500 Years Of Exploitation? — Florian Hurtig

Florian Hurtig’s lecture on the 500th anniversary of the Peasants’ War examines the long-lasting impact of this historical uprising on modern agriculture and society. He draws connections between the social struggles of that time and today’s challenges, focusing especially on the unequal distribution of land and the ethical questions surrounding our responsibility toward nature, plants, and animals. The accompanying film program, featuring works by Janis Rafa, Ida Zahradnik, and Antje Majewski, contrasts contemporary agricultural practices in rural and urban areas.

6:30 pm Lecture by Florian Hurtig with Q&A
8:00 pm Film screening at the Zazie Arthouse Cinema
Language: German, films with English subtitles

About the lecture:
The German Peasants' War marks its 500th anniversary this year. A fitting occasion to take a closer look at what was likely the largest mass uprising in Central Europe of all time. I view the outbreak of the Peasants' War as a resistance against the expulsion from the commons, the collectively used pastures and forests, which in turn laid the groundwork for modern capitalism. I understand this capitalism in its fully developed form as a renewed attack on peasants: the expropriation of their knowledge-based and resonant relationship with nature. Modern science rationalized this relationship, thereby vastly increasing the exploitability of both nature and the peasants themselves. Once again, collectives are being scattered: this time, the interspecies collectives that have defined peasant life for millennia — and it is its negation that we are literally falling ill from today. Even now, peasants are once again taking to the barricades. How can we place these protests within a 500-year history of wars against peasants and their resistance? And what positive prospects can we dare to imagine?

Florian Hurtig is a fruit farmer in a solidarity agriculture, an agroforestry designer, and an activist. He has been engaged with the history of agriculture and power structures for more than 10 years. In 2020, he published Paradise Lost. Vom Ende der Vielfalt und dem Siegeszug der Monokultur [Paradise Lost: On the End of Diversity and the Triumph of Monoculture]. His new book, 500 Jahre Bauernkriege [500 Years of Peasant Wars: Resistance Against Land Grabbing and Exploitation from 1525 to Today], will be published this year.