as a champion against aristocracy and clergy. They heard the words of the Bible in German for the first time.
And they began to organize.
Peasants Organize
Beginning in Stühlingen in the summer of 1524, leaders like Hans Müller began encouraging peasants to rally for change. Groups or Haufen formed in communities hoping for better conditions. Each Haufen, consisting of 2,000-5,000 people, was governed by an elected Ring. These groups, like cells, covered a specific area, approximately 20 kilometers apart. The word spread, and groups formed, spreading northeast from the Swiss Confederation to the Palatine, Franconia, Alsace, and Thuringia.
After the Harvest Season in 1524, peasant groups met in secret to discuss their grievances. They wanted their taxes reduced and to choose their village church’s Pastor. Primarily, though, they demanded a society with a more equitable structure based on their new understanding of Scripture.
By February of 1525, their grievances were solidified.
The Twelve Articles
Although separate peasant groups debated across the German Empire, 12 main points were agreed upon, and in Memmingen, Upper Swabia, Sebastian Lotzer, the author of many papers about the Reformation, and Christopher Schappder (Spelling), an evangelical preacher, wrote them down and created the manifesto that drove the rebellion forward.
Cover of a Pamphlet detailing the Twelve Articles
Via Public Domain.
The Twelve Articles were adopted on March 6, 1525, and submitted to the Swabian League.
Among the many demands-
The ability to choose their own Pastor and be taught the Scriptures without additional doctrine.
To only be required to pay a tithe, and that the clergy use just enough for reasonable support and then distribute the rest to the poor.
They wanted to take wood from the forests and use communal meadows.
To avoid draconian new laws being imposed on them.
To abolish heriot (the death tribute to the lord after a serf dies).
But most importantly, the peasants demanded a release from serfdom because “Christ delivered and redeemed us all.”
You can read the full text here- Twelve Articles.
Via Public Domain.
A Demand for Human Rights
Although they didn’t know at the time, this early statement of Human Rights would echo through the centuries. This new enlightened thinking would even be reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.
However, this was still the early 1500s. How did this manifesto spread so fast? The same way Luther’s Bible did, Gutenberg’s Movable Type Printing Press. Over 25,000 flysheets of the Twelve Articles were printed and dispersed! And even more peasants joined the rebellion. Pamphlets and Tracts were printed and spread both for and against the Peasants’ demands. The printing press got its first taste of propoganda.
To no one’s surprise, the first document of human rights was rejected outright by the nobles. And Martin Luther agreed with the nobles.
Luther Turned Against the Rebellion- The Doctrine of Two Realms
The serfs cried out for equality, claiming, ‘Since the son of God died for all of us, how can other people own serfs’? This statement was a bridge too far for Martin Luther. While he was initially sympathetic to their cause and agreed that communities should choose their own Pastor, he also insisted that rulers are divinely ordained to keep order on earth. The “freedom” he referred to in his writings meant spiritual freedom, not literal freedom.
Luther’s Doctrine of the Two Realms stated that nations could not be governed by rules that applied to the Christian community. There should be a separation of Church and State.
Why was Luther so opposed? There are a few lines of thought. The first is that Luther himself came from a wealthy mining family. The idea that peasants should be equal might have been absurd to him. Second, he owed his life to the lords who protected him from the Church after starting the Reformation. He couldn’t very well now side with the rabble who wanted to bring them down.
As the grumblings from the peasants grew, his writings changed, and he no longer agreed that parishes should choose their pastor; what if they chose someone inappropriate? A bible literalist, for example, or a pastor who rejected infant baptism like the Anabaptists? Or worse, one who refused to bow to secular authority.
(Short aside- the Anabaptists gained power and, for over a year, took over the city of Münster in NRW, but that is another story you can find here- Three Cages in Münster)
So the Rebels found other leaders, Thomas Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt.
Thomas Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt
Karlstadt, who dressed all in grey like a peasant, traveled through southern Germany preaching equality among men. He promoted Adult Baptism and believed that Christ was not present at the Eucharist. An Iconoclast, he generally ended his sermons by destroying sculptures and ornaments from the local church. He believed that Spiritual Reform would lead to Social Reform. His enthusiasm gained him many supporters.
Thomas Müntzer was with Martin Luther when he nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church and supported him in his fight against the Church. But after that, their paths split. Müntzer became a Mystic, believing that the 2nd coming was upon them and that the Reformation and Christian equality should be defended by the sword. Luther broke with his friend, worried that these extreme beliefs would jeopardize the Reform movement. Müntzer’s fiery and charismatic leadership easily persuaded an army to follow him. (One legend says that he convinced the peasants he could catch cannonballs in his shirt because Jesus was with them.)
Sansculotte at German Wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons
In 1525, The Battle Begins
On April 4, 1525, at the Battle of Leiphaim, 5,000 peasants came up against 8,000 trained troops from the Swabien League. It was a bloodbath. Over 3000 of the peasants were slaughtered. The peasants retaliated by destroying the village of Weinsberg. It was a massacre; soldiers and townspeople were slaughtered, and nobles were made to run the gauntlet. Word spread like fire that the peasants were ruthless. Fear spread through the nobility. And the tide turned in favor of the peasant army.
Martin Luther, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Remember, the monasteries and abbeys had no defenses. Their security was dependent on the peasants fearing the wrath of God. When that fear went away, so did their safety. The angry peasants were ruthless and filled with anger at the injustice of seeing fat, comfortable monks sitting around praying while they toiled in the fields and their children starved.
By May, HRE Charles V and his army returned from fighting the Italian Wars and joined the Swabian League. The peasant army was no match for thousands of trained soldiers on horseback.
On May 14- 15, 1525, Thomas Müntzer led his men against the princes of Hesse and Saxony at the Battle of Frankenhausen in Thuringia. The Black Company was annihilated, 5000-7000 peasants lost their lives, Müntzer was captured and ultimately beheaded on May 27. Over the next few weeks, retaliation against the peasants was harsh. Over 100,000 lost their lives. And then many more died of starvation because the fields were left unplanted.
The Bauernkrieg was over.
The Legacy of the German Peasant War of 1525
This short-lived and bloody war would leave its mark. Was it a religious war? Or a war of social equality. A little of both. The legacy echoed for generations. Nearly 100 years later, the Thirty Years War would involve much of Europe in a Religious War that started with the Reformation. The concept of human equality resurfaced in the Declaration of Independence and during the French Revolution. The Separation of Church and State would become law in the United States. Friederich Engles wrote about the Peasant War in 1850, shortly after the failed Revolution of 1848, comparing the class struggles of the Peasants to the German Socialists’ defeat. Later, this theme of Class Struggle would be important to East Germany.
In 1976, the East German government commissioned the painter Werner Tübke to create a magnificent panorama commemorating the Battle of Frankenhausen. The Peasant War Panorama / Bauernkriegpanorama measures 14 meters in height and 123 meters in circumference. It depicts scenes of important battles and events, with over 3000 figures! He completed just days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. You can visit it here- Panorama Museum Bad Frankenhausen
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The Summer of Fire and Blood
Lyndal Roper’s The Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War covers the war from every angle and in great detail. If you are interested in learning more about this pivotal moment in German history and the history of human rights, I highly recommend it.
Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War
If you’d like to read Frederick Engels book on the Peasant War-
References-
Summer of Fire and Blood : The German Peasants’ War by Lyndal Roper
The War of Snails- 10 Curious Facts about the German Peasant Revolt
Kümin, B. (2025). The Pleasants and the Empire. History Today, 75(3), 28–39.
Govind P. Sreenivasan. The Social Origins of the Peasants’ War of 1525 in Upper Swabia. Past & Present , May, 2001, No. 171 (May, 2001), pp. 30-65
Freedman, P. (1993). The German and Catalan Peasant Revolts. The American Historical Review, 98(1), 39–54.