Home to the largest emblematic circular painting in Germany, the Panorama Museum overlooks the spa town of Bad Frankenhausen. It’s here that the 123-meter-long monumental “Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany” painting by Werner Tübke is displayed and it stands as one of the most impressive and controversial paintings in recent art history. Created between 1983 and 1987, the oil on canvas painting depicts more than 3,000 figures during the Battle of Franken-hausen, which was fought on 15 May 1525 during the German Peasants' War.
The Panorama Museum was built in the 1980s specifically to house the painting, which exhibits an Old Master’s style in depicting the battle that took place at the site around 500 years ago. It was one of the last great battles of the German Peasants’ War, which was led by the radical preacher Thomas Müntzer against the authorities for the erection of the Kingdom of God for the Chosen.
Bad Frankenhausen nestles on the slopes of the Kyffhäuser mountains along an arm of the Wipper River and is home to a saline well that’s used for medicinal spas in the town. Once famed for the manufacture of pearl buttons, it’s now renowned for the Panorama Museum and its “Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany” painting, as well as the nearby monument dedicated to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Officially known as the Kyffhäuser Monument, it was erected in the late-19th century at the site of the medieval Kyffhausen Castle, with its magnificent design by architect Bruno Schmitz.