Robota 500

In Stolberg (Harz), Osterhausen, and Emseloh—selected sites commemorating events of the Peasants’ War (around 1525) in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz—the artistic landmark Robota 500 has been installed. It will preserve the memory of the victims beyond the 2025 commemorative year Gerechtigkeyt 1525.

Robota 500 by Stine Albrecht and Hermann Beneke is a 2.70-meter-tall metal sculpture composed of vertically layered aluminum plates forming a humanoid figure. Painted in rainbow colors, the sculpture stands as both a symbol of the uprising of an instrumentalized class and a prompt to reflect on the technologization and automation of our natural ways of life. Its raised arm may be seen as a call to struggle—or as a gesture pointing toward a new era.

In Stolberg, the first figure stands by the Thyra river valley. The second is located in Osterhausen next to the 1975 memorial column for Thomas Müntzer. The third will be installed in Emseloh near the Kaltenborn Monastery.
We extend our special thanks to the people of Stolberg, Eisleben, and Osterhausen, as well as Allstedt, Riestedt, and Emseloh, who supported us in identifying the sites and installing Robota 500.
On the Thyrahöhe—formerly Stolberg’s gallows hill—rebels were hanged during the Peasants’ War. The best-known leader of the peasants, Thomas Müntzer, was born in Stolberg. In Osterhausen, behind the church, lies a mass grave containing the remains of rebels killed around 1525. In Emseloh, insurgents of the Peasants’ War stormed and destroyed the Kaltenborn Monastery.