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94-487: The Baltringer Haufen (also spelled Baltringer Haufe , German for Baltringen Band, Baltringen Troop or Baltringen Mob) was prominent among several armed groups of peasants and craftsmen during the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525. The name derived from the small Upper Swabian village of Baltringen , which lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Ulm in the district of Biberach , Germany. In

188-525: A manor presided over by a lord or a bishop of the church . Peasants paid rent or labor services to the lord in exchange for their right to cultivate the land. Fallowed land, pastures, forests, and wasteland were held in common. The open field system required cooperation among the peasants of the manor. It was gradually replaced by individual ownership and management of land. The relative position of peasants in Western Europe improved greatly after

282-522: A consequence, at the beginning of 1525 the troops of the Swabian League commanded by Georg Truchsess von Waldburg (later known as Bauernjörg ) were occupied in suppressing an attempt by Duke Ulrich to regain his throne. At the behest of Leonhard von Eck , the Bavarian chancellor and the most influential person within the Swabian League, negotiations with the peasants were to be stalled until

376-443: A cultural and political invention. He writes: This divide represented a radical departure from tradition: F. W. Mote and others have shown how especially during the later imperial era ( Ming and Qing dynasties), China was notable for the cultural, social, political, and economic interpenetration of city and countryside. But the term nongmin did enter China in association with Marxist and non-Marxist Western perceptions of

470-591: A landlord (the hacienda system), most Latin American countries saw one or more extensive land reforms in the 20th century. The land reforms of Latin America were more comprehensive initiatives that redistributed lands from large landholders to former peasants — farm workers and tenant farmers . Hence, many Campesinos in Latin America today are closer smallholders who own their land and do not pay rent to

564-487: A landlord, rather than peasants who do not own land. The Catholic Bishops of Paraguay have asserted that "Every campesino has a natural right to possess a reasonable allotment of land where he can establish his home, work for [the] subsistence of his family and a secure life". In medieval Europe society was theorized as being organized into three estates : those who work, those who pray, and those who fight. The Annales School of 20th-century French historians emphasized

658-605: A major influence on the German Peasants' War in Upper Swabia and beyond. Even though it was not successful in persuading the other Haufen to follow its demand of non-violence and its invocation of the "Divine Law", its leaders nevertheless suggested the merging of the three dominant peasant armies in the region to form the Christian Alliance. The influence and contribution of the Baltringer Haufen

752-489: A new proposal, developed by the mayors of Kempten and Ravensburg , was handed over to the peasants' representatives, containing demands for the dissolutions of the Christian Alliance, the formation of an arbitration court, distancing of the peasants from the idea of "Divine Law" and obedience to the authorities. The peasants were given until 2 April to decide on these counter-demands. The Swabian League had been in conflict with Duke Ulrich of Württemberg for several years. As

846-658: A part of the region Mittelschwaben who is next to Oberschwaben and Allgäu . Memmingen is also sometimes called the Gate to the Allgäu . Memmingen is reached by the A7 and the A96 motorways and Memmingen station is on railways connecting Munich and Lindau and the Ulm–Oberstdorf railway . It has the public and international Memmingen Airport nearby. Most companies are SMEs , such as

940-519: A pejorative meaning, even when referring to farm laborers. As early as in 13th-century Germany, the concept of "peasant" could imply "rustic" as well as "robber", as the English term villain / villein . In 21st-century English, the word "peasant" can mean "an ignorant, rude, or unsophisticated person". The word rose to renewed popularity in the 1940s–1960s as a collective term, often referring to rural populations of developing countries in general, as

1034-631: A resolution by the local council, and designed by Franz Liesch. Its purpose was to document the history of the Baltringer Haufen. By doing so, Baltringen became the first place in West Germany to establish a museum dedicated to the Peasants' War. On the 475th anniversary of the events of 1525, the new premises, following a concept designed by Benigna Schönhagen, were opened on 7 April 2000 by Peter Blickle. Peasant A peasant

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1128-674: A sense of French nationhood was weak in the provinces. Weber then looked at how the policies of the Third Republic created a sense of French nationality in rural areas. The book was widely praised, but some argued that a sense of Frenchness existed in the provinces before 1870. Farmers in China have been sometimes referred to as "peasants" in English-language sources. However, the traditional term for farmer, nongfu ( 农夫 ), simply refers to "farmer" or "agricultural worker". In

1222-573: Is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants existed: non-free slaves , semi-free serfs , and free tenants . Peasants might hold title to land outright ( fee simple ), or by any of several forms of land tenure , among them socage , quit-rent , leasehold , and copyhold . In some contexts, "peasant" has

1316-730: Is also part of the town museum. It is one of 43 homeland museums recognised by the Ministry of the Interior. A foundation, founded and administered by the town, takes responsibility for the museum. The Strigel- and Antoniter-Museum at the Antonierkloster present wood carvings and paintings by the Strigel family of artists as well as a permanent exhibition on the work of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony . The museum

1410-515: Is called a "Bauer" in German and "Bur" in Low German (pronounced in English like boor ). In most of Germany, farming was handled by tenant farmers who paid rents and obligatory services to the landlord—typically a nobleman. Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, and supported a village court which handled minor offenses. Inside

1504-613: Is clearly visible in the Twelve Articles and the Federal Ordinance both of which became the most important manifestos of the German Peasants' War. The insurrection failed because the Baltringer Haufen supported a policy of non-violence until the arrival of the troops of the Swabian League and was therefore unprepared for a military conflict. Even though many of the peasants had some military experience and

1598-401: Is fished out to be completely drained and cleaned, and at the same time a "Fisherman's King" (the one that caught the heaviest trout) is appointed among almost 1,200 fishermen. Every year up to 40,000 people come to this festival as participants or spectators. Every four years Memmingen re-enacts the events around the visit of Wallenstein in the year 1630 with Europe's biggest historic festival:

1692-530: Is for concerts, theatre, program cinema, readings and special parties. Memmingen has considerable tourist interest, mainly because large areas of the medieval old town survived World War II. There are ten town gates and towers and about two kilometres of the town wall. The old town contains many interesting houses of patricians, some in the baroque style. They are picturesque Streets with the Stadtbach (town river) beside. The medieval market place, surrounded by

1786-583: Is the Wallensteinfestspiel , with about 4,500 participants, the biggest historical reenactment in Europe. It commemorates the invasion of Wallenstein and his troops in 1630. It is believed that on the site of present-day Memmingen in Roman times there was a small military town, probably called Cassiliacum . In the 5th century an Alemannic settlement was established and in the 7th century there

1880-537: Is the 5th biggest town in the administrative region of Swabia. The origins of the town go back to the Roman Empire . The old town, with its many courtyards, castles and patricians' houses, palaces and fortifications is one of the best preserved in southern Germany. With good transport links by road, rail and air, it is the transport hub for Upper Swabia and Central Swabia , and the Allgäu . Due to its proximity to

1974-679: Is the Town Museum at the Hermannsbau . The town's history is described in its historical rooms. There is also a section covering the history of the Jewish community in Memmingen, whose members were killed or forced into exile in 1939. Part of the Torah from the destroyed synagogue is on display there. The Freudenthal / Altvater Homeland Museum for refugees who have settled in Memmingen

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2068-405: Is used for changing exhibitions. The organ concerts in the churches of St. Martins and St. Josef are famous in the region. Chamber music would be performed in the former Kreuzherren monastery and also in some other buildings in Memmingen. There are several pubs, restaurants, wine taverns and cafés and also some discothèques in and around the town. The cultural centre Kaminwerk (Chimney factory)

2162-674: The Allgäuer Haufen and the Seehaufen (based near Lake Constance ), both of which had formed shortly after the Baltringer Haufen , met in Memmingen where they decided to merge and, on 6 March 1525, formed the Christian Association. In a letter they informed the Swabian League of the association's formation and declared their intention not to use violence while asking the League to refrain also from violence. Based on

2256-711: The Wallensteinfestspiele (Memmingen)  [ de ] . The theatre has a long tradition in Memmingen. By the Middle Ages some chroniclers were already recording different theatre performances. In 1937 the Landestheater Schwaben (State Theatre of Swabia) or LTS was founded in the town. In 1945, after World War II , the LTS was one of the first theatres in West Germany to begin putting on performances again. The performances take place in

2350-557: The Allgäu region, Memmingen is often called the Gateway to the Allgäu ( Tor zum Allgäu ). The town motto is Memmingen – Stadt mit Perspektiven ("Memmingen – a town with perspectives"). In recent times it has been frequently referred to as Memmingen – Stadt der Menschenrechte (Memmingen – the town of human rights). This alludes to the Twelve Articles , considered to be the first written set of human rights in Europe , which were penned in Memmingen in 1525. Every four years there

2444-553: The Augsburg Confession . The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed was written (probably by Schappeler and Sebastian Lotzer ) in early 1525. This was a religious petition borrowing from Luther's ideas to appeal for peasant rights. Within two months of its publication in Memmingen, 25,000 copies of

2538-665: The Baltringer Haufen between Biberach and Ulm capitulated unconditionally. In spite of orders by the Swabian League, the village of Baltringen was not burnt to the ground. Some units ( Fähnlein ) of the Baltringer Haufen , however, took part in the Battle of Leipheim on 4 April 1525, whereas others had joined forces with the Seehaufen and the Allgäuer Haufen and were part of the forces confronted by Georg Truchsess von Waldburg in mid-April 1525 near Weingarten . The army of

2632-520: The Baltringer Haufen by provisioning the peasants with goods. At the same time intense diplomatic activities by the Upper Swabian cities were instigated in order to prevent a military confrontation between the peasants and the Swabian League by appealing to both parties to refrain from violence. In the end all these efforts were to no avail. On 31 March 1525 troops of the Swabian League based at Erbach moved towards Dellmensingen in order to loot

2726-413: The Baltringer Haufen had artillery at its disposal, they lacked cavalry. What turned out to be even more important, however, was the lack of military and political leaders who were able to survey and assess the situation as a whole and combine the multitude of local complaints into an effective challenge the Swabian League had to reckon with. Differences in opinion between the three Haufen with regards to

2820-486: The Baltringer Haufen were ordered to pay fines. In Biberach, for example, the Spital , a charitable institution and at the same time a large landowner in Upper Swabia, imposed fines on 684 of its approximately 2400 subjects in 38 villages. The leaders of the Baltringer Haufen , Ulrich Schmid, Sebastian Lotzer and Christoph Schappeler , managed to save their lives by escaping to Switzerland . The immediate retribution of

2914-681: The Bible . By doing so, the peasant challenged the whole concept of traditional law. Ulrich Schmid, the representative of the Baltringer Haufen , rejected the traditional legal process through the Imperial Chamber Court to solve the complaints of the peasants. Theologians had to decide as to whether the peasants' demands were justified. Ulrich Schmid proposed that a group of men, learnèd and steeped in Christian lore, should decide what constitutes this "Divine Law". The representatives of

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3008-499: The Black Death had reduced the population of medieval Europe in the mid-14th century, resulting in more land for the survivors and making labor more scarce. In the wake of this disruption to the established order, it became more productive for many laborers to demand wages and other alternative forms of compensation, which ultimately led to the development of widespread literacy and the enormous social and intellectual changes of

3102-657: The Enlightenment . The evolution of ideas in an environment of relatively widespread literacy laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution , which enabled mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production while simultaneously increasing the demand for factory workers in cities, who became what Karl Marx called the proletariat . The trend toward individual ownership of land, typified in England by Enclosure , displaced many peasants from

3196-655: The Free Democratic Party make up the opposition. There was a hefty dispute between the parties in 2005, concerning financial participation in the Memmingen Airport . The Ecological Democratic Party and the Greens initiated a referendum to inhibit financial support for the airport, but this vote met with no success. At the top of the town government is the Lord Mayor, who is elected directly by

3290-505: The Salem Abbey . The following day, as a reaction to the slaying by troops of the Swabian League of a landlord from Griesingen returning from Memmingen, 8000 enraged peasants stormed and looted, amongst others, Heggbach Abbey, Laupheim Castle , Untersulmetingen Castle and Achstetten Castle , the latter two were also burnt to the ground. The monasteries of Gutenzell , Ochsenhausen , Wiblingen and Marchtal were forced to support

3384-420: The early modern period the term Haufe(n) (literally: heap) denoted a lightly organised military formation particularly with regard to Landsknecht regiments. According to the account of a nun from nearby Heggbach Abbey , local peasants assembled and conferred in an inn at Baltringen for the first time on Christmas Eve 1524. From then on regular meetings took place, the number of attendants reaching 80 at

3478-549: The mayor of Ulm, Ulrich Neidhardt, who met the peasants in the Baltringer Ried on 9 February 1525 asking them to write down their complaints. One week, later, on 16 February 1525, in the presence of between 10,000 and 15,000 peasants, a list of complaints was delivered in written form to the representatives of the Swabian League: more than 300 written complaints, one for each village. The main complaint made by

3572-518: The peasant movement in India and to the theories of the revolution in China led by Mao Zedong starting in the 1920s. The anthropologist Myron Cohen, however, asked why the rural population in China were called "peasants" rather than "farmers", a distinction he called political rather than scientific. One important outlet for their scholarly work and theory was The Journal of Peasant Studies . Memmingen With about 42,000 inhabitants, Memmingen

3666-416: The serfs began to improve; serfdom was gradually to be phased out over the next centuries. In the basement of Baltringen's town hall two rooms are dedicated to the commemoration of the Baltringer Haufen. The museum, called "Place of Remembrance for the Baltringer Haufen – Peasants' War in Upper Swabia", evolved out of a former single-room museum, called the "Peasants' War Parlour", founded in 1984, following

3760-507: The "great tradition" and the "little tradition" in the work of Robert Redfield . In the 1960s, anthropologists and historians began to rethink the role of peasant revolt in world history and in their own disciplines. Peasant revolution was seen as a Third World response to capitalism and imperialism. The anthropologist Eric Wolf , for instance, drew on the work of earlier scholars in the Marxist tradition such as Daniel Thorner , who saw

3854-588: The "imposition of the historically burdened Western contrasts of town and country, shopkeeper and peasant, or merchant and landlord, serves only to distort the realities of the Chinese economic tradition". In Latin America, the term "peasant" is translated to "Campesino" (from campo —country person), but the meaning has changed over time. While most Campesinos before the 20th century were in equivalent status to peasants—they usually did not own land and had to make payments to or were in an employment position towards

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3948-455: The "peasant," thereby putting the full weight of the Western heritage to use in a new and sometimes harshly negative representation of China's rural population. Likewise, with this development Westerners found it all the more "natural" to apply their own historically derived images of the peasant to what they observed or were told in China. The idea of the peasant remains powerfully entrenched in

4042-519: The "semantic successor to 'native', incorporating all its condescending and racial overtones". The word peasantry is commonly used in a non-pejorative sense as a collective noun for the rural population in the poor and developing countries of the world. Via Campesina , an organization claiming to represent the rights of about 200 million farm-workers around the world, self-defines as an "International Peasant's Movement" as of 2019 . The United Nations and its Human Rights Council prominently uses

4136-792: The 15th and 16th centuries. Also the Seven Roof House , the baroque Kreuzherren monastery, the renovated whorehouse of the town, the Salzstadel (salt barn), the Kramerzunft (shopkeepers guild, also called the Twelve-Article-House are sights in Memmingen). Not so well known is the Bismarck tower in the west of Memmingen. Beside the tower is the 2007 build new soccer stadium. Green areas were created all along

4230-460: The 18th and 19th centuries. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861, and while many peasants would remain in areas where their family had farmed for generations, the changes did allow for the buying and selling of lands traditionally held by peasants, and for landless ex-peasants to move to the cities. Even before emancipation in 1861, serfdom was on the wane in Russia. The proportion of serfs within

4324-421: The 19th century, Japanese intellectuals reinvented the Chinese terms fengjian ( 封建 ) for "feudalism" and nongmin ( 农民 ), or "farming people", terms used in the description of feudal Japanese society. These terms created a negative image of Chinese farmers by making a class distinction where one had not previously existed. Anthropologist Myron Cohen considers these terms to be neologisms that represented

4418-510: The Baltringen peasants was the fact that they were serfs . They also requested the reduction of rents and annual duties in kind , as well as the abolition of death duty . Furthermore, they asked not to be burdened with socage any longer and to be allowed to utilise timber from the forests. They also opposed the little tithe but were prepared to pay great tithe in order to provide for the upkeep of their respective local priest. Following

4512-601: The Christian Association's draft constitution. On 15 and 16 March 1525, during further deliberation of the assembled peasants at Memmingen, a list of persons, who were supposed to evaluate and examine the peasants' wishes, demands and aims, and were to ascertain what actually constitutes "Divine Law" was published. It contains 14 names amongst which were well-known reformers such as Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and Huldrych Zwingli as well as Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and Frederick of Saxony . The Swabian League rejected

4606-411: The Federal Ordinance meant that the Allgäuer Haufen and the Seehaufen did not come to the aid of the Baltringer Haufen once the Swabian League moved its troops against it. The Swabian League was well aware of this disunity. None of the various Haufen seemed to have been generally prepared to operate outside their own region, or come to the assistance of other Haufen under attack, which facilitated

4700-517: The Imperial city of Ehingen in a missive composed by Lotzer. The wording of this missive seems to imply that there may already have been contacts between Lotzer, who resided in Memmingen and had been active as clerk to the Memminger peasants, and Schmid well before the end of February 1525. On the initiative of Lotzer and Schmid, representatives of three peasants' armies, the Baltringer Haufen ,

4794-481: The Latin pagus , or outlying administrative district. Peasants typically made up the majority of the agricultural labour force in a pre-industrial society . The majority of the people—according to one estimate 85% of the population—in the Middle Ages were peasants. Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy had taken root, the term peasant proprietors was frequently used to describe

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4888-401: The Lord Mayor. Memmingen is building, alongside the double centre Ulm / Neu-Ulm , the second economical centre in Upper Swabia. It thus leads the central supply function for the adjoining cities and districts. The last local elections were on March 2, 2008, with following results: ¹ Christlicher Rathausblock Memmingen ("Christian Townhall-Party") With €512 per capita, Memmingen is one of

4982-598: The Middle Ages (such as the Unterhospitalstiftung ). Blazon : Split from gold and silver, in front a half, reinforced in red, black eagle. Backward a red pawcross The town's colours, handed down since 1488, are Black, Red, White. The flag is a banner flag with cross bar. Amendingen and Eisenburg have their own historical coats of arms. Every year Memmingen celebrates the Fischertag (Fisherman's day), recreating medieval traditions. The town brook

5076-588: The Modernization of Rural France, 1880–1914 (1976), historian Eugen Weber traced the modernization of French villages and argued that rural France went from backward and isolated to modern and possessing a sense of French nationhood during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He emphasized the roles of railroads, republican schools, and universal military conscription. He based his findings on school records, migration patterns, military-service documents and economic trends . Weber argued that until 1900 or so

5170-731: The Rooms of the Town Theatre, the theatre at the Schweizerberg (cabaret stage), in the Kaminwerk cultural centre or in rooms at the boroughs of Memmingen. The Schweizerberg Theatre will be closed at the end of 2010. It will move to new premises in the Elsbethen area, behind the Town Theatre, where a new cabaret stage, rehearsing rooms, workshops, depots, management rooms, the foyer and some guest rooms will be built. Another theatre

5264-483: The Swabian League concurred and announced that they would also pray to God in order to ensure that these learnèd men would be chosen. Ulrich Schmid hoped that regarding this issue he would be helped in Memmingen where he managed to recruit Sebastian Lotzer , a journeyman furrier , to take on the role of clerk to the Baltringer Haufen . On 28 February 1525, the Baltringer Haufen officially declared its formation to

5358-528: The Swabian League consisted of the execution of those leading figures of the uprising it managed to apprehend. Since most of the prominent figures of the Baltringer Haufen had eluded capture, the Swabian League resorted to executing a number of peasants as a deterrent. Yet, even six months later, in September 1525, Hans Burkhard von Ellerbach , the lord of Laupheim, had 14 peasants arrested, two of whom were executed by decapitation. The Baltringer Haufen had

5452-404: The Swabian League had started to attack villages. They emphasised again that they demanded nothing but the application of the "Divine Law." The situation escalated after news that troops of the Swabian League, consisting of 8000 footsoldiers and 3000 cavalry, had arrived at Ulm reached the peasants on 26 March 1525. The same day the peasants looted Schemmerberg Castle which was in the possession of

5546-418: The Swabian League lost their lives. Consequently, the attacking troops retreated over the river Danube . Further skirmishes took place near Achstetten, Oberstadion and Zwiefalten during which several villages, after having been looted, were set ablaze by troops of the Swabian League. Following these first unsuccessful attempts to subdue the Baltringer Haufen , Georg Truchsess von Waldburg then turned to face

5640-441: The Swabian League was clearly outnumbered by the peasants. Georg Truchsess von Waldburg did not dare to attack the Haufen and chose instead to negotiate. This led to the Treaty of Weingarten , a treaty between the Swabian League and the Seehaufen and the Allgäuer Haufen on 17 April 1525. The Swabian League, however, refused the subsequent application of the treaty's terms to the Baltringer Haufen . After their military defeat,

5734-407: The Swedish army, and became a base of operations for Swedish troops in Swabia . In September 1647 the Imperialists under Adrian von Enkevort besieged the Swedish garrison, under Colonel Sigismund Przyemski. Two months later the town surrendered. Following the reorganization of Germany in 1802, Memmingen became part of Bavaria. The 19th century saw the slow economic deterioration of the town, which

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5828-407: The Western perception of China to this very day. Writers in English mostly used the term "farmers" until the 1920s, when the term peasant came to predominate, implying that China was feudal, ready for revolution, like Europe before the French Revolution. This Western use of the term suggests that China is stagnant, "medieval", underdeveloped, and held back by its rural population. Cohen writes that

5922-417: The army encountered a band of peasants near Laupheim who decided to make a stand on the hill where the local church stood. During the ensuing battle, the army of the Swabian League killed 150 farmers, scattering the survivors into the surrounding forests. This enabled Georg Truchsess von Waldburg to proceed to Baltringen where he arrived on 12 April 1525, accompanied by a force of 400 men. The remaining forces of

6016-427: The authorities learnt of these meetings and representatives of the Swabian League , an association of Imperial cities , principalities, both ecclesiastic and secular, and knights, contacted the Baltringer Haufen . While the Imperial cities advocated negotiations and mediation, the princes pleaded for a strategy of violence. The Imperial League chose as their representatives Johann von Königsegg, Wilhelm von Köringen and

6110-474: The beginning of February 1525. Whereas in other regions the peasants met and discussed at markets, in Baltringen this occurred during the Fastnacht ( Carnival ) season, which aided conspirative gatherings in that peasants were wont to travel from village to village for eating and drinking, giving them the opportunity to discuss matters at hand. Drawing participants from the whole region, these meetings eventually became more regular, taking place every Tuesday with

6204-441: The challenge of the seemingly more threatening peasant army that had formed near Leipheim . During the ensuing battle, the Leipheimer Haufen was utterly defeated on 4 April 1525; their leaders, Hans Jakob Wehe and seven others, were executed by being beheaded the next day. On 10 April 1525 the Swabian League's army under the command of Georg Truchsess von Waldburg departed Leipheim in order to return to Upper Swabia. The next day

6298-453: The cities in Germany with the lowest level of debt (The German average is more than €1,300). The town had 2007 a management budget ( Verwaltungshaushalt ) of €94,925,160 and an asset budget ( Vermögenshaushalt ) of €19,490,860. The income from trade taxes amounted to about €40 million, the income tax assignment to about €20 million. The local rates were last changed in 2003. The town has many charitable foundations, with roots partly going back to

6392-531: The complexities of the French Revolution, especially the fast-changing scene in Paris, reached isolated areas through both official announcements and long-established oral networks. Peasants responded differently to different sources of information. The limits on political knowledge in these areas depended more on how much peasants chose to know than on bad roads or illiteracy. Historian Jill Maciak concludes that peasants "were neither subservient, reactionary, nor ignorant." In his seminal book Peasants into Frenchmen:

6486-415: The demands by the Baltringer Haufen and with the probable participation of the Memmingen preacher Christoph Schappeler the association worked out the most famous document of the German Peasants' War , the Twelve Articles , in which the idea of "Divine Law" was combined with the peasants' demands. On 7 March 1525 Sebastian Lotzer, the Baltringers' clerk, also penned the Federal Ordinance ( Bundesordnung ),

6580-417: The empire had gradually decreased "from 45–50 percent at the end of the eighteenth century, to 37.7 percent in 1858." In Germany, peasants continued to center their lives in the village well into the 19th century. They belonged to a corporate body and helped to manage the community resources and to monitor community life. In the East they had the status of serfs bound permanently to parcels of land. A peasant

6674-449: The family the patriarch made all the decisions, and tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered on church services and holy days. In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, and were not typically involved in daily activities or decisions. Information about

6768-699: The following: Although the Lord Mayor has been from the Social Democratic Party of Germany since 1966, the biggest party in the town council is traditionally the Christian Social Union . The town politics is mostly dominated by a coalition of bigger parties ("coalition of the reasoned") from CSU, SPD, Christlicher Rathausblock Memmingen (Christian Town Hall Party Memmingen) and the Free Voters . The smaller parties of Ecological Democratic Party , Alliance '90/The Greens and

6862-407: The importance of peasants. Its leader Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume—called The Structures of Everyday Life —of his major work, Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy. Other research in the field of peasant studies was promoted by Florian Znaniecki and Fei Xiaotong , and in the post-1945 studies of

6956-463: The land and compelled them, often unwillingly, to become urban factory-workers, who came to occupy the socio-economic stratum formerly the preserve of the medieval peasants. This process happened in an especially pronounced and truncated way in Eastern Europe. Lacking any catalysts for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants largely continued upon the original medieval path until

7050-455: The list. It seems that this list was the main bone of contention in the negotiations between the representatives of the Swabian League and the peasants. A second, amended list was published on 20 March 1525 and presented to the Swabian League in Ulm on 24 March 1525. The names on this list were supposed to be less contentious, comprising persons of more local and regional importance. The following day,

7144-402: The number of attendants gradually swelling to 400, at which point meetings were beginning to be held in open space, the Baltringer Ried , a boggy area (now drained) just outside the village of Baltringen. On 3 or 4 February 1525 the peasants chose as their representative Ulrich Schmid (Huldrich Schmid), a blacksmith from the nearby village of Sulmingen , who hesitantly accepted the task. Soon

7238-399: The peasants had to renew their oath of allegiance, followed by a wave of claims for compensation. The peasants form Baltringen were punished particularly severe: even though the village was not put to the torch as ordered by the Swabian League, they had to pay double the punitive damages other villages had to pay. Generally, villages that were thought to have been involved with or sympathetic to

7332-505: The people. He is the representative of the town and the leader of municipality. As second representatives, the majors are elected from the members of the town council. Historically the CSU, as biggest party, appoints the second major. The third major is appointed by the third biggest party. The second biggest party, the SPD, traditionally declines to appoint the third major, because they already appoint

7426-474: The reply by of the Swabian League, delivered on 27 February 1525, Ulrich Schmid justified the peasants' demands by referring to the " Divine Law ", the concept of which, as opposed to the Traditional (Old) Law, meaning the traditional legal norms, offered a completely new perspective in the legal relationship between lord and peasant. The political order had to be compared with the divine will as manifested in

7520-531: The rural population as a key element in the transition from feudalism to capitalism . Wolf and a group of scholars criticized both Marx and the field of Modernization theorists for treating peasants as lacking the ability to take action . James C. Scott 's field observations in Malaysia convinced him that villagers were active participants in their local politics even though they were forced to use indirect methods. Many of these activist scholars looked back to

7614-454: The suppression of the insurrection by the troops of the Swabian League. Yet, the peasants' uprising left its marks on Upper Swabia. Following the Treaty of Weingarten, a series of contracts between peasants and their lords was concluded with the result that the situation of the peasants slowly began to change for the better, economically as well as legally. In particular, the living conditions of

7708-585: The term "peasant" in a non-pejorative sense, as in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas adopted in 2018. In general English-language literature, the use of the word "peasant" has steadily declined since about 1970. The word "peasant" is derived from the 15th-century French word païsant , meaning one from the pays , or countryside; ultimately from

7802-553: The town hall, which is built in renaissance style, the Großzunft (Guildhouse) and the painted Steuerhaus (tax house). Also famous is St. Martin 's church, built in gothic style with its more-than-500-year-old Choir and the 1996 restored Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony monastery ( Antonierkloster ), the oldest, best conserved and biggest of these kind. The probably oldest church in town Unser Frauen (Church of Our Lady) or also called Frauenkirche with significant frescos of

7896-649: The town of Memmingen. In 1286 it became an Imperial City , responsible only to the Holy Roman Emperor . Christoph Schappeler , the preacher at St. Martin 's in Memmingen during the early 16th century, was an important figure during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War . His support for peasant rights helped to draw peasants to Memmingen. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession , and then

7990-724: The town park in the New World , the old Landesgartenschau place. Also the old and the forest cemetery, which are both used as parks. There were four cemeteries in Memmingen in the Middle Ages. They were around the St. Martin 's Church and the Church of Our Lady, also at the Kreuzherren monastery and the Scottish monastery . They were abandoned in 1530. The replacement was the Old cemetery at

8084-459: The town wall. The old ditches where filled up and replaced with green areas or parks with partially over 150-year-old trees. The name of the parks are (starting clockwise at the Ulmer Gate ): Hubergarten, Zollergarten, Ratzengraben/Zollergraben, Kohlschanze, Reichshain, Kaisergraben, Hohe Wacht, Westertorplatz, Grimmelschanze. Nearby every residential area has its own smaller parks. There is also

8178-467: The tract were in circulation around Europe. These are the first known set of human rights documents in the world (if one ignores Magna Carta in England in 1215). In the 1630s Memmingen was at centre stage during the Thirty Years' War , and the Imperial generalissimo Wallenstein was quartered in the town when he was dramatically dismissed from service. From 1632 Memmingen was briefly garrisoned by

8272-448: The traditional rural population in countries where smallholders farmed much of the land. More generally, the word "peasant" is sometimes used to refer pejoratively to those considered to be "lower class", perhaps defined by poorer education and/or a lower income. The open field system of agriculture dominated most of Europe during medieval times and endured until the nineteenth century in many areas. Under this system, peasants lived on

8366-462: The village. Even though the commanding officer of this detachment, Count Wilhelm von Fürstenberg , had planned to cross the Danube with all his forces, he did not manage to have his artillery traverse the river and due to the boggy terrain the cavalry could not be utilised either. Parts of the Baltringer Haufen , however, had been deployed at Dellmensingen. During the ensuing battle 50 soldiers of

8460-410: The war against Duke Ulrich was successfully concluded, so that the League's troops deployed in this war could be utilised against the peasants. During the second half of March 1525 the Swabian League's military action against Duke Ulrich of Württemberg finally ended which freed forces to intervene in Upper Swabia. In a letter dated 25 March 1525 the Baltringer Haufen complained that soldiers belonging to

8554-599: Was a palace belonging to the king of the Franks . Memmingen was linked to Bohemia , Austria and Munich by the salt road to Lindau . Another important route through Memmingen was the Italian road from Northern Germany to Switzerland and Italy. Both roads helped Memmingen gain importance as a trading centre. In the Middle Ages , the place was known as Mammingin ; in 1158 the Welfian Duke Welf VI founded

8648-579: Was established in 1996. With donations from the Memminger Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft (MeWo) the MEWO-Kunsthalle was opened in 2005 in the old post office next to the station. The museum holds the estates of the Memmingen artists Max Unold and Josef Madlener and presents a wide selection of contemporary art exhibitions. The size and scope of this art gallery is unique in region. The former Kreuzherren monastery

8742-594: Was founded by Helmut Wolfseher and members of the Alternative Kleinkunst e.V. (Alternative Cabaret Society), Parterretheater im Künerhaus (PIK) . This theatre is specifically for amateur actors and young talented musicians. The Kaminwerk also puts on major plays by amateur actors. The municipal hall is for Volksschauspieler or other artists. The following works featuring Memmingen have been produced: Stage plays and operas that have had world premières in Memmingen are: The biggest museum in Memmingen

8836-492: Was halted only with the building of a railway following the course of the River Iller. Since World War II Memmingen has been a developing town, with a rate of economic growth above the average for Bavaria. Memmingen is located at the western border of Bavaria at the river Iller, 50 km south of Ulm , and 100 km west of Munich. The landscape or region beginning with Memmingen is called Unterallgäu and forms

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