Hans Nielsen Hauge - the incarnation of the final victory of the German peasants!

Landscape of rural Toten with Lake Mjøsa, Norway, in January 2025. Stock-bilde | Adobe Stock

The Haugians won the Peasants War on the foundation of an emerging capitalism. The Haugians too hated the Social Class System implemented by the Danish King just as much as the German peasants, but they used house devotions and capitalism as weapons. House devotions was implemented through Christian VI, the Haugians used this tool to gain freedom of speech and assembly, and then they used the emerging capitalism to gather social position and influence. The German peasants didn't have these tools or weapons to work with at that time, so they had to wait for the Norwegian Haugians for a full victory. Even today several major Norwegian industries are a result of the Haugian pioneers. The known historian Berge Furre regards Hans Nielsen Hauge as the most important Norwegian that ever lived, and he thinks nobody even come close to him. So Hans Nielsen Hauge is the incarnation of the final victory of the German peasants!

House devotions was a decree from Christian VI, who was a devoted State Pietist, for farmers to gather their workforce once a day, to share the word of God. But with this people started to gather and discuss the Scripture, which then developed into a movement, with Hans Nielsen Hauge as supreme leader.

The Haugians started every working day in their factories with a house devotion and prayer. In a way Christian VI shot himself in the foot, he just wanted his subjects to become just as devoted Pietists as himself, but unwarily started a revolution!

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I just unpacked the book "Haugianerne - Enevelde og undergrunn : By Trygve Riiser Gundersen", and the book is huge, almost 700 pages with lots of footnotes, with way too small letters. I can't believe I got this book for just 129 N.Kr. or 11,54 USD on January sale. I'll try to come back to write a small summary of the book when/if I get through it, but it might take a while. I just read a little about the book, and it only got top scores, as this is groundbreaking new history, or history understanding. And the Haugians were not a result of the Enlightenment, they were a strict Norwegian phenomena erupting from the decree of house devotions from Christian VI, which developed into the Peasants Rebellion version 2.0. The only difference was that the Haugians were born at the birth of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution, where they became spectacular entrepreneurs and industrialists, and with this got a huge economical and political influence.

Remember that the Haugians were simple farmers and fishermen, but because of the spirit of Hans Nielsen Hauge, they became the leading entrepreneurs and industrialists, where they industrialized Norway before foreign capital and capitalists came to our country.

The publisher is Cappelen Damm, Norway's largest publisher. I'm not sure, but I think they mentioned on our visit to the Hauge Center at Rolvsøy, Fredrikstad, that this publisher can trace its beginning back to Hauge's friend, who started up publishing Hauge's pamphlets.

These pamphlets became hugely popular among Norwegian peasants and fishermen, just like the writings of Marthin Luther 250 years before. So in every way this was the second battle of the peasants, and this time they won!