Bauernkriegsmaschine (Peasants' War Machine)
by Gebhard Sengmüller, in collaboration with Michael Blank
In the accompanying text to his artwork The Edison Effect (1993), Paul DeMarinis writes about the invention of the phonograph: “The invention, or rather, the discovery, of sound recording and reproduction by Edison came as a shock to the entire world, the inventor included. [...] The talking machine was a simple mechanical contrivance which could have been built successfully several centuries earlier, in plenty of time to skyrocket Bach and Mozart to international stardom.“
Drawing on this line of thought, Bauernkriegsmaschine (Peasants’ War Machine) develops a secret electrical messaging system from the early 16th century, thereby demonstrating how much the outcome of social conflicts also depends on the availability of information technology.
[promotional brochure (pdf)]
Bauernkriegsmaschine is a media-archaeological experimental setup that proposes an alternative communication system for the early modern period. The years from 1524 to 1526 in Central Europe were marked by the German Peasants’ Wars—probably the first major popular uprising closely linked to the printing press as the first mass medium. This socially revolutionary and religiously motivated attempt at societal reorganization was accompanied—like many failed revolutions—by a massive imbalance in the capacities for communication and organization between the ruling classes and the rebels.
Bauernkriegsmaschine contrasts this historical reality with a fictional electrical telegraph system, constructed using materials and techniques that had been available since the late Middle Ages. In this way, the work not only highlights the structural disadvantages faced by the losers of these conflicts but also, through the use of communication technology in a sort of retro-activism, symbolically restores a measure of justice to them.
With this multifaceted installation, Gebhard Sengmüller extends his longstanding practice of retrospectively inventing media that never existed (VinylVideo|A Parallel Image|Big Paul) by several hundred years into Europe’s past.
Bauernkriegsmaschine on social media
[Instagram]
[Mastodon]
I would also like to thank:
- Adi Figl, Bio-Hof Figl, Puch bei Hollabrunn
- Nikolaus Fuchs, Wien
- Mag.art. Matthias Hammer und Mag.art. Johannes Hoffmann, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien
- Wolfgang Lösch und Dr. Willi Grimm, Fabrikmuseum Roth
- Martin Pühringer Clavichord- und Cembalobau, Haslach und Wien
- Dr. Reinhold Reith, Fachbereich Geschichte der Universität Salzburg
- Giovanni Rindler, Wien
- Barbara, Leopold und Pauline Sengmüller, Wien
- Mgr. Dominik Talla, PhD, Institut für Mineralogie und Kristallographie der Universität Wien
- Fredrik Wigh, Director Magnetizing Technology, Magnet-Physik Köln
The artwork was commissioned by the State of Salzburg as part of its Simultan series.
All files are copyright © 2026 by Gebhard Sengmüller. Permission to publish is contingent upon proper published attribution to ”Bauernkriegsmaschine” and the subsequent receipt by Gebhard Sengmüller of a copy of the published material.
In the case of special requests or problems, please e-mail us at gebseng@gebseng.com