Wendel Hipler: help the farmers to have a new right!

Wendel Hipler: help the farmers to have a new right!

In the history of Baden-Württemberg, Wendel Hipler takes a special place. Born around 1465 in Neuenstein, he came from a wealthy family with strong connections to the Hohenlohe house. After starting studying law at the University of Leipzig in 1482, he joined Hohenloher around 1485. At first he was a trusted man of Count Albrecht II, later he climbed to the head of the law firm under Count Kraft VI. on. This climb brought him a look, fief and even his own land own. But it was also a conflict of power with the Hohenlohe house, which ultimately led to his release, as Staatsanzeiger.

In the years before the German Peasant War, Hipler's focus was on the rights of the subjects. He vehemently campaigned for the concerns of Franconian knighthood and farmers who suffered from the oppressive taxes and serfdom. Her everyday life was shaped by a tough reality: high taxes on the landlords and the often missing rights described the life situation that many of them had to endure. The reform demands of the farmers, which were summarized in the "twelve articles" in 1525, found a fertile soil in the liberal spirit of the time, influenced by Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli.

The role in the German Peasant War

In the troubled times of the Peasant War, Hipler became a key person as Chancellor of the Odenwald farmers. He negotiated with the nobles and endeavored to create a connection between the farmers and the knighthood nobility in order to fight together against the ruling sovereigns. Supported by Götz von Berlichingen, his role was not only a strategic nature, but also decisive for the morale of the peasant movement. He showed himself against the cruel deeds of the rebels, such as the bloody deed of Weinsberg, and tried to moderate the movement.

One of the most important achievements of his political activity was the wording of the Amorbach explanation, which is considered a slightly mitigated version of the twelve articles. Hipler also strived for a nationwide network: he wanted to establish a farmers' government in Heilbronn in order to coordinate the diverse activities of the insurgents from Swabia, Franconia, on the Rhine and in Alsace. On a farmhouse day in Heilbronn, he presented a reform program that included far -reaching claims, including legal equality in court, the replacement of all basic loads and the introduction of uniform dimensions and coins.

defeat and escape

Despite his engagement, the peasant uprising ended in a disaster for the insurgents. On May 12, 1525, during a peasant assembly in Heilbronn, the Württemberg farmers suffered a bitter defeat near Böblingen. Hipler himself had to flee after this defeat and got into the captivity of the Palatinate Count, where he remained detained until his death in 1526. His efforts for a stronger organization and a common voice of the farmers had not led to the final success, but they laid the foundation for later efforts and set important impulses for the social movement in the region.

Wendel Hipler is now considered a tragic figure of the Peasant War, whose idealism and determination are deeply anchored in the history of Baden-Württemberg. His life and work are an impressive testimony to the struggle for justice and fundamental rights in a time of upheaval, and we should not be forgotten his legacy.