During the years from 1524 to 1526, a series of revolts were led by the majority of peasants in Germany, which had the potential to create lasting effects on the society of Europe for ages. However, these revolts were later crushed by the military force brought upon by the nobility. This conflict created clearly defined sides between the revolting peasants and the defending nobles. There were also multiple bystanders in the middle of the conflict who had little impact on either side. The German peasant revolts were a result of many causes and the legitimacy of their actions that they took to achieve their wishes were hotly debated at the time.
To start with, the peasants who were on the attacking side of this conflict were united by a common goal to achieve more freedom in their lives of service. One of the supporters of these revolts, Sebastian Lotzer, was a common, lay craftsman who expresses his opinion in Document 2. He states that his intentions for the revolt are to gain fair treatment from the lords that keep peasants like him under their ownership. Similarly in Document 3, the Peasant Parliament, which consisted of many groups of revolting peasants who met in Memmingen, Swabia in March 1525, created a few grievances against the nobility that they wished to express. On of these grievances asks that all noblemen who hold serfs in servitudes release them from that service, so they could be free. This expresses one of the main concerns of the peasants that led to their revolt in 1524, that the hard-working people who manage to keep the lives of their nobles running should not be held in a slave-like relationship with those landowners. One cause of the growth of the revolts in a short amount of time had to deal with the spread of support due to preachers and orators. This is evident in the words expressed by Thomas Müntzer, a preacher and theologian in the middle of the peasant revolt. As shown in Document 6, Müntzer tried to gain supporters to...