Florian Geyer
Encyclopedia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
n nobleman
German nobility
The German nobility was the elite hereditary ruling class or aristocratic class from ca. 500 B.C. to the Holy Roman Empire and what is now Germany.-Principles of German nobility:...
, diplomat and knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
. He became famous for leading peasants during the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
.
Early life
After the death of his father Dietrich in 1492 and of his two older brothers, he inherited a fortune and possessions. In 1512-13 he was a guest in the court of King Henry VIIIHenry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and may have been exposed to the reformist ideas of John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached...
and the Lollards
Lollardy
Lollardy was a political and religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. The term "Lollard" refers to the followers of John Wycliffe, a prominent theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Church, especially his...
. In 1517, after refusing to pay 350 year old interest claims from Kollegiatstift Neumünster, he was excommunicated.
In 1519 he served a vassal of Markgraf Casimir of Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
-Kulmbach
Kulmbach
Kulmbach is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its famous sausages, or Bratwürste.-Location:...
-Ansbach
Ansbach
Ansbach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is situated southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the Main river. As of 2004, its population was 40,723.Ansbach...
in the army of the Swabian League
Swabian League
The Swabian League was an association of Imperial States - cities, prelates, principalities and knights - principally in the territory of the Early medieval stem duchy of Swabia, established in 1488 at the behest of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and supported as well by Bertold von...
as Landsknecht
Landsknecht
Landsknechte were European, predominantly German mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of Early modern Europe.-Etymology:The term is from German, Land "land, country" + Knecht...
commander against Duke Ulrich of Württemberg and against Götz von Berlichingen
Götz von Berlichingen
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen and also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German Imperial Knight and mercenary....
in Möckmühl
Möckmühl
Möckmühl is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Jagst, 22 km northeast of Heilbronn....
.
Later in 1519, Casimir of Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
-Ansbach
Ansbach
Ansbach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is situated southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the Main river. As of 2004, its population was 40,723.Ansbach...
-Bayreuth sent him to his brother, the Hochmeister
Hochmeister
The grand master is the holder of the supreme office of the Teutonic Order. It is equivalent to the grand master of other military orders and the superior general in non-military Roman Catholic religious orders...
of the Teutonic Order, Albert of Brandenburg-Prussia, to support him against Poland. Geyer negotiated a truce that ended the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521). Until 1523, he served the Hochmeister, travelling around European courts on diplomatic missions.
The same year, he accompanied his prince to visit the dissident Protestant priest, Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
in Wittenberg. If not already sympathetic, he was probably won over to Luther's ideals at this meeting.
German Peasants' War
Geyer, like many knights, originally sided with Luther against the Roman Catholic hierarchy during Protestant ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the 16th century.
When the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
broke out in 1524, spurred on by Martin Luther's teachings, German Protestants were divided along class lines. Protestant peasants and silver miners, led by Thomas Müntzer, began taking over farms and mines. Müntzer also called for the abolition of all political posts except for that of the Emperor (who in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
was elected by landholders—who Müntzer asserted would now include peasants and miners). Martin Luther thought this had gone too far, and sided with Protestant aristocrats who only wanted clerical reforms, calling upon peasants to put down their arms and surrender their farms. Müntzer's radical faction concluded that Luther was a traitor and continued to fight against both Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Lutheran nobles.
Florian Geyer, together with a handful of dissident low-ranking knights and several hundred hastily-trained peasant militiamen, established the Black Company
Black Company
The Black Company or the Black Troops was a unit of Franconian mercenaries during the Peasant's Revolt in the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation in Germany.The original German name of the Black Company was "Schwarzer Haufen"...
(often called the Black Host or Black Band), which was possibly the only heavy cavalry division in European history to fight on the side of a peasant revolution. By checking Imperial and Protestant knights on the battlefield, the Black Company allowed Müntzer's motivated infantry to score a string of victories and liberate huge swaths of the German countryside. Geyer became a notable folk hero
Folk hero
A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...
in Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
and the whole of Germany. All sides credited him with the wanton destruction of cathedrals and castles, and summary executions of the lords and priests contained therein; the cruelty and extent of these activities is, however, disputed.
As the Peasants' War dragged on, many of the rebel peasants returned home, and most of the knights who, alongside Geyer, had joined Müntzer deserted or defected. Müntzer himself was defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen
Battle of Frankenhausen
The Battle of Frankenhausen was fought on 15 May 1525. It was the final act of the German Peasants' War: joint troops of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse and Duke George of Saxony defeated the peasants under their Anabaptist leader Thomas Müntzer near Frankenhausen in the County of Schwarzburg .On April...
and executed shortly afterwards.
Death
Conflicting accounts place Geyer with the company, or alone in Rothingen in the aftermath of the Battle of Frankenhausen. The Black Company was falsely informed of victory at Frankenhausen, and ambushed outside of IngolstadtIngolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...
. They managed to regroup, retreat, and fortify the town's castle and cathedral. The cathedral was burned with no survivors, and the castle was taken after three assaults. A portion of the Black Company broke free, only to be encircled again in nearby woodlands. If Geyer had been leading Black Company through the Battle of Ingolstadt, he barely escaped with his life. Geyer may, however, have been stranded at Rothingen the entire time while waiting for an escort to rejoin the Black Company, only to be banned from Rothingen. The later attempts to stomp out memory of the uprising have obscured these details.
Whether or not Geyer was at Ingolstadt, he was one of the last survivors of Müntzer's army. In the night from 9 to 10 June 1525 he was contacted in Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach
Wilhelm von Grumbach
Wilhelm von Grumbach was a German adventurer, chiefly known through his connection with the so-called Grumbach feuds , the last attempt of the Imperial Knights to prevail against the power of the territorial Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.-Florian Geyer:A member of the old Franconian noble...
, who had the stated intention of helping him rekindle the Peasants' War. While traveling together, they stabbed Geyer to death in the Gramschatzer Wald Forest near Würzburg. The location of his remains is unknown.
Legacy
The family of Florian Geyer died out in the early 18th century and the original Geyer castle, in GiebelstadtGiebelstadt
Giebelstadt is a municipality in the district of Würzburg in Bavaria in Germany.History of GiebelstadtThe town is the birthplace of Florian Geyer , also known as "Florian Geier from Giebelstadt", a Franconian nobleman who led the Black Company during the Peasants War resulting from the Protestant...
, passed into other hands, but is still the site of the annual "Florian Geyer Festspiele".
Geyer was heralded as a communist revolutionary in Frederick Engels' The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany by Friedrich Engels, 1850, is an account of 16th century uprisings.This book was written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the revolutionary uprisings of 1848-1849. The book draws a parallel between the uprisings of 1848-1849 and the...
(1850). In this work, Engels asserts that the war was primarily a class struggle over control of farms and mines, which subverted the Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
language and metaphors commonly understood by peasants.
Geyer was also the problematic hero of one of Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
's major plays, the historical drama Florian Geyer, published in 1896, and the inspiration for the German folk song, "Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen" ("We are the Black Band of Geyer"), which has been adopted by the international Marxist labour movement as a rousing union anthem.
However, as one of the few German historical figures identifiable with the national history of Germany as a whole, and not merely of a principality or region of the country, Geyer was also considered a heroic figure by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the National Socialist Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
. As a result, the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
The 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was a Waffen-SS cavalry Division during World War II. It was formed in 1942 from a cadre of the SS Cavalry Brigade which was involved in anti partisan operations behind the front line and was responsible for the extermination of tens of thousands of the...
was named after him in March 1944, during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Literature
- Hermann Barge: Florian Geyer. Eine biographische Studie. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim 1972, ISBN 3-8067-0124-5
- Christa Dericum: Des Geyers schwarze Haufen. Florian Geyer und der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Bertelsmann, München 1980, ISBN 3-570-07254-1
- Friedrich EngelsFriedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
: Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-89771-907-X - Günther Franz: Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-03424-4
- Dagobert von Mikusch: Florian Geyer und der Kampf um das Reich. Schlegel, Berlin 1941.
- Gerhart HauptmannGerhart HauptmannGerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
: Florian Geyer. Die Tragödie des Bauernkrieges. Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-007841-5