Michael Gaismair

Gaismair Michael
Grave of Michael Gaismair at Padua.
Born	1490 Sterzing, County of Tyrol
Died	15 April, 1532 (aged 41–42) Padua, Republic of Venice

Michael Gaismair, (1490,

Life

Michael Gaismair was the son of a mining entrepreneur,

Gaismair again gained followers, and in the spring of 1526 assisted the revolt of the peasants in Salzburg. Despite the victories on the field, Gaismair and his army were forced to retreat through the territory of the Republic of Venice, then at war with the Habsburgs. The Bauernführer (head of the farmers), as Gaismair was called, then turned to the Doge Andrea Gritti (1523–1538) to convince him to support a military revolt in Tyrol, but he failed in his intent.

He died in 1532 in Padua, in Prato della Valle (where there is a plaque in his memory) murdered at the hands of two soldiers who wanted to collect the bounty placed on his head by Ferdinand I. The movement of Gaismair was then done, but not the religious turmoil of Tyrol, which in the same years saw the development of Anabaptist preaching by Jakob Hutter.

Historiography

Because of his struggle against Church and Monarchy, Gaismair was ignored by historians of his time. In the twentieth century, his figure got more purchasing reputation, coming in first by the Communist (Community dell'afflato by inspiring his statutes, and that was pointed out by none other than Friedrich Engels), and by the Nazis (which emphasized his fight against the Earl of Salamanca, a Jewish adviser to Ferdinand).

It is only since the second half of the twentieth century that scholars have tried to evaluate the story of Michael Gaismair from a nonideological perspective, especially promoted by the Michael Gaismair Gesellschaft (Society Michael Gaismair), founded in 1976.

Plays inspired by the figure of Michael Gaismair

In 1899 Franz Kranewitter, a Tyrolean author of patriotic dramas, wrote a play dedicated to the figure of the rebel, named Michel Gaissmayr. In the summer of 2001, at the theatre festival Tiroler Volksschauspiele, a drama was staged dedicated to the rise and fall of Gaismair by the Austrian author Felix Mitterer.

See also

• Christian communism
• Radical Reformation
• Protestant reformers

Notes