OFIG. falmn, AS. foe. Ger. fangen, to seize. take). The name given to the insurrection of the peas antry in Central and South Germany in the year 1324-25. With the decline of the feudal system the lot of the peasantry throughout Germany had greatly deteriorated. They were still sub ject to the oppressive exactions of their feudal masters, hut the ancient service of protection from master to man had gradually disappeared. The example of Switzerland encouraged the Ger man peasants to hope that the yoke of the no bility might lie thrown off, and after 1475 there were risings here and there among the peasants of South Germany. A peasant league, called from its cognizance, a peasant's clog, the Bund schuh, rose in the Rhine countries in 1502, and another, called the 'League of Poor Conrad,' was organized in Wiirttemberg in 1514: but both were put down. The great insurrection finally broke out in Swabia in June, 1524. Many of the secular nobility at first regarded the insur rection with some measure of complacency, be cause it was directed primarily against the ec clesiastical lords. An irregular warfare ensued, attended by the most revolting cruelty on both sides. In spite of the disadvantage under which the ignorant and poorly organized peasants la bored, the insurrection spread through Alsace and the Palatinate. Franconia, Bavaria, Tyrol and Carinthia. The rising of the peasants was accompanied by insurrections among the lower classes in many cities. The movement in many parts took on a religious character, and was merged with the agitation of the Anabap tists (q.v.), Thomas Mintzer (q.v.) becoming one of the principal leaders of the peasantry. The demands of the peasants were set forth in a manifesto issued about Easter, 1523, by the insurgents of Swabia, known as the Twelve Ar ticles. These embraced the free election of their parish clergy; the appropriation of the tithes of grain, after competent maintenance of the parish clergy. to the support of the poor and to purposes of general utility; the abolition of serf dom. and of the exclusive hunting and fishing rights of the nobles: the restoration to the com mnity of forests, fields, and meadows, which the secular and ecclesiastical lords had appro priated to themselves; release from arbitrary augmentation and multiplication of services, du ties, and rents; the equal administration of jus tice; 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, murdered, pillaged, and were guilty of the great est excesses, partly in revenge for the cruelties practiced against them. A number of princes and knights were forced to make common cause with them and even to join their ranks, the 'most noted of these being Getz von BerBellinger] (q.v.). Luther denounced the excesses of the peasants. and called upon the princes of Germany to stamp out the insurrection. The peasant army in Cen tral Germany, under the command of Mintzer, was overwhelmed at Frankenhausen. on May 15. 1523, by the Landgrave Philip the Mag nanimous of Hesse, at the head of the forces of Hesse. Saxony, and Brunswick. By June disorderly bands in South Germany had been mostly annihilated or dispersed. The peasants. after they had been subjugated. were everywhere treated with terrible cruelty. Multi tudes were hanged in the streets, and many were put to dtath witl the greatest tortures. \Veins Uothenburg. iirzburg, and other town; wok]] had joined them suffered the vengeance of the victors, and torrents of blond were shed. It is sapp,,ed that more than 100.000 persons lost their Ines 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 origi nated at this period. Consult: Fries, Gcschiehte des Bauernkriells in I)stfranker (Wiluburg. 18'44) : Cornelius. Studien zur Geschiehte tics ltauernkricgs (Munich, IS62) : Schreiber. Der deutsche Bauernkrit q (1S114) ; Zimmermann, Allgemcine ilesebichte des grossen Baucrnkriegs new ed., Stuttgart, 1891) Baumann, Die vrolf Artikel (Kempten. 1S96) : Janssen. Gesehichte des deutsehen rolks sell dem Mit/c/a/ter (Frei burg. 1S77-94).