An event and its faces: 500 years of the Peasants’ War [Ein Ereignis und seine Gesichter: 500 Jahre Bauernkrieg]

“Five hundred years ago, the Peasants’ War shook the established order and left behind a tangle of voices, images, and conflicting interpretations. Even today, contemporary accounts and later readings overlap. The 2025 anniversary highlights this diversity: not one narrative, but a mosaic of perspectives. Böblingen, as a historic battle site, positions itself as a place of encounter where the faces of the uprising appear—fragmentary, multilayered, and in dialogue.

In the first section, guiding lines trace the course of the conflict—from its beginnings to confrontation and tragedy. They connect spaces, redirect sightlines, and build tension. Illustrations open windows into the era, while interactive elements encourage visitors to explore decisions and how context shapes perception. Typographic headings function like stage-play chapters, marking key turning points. Audio stations with Martern Feuerbacher embed personal voices into the space.

The second section examines how the Peasants’ War has been politically reinterpreted over centuries—celebrated, moralized, or used as propaganda. Here the uprising becomes a projection surface for shifting ideas and identities. Central questions arise: How do these images form, and why do they keep changing?

Böblingen underscores that remembrance is a process, not a fixed state. The exhibition creates a space where perspectives coexist, intersect, and evolve—and where visitors can form their own view of the uprising.”

Client:

Deutsches Bauernkriegsmuseum [German Peasants’ War Museum]

Partners:

Lea Wegner, Johannes Hucht, Steffen Knöll, Sven Tillack

Photos:

Studio Tillack Knöll, Sven Tillack

Studio Tillack Knöll is a multicreative design practice that concerns itself with the visual and spatial aspects of communication. We design exhibitions, wayfinding systems, books, posters, visual identities and digital experiences for a variety of clients involved in architecture, art, science and commerce to cultural institutions and NGOs.