Acid Horizon - Communize the Eschaton: Thomas Müntzer and the German Peasants' War

Adam is joined by Massimiliano Tomba, O.L. Silverman, and Loren Goldman to discuss the biggest series of uprisings in Europe before the French Revolution, the German Peasants' War, which had its 500th anniversary in 2025. In this discussion, we considered what it meant for everyday people to engage in insurrectionary struggle against Pope and Prince alike, the influence of the conflict on Marxist conceptions of history, the apocalyptic communism of Thomas Müntzer in his allegiance with the peasants of Thuringia, and how Martin Luther's counter-revolutionary thought laid the foundations for the concepts of freedom, authority, and rebellion which underlie modern European philosophy.

The introduction of the History of the Present issue on Thomas Müntzer and the German Peasants’ War at 500 Years: https://read.dukeupress.edu/history-of-the-present/article/15/1/1/399374/IntroductionThomas-Muntzer-and-the-German-Peasants