Thomas Müntzer: mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten

by Gerhard Wehr

Thomas Müntzer (um 1490–1525) hat als Zeitgenosse und Widerpart von Martin Luther Geschichte geschrieben. Seine Überzeugung, die Kirche müsse für die Verwirklichung des Reiches Gottes auf Erden arbeiten, machte ihn zum Gegner der etablierten Theologie; seine Empörung über die Willkürherrschaft der Fürsten ließ ihn zum Anführer der aufständischen Bauern werden. An der Spitze eines Bauernheeres wurde er im Mai 1525 verhaftet, gefoltert und in der Nähe von Mülhausen hingerichtet.
Das Bildmaterial der Printausgabe ist in diesem E-Book nicht enthalten.

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1972

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

I have a pile of books from the library to read through, the next up was Wuthering Heights and I am a bit intimidated by it. I notice I am reading it attentively, attempting to be alert, it is a book with a weight of reputation, so for light relief before starting to read it I returned to this old (1972, revised 1991), brief life, of the religious figure and semi professional revolutionary Thomas Müntzer (circa 1490 - 1525).

Müntzer is relatively obscure, a cork who occasionally bobs to the surface in the torrent of history. It is certain that he was beheaded on the 27th of May 1525 for his leading role in the middle German phase of the 1525 German Peasants War, before he attempted to turn professional Revolutionary he had a career as a Priest throughout eastern and North Eastern Germany. Like many in that time he was radicalised by the course of Martin Luther's complaint against the practise of the sale of indulgences. He was even recommended by Luther for a preaching position in a church in Zwickau in 1520 close to the border with the modern day Czech republic.

His preaching may have been a little over passionate as within a year he was forced to flee town, eventually making his way to Prague, he turns up in 1523 as a Priest in Allstedt, round about which time he had acquired a wife, who was a former nun. His views were sharply at variance with those of Luther.

Wehr sees Müntzer as shaped in his theology and world view by the influence of Jan Hus and the social radicalism of the Taborite section of the Hussite movement in the Czech speaking lands a century earlier and by his reading of the Bible the massacre of the priests of Baal was particularly inspiring, as was the notion of a people bound together in a covenant with the Almighty , Müntzer is one of those figures who finds in the Bible a promissory note for social justice and equality which furthermore the Bible teaches we are obliged to redeem through our own activism. In his case this did not end particularly well, though decapitation was at the pleasant and merciful end of public execution - things could have been much worse for him.

The defeat of Müntzer and a small army of peasants, they fought under a rainbow banner presumably they were referencing Genesis 9:13 , is commemorated in a monumental panoramic painting in Bad Frankenhausen.