A young German herdsman draws crowds while preaching about the evils of the nobility and the clergy and a new world where goods and land are shared. In hindsight, he is offering the elites of the Holy Roman Empire a warning about the near future, but will they listen?

Sources:

The German Peasants’ War: A History in Documents, eds. Tom Scott and Bob Scribner (Humanities Press International, Inc., 1991).

Peters, Margaret E. "Government Finance and Imposition of Serfdom After the Black Death." European Review of Economic History 27.2 (2023): 149-173.

Roper, Lyndal. Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War (Basic Books, 2025).

Wazer, Caroline. "Medieval Peasants Only Worked 150 Days Due to 'Frequent, Mandatory' Holidays?" Snopes.com (August 31, 2024). Last accessed: 3/28/2026.

Wunderli, Richard. Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen (Indiana University Press, 1992).

Support this project: turningmodern.com/support