Deutsche Post Werner The Battle of Frankenhausen by Werner Tuebke

DEUTSCHE POST of Demokratisch Republik (DDR) on on 16 October 1987 issued five First Day Cover stamps commemorating The Battle of Frankenhausen in 1525 (The Peasants' War) and Thomas Müntzer. To mark the occasion, the DDR commissioned artist Werner Tuebke to create a monumental painting entitled "Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany". This epic work is presently on display inside the Panorama Museum Bad Frankenhausen, Germany. It is from this artwork that specific images were rendered into stamps.

Tuebke produced this painting between 1976 and 1987, which when completed measured 14 by 123 metres. Since its inception 2.5 million people have visited the panorama until now.

Thomas Müntzer (c. 1489 – 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer was foremost amongst those reformers who took issue with Luther's compromises with feudal authority. He was a leader of the German peasant and plebeian uprising of 1525 commonly known as the German Peasants' War.

 Amidst the peasant uprisings in 1525, Müntzer organised an armed militia in Mühlhausen. He was captured after the Battle of Frankenhausen, tortured and finally executed. Few other figures of the German Reformation raised as much controversy as Müntzer. A complex and unusual character, he is now regarded as a significant personality in the early years of the German Reformation and the history of European revolutionaries.

Almost all modern studies stress the necessity of understanding his revolutionary actions as a consequence of his theology: Müntzer believed that the end of the world was imminent and that it was the task of the true believers to aid God in ushering in a new era of history. Since around 1918, the number of fictional works on Müntzer have grown significantly; this encompasses over 200 novels, poems, plays and films, almost all in German. A film of his life was produced in East Germany in 1956, directed by Martin Heilberg and starring Wolfgang Stumpf. In 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Peasants' War Panorama at Bad Frankenhausen was opened, containing the largest oil painting in the world, with Müntzer in central position. 

IMAGES DEPICTED

The Battle of Frankenhausen in 1525

Thomas Müntzer is readying the peasants to the decisive battle against the princes where the peasants suffer defeat. Müntzer was taken prisoner and executed three months later.

The Fountain of Creativity - 10

From left to right: Hans Hut; Melchior Rinck; Hans Sachs; Peter Vischer; Tilman Riemenschneider; Joerg Ratgeb; Albrecht Duerer; Martin Luther; Lucas Cranach; Sebastian Brant; Philipp Melanchthon; Erasmus of Rotterdam; Ulrich von Hutten; Nicolas Copernicus; Paracelsus; Columbus; Johannes Gutenberg; Welser and Fugger.

Annunciation at Frankenhausen

Thomas Müntzer depicted as an angel, announcing a new age to a perplexed peasant, with Müntzer saying:"Do not be afraid, you are fighting the fight of the Lord. Don’t let the blood dry on your swords."

Source: Wikipedia