When Normal People Completely Snapped in History
Just a heads-up, I’m going to be gone for military service over the next few months, so Chris will be filling in on some upcoming videos. Today, we got more stories of people in history who completely snapped.
Hans Kohlhase
It’s 1532 in the Holy Roman Empire, and a merchant named Hans Kohlhase is traveling from Brandenburg to the Leipzig Fair in Saxony. This was the biggest trade fair in all of Europe, with thousands of people expected to be there, and Hans is planning to sell a lot of stuff and make a lot of money. He’s been on the road for a few days, and he smiles as he can see the town come into view up ahead in the distance.
But, about 20 miles from his destination, two men jump out of nowhere and rush in front of his horses. Hans doesn’t know what’s going on, but they’re shouting at him and accusing him of being a thief. As he’s trying to make sense of the situation, they aggressively rip him off his horse and throw him to the ground.
Hans is bewildered as he watches the men grab the reins of his horses and lead them away.
He gets up and quickly runs toward them. “Follow me to the city. I can prove I’m just a merchant.
These are my horses, I swear.” But, they ignore him, mount his horses, and ride off, leaving Hans stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing. With no other choice, Hans starts walking to the city hoping to get his horses and goods back.
After an entire day of walking, he bursts into a tavern, and as he scans the room, he sees a few of his merchant friends sitting at the bar. Hans rushes over and tells them he just got horse-jacked by some local thugs, and begs them to go with him to get his stuff back. They go out and find the bailiff of the city, who was kind of like a modern-day sheriff, and after they tell him what happened, he knows exactly who they’re talking about.
The men who stole his horses worked for a wealthy Saxon landlord named Günther von Zaschwitz, and Hans demands that the bailiff writes an official letter to tell this guy to give him back his stuff. Hans takes the letter to Zaschwitz’s estate and hand-delivers the note, thinking this would be the end of this whole misunderstanding. But Zaschwitz has other ideas.
The lord reads the letter and agrees, but he explains that he had to feed and take care of these horses all day. So, if he wants them back, he needs to be compensated for the expenses he incurred. Hans cannot believe what he is hearing.
This guy stole all of his stuff, and now he’s trying to shake him down for even more money? Pissed off, he starts demanding that Zaschwitz return everything. But as Hans is popping off, the landlord simply turns around and walks away.
His guards grab the merchant and throw him out of his estate.
Left with nothing in Saxony, Hans begins his long walk home. It takes him over a week to get back, and after getting yelled at by his wife for losing all their stuff, he’s able to convince his local lord of Brandenburg to arrange a legal trial against Zaschwitz. Thinking this would finally be the end of all this, Hans makes his way back to Saxony for the trial.
But as he walks into the courtroom and looks around, he sees nothing but wealthy landowners who are all probably friends with Zaschwitz serving as the judgment committee. The trial begins, and they quickly decide that the fairest thing to do is double the original ransom Zaschwitz had asked for to pay for the horses. Hans realizes this was all a complete scam, and just wanting to be done with this whole experience, he reluctantly agrees to just pay the equivalent of a thousand dollars to get his horses back.
“Thanks for coming out again. Here are your horses back, just as promised. That’ll be a thousand dollars.”
Zaschwitz wasn’t taking care of his horses at all, and now they’re nearly dead. He looks over to demand an explanation, but the lord just smiles and holds out his hand for the payment. Hans’ face swells with rage, and he shoves the gold back into his purse and turns around to walk home.
For the next year, all Hans can think about is how broken the system is and how these landowners had no respect for people like him. Every time he tries to move on, he just gets more and more enraged. In the end, he realizes he can’t stand how these rich pricks can get away with everything.
And so, in 1534, Hans declares a personal war against Zaschwitz and the entire state of Saxony.
And I’m actually not being hyperbolic here. Hans published what was called a letter of defiance, which for hundreds of years in the Holy Roman Empire, allowed people to declare a personal feud against
