Armer Konrad

(German for “Poor Konrad”), a secret society that existed at the beginning of the 16th century in the Duchy of Württemberg (southwest Germany) and led a rebellion of peasants and townspeople in 1514 (the so-called Armer Konrad rebellion). The main reasons for the rebellion were the increase in feudal exploitation, the heavy tax burden, and the arbitrary rule of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg and his officials. The peasants refused to pay the feudal requisitions and to carry out their obligations. In several towns the rebels seized power. The duke was forced to call the Landtag (provincial diet) as a result of which on July 8 the so-called Tübingen Treaty was concluded—a compromise between the duke and the wealthy burghers. The treaty provided for some limitation of the duke’s power, in return for which the towns took upon themselves the payment of almost a million of the duke’s debts; the peasant deputies, who received a promise that their complaint would be investigated, were not even admitted to the Landtag. The treachery of the burghers facilitated Ulrich’s crushing of the rebellion. The Armer Konrad rebellion was the largest revolutionary action in Germany on the eve of the Reformation and the Peasant War of 1524–26.