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The German Peasants’ War of 1525 was a widespread uprising of peasants against aristocracy. It was Europe's largest uprising prior to the French Revolution of 1789.
The decisive battle of the war was fought on May 15, 1525 on a field near Frankenhausen. Poorly armed peasants faced an army of well equipped mercenaries and the battle soon turned into a massacre. Legends report “Blood running down the hills like rivers.”
An indication of the superiority of the Armies of the dukes Philip I of Hesse and George of Wettin is, that about 10,000 peasant fighters were slaughtered, while the mercenaries lost just six men.
This monument is located in Frankenhausen, in front of the city’s Regional Museum. It illustrates the brutality of those dark ages and the suffering of the peasants by showing a vast array of torture instruments and weapons.
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