16th Century German Arsonists

In 16th century Holy Roman Empire there was a widespread fear of organized bands of arsonists. But did these "Mordbrenner" bands really exist? Which social groups were associated with arsonists?

One of the fascinating aspects of the 16th century is its shadowy underworld. As the growing state power increasingly tried to suppress the various “dangerous classes”, it also provided a more detailed view of how these people lived, giving us a lot of fascinating accounts. Bandits, vagrants, thieves, mercenaries, prostitutes and various other people on the margins of society, forming their own parallel societies. The art of Urs Graf, a Swiss mercenary with a troubled life who depicted his experiences which revolved around war, gambling and prostitutes, provides a fascinating glimpse into this darker part of the Renaissance world.

It’s definitely an interesting subject and I decided to write an article about one aspect of it that used to particularly haunt the imagination of 16th century Holy Roman Empire - the alleged existence of bands of organized arsonists, or the “Mordbrenner” bands.

At the time, there was a widespread fear of organized "Mordbrenner" bands of arsonists which were allegedly hired by various princes to burn down whole towns.

But did these bands really exist?

Many investigations were made about “Mordbrenner” bands of “murder arsonists” over the 16th century. Numerous people confessed of being part of such bands and that they were paid for arson, implicating further people. This soon caused widespread fear of organized bands of arsonists terrorizing the land!

For example in 1540, which was an extremely hot and dry year, Germany witnessed numerous fires. The Protestants began suspecting a Catholic conspiracy was behind it. Following a fire in the Protestant town of Einbeck, where 350 people perished in flames, a shepherd was arrested who confessed that he was paid to set the town on fire by Heinrich Diek, a formerly wealthy merchant from Einbeck who had fallen in debt and also didn't like the prevalent Lutheran faith of the town. Diek was arrested and implicated further people, until it was believed that Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Henry V was behind it, and that it was part of a wider Catholic conspiracy financed by the Pope himself.

Fear quickly spread among Protestants of North Germany as further towns suffered from devastating fires that year. Confessions of 32 people were brought up as proof of this Catholic conspiracy and it was claimed that the Pope had paid money to German Catholic princes to hire the dreaded Mordbrenner bands of arsonists to put Protestant towns on fire!

The issue was brought forward to Emperor Charles V who was presented with the confessions of captured arsonists by the Protestant Estates who begged him to do something about this alleged Catholic conspiracy.

This was not an isolated case as fears of using arson as a political weapon persisted throughout the Early Modern era Holy Roman Empire. Various princes and states were believed to be behind organized political “fireraising” at different points, from rival lords to foreign hostile states such as France and the Ottoman Empire. These fears fueled imagination about organized Mordbrenner bands of arsonists which could be hired for such nefarious purposes and were willing to do such terrible crimes.

But these fears also reflect wider social issues in 16th century Germany. Vagrants and beggars were specifically suspected and targeted in connection with such alleged arsonist bands. It was widely believed that vagrants and beggars were secretly forming their own guilds and criminal organizations in the shadowy underworld of German society at the time. They were also associated with arsonist attacks due to the resentment they might feel towards society. It was often reported that beggars and vagrants made threats about burning down property of people that did not give them sufficient help. These threats were taken very seriously and were investigated. For example in 1554 a man named Stefan Fastell was arrested in Möckmühl for threatening that he would burn to the ground the barn in which he had taken shelter, if he was expelled from it. In similar manner, princes and nobles who had been forced out of their territories were suspected to have made deals with arsonist bands to devastate the territory they had been robed of. But such threats were mostly made in the heat of the argument and were not followed on.

Nevertheless, arson was one of the crimes that were taken extremely seriously by Early Modern society, and it was like this in the Holy Roman Empire since the Middle Ages. Already in 1188 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa proclaimed the Constitutio contra incendiarios (Constitution against arsonists) which stipulated that publicly notorious arsonists could be beheaded immediately on apprehension without due process of law.

Since the Middle Ages arson was associated with the unruly lower nobility, the Raubritter (robber knights), who engaged in robbery, theft and intimidation. Arson was also used in feuds among nobles families as one of the main ways to damage your enemy in a feud was to economically harm his property and arson was a good way to do that. The use of arson as a weapon among feuding families persisted into the 16th century. For example such was the case in 1517 when Jürgen Thanwolf feuded with Wolfgang von Fuchstain. Thanwolf sent a formal declaration of the feud (Fehdebrief) together with a Brandzeichen, a cord soaked in pitch, wrapped in a piece of coarse linen, a sign of his intent to proceed by means of arson.

Innocent civilians were also damaged in such feuds, and Thanwolf would later apologize to a poor tenant called Planer, whom he met later in an inn, for burning down his property as part of his feud with Fuchstain, and even promised him to pay him some compensation.

Another group that was associated with bands of organized arsonists were the Landsknecht mercenaries. When they were not serving in the military, they were often wandering around and causing trouble, like getting into brawls with local peasants in inns and taverns. For example in 1542 five mercenaries from Bavaria threatened the inhabitants of Oberesslingen and wounded an official there. In 1557 a mercenary threatened to burn down an Inn in Stuttgart. Landsknecht mercenaries were also used to using arson as a method of intimidation on military campaigns, where there was even an official office of Brandmeister (literally "fire master") who specialized in collecting money and food from local population under threat of arson. Furthermore mercenaries returning from service in foreign armies were not trusted as it was believed they might still be on the payroll to serve as spies and saboteurs. Therefore they could easily end up being scapegoated for various problems and associated with arsonist bands. In 1555, an alleged plot was uncovered when it was claimed that the King of France had paid some 50 demobilized Landsknechts in Saarbrücken to lay fire throughout Germany.

But it is unlikely that this plot, or the other plots involving the alleged Mordbrenner bands of organized arsonists, were real. Fires that damaged or destroyed towns might be explained as simple accidents. As they were largely built from timber and straw, early modern settlements were indeed extremely vulnerable to conflagration. It did not take carefully planned arsonist attacks to burn whole towns to the ground. There is also no documentation about recruitment of these arsonists by various princes and states they were supposedly working for. All the statements and confessions of alleged suspects were made under torture or the threat of torture, and could not be taken as a definite proof.

While arson was definitely used as a political weapon and among feuding families on at least some occasions, the belief in existence of organized bands of arsonists operating in secrecy seems to be a result of paranoia and in this particular segment perhaps comparable to persecution of witchcraft, which was also taking place at that same time.

The fear of arsonist bands was related to various social problems Holy Roman Empire was experiencing in the Early Modern period, such as peasant rebellions (peasants were also accused of hiring vagrant arsonist bands to burn down towns during these rebellions), religious divisions between Catholics and Protestants, and pressure from various external enemies such as France and Ottoman Empire. It also coincided with emerging modern states trying to use state authority to suppress various outcasts and criminal groups, whether real or imagined. The fear of organized arsonists united both nobles and commoners. It was also a way to clamp down on various groups of undesirables who were associated with Mordbrenner arsonists.

But like with many other things associated with the shadows of the underworld, we will never know for sure.

Sources:

Bob Scribner, "The Mordbrenner Fear in Sixteenth-century Germany: Political Paranoia or the Revenge of the Outcast?" in The German Underworld: Deviants and Outcasts in German History (Routledge: 1988), 29-57.

Johannes Dillinger, "Organized Arson as a Political Crime. The Construction of a 'Terrorist' Menace in the Early Modern Period" in Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies, Vol 10, No 2 (2006), 101-121.