Thomas Muentzer, 1490-1525
Anabaptist Religious Reformer



Social agitator, religious reformer and detractor of Martin Luther. Find out why he became the spirtual father of the
Marxist east German state in my dissertation.

---

Thomas Muentzer (or Muenzer) was born in the small town of Stolberg nestled in the Harz mountains. He studied for the priesthood at Leipzig and Frankfurt just as the German Reformation was taking shape. It's possible that his first parish pastorate in Zwickau in 1520 was the result of Martin Luther's suggestion. Muentzer was driven out of Zwickau by city authorities when he began to sew discontent among the poor and demand a greater degree of social justice.

Rejected but not discouraged, he wandered to Prague to forge an alliance with the Hussite remnant, but was driven out by civil authorities yet again. By 1522 Muentzer disputed with Luther in Wittenberg. Finally he found a church in Allstedt amenable to his radical notions. There he organized German language liturgies, preached the importance of Biblical text, condemned infant baptism and developed the conviction that the poor were made especially receptive to direct revelation by their sufferings. Click here to hear about thee minutes of his magnificent liturgy.

While in Allstedt Muentzer continued to agitate for the most radical of religious and social reform. In 1524 he was driven out at Luther's instigation and attached himself to the peasant rebellion at Muehlhausen. There he was captured and executed in the aftermath of a great battle between the peasantry and a collection of noblemen's armies.

Muentzer might have lain forgotten but for the birth of the Marxist east German state in 1949 which hailed the radical reformer from Thueringia as the spiritual father of the first socialist state on German soil. It was he, after all, that first envisioned a land in which the peasantry was treated with justice and dignity. And it was he after all that wanted to hand the church to the laity when Luther was busy giving over to the German princes.

So it was that Muentzer became a rallying point for the new east Germany and even won a place on the east German five mark bill depicted above. The story of how east German historians reconstructed and popularized Muentzer's saga may be found in Thomas Muentzer Scholarship in the German Democratic Republic, 1940-1983 by Rom Maczka. If you read German you might like check out the sixteen Thesen zur Dissertation for a quick and pointed summary of the work.