Black Company

The term Schwarz (black) pointed out the ideological distance of the company from the large peasant army at that time, which called itself the Heller Haufen (Hell meaning "light-colored").

From that time on, Georg, Truchsess ("Steward") of Waldburg, commander of the Swabian League, showed little mercy to the Black Company and hunted them down ruthlessly throughout Swabia.

The Black Company has remained very popular to the present day, although Swabian rulers did everything to nullify its fame in the years after the uprising, through publishing a number of "facts" about the crimes the peasants supposedly had committed.

The actions of the Black Company has been memorialised in the song "Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen", a World War I-era composition by Fritz Sotke with lyrics from Heinrich von Reder.

The song has a strong anti-clerical and anti-noble theme, and it remains popular in modern day Germany, with contemporary bands offering different performances and reinterpretations of the lyrics.