Showcases referring to the Peasants' Wars
Hans Müller on the march to Freiburg passing Wiesneck castle, May 1525 (Diorama 10)
In spring 1525 Hans Müller's army of peasants was roaming again the villages and towns of the Black Forest to recruit supporters. Now the peasants called themselves “Christian Association of the Black Forest”. They followed the example of the peasants of Oberschwaben who had first referred to the principles of Christian belief when they published the famous “12 Articles” in march 1525 in Memmingen where the demands of the peasants were consistently justified by quotations from the Bible.On 14 May 1525 an army of 1500 peasants gathered at Kirchzarten near Freiburg. On 17 May 1525 the Black Forest peasants joined together with additional contingents of the Upper Rhine region on the outskirts of Freiburg: the beginning of the siege of Freiburg by 5000 peasants during a week. At that time the city was crowded with knights and clergymen (canonical persons) as refugees. The shelter of town walls and watchtowers was vain when the peasants succeeded in taking the fort on top of the Schlossberg. When they began to fire their canon on the city below the magistrate decided to surrender.
On 24 may Hans Müller marched into town accompanied by 250 armed peasants and forced the magistrate to join their movement. Next day after having received a contribution of 3000 Gulden the peasants´ army moved on to Breisach – the town surrendered immediately. Already on 26 May the peasants withdraw back to the Black Forest.
