History of Baden-Württemberg

On 24 June 1524, the feast of St. John, Countess Helena von Lupfen gave the residents of Stühlingen the task of collecting snail shells for her. She wanted them for her maids to wind yarn around. This was the cause of a violent development.

Namely, the countess' task intensified the wrath of the peasants. In the Stühlingen area, as in other parts of the southwest, they had been at odds with their nobility for a long time. The peasants had announced that they were no longer willing to carry out the traditional drudgery and services and to levy taxes. The peasants wanted to hunt in the woods and fish in the rivers for themselves, without being punished for it.

The peasants from Stühlingen, Bonndorf, Ewattingen and other villages banded together; they amounted to 1200 men. On 23 August 1524 they took off in the direction of Waldshut, the Anterior Austrian city on the Upper Rhine. Waldshut itself was in conflict with the imperial house in Vienna because of the Reformation. Because of that, the rebellious peasants received support and welcome in the city.

The leader of the peasants was Hans Müller of Bulgenbach in the Hotzenwald. As a trooper of the emperor and as a one-time follower of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, he brought combat experience.

From Waldshut the peasant mob marched to the neighboring town of Tiengen. There, they were to reach an amicable agreement with Count Sigmund von Lupfen. But the count rode off prematurely, as he wanted to avoid a conflict with the peasants. Thus, after an unsuccessful siege of the count's castle, the unrest swelled further.

Also in the Hegau, the land neighboring the Klettgau in the northeast, displeased peasants came together in September. On Sunday after St. Michael's Day (29 September), they announced at the consecration of the church in Hilzingen that they, like those from Stühlingen, no longer wanted to suffer the injustices of their nobles. The Hegau peasants began, together with the Stühlingen peasants, under the leadership of Hans Müller, their first campaign through the southern Black Forest. Up to 3500 peasants were to some extent together. Many of them covered up to 100 kilometers in their six day march. Going out from the Wutach valley, they reached as far as Furtwangen, via Neustadt. Everywhere they pleaded their cause and explained why they were discontented and what demands they were making on their nobility. It came to no violence. The peasants' march brought an initial success with Count Sigmund von Lupfen. He came around and agreed to have a court of arbitration that would be formed based on the peasants' concepts and that would handle the matters under dispute. The peasants broke up their rebellion and went home. They obligated themselves to comply with all the tasks imposed in the judgement of the court.

Not all were happy with this agreement. For many, too little was achieved and faith in justice was shaken. The Black Forest peasants from bordering areas claimed the Stühlingen solution for themselves, which was of course denied to them.

The deliberations of the court of arbitration led to no outcome. Even 62 articles of grievance that the Stühlingers and other peasants were able to lay before the supreme court in Esslingen did not change the situation. The impatience of the peasants and their rage over their helplessness grew. On 9 April 1525 the peasants assembled again. In Bonndorf in the south of the Black Forest, the second great march began. The peasants came from the County of Hauenstein on the Upper Rhine, from the Klettgau and the Hegau. Hans Müller was once again their leader. He designated himself the captain of the Black Forest and Hegau mob.

Those assembled united themselves as a "Christian Brotherhood." In an open letter they explained: "Honorable, wise, well-disposed lords, friends and dear neighbors! On the poor, ordinary man in cities and villages great burdens have been imposed against God and all justice by the clergy and the worldly, by the nobles and government authorities. One will no longer bear and put up with such burdens and encumbrances, then the ordinary man would just as well reduce himself and his children's children to beggary. Thus it is the proposal of this Christian unity, to make itself free with God's help; this should come to pass without fighting and bloodshed, insofar as possible. To that end it is necessary to merge together in brotherhood in all fitting things of general Christian benefit and which are set forth in the attached articles." (Horst Buszello, Bundschuh zum dt. Bauernkrieg, Schöningh, Paderborn, 1979, p. 30)

So many peasants came together, that a chronicler remarked: "The peasants ran together, as though it was snowing, from all villages, without exception." (Joseph Ruch, Geschichte der Stadt Waldshut, H. Zimmermann KG, Buchdruckerei Waldshut, 1966, p. 136).

Ultimately there were up to 7000 men.

From Bonndorf in the Black Forest they then made their way eastwards and reached the Hegau towns of Engen and Aach; then they moved through Deisslingen, Schwenningen, Donaueschingen and back to Furtwangen, made a detour through Triberg and St. Georgen in the Black Forest; from there they marched through the monastery towns of St. Märgen and St. Peter in the Dreisam valley. On 13 May 1525 they were by Kirchzarten. Then they occupied the Anterior Austrian city of Freiburg. Other peasant bands joined the Stühlingers, those of the Black Forest and those of the Hegau. From the south came the Markgräflers, who had plundered the castle of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (the Hospitallers) and the monastery of St. Trudpert in the Münster valley. The Breisgauers attacked, after which they laid waste to the manor houses around Staufen. The Hachberg peasants closed there with the Ortenau peasants from the north. On 17 May there were around Freiburg about 12000 men. They had all risen up in the May days of 1525 and brought the country into their hand.
Hans Müller had Freiburg bombarded over the castle mount. The besiegers diverted the water of the roadway streams, so that man and beast in the city suffered great thirst. The peasants laid waste to the vineyards and set fire to the castle and manor houses all around the city. On 24 May, the lords of the city opened their gates to the peasants.

This was the greatest success of the Stühlingen peasant mob, even though only of brief duration.

Then in the meantime, the army of the Swabian Union had already defeated the peasant rebellions in the Allgäu, in the middle Neckar, in the Kraichgau and in northern Baden. It found itself after successful battle against the peasants in the region of Franconia already on the return trip to the south. At this time, the path of the Union army was covered with thousands of slain, beheaded and hanged peasants.

Hans Müller remained for only one day with his peasants in Freiburg. The lords of the city escorted the troop as far as the village of St. Georgen that lay south of Freiburg. From there, the rebels marched through the Höllen valley to Neustadt and beyond to Radolfzell. There they reinforced the peasant army that had laid siege to the city. Even though Radolfzell was surrounded by over 10000 men, the peasants had to abandon the siege on 1 July 1525. An army of mercenaries of Austria and the Swabian Union exterminated the peasants in numerous engagements. They were not up to the unequal battle. The peasants had only "oaken clubs" against the bullets of the troops, as a chronicler noted: "They scattered as when a wind blows into the flour." In the Hegau, 24 villages went up in flames, many hundreds of peasants were killed.

Hans Müller of Bulgenbach then took flight. Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, who was at the Hohentwiel preparing to return to his duchy, guaranteed him refuge in the fortress. But the peasant leader could not endure hiding out. He tried once more to raise a peasant army, in Schopfheim in the Wiesen valley. In the attempt to stalk from there through to the Klettgau, he was taken prisoner in Laufenburg, the Anterior Austrian city on the Upper Rhine. After 40 days of imprisonment and torture, Hans Müller was beheaded by the executioner on 12 August in Laufenburg.

On 18 August the peasants had to sign the certificate of surrender that was presented to them by the leaders of the Swabian Union. The rebellion of the peasants of Stühlingen, as well as in other parts of the southwest, was wrecked.