Title: German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Reformation Uprising
Headings: German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Uprising of the Poor
German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Uprising of the Poor
Agrarian and Urban Poor Waged Class Warfare Against Their Rulers
Context
The Revolt
Twelve Articles of Memmingen
Frankenhausen
Key Figures
Resolution

Content: More than 5,000 peasants were killed, and the leaders captured and executed. Key Figures
Martin Luther, whose ideas inspired some of the princes in German-speaking Europe to break with the Roman Catholic Church, opposed the peasant rebellion. He preached peaceful action by the peasants in his An Exhortation of Peace in Response to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants. He taught that peasants had a responsibility to farm the land and rulers had the responsibility to keep the peace. Just at the end as the peasants were losing, Luther published his Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants. In this, he encouraged a violent and quick reaction on the part of the ruling classes. After the war was over and the peasants defeated, he then criticized the violence by the rulers and the continued suppression of peasants. Thomas Müntzer or Münzer, another Reformation minister in Germany, supported the peasants, by the early part of 1525 had definitely joined the rebels, and may have consulted with some of their leaders to shape their demands. His vision of a church and the world used images of a small “elect” battling a greater evil to bring good into the world. After the end of the revolt, Luther and other Reformers held up Müntzer as an example of taking the Reformation too far.