Peasant War (Bauernkrieg), a great insurrection of the German peasantry which broke out in the beginning of the year 1525. The oppression of the peasants had gradually increased in severity as the nobility became more extravagant and the clergy more sensual and degenerate. The example of Switzerland encouraged the hope of success, and from 1431 to 1517 there were risings amongst the peasants of the south and west of Germany. A peasant rebellion took place in the Rhine countries in 1502, and another in Württemberg, in 1514, both of which were put down without any abatement of grievances. The Reformation, by stirring up the desire of freedom, must be reckoned amongst the causes of the great insurrection itself; although Luther, Melanchthon, and the other leading reformers, whilst urging the nobles to justice and humanity, strongly reprobated the violent proceedings of the peasants. The Anabaptists, however, encouraged them, and peasant insurrections, quickly suppressed, took place in 1522 and 1523. In January 1525 the peasantry of the abbacy of Kempten suddenly assailed and plundered the convent. This proved the signal for a rising of the peasants throughout the south of Germany. Many of the princes and nobles at first regarded the insurrection with complacency, because it was directed in the first instance chiefly against the ecclesiastical lords; some, too, because it seemed to set bounds to the increase of Austrian power. But the Archduke Ferdinand hastened to raise an army, and entrusted the command of it to Von Waldburg, a man of stern and unscrupulous character. Von Waldburg defeated and destroyed some large bodies of peasants, but was himself defeated by them on the 22d of April. Meanwhile the insurrection extended, and a number of towns took part in it, as Heilbronn, Mühlahausen, Fulda, Frankfort, &c., but there was a total want of organisation and co-operation. On 25th March 1525 there appeared in Upper Swabia a manifesto, in which the insurgents demanded the free election of their parish clergy; the appropriation of the tithes, after maintenance of the parish clergy, to the support of the poor; the abolition of serfdom; the restoration to the community of forests, fields, and meadows which the secular and ecclesiastical lords had appropriated; release from arbitrary augmentation and multiplication of services, duties, and rents; the equal administration of justice; and the abolition of some of the most odious exactions of the clergy. The conduct of the insurgents was not, however, in accordance with the moderation of their demands. Their many separate bands destroyed convents and castles (more than 1000 in all), murdered, pillaged, and were guilty of the greatest excesses. A number of princes and knights concluded treaties with the peasants, conceding their principal demands. The siege of Marienberg, near Würzburg, gave time to their enemies to strengthen their forces. Götz von Berlichingen (q.v.) was one of the captains of the besieging peasants, who, he afterwards maintained, had forced him to lead them. In May and June 1525 the peasants sustained a number of severe defeats; and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the Saxon Dukes, the electors of the Palatinate and Treves, and Frundsberg were successful farther north. The peasants were everywhere treated with terrible cruelty; more than 130,000 were killed in Upper Germany alone. Multitudes were hanged in the streets, and many were put to death with the greatest tortures. Würzburg and other towns which had joined them suffered the terrible revenge of the victors. It is supposed that more than 150,000 persons lost their lives in the Peasant War. Flourishing and populous districts were desolated. The lot of the defeated insurgents became harder than ever, and many burdens of the peasantry originated at this period. The cause of the Reformation and of German national life also was very injuriously affected. Similar peasant insurrections in other countries are treated of under TYLER, CADE, KET, JACQUERIE, SPARTACUS.
See works by Jörg (1851), Cornelius (1861), Baumann (1877), Fries (1883), Hartfelder (1884; 2d ed. 1889); the histories of Germany; and works cited at LUTHER, &c.