Hans Berlin

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Hans Berlin was a notary and procurator from Heilbronn . During the German Peasants' War in 1525 he was a confidante of both the Heilbronn Council and the farmers.

Berlin came from a branch of the Heilbronn patrician family that had moved to Wimpfen and had provided several Heilbronn mayors , including Hans Berlin , who was still alive in 1525 . His father was probably the goldsmith Peter Berlin from Wimpfen.

After Hans Berlin became a citizen of Heilbronn, he was first a tailor , then a wagmeister , and finally a notary and procurator . He also went bankrupt once and was temporarily in the service of Count von Löwenstein .

He was not a member of the Heilbronn council, but enjoyed its trust as well as that of the farmers. On May 2, 1525, the council sent him to Amorbach for various matters, to the camp of the bright, light heap of peasants around the captains Georg Metzler , Götz von Berlichingen and Wendel Hipler . There Berlin was drawn into the council of farmers. He wrote to the Heilbronn council on May 4th that he had to “help the farmers do a number of mandates and other things”. It was probably the Declaration of the Twelve Articles , an attempt, also known as the Amorbach Declaration or Amorbach Explanation , to weaken the Twelve Articles of the peasantry. It is unclear whether Berlin is also the intellectual co-author of this declaration; Wilhelm Zimmermann and Friedrich Engels assume so.

After his return to Heilbronn, Berlin proclaimed the declaration as “the opinion and order of the peasants” in Kilian's Church and other places. The explanation was not popular with the farmers. When Margarete Renner, the black court lady , heard Berlin announce the new articles in Böckingen , she accused him of trying to cheat the peasants and called on her friends to stab Berlin, whereupon he fled.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Zimmermann: History of the great peasant war. Volume 2. Rieger, Stuttgart 1856, p. 57ff.
  2. ^ Friedrich Engels: The German Peasant War. In: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Works. Volume 7. Dietz, Berlin 1960, pp. 385, 392

literature

  • Moriz von Rauch : Heilbronn in the Peasants' War. In: From the Heilbronn city history. Festschrift for Helmut Schmolz. Jahrbuch-Verlag, Weinsberg 1988 ( yearbook for Swabian-Franconian history. Special volume), pp. 163-185 (originally published in the report of the Heilbronn Historical Society 14, 1921/22)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Berlin, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German notary and procurator who played a role in the peasant war
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH 16th Century