communale oö 2026: Peasants' War 1626 - Between history and fiction

The year 1626 is symptomatic of the rapid change that Europe was undergoing at the beginning of the 17th century.

The exhibition highlights precisely those preconditions and contextual factors that would lead to the armed uprising in the Land ob der Enns. It offers insight into the lives of the population, which were marked by multiple crises, and traces the rebels’ initial successes in May 1626 through the ultimately failed siege of Linz Castle to their devastating defeats in November of that year. The six months of the armed uprising were followed by 400 years of history and historiography. During this time, the events of the uprising were constantly reinterpreted against the backdrop of shifting interests and made the subject of political instrumentalization. From the perspective of a 21st-century society, the exhibition explores this process of remembrance and commemoration spanning four centuries and examines how it continues to shape the narrative of the Upper Austrian Peasants’ War to this day.

More about the exhibition
More about the program of communale oö 2026 at communale.at