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On May 15, 1525, in the battle of Frankenhausen, the German peasant army was surrounded, and 5,000 were slaughtered ; it ended the peasants' uprising. From the article:
"Müntzer believed his time had come. In a letter to the citizens of his former parish Allstedt he expressed the vision that the final battle was near: “Dran, dran, derweil das Feuer heiss ist. Gott geht euch voran, folget, folget!” ( “Forward, forward, while the iron is hot. God will lead you, follow, follow!!”)
At the end of April 7000 armed peasants had assembled in and around Mhlhausen, and Müntzer naturally assumed the leadership, not only the spiritual and political, something that was almost self-evident, but also the military, a surprising and, as later proven, fatal move.
The first chosen aim of the rebels of Mhlhausen was the castle of the Count Ernst von Mansfeld, an old adversary, and the peasant army moved to Frankenhausen, carrying the banner of the rebellion, a white banner with the rainbow colours that should remind the faithful of God's pact with Noah.
The princes of Central Germany meanwhile hadn't remained inactive, the Dukes of Brunswick and Saxony had assembled their armies, and joined by the Landgrave of Hessia, they marched towards Frankenhausen to suppress the revolt. On May 14th the two armies stood in view of each other on a field outside the town, both equal on strength, approximately 8000, but the armies of the Dukes consisted of well trained and well armed professional soldiers, in every aspect superior to Müntzer's peasant army.
The next day, the Dukes offered a three hour truce, in which the peasants were allowed to consider the conditions of surrender that was demanded. One of its stipulations was the handing over of Müntzer and his fellow leaders, after which the crowds were promised an amnesty under the condition that they would disband immediately.
Müntzer's camp deliberated for a short while, but as a couple of minor nobles that had joined the peasants' cause came out in favour of a surrender, they were promptly beheaded and the matter was thus settled.
There is no reliable account of the exact course of the Battle of Frankenhausen, and it hardly deserves its name. While Müntzer seemed to have spent the time until the expiry of the truce by preaching to the demoralised peasantry, outlining for a last time
his visionary ideas, the ranks of disciplined “Landsknechte” appeared to have moved slowly but steadily towards the peasants' camp, and without awaiting the end of the arranged truce suddenly opened fire on the peasants , assisted by their artillery. The fight was over in minutes, panic broke out in the camp, the peasants fled in disarray, pursued by the princely troops. What followed was a unmitigated slaughter, and when it was over 5000 of the 8000 peasants were killed, whilst the Landsknechte suffered 6 casualties. The remainder of the peasant army fled into Frankenhausen, but the tow was soon taken by the army of the Dukes. Müntzer, having been wounded during the fight, was discovered in a house, arrested and taken to the nearby castle of Herdrungen.
Mhlhausen itself, badly defended by Pfeiffer, surrendered a few days later, and the Thuringian peasant rebellion ended as fast as it had began.
Müntzer was subjected to intensive torture at the castle, and although he seemed to have recanted some of his beliefs, to what extent is not known and still disputed. On May 27th he and Pfeiffer were beheaded on the town square of Mhlhausen, with all the regional Dukes in attendance, and their heads customary put on spikes on the town walls. Mhlhausen itself was punished for harbouring the rebellious preacher, it lost its independence as free city and became a subject of the Duke of Saxony.
In the rest of Germany, mainly in the South, the peasant rebellion lingered on for a few more months of 1525, but in the end suffered the same fate as the Thuringian. The military superiority of the princely armies were no match for the peasants, region by region the revolt was brutally suppressed, followed by punishing tribunals. An important role in the oppression had been played, of all people, by Luther who in his pamphlet “Wider die mrderischen and ruberischen Rotten der Bauern” ( “Against the murdering and stealing gangs of peasants”) had declared firmly on the side of the worldly authorities of the Empire and against social and political upheaval.
The social dimension of the German reformation came to end in 1525. Although its radical wing, the Anabaptists, kept on preaching parts of Müntzer's visionary millenarianism, it never again rose to a serious political force, if one disregards the temporary establishing of a “New Jerusalem” in the Westphalian town of Mnster in 1534 by Dutch Anabaptists as the farcical episode it was.
The egalitarian ideas survive as well, on a much smaller scale as Müntzer had planned it, it was and to a certain extent still is practised by Anabaptist communities."
"Müntzer believed his time had come. In a letter to the citizens of his former parish Allstedt he expressed the vision that the final battle was near: “Dran, dran, derweil das Feuer heiss ist. Gott geht euch voran, folget, folget!” ( “Forward, forward, while the iron is hot. God will lead you, follow, follow!!”)
At the end of April 7000 armed peasants had assembled in and around Mhlhausen, and Müntzer naturally assumed the leadership, not only the spiritual and political, something that was almost self-evident, but also the military, a surprising and, as later proven, fatal move.
The first chosen aim of the rebels of Mhlhausen was the castle of the Count Ernst von Mansfeld, an old adversary, and the peasant army moved to Frankenhausen, carrying the banner of the rebellion, a white banner with the rainbow colours that should remind the faithful of God's pact with Noah.
The princes of Central Germany meanwhile hadn't remained inactive, the Dukes of Brunswick and Saxony had assembled their armies, and joined by the Landgrave of Hessia, they marched towards Frankenhausen to suppress the revolt. On May 14th the two armies stood in view of each other on a field outside the town, both equal on strength, approximately 8000, but the armies of the Dukes consisted of well trained and well armed professional soldiers, in every aspect superior to Müntzer's peasant army.
The next day, the Dukes offered a three hour truce, in which the peasants were allowed to consider the conditions of surrender that was demanded. One of its stipulations was the handing over of Müntzer and his fellow leaders, after which the crowds were promised an amnesty under the condition that they would disband immediately.
Müntzer's camp deliberated for a short while, but as a couple of minor nobles that had joined the peasants' cause came out in favour of a surrender, they were promptly beheaded and the matter was thus settled.
There is no reliable account of the exact course of the Battle of Frankenhausen, and it hardly deserves its name. While Müntzer seemed to have spent the time until the expiry of the truce by preaching to the demoralised peasantry, outlining for a last time
his visionary ideas, the ranks of disciplined “Landsknechte” appeared to have moved slowly but steadily towards the peasants' camp, and without awaiting the end of the arranged truce suddenly opened fire on the peasants , assisted by their artillery. The fight was over in minutes, panic broke out in the camp, the peasants fled in disarray, pursued by the princely troops. What followed was a unmitigated slaughter, and when it was over 5000 of the 8000 peasants were killed, whilst the Landsknechte suffered 6 casualties. The remainder of the peasant army fled into Frankenhausen, but the tow was soon taken by the army of the Dukes. Müntzer, having been wounded during the fight, was discovered in a house, arrested and taken to the nearby castle of Herdrungen.
Mhlhausen itself, badly defended by Pfeiffer, surrendered a few days later, and the Thuringian peasant rebellion ended as fast as it had began.
Müntzer was subjected to intensive torture at the castle, and although he seemed to have recanted some of his beliefs, to what extent is not known and still disputed. On May 27th he and Pfeiffer were beheaded on the town square of Mhlhausen, with all the regional Dukes in attendance, and their heads customary put on spikes on the town walls. Mhlhausen itself was punished for harbouring the rebellious preacher, it lost its independence as free city and became a subject of the Duke of Saxony.
In the rest of Germany, mainly in the South, the peasant rebellion lingered on for a few more months of 1525, but in the end suffered the same fate as the Thuringian. The military superiority of the princely armies were no match for the peasants, region by region the revolt was brutally suppressed, followed by punishing tribunals. An important role in the oppression had been played, of all people, by Luther who in his pamphlet “Wider die mrderischen and ruberischen Rotten der Bauern” ( “Against the murdering and stealing gangs of peasants”) had declared firmly on the side of the worldly authorities of the Empire and against social and political upheaval.
The social dimension of the German reformation came to end in 1525. Although its radical wing, the Anabaptists, kept on preaching parts of Müntzer's visionary millenarianism, it never again rose to a serious political force, if one disregards the temporary establishing of a “New Jerusalem” in the Westphalian town of Mnster in 1534 by Dutch Anabaptists as the farcical episode it was.
The egalitarian ideas survive as well, on a much smaller scale as Müntzer had planned it, it was and to a certain extent still is practised by Anabaptist communities."
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