As the quincentenary of Miintzer's birth looms ominously in 1989, the manufactories of research are already working overtime. After the spate of publications on the Peasants' War in 1975 a lull in production set in, with the market subsequently depressed by severe competition from the Luther anniversary in 1983. Now the Müntzer industry has once again picked up, but the models coming off the production line bear little resemblance to the crude and garish stereotypes of yesteryear. At last a saner image of Müntzer is being shaped by means of the tools of sounder source editions, greater theological insight and a firmer chronology of life and work. In this enterprise scholars from the English-speaking world, to whom Müntzer has often seemed an incomprehensible figure on the margins of the Reformation, are taking full and vigorous part. Their contribution is assessed at the conclusion of this review, which concentrates perforce on the most significant German publications of the last two decades.
