Bauernkrieg 1653 (The Peasant's War 1653)
Open air performance
Author Hansjörg Schneider
Director Louis Naef
Music Reto Stadelmann
5 July – 23 August 2003, Escholzmatt Switzerland
In 1653 the people of the Entlebuch valley rebelled against the increasingly harsh and dictatorial behaviour of Lucerne's city authorities. The local unrest escalated into the Swiss peasant war of 1653 – a rebellion in which the city authorities were victorious and took harsh measures afterwards to punish the insurrectionists. Despite the tragic defeat the peasant war paved the way for essential political developments within the Old Swiss Confederacy.
© Georg Anderhub
Swiss author Hansjörg Schneider wrote the play especially for the village Escholzmatt, home of old campaigner and distinguished mercenary
Christian Schybi. Schybi joined forces with peasant leader Hans Emmenegger, from Schüpfheim, who was on a peaceful mission to
gain the legalisation of general assemblies (Landsgemeinde) as part of a modern democracy. Based on Schneider's Bauernkrieg 1653
,
director Louis Naef developed one of his legendary open-air theatre productions, based on the historic and cultural heritage of an area.
In this case he involved an entire village, its church and the mountainous landscape of remote and historic Napf on top of Schwändelberg
above Escholzmatt.