German Peasants War
In 1524 and 1525 peasants across the German lands rose against their lords in the largest popular uprising in Europe before the French Revolution.
Overview
Rising burdens of serfdom, tithes, and restrictions on common land combined with the ideas of the Reformation, which many peasants read as a call for justice. The Twelve Articles drawn up at Memmingen in 1525 demanded the right to choose pastors, the end of serfdom, and fair rents. Bands of peasants stormed castles and monasteries across southern and central Germany. The radical preacher Thomas Muntzer joined the rising in Thuringia. Martin Luther condemned the rebels, and the armies of the princes and the Swabian League crushed them in battles such as Frankenhausen in 1525. Estimates suggest around one hundred thousand people were killed.
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