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The pointlessness of the German Peasants’ War – except in Marxist ideology

The short-lived 16th-century revolt resolved absolutely nothing, but it loomed large in Engels’s thought and in the official DDR interpretation of history

Philip Hensher
An illustration of the German Peasants’ War depicts a nobleman whipping on exhausted labourers in a simplistic view of feudalism.  Getty Images
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 08 February 2025
issue 08 February 2025
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  • Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War

    Lyndal Roper

    Basic Books, pp. 544, £30

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