He was a priest and reformer, mystic and social revolutionary. During the Peasants' War, he sided with the rebels. His short life ended under the executioner's axe. Thomas Müntzer (1489-1525) stirred passions during his lifetime, and even today his name commands attention. The theologian of revolution, as his biographer Ernst Bloch called him, was almost revered as a national hero by the East German state. Today, some view him as a political criminal and terrorist for his advocacy of violent resistance, while others see him as a role model for his clear insight into the social problems of his time.