Allgäu heap
The Allgäuer Haufen was an association of farmers and craftsmen in the German Peasants' War in 1525 in the central and northern Allgäu and a member of the Christian Association .
history
Establishment of the heap
prehistory
The history of the Allgäuer Haufen is closely linked to the history of Kempten Abbey . In 1491 there was a bad harvest , which resulted in severe famine among the population. On November 15, 1491, under the leadership of Jörg Hug from Untrasried, the common people gathered in front of the monastery.
Already at the beginning of the last century there was a disastrous development with regard to the legal position of the peasants, who due to high tax burdens often became serfs. For fear of the people, the clergy of the monastery called the Swabian Federation for help. Half a pennant of troops from the Swabian League was called in. Their captains threatened the peasants and at the same time urged them to show obedience to church power. After talking to the abbot and other people from the convention, there were no improvements for the farmers. The farmers did not know a way out and in turn called the Swabian League against the prince monastery. Furthermore, a messenger was sent to the imperial court in Vienna, where Maximilian I was staying.
One of the messengers sent was Heinrich Schmid from Leubas , Jörg Schmid's father. He disappeared without a trace and never reappeared. There was a rumor among the farmers that the Swabian Federation had Heinrich Schmid eliminated. The second messenger came as far as Vienna, but his mission was ineffective. Before the matter could be dealt with, the Swabian Federation intervened by force of arms and expelled the farmers. Abbot Johann left it at that, but gave the order to fortify Liebenthann Castle and to set up an extensive arsenal there.
Since inheritance law in the area of the prince monastery stipulated that half of the property would be confiscated in the event of death, the Schmid family became impoverished. The son Jörg Schmid now belonged to the urban proletariat in Kempten. He appeared in the city lists as a bleacher . His name appears one more time on the prison lists. There he had to swear the original feud . In 1523 a plague epidemic struck the city. The abbot also fell victim to her.
Bundling
The office of prince abbot was occupied by Sebastian von Breitenstein from 1523 to 1536 . He was 59 years old when he took office. At the same age, a few months before taking office, he was ordained a priest . Until now, Breitenstein had always avoided ordination . He had a birth son, born out of wedlock, and that fact touched his honor. He did not dare to gather the area of the prince monastery with its 17 parishes to pay homage. He visited the parishes individually and received homage individually. He met resistance in all parishes. He promised to convene the entire landscape of the monastery at Candlemas in 1524. He did not keep this promise. For the next year and a half he had newer delegations of the peasants come and set up daily statutes. The cost of these 12 negotiations totaled 4,000 guilders, which the peasants had to pay.
The 13th assembly was called on the Monday after the Three Kings on January 9, 1525 at Obergünzburg. It was about the restoration of the free and the Zinser who were depressed at a lower level. In the course of the negotiations, the peasants gave the prince abbot a book with 1200 names with formerly free interesters. But this meeting was also unsuccessful.
On January 23, 1525, the farmers of the entire landscape gathered under the leadership of Jörg Schmid in Leubas at the gates of Kempten. Up until now Schmid had only ever been one of the farmers' delegates. Jörg Täuber from Heising, who had a fate similar to his, became his ally. There it was decided unanimously to file a lawsuit with the Swabian Federation. Jörg Schmid personally handed over a notarized protest and complaint document to Federal Governor Walter Hürnheim zu Ulm . Then Schmid's journey continued to Tübingen to see Dr. Jakob Hünninger, from whom Jörg Schmid obtained legal information.
The peasants wanted to restore the so-called old law. The catchphrase of divine law made the rounds. The right that comes directly from God and makes man human. The farmers believed they had found this right in the Bible. This idea is first found in John Wyclif , among others . Although the gospel does not provide any indication of a new world order and only speaks of the kingdom of God, Paul does not deny slavery in his letters. The freedom of the baptized Christian is only freedom from sin. The reformer Christoph Schappeler, who was born in St. Gallen and worked in Memmingen, also takes up Wyclif's thoughts on divine law and brings them to the people.
On February 14, 1525, subjects of the Princely Monastery of Kempten gathered in Sonthofen and decided to enforce what is now known as divine law against the clergy, the Swabian League and the Emperor in Vienna. The Allgäu group was between 7,000 and 9,000 strong, reinforced by mercenaries. On February 20, 1525, Bartholme Frey appeared in Tübingen and called Schmid back to the Allgäu. One no longer needs a law.
Christian association
The further development in the region was initially not, but in the medium term very strongly influenced by events outside the country: On February 24, 1525, the imperial army defeated the French troops of King Francis I in the Battle of Pavia under Emperor Charles V.
On February 27, 1525 the bells of Dietmannsried rang an agreed alarm signal in Dietmannsried and Knopf caused part of the Allgäu heap to go to Dietmannsried. Another meeting takes place in Leubas. There it became known that the prince abbot von Kempten had fled to his fortified Liebenthann castle. At the same time, a council from Kempten appeared and announced that they were close to the farmers.
On March 6, 1525, over 50 farmers' leaders from the Baltringer Haufen , the Seehaufen and the Allgäuer Haufen gathered in Memmingen. There they founded the Christian Association . Sebastian Lotzer became the secretary of the Christian Association. On March 20, their delegates met again and explained the Twelve Articles and the Federal Order .
The Allgäu heap formed a committee that met on March 4, 1525 in Kempten. Walther Bach von Oy, a man who had gained experience in Frundsberg's army and understood the new war tactics, became the leader and captain of the Allgäu heap.
The Swabian Federation viewed these meetings with suspicion. His Chancellor Leonhard von Eck a Bayer described the gathering as a peasant uprising, a fire fanned by the devil, which had to be beaten out with ruthless violence. He found an ally in the military leader Georg Truchseß von Waldburg , who saw this similarly and first defeated the Baltringer band in a bloody battle on April 4, 1525. Over 1000 farmers died in the Battle of Leipheim .
In addition, the Landsknechte under Frundsberg returning from Northern Italy were recruited by the Swabian Federation. The Swabian Federation called on the farmers to lay down their arms.
The Allgäuer Haufen was not aware of the news of the Baltringer's defeat when they besieged Liebenthann Castle on Good Friday, April 2, 1525 . First of all, all entrances to the castle were closed and the water dug up. During the siege, another group violently plundered the prince monastery in Kempten. On April 4, 1525, Wolkenberg Castle was looted. The same thing happened with the castles in Hohentann, Unterthingau and Schwabelsberg near Kempten. On April 9, Liebenthann Castle was besieged for almost a week. The prince abbot surrendered to the Kempter council, which was brought up to mediate. Jörg Schmid received 300 guilders , two horses and a lot of bedding from the castle treasure.
The whole of the treasure that the peasants plundered was considerable. Cash, monstrances , silver dishes, reliquary shrines and other church utensils with an estimated value of 60,000 guilders, plus the supplies of salt, flour, grain, wine, 33 beds, 60 piece cans, 6 half-snakes and the valuable holdings of the monastery archive. Everything was distributed among 140 parishes. The abbot's staff was sold for 50 guilders. The castles in Angelberg , Mattsies Castle and Imrazhofen Castle were also looted.
Internal disputes arose among the farmers. On May 2nd, Jörg Schmid recommended the heap at a meeting on the Schweigwiese near Durach not to enter into the contract with the sea heap. On May 10th, Walther Bach was removed from office by Oy, robbed of his Landsknecht uniform and put into rough peasant clothes. Paulin Probst von Ettwiesen became the new general of the farmers.
In the meantime, the stewardess and his army had put down the uprisings in Upper Swabia and Franconia. On June 3, 1525, the day before Pentecost, Georg von Frundsberg , the victor of the Battle of Pavia, marched into Füssen . The stewardess received new troops from these returnees at the instigation of the Swabian Federation. This means that 3,000 battle-hardened mercenaries were also available for the fight against the peasants.
On July 11, 1525, the Truchsess arrived in Wolfertschwenden with 6000 mercenaries and 1500 riders . Opposite him on the other side of the hill were 3,000 armed farmers who camped on the border of the Allgäu.
Combat contact and end
In the evening of the day, the first combat contact took place in Schrattenbach . Frundsberg offered the bunch another mediation. Archduke Ferdinand also spoke to the Swabian Federation. The main concern of Waldburgs was that the farmers would retreat to the high mountains. In this case he was determined to send women and children after the peasants and burn down their homes and farms. The call for help from the Allgäu to the Seehaufen was acknowledged with rejection. One did not want to break the Weingartner contract. The other Allgäu clusters, the Pfrontner and Obergünzburger clusters, did not want to support the Allgäu clusters either.
The armed peasants now had a strategically good position on a hill, secured on three sides. A total of 23,000 men had gathered. But there was a lack of food and ammunition. Poor discipline and inadequate combat experience in the field made a surprise attack by the farmers on the Truchsess fail.
Frundsberg negotiated again with his former comrade in arms, Walther Bach von Oy, and offered him money if he should vacate the position. On the night of July 14th to 15th, he vacated the position, saving the lives of thousands of farmers. He led a remainder of the heap about 9000 men to the coal mountain near Sulzberg. The peasants left their only artillery behind.
The Truchsess burned down Leubas , Ursulasried , Leupolz and Betzigau . From Sulzberg , the farmers saw the columns of smoke in their burning villages. There were a total of 200 farm properties. In front of the Durach field, where the farmers had met several times, the steward pitched his field camp . Now he asked them to surrender. The farmers followed suit, left Jörg Schmid and surrendered on mercy or disgrace. 70 ringleaders were imprisoned in the church of Durach. The stewardess had 18 beheaded immediately.
Jörg Schmid fled to Rankweil in Vorarlberg . There he was betrayed and taken prisoner. He was then locked up, interrogated and tortured in the Bludenz prison. He was asked 30 questions from the Swabian Federation and 57 questions from the Kempter prince abbot. The death sentence that Schmid implored was pronounced. Archduke Ferdinand did not want to accept it.
The Swabian Federation insisted on the execution of 17 ringleaders. They were laid in iron and transferred to Bregenz and imprisoned in the city wall tower. On the night of January 20, 1526, everyone except Jörg Schmid and his closest confidante the Conz Wirt were able to flee. Both were hung on an oak tree on January 21, 1526 between Bregenz and Lochau . This type of execution took place under the old law and not under the new divine law.
literature
- Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz (Hrsg.): Life pictures from Bavarian Swabia . Volume 4. Max Hueber Verlag, Munich 1955, ( publications by the Swabian Research Association at the Commission for Bavarian State History 3, 4, ISSN 0515-8974 ).