Michael Reichel (ari)
Was it a peasant war or also a civil war? The lecture addresses precisely this question and shows that without the inhabitants of the towns - such as Schmalkalden, the most populous town in the Henneberg region - it would not have been possible to rise up so powerfully. Even before the actual Peasants' War, there was already rumbling in Schmalkalden.
As the peasant (and citizen) army advanced on Schmalkalden, treachery weakened the sovereign city regiment from within. When the city gates were opened, there was massive looting of church buildings and Jewish houses.
However, Schmalkalden's transfer to the peasants' camp was to have fatal consequences for the town. But the other towns in the region also voluntarily joined the insurgents. The lecture will attempt to answer this question as well as why the uprisings occurred in the southwest of Thuringia and how they took place in detail.
Speaker Dr. Kai Lehmann is a historian, museum director of the museums in the Zweckverband Kultur des Landkreises Schmalkalden-Meiningen and director of the Museum Schloss Wilhelmsburg.
Admission: 5 euros
