Karsthans

Karsthans denotes, in the broadsheets and polemical pamphlets of the Reformation period, the peasant labouring with the hoe (Karst). Karsthans first appears in the dialogue Karsthans und Kegelhans (1521) by Vadian. A further dialogue, Neu-Karst Hans, which has been attributed to Ulrich von Hutten and to M. Butzer, followed in the same year. Karsthans became a symbolical figure in the social and political unrest leading to the peasants' revolt (see Bauernkrieg) of 1524-5.