The Study On The Attitude Of German Citizens To The Revolution Of The Common Man In 1525

The German Peasants’ War of 1524-1526,which is one of the most important events in German history,shocked and influenced almost the entire southern Germany,and was honored as “the No.One Bourgeois Revolution” and the “Great Revolution of the Common Man”.Besides the peasants and the feudal lords,who opposed to each other,the cities at that time played an important role in the event.At that time the Germany Imperial Cities and Territorial Cities had gotten a great development as a result of the rapid development of the commodity economy,and an unique class of burghers had emerged in these cities.Meanwhile,there were three social strata,which we can call them as the upper stratum,the middle stratum and the lower stratum.All these strata were divided from the burgers,they did not only have common interests,but also variant political pursuits and inner conflicts.Facing the rising revolution of the peasants in 1524-1526,they held different attitudes to the army composed of the peasants out of different considerations of their own interests.The upper stratum opposed to the peasants,the middle stratum wanted to make use of the peasants to force the upper stratum to fulfill their requirements,the lower stratum had the inclination of supporting the peasants.What concealed in the different attitudes were the inner conflicts for the powers and wealth of the cities.Generally speaking,the imperial cities kept themselves away from the peasants,which is a reflection of the gulf and competitions between the imperial cities and the rural villages.Most territorial cities became partners of the peasant,because they were more similar in political status and the economic links between them were much more closely.