(German: Deutscher Bauernkrieg)

The German Peasants War

The German Peasants War or Great Peasants Revolt was a widespread revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 15241525 Thomas Mntzer is an important person in the German Peasants war of the 16th century. He was a supporter of the church reformator Luther. By profession Mntzer was a pastor at Marienchurch in Mhlhausen, Thuringia. He stood for the liberation of the peasants by force and took an active part in the insurgence. So he tried to make his believes real. As many people were poor and homeless Mntzer claimed that all goods should be common property. Also Mntzer tried to rally the Thringer Bauernhaufen but this did not work. In May 1525 Thomas was captured, tortured and executed. The revolt failed because of the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers.
Christopher Gutsmann

German Revolution The German Revolution occurred between March 1848 and the late summer of 1849 in the German Confederation. Because of the first phase it is also called the March Revolution.

The revolution began in German principalities1 and reached a few weeks later other small states of the country. Until July 1849 the experiment2 to form a democratic unitary state3 was destroyed by Prussian and Austrian troops.

Berlin youth on barricades

Those killed laying in state in Berlin

A revolution is a structural change of several systems. It mostly takes place in a short time. This phase can be peaceful or violent.

Revolutions come in systems of domination, in business or in the social order.

Contemporary cartoon

Steven Hasse

1 2 3

Which? Name two or three! Which experiment? Was waren die Ziele der Revolutionre? Zwei hast du hier schon angedeutet. Erklre sie ein bisschen nher!

The Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution is the time between the middle of the 18th century and the 19th century. Before this time most people lived in villages and were farmers but not farmers like today. They only had small parts of a field to work on and on these parts they grew just engough vegetables for their families. But when the mines and factories were built they went to the cities to work there. Although the industrial revolution had started in Great Britain in western Europe and in the USA the start was just a bit later. A very big part of the industrial revolution in Germany were the railways and the iron industries. In Great Britain it wasnt so expensive to make iron because they used coal. First Germans used charcoal to melt iron ore. Thats the most important reason why companies started to open big mines in the Ruhrgebiet. The Ruhrgebiet is in the west of Germany and its named after the river Ruhr. Before big companies started mines only farmers had used the coal and sold it.

Borsigs work of locomotives

After the big factories were opened there sprung up slums in the cities where the people lived who hadnt enough money. In the Ruhrgebiet the mines were called Zeche and big mine in Essen was the Zeche Viktoria Mathias which you can see in the picture. Some companies built houses for the workers but the problem about this was: if you lost your work than you lost your home as well. Alfried Krupp had a huge iron factory in Essen and he was one of the first ones who built houses for the workers. He was also the first one who introduced health insurance for all who had worked 25 years for him. But in fact a lot of workers were fired a short time before they qualified for compensations or were not able to work there anymore. Another sad part of the industrial revolution were the Schwabenkinder. These kids came from Austria and in summer they had to work on farms in Schwaben. Schwaben is in the south of Germany around Stuttgart. These children had to work on farms in summer because their parents did not have enough money to feed them. So the farmers up north in Schwaben let them work on their farms for food.
Bundener Schwabenkinder 1907

Before and after the second world war the Ruhrgebiet was the biggest industrial area in Germany. In the 1970ies the coal was too deep under the earth and so the mines were closed.
Luca Klimossek

The Peaceful Revolution of 1989

The Berlin Wall was part of the inner German border. The wall was built in August 1961. Germany had lost the (second world) war and the winners US America, Great Britain, France and Russia occupied Germany. In 1945 Great Britain, France and America got the western parts, later called Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD), and Russia the eastern part, later called the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). Berlin was a split city. Geographically Berlin is in the east and around it was the DDR. But the western parts of Berlin belonged to the BRD. The Berlin wall split up West and East Germany for about 160 km. Altogether the Berlin wall and the inner German border was 1.378 km long.

People of the west could go to the east, but people of the east couldnt travel to the west. And although the law of DDR said, that east German people had to remain in the east, many people fled to the west. If the people tried to flee to the west, east German border police shot them down. Officially 138 people died at the wall. In reality many more. Over the years more and more people got dissatisfied with the economic as well as political situation in east Germany. In 1989 the people met on the streets and marched through cities like Leipzig to protest. They shouted: "Wir sind das Volk!" (We are the people!). Other people tried to flee in the west via Hungary or Czechoslovakia. On the 9th of November 1989 the wall fell, after many people had protested against travelling restrictions and so the east German government decided to open the Berlin wall. Today some remains of the wall form a monument in Berlin called Eastside Gallery.
Philipp Weimann