Florian Geyer
Florian Geyer | |
---|---|
Known for | Leading the Black Company during the German Peasants' War |
Born | c. 1490 Giebelstadt |
Died | 10 June, 1525 (aged 34–35) Würzburg |
Florian Geyer von Giebelstadt (also spelled Geier; c. 1490 – 10 June 1525) was a German nobleman, diplomat, and knight. He became widely known for leading peasants during the German Peasants' War.
Early life
Florian Geyer was born around 1490 at Geyer Castle in
In 1519, Geyer served under
In 1523, Geyer accompanied
German Peasants' War
When the German Peasants' War broke out in 1524, Florian Geyer, together with a handful of low-ranking knights and several hundred hastily-trained peasant militiamen, established the Black Company (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 preacher Thomas Müntzer and his infantry to score a string of victories in Thuringia. Geyer is reputed to have had the words "Nulla crux, nulla corona" (No cross, no crown) scratched on the blade of his sword.[1] All sides credited him with the wanton destruction of cathedrals and castles, and summary executions of the lords and priests contained therein. These destructions played a part in causing Martin Luther to side with the princes, calling on them to slaughter the rebellious peasants.
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 and executed shortly afterwards.
Death
Conflicting accounts place Geyer with the company, or alone in
Whether or not Geyer was at Ingolstadt, he was one of the last survivors. In the night from 9 to 10 June 1525 he was contacted in Würzburg by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach, who had stated their intention of helping him rekindle the Peasants' War. While traveling together, they stabbed Geyer to death in the Gramschatz Forest near Würzburg. The location of his remains is unknown.
Legacy
The family of Florian Geyer died out in the early 18th century and their castle in Giebelstadt passed into other hands, but is still the site of the annual "Florian Geyer Festspiele".
Geyer was heralded as a communist revolutionary in Friedrich Engels' The Peasant War in Germany (1850). In this work, Engels asserts that the war was primarily a class struggle over control of farms and mines, which subverted the Biblical language and metaphors commonly understood by peasants. In this spirit, a regiment of the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic, Grenzregiment 3 Florian Geyer, was named after him.
Geyer was also the hero of one of Gerhart Hauptmann's major plays, the historical drama Florian Geyer (1896), and the inspiration for the German folk song, "Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen" ("We are Geyer's Black Company"), with a strong anti-clerical and anti-noble theme. The song has been popularised as a union-song,[2] and is noted for its inclusion in the official songbooks of both the Nazi Party, and the German Democratic Republic.[3]
Geyer was also considered a heroic figure by
Literature
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2015) |
- ^ Ernst Bloch, Atheism in Christianity: the religion of the Exodus and the Kingdom (Herder & Herder: New York 1972), p. 272-273.
- ^ tune and words, in an Australian version
- )
- 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
- ISBN 3-89771-907-X
- ISBN 3-534-03424-4
- Dagobert von Mikusch: Florian Geyer und der Kampf um das Reich. Schlegel, Berlin 1941.
- ISBN 3-15-007841-5
- Jeremiah Pearson: Brethren. Book One of the Villeins Trilogy, Incunabula Press 2013, ISBN 978-0989546706.