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The Black Company or the Black Troops (Schwarze Haufen) was a unit of Franconian farmers and knights that fought on the side of the peasants during the Peasants' Revolt in the 1520s, during the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
The original German name of the Black Company was Schwarzer Haufen. The term Schwarz (black) pointed out the ideological distance of the company from the large peasant army at that time, which called itself the Heller Haufen (Hell meaning "light-colored"). The German word Haufen was the name the peasants gave to their armed companies.
It was never used again for an army, possibly because the word Haufen means "heap" in German and was used to refer to loosely organised armed rabbles.
The Black Company was formed in 1525 in Rothenburg, out of local, home guard farmers - maybe 600 men - and a company of mercenary knights.
The leader of the Black Company, at least nominally, was nobleman Florian Geyer.
Geyer managed to shape the Black Company into something like a company of real soldiers, instead of just an armed mob. Some of the knights were probably his vassals.
After the Company took over the area around Rothenburg, it proceeded to Swabia to destroy fortified monasteries and castles and prevent their becoming strongholds of the Swabian League. Those who didn't attack the Black Company were left unharmed during these actions. But in Schweinsberg, Swabia, another company, led by peasant leader Jaecklein Rohrbach, executed about 50 local knights after they had opened fire on two negotiators. Geyer disapproved of this slaughtering and moved his troops back to Franconia to continue the fight. But Rohrbach's action had sealed the fate of captured peasants and of Geyer's men. From that time on, Georg, Truchsess ("Steward") of Waldburg, commander of the Swabian League, showed little mercy to the Black Company and hunted them down ruthlessly throughout Swabia. Rohrbach himself was burned alive when he was captured in 1525.
In the Battle of Ingolstadt, in May 1525, the Black Company found itself alone against the forces of the Swabian League after its allies had been destroyed. The Black Company fought its way back to Ingolstadt and occupied the ruins of the castle, the main buildings of which the members of the Company had themselves burned down some months before. The troops of the League encircled the castle and started their attack. The castle's occupants fought off two assaults but during the third attack, and after the League's heavy artillery breached the massive walls, they were killed.
Geyer himself wasn't there during the last battle.[ citation needed ] He waited for an escort in Rothenburg, but was banned from the city before it arrived. Geyer traveled North and was robbed and killed by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach in the night of June 9–10 in the forest near Rimpar.
The Black Company has remained very popular to the present day, although Swabian rulers did everything to nullify its fame in the years after the uprising, through publishing a number of "facts" about the crimes the peasants supposedly had committed.
The actions of the Black Company has been memorialised in the song "Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen", a World War I-era composition by Fritz Sotke with lyrics from Heinrich von Reder. The song has a strong anti-clerical and anti-noble theme, and it remains popular in modern day Germany, with contemporary bands offering different performances and reinterpretations of the lyrics.
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of the German stem duchies, representing the historic settlement area of the Germanic tribe alliances named Alemanni and Suebi.
The Swabian League was a mutual defence and peace keeping association of Imperial Estates – free Imperial cities, prelates, principalities and knights – principally in the territory of the early medieval stem duchy of Swabia established on 14 February 1488.
Florian Geyer von Giebelstadt was a German nobleman, diplomat, and knight. He became widely known for leading peasants during the German Peasants' War.
Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants is a piece written by Martin Luther in response to the German Peasants' War. Beginning in 1524 and ending in 1525, the Peasants' War was a result of a tumultuous collection of grievances in many different spheres: political, economic, social, and theological. Martin Luther is often considered to be the foundation for the Peasants' Revolt; however, he maintained allegiance to the Princes against the violence of the rebels. Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants typifies Luther's reaction to the Peasants' War, and alludes to Luther's concern that he might be seen to be responsible for their rebellion.
The Knights' War, also known as the Imperial Knights' Revolt, was a failed attempt by the Brotherly Convention led by the Evangelical knight Franz von Sickingen to forcibly remove Prince-bishop Richard of Trier and secularize his lands. The short-lived war resulted in the death of Sickingen and inspired the German Peasants' War of 1524–1526.
Casimirof Brandenburg-Bayreuth was Margrave of Bayreuth or Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach from 1515 to 1527.
Upper Swabia is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Constance and the Lech. Its counterpart is Lower Swabia (Niederschwaben), the region around Heilbronn.
Gutenzell Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in the municipality of Gutenzell-Hürbel in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Baltringen is a once autonomous village in Baden-Württemberg in the region of Upper Swabia, situated approximately 17 km north of Biberach. Administratively, Baltringen is part of the municipality of Mietingen. Baltringen lies on the river Dürnach.
Kirchheim or Kirchheim in Schwaben is a municipality and a market town in the district of Unterallgäu in the region of Swabia (Schwaben) in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. The town was greatly influenced by the Fugger family. North-east of the town lies the Augsburg Western Woods Nature Park.
The Twelve Articles were part of the peasants' demands of the Swabian League during the German Peasants' War of 1525. They are considered the first draft of human rights and civil liberties in continental Europe after the Roman Empire. The gatherings in the process of drafting them are considered to be the first constituent assembly on German soil.
Hohenstaufen Castle is a ruined castle in Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The hill castle was built in the 11th century, on a conical hill between the Rems and Fils rivers in what was then the Duchy of Swabia. It was the seat of the Staufer (Hohenstaufen) dynasty, the Dukes of Swabia for the period of 1079–1268, with three Holy Roman Emperors during 1155–1250. The castle was destroyed in the German Peasants' War of 1525.
The House of Waldburg is a princely family of Upper Swabia, founded some time previous to the 12th century; some cadet lineages are comital families.
Hans Müller, also known as Hans Müller von Bulgenbach,, was a peasant leader during the German Peasants' War. After a career in the French military, he played a pivotal role in the initial peasant uprising at Stuhlingen, and organised peasant bands throughout southwestern Germany. He was captured after the peasants' loss at Klettgau in July 1525, imprisoned at the Hohentwiel fortress, and executed in August of that year.
The Baltringer Haufen was prominent among several armed groups of peasants and craftsmen during the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525. The name derived from the small Upper Swabian village of Baltringen, which lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Ulm in the district of Biberach, Germany. In the early modern period the term Haufe(n) denoted a lightly organised military formation particularly with regard to Landsknecht regiments.
Georg III Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil, also known as Bauernjörg, was a Swabian League Army Commander in the German Peasants' War.
Konrad von Thüngen was the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1519 until his death in 1540.
The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising before the French Revolution of 1789. The revolt failed because of intense opposition from the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. The survivors were fined and achieved few, if any, of their goals. Like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, the war consisted of a series of both economic and religious revolts involving peasants and farmers, sometimes supported by radical clergy like Thomas Müntzer. The fighting was at its height in the middle of 1525.
A Heerhaufen, also Haufen or Haufe, was the name given to unorganised or poorly organised paramilitary troops and auxiliaries in Central Europe during the Early Modern Period. The term is German and is sometimes translated "company" or "troops".
Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen is an interwar-era German marching song. Composed around the 1920s, the lyrics of the song are sourced from the poem Ich bin der arme Konrad by the Bavarian poet and artillery officer Heinrich von Reder (1824–1909). The melody of the song is arranged by German songwriter and later National Socialist Fritz Sotke (1902–1970) in 1919. As a song about the German Peasants' War, the song lyrics are noted for their strong anti-clerical and anti-noble themes.
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