Franziskus Müntzer and the Schuttern Uprising of 1741-43 @museum.de

The calamitous era of the Thirty Years' War and the subsequent Wars of Succession had left the monastery complex in a ruinous state. Abbot Franziskus Müntzer, who was in office from 1727 to 1751, wanted the monastery to flourish in new, baroque splendour. Numerous sandstone coats of arms and inscribed stones reflect his brisk construction activity. He was also the one who commissioned the Swiss engraver Franz Xaver Schönbächler to draw up the maps of the monastery grounds that have come down to us.

However, a large part of the work was carried out at the expense of local people, who were expected to contribute their labour. A general sense of dissatisfaction grew. The abbot was not popular. Disputes about grazing rights and logging in the monastery forest went unresolved. After the insults came the fights. And in 1741, there was open revolt.

The abbot no longer felt safe in his own abbey and demanded support from the government of Further Austria. A contingent of 100 hussars was dispatched to Schuttern. The farmers were outmatched by this superior force, and the revolt was suppressed in 1743.

In the Age of Enlightenment, ordinary people throughout Europe grew more discontented – a development that came to a head in the French Revolution from 1789 onwards.

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Musik: Audionautix.com