Diggers

Diggers ( Digger ) was an English group, which was founded by Gerrard Winstanley as True Levellers in 1649.

Its name, True Levellers came from their belief in economic equality, which goes back to a specific passage in the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 4:32 EU). They were a splinter group of the Levellers. The Diggers tried to reform the existing social order, flatten the vested by striving for an agrarian way of life, which was accompanied by the creation of small, rural communities. They were one of the many English Dissenters groups of that time.

History

The year 1649 was a time of great social unrest in England. The Parliament as the winner of the English Civil War it was not possible to reach an agreement with King Charles I.. So this was eventually killed by supporters of Parliament and the army. The government was replaced by a new institution, the "Council of State", which was eventually controlled by fundamental disagreements with the weakened Parliament by the army. Many people were politically active and beat other forms of government that should replace the old order. These ranged from royalists who wanted to inherit King Charles I., about Levellers, who wanted to achieve the election of the Parliament by every male head of the household, to the True Levellers were demanding a more radical solution.

Winstanley and fifteen others published a pamphlet in which they called themselves True Levellers, to make themselves indistinguishable from the Levellers. Finally, when their idea of ​​" public land " was partially put into practice, they have been known to supporters as opponents as Diggers. Most important was the Democratic, sometimes even anarchic aspect of faith of the Diggers. They assumed that it only could be no ruling class more if all Englishmen get together in independent municipalities. Thus, the ruling class would be forced to join either the local authorities or to give, so that there would be no one to whom one had to pay taxes.

The end of the movement

The Digger communities that had formed throughout England, were finally crushed in 1651. Mostly for the local landowners were responsible, which were encouraged by the "Council of State" is to break these communities, wherever they appeared.

Further Reading

• Lewis Henry Berens: The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth. Available online, Project Gutenberg.
• H. Klenner (ed.), Gerrad Winstanley: equality in the realm of freedom. Social Philosophy pamphlets and tracts. Leipzig 1983, 1986.
• H. J. Goertz (Eds. ), K. Deppermann: The Free commonwealth of the True Levellers. Gerrard Winstanley and the rural municipalities of Digger. In: "Everything belongs to everyone ." The experiment community property from the 16th century until today. Munich 1984, p 71 - 91