The 'Peasants Republic' of Dithmarschen

The Constitutional Peasants skit from Monty Python's Holy Grail was probably inspired by this little "peasants republic" called Dithmarschen., situated on the Frisian coast in North Germany. They were a group of peasants who banded together for 100s of years and resisted occupation and domination by big kingdoms and duchies, and maintained their independence until the 1500s.

Some of their achievements were genuinely impressive and underdog. Others were happenstance. It's an amusing story along the way.

Thanks for watching.

[allthenewsordeath]

To be honest, 400 years and some change is a really good run for a bunch of peasants armed with pitchforks and salt.

[danielw]

9:50 there's a pretty badass taunting aspect to this battle cry:

The vanguard of the enemy army was made up of the "Black Guard", a mercenary army that was specialized in beating down peasant revolts and that had been terrorizing the region on behalf of the nobles that paid them.
Their regimental motto was:"Wahr di, Buer, de Gaar de kummt!", which can be roughly translated as:"Watch out peasant, the Guard is coming!".

So the defender's cry of:"Woor di, Goor, de Buur de kump", is a taunt (in their regional dialect) that reverses the black guards motto: "Watch out Guard, the peasants are coming!"

[ZS-rwqq]

Overachievment is such a bad ass way to fail

[truearif]

Bro sorry, the EU4 music and soundbites just makes me scan the screen for the notifications.

[renaissanceweeb]

Funny thing is both East and West Germany claimed the mantle of dithmarschen and the great peasants war in general, and both celebrated the Battle of Hemmingstedt. Since they lived a subsistence economy with an informal representation system and no formalized nobility, liberals claimed this was protoliberal, whereas socialists claimed it was protosocialist.

[DenisWeScotch]

i love the eu4 sound effects, and the ck3 music i didnt expect to hear so many sounds i know on a topic i had NO idea about lol, great video

[daanstrik]

Don’t mind me. Just saving this to my “worldbuilding” folder

[Jan-czvx]

So your telling me there was a medival hero leading the charge with cry that basicly is a version of fraternite egalite liberte and ment it? He most be the most awesome guy ever lived.

[Der_graue_Wanderer]

Did you notice that tiny little territory south of Dithmarschen on the other bank of the Elbe estuary? It showed on some of your maps and is callad "Land Hadeln" (or short Hadeln). In the early 13th century, when feudal overlordship over the region was disputed, the Hadelner managed to pick one for themselves, (from the House of Askania) who held the impressive title of "Duke of Saxony", (later Duke of Saxony-Lauenburg) but happended to live quiet far away and be quiet poor. Many times the Duke had to ask the wealthy peasants for money because he was not allowed by law to raise new taxes against the will of the Hadelner. While the other peasant republics went down in "flames and glory" sooner or later, the Hadelner managed to survive the epoch of subjugation by neigbouring territorial rulers. It seems, they had more negotiation skills, than the others, but they also kept their militia, which still saw action during the War of Thirty Years (alongside the Swedish against the Catholic Liga) and in the Nordic Wars. When the House of Ascania died out, Hadeln came under the direct rule of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor (very much like the Frisian who accepted only Charlemagne above them, during the times of the Frisian Freedom). When the Emperor gave Hadeln to the House of Hannover, this happened with the permission (!) of the "Hadler Stände" (an assambley of local representatives that consisted almost entirely of peasants). From there on the selfadmistration of the Hadelner began to erode bit by bit, was abolished by Bonaparte for a few jears, reestablished by the Hannoverians and finally abolished by the Prussians as late as 1885.

[C-Farsene_]

legends say that their ancestors were the anarcho-syndacalist commune who challenged King Arthur on his farcical views of authority

[Kuhmuhnistische_Partei]

There were a few places where feudalism wasn't really a thing, another one would be East Frisia and Switzerland developed from a similar thing. But we should keep in mind that those places weren't like democracies or something. It was usually just a project of the local elites (peasants with much land in those cases) who didn't want an even higher up dude telling them what to do and take taxes from them. For the average peasant on those areas it was probably not necessarily that different from living in feudalism. And let's also make clear that feudalism itself is kind of a difficult concept and isn't even really that applicable to the entirety of the medieval age and many historians became very wary of even using the term, because it transports to many wrong ideas and suggests some uniform way of doing things when it actually looked very different throughout time and across regions. And it wasn't really that "strictly hierarchical", like in reality it became quite messy and really more of a network of loyalties than some neat pyramid.

And the whole story about the peasants tricking their way into the castle of Count Rudolf II is just the story of a local play. The first evidence for anything like that comes from 300 years after it supposedly happened and there are no other sources for it.

[schweinetimmel]

9:50 "Wahr di Garr de Bur de kumt"
Means something like "caution guardsmen, the peasants/farmers are coming (for you)"

[jacobborregaard]

Fun fact! The king of Denmark was styled duke of Dithmarschen until 1972 with the death of Frederik IX.

[flazzorb]

2:27 Sorry to nitpick but it's Thalassocratic, not Thassalocratic.

[DerMannDerSeineMutterwar]

I might add that Dithmarschen and the North Frisians had actually a long standing feud. The early chronics of the land are filled with stories about them killing each other of. I btw. wouldn't describe the republic as Anarchic or Communistic. After all even in medival society were those who had the right to work on the land higher class. It's more like in a village of 80 people in which there are 8 farmers who control the land and one of them get's to be the judge for some time.

[TheWolfwiththeDragon]

This video really makes me *feel* like I am reviewing my brother’s work for his upcoming English school presentation.

[Theo-cxh]

Dithmarschen was more of a Timocracy (only land owning peasents/ farmers could vote who had a certain amount of land), also Dithmarscheners believed in natural rights and the map is wrong, that's the modern district of Dithmarschen, back then part of North-Frisia belonged to it too

[matthewgiorgio]

The fact you said a fancy word then immediately put definition up is what made me subscribe lol

[Douwantapotato]

what makes this channel different is how it feels that it's a friend telling you fun facts and history while hanging out on the couch. Those very occasional, "really?" "yeah" "wow" along with the small back and forths are so comforting and is such a refreshing take on this genre in Youtube. I especially appreciate the great difference in audio quality in those conversations, it's like you're hearing your friend in the far side of the room chip in. keep it up :)

[Underjordiskentitet]

I read somewhere in a Danish book that because Denmark did what Denmark often do and immediatedly disbands its expencive mercenary army, unemployed maurauding landsknechte caused so much chaos in Dittmarchen that it was decided to rearm the now disarmed population so they could fend for themselves....

Anyways it comes as an Oh experience to me that they where levied in 1227... Because after the Knud incident in 1086, where the Vendelboere did what the Vendelboere do best, the Danish rulers didn't really vibe well with the whole using the Jutlandic peasant levies for anything, but preffered to stick to Peasants from Fyn and Sjælland. And Ditmarchen is somewhat kind of Jutland or Jutland adjacent