Florian Geyer Florian Geyer ( born around 1490 in Giebelstadt , Lower Franconia – 10 June 1525 in Gramschatz Forest near Würzburg ) , also known as " Florian Geier from Giebelstadt " , was a Franconian nobleman , diplomat and knight . He became famous for leading peasants during the German Peasants ' War . Early life . After the death of his father Dietrich in 1492 and of his two older brothers , he inherited a fortune and possessions . In 1512 - 13 he was a guest in the court of King Henry VIII of England , and may have been exposed to the reformist ideas of John Wycliffe and the Lollards . In 1517 , after refusing to pay 350 year old interest claims from Kollegiatstift Neumünster , he was excommunicated . In 1519 he served a vassal of Markgraf Casimir of Brandenburg - Kulmbach - Ansbach in the army of the Swabian League as Landsknecht commander against Duke Ulrich of Württemberg and against Götz von Berlichingen in Möckmühl . Later in 1519 , Casimir of Brandenburg - Ansbach - Bayreuth sent him to his brother , the Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order , Albert of Brandenburg - Prussia , to support him against Poland . Geyer negotiated a truce that ended the Polish - Teutonic War ( 1519 – 1521 ) . Until 1523 , he served the Hochmeister , travelling around European courts on diplomatic missions . The same year , he accompanied his prince to visit the dissident Protestant priest , Martin Luther in Wittenberg . If not already sympathetic , he was probably won over to Luther ' s ideals at this meeting . German Peasants ' War . Geyer , like many knights , originally sided with Luther against the Roman Catholic hierarchy during Protestant Reformation in Germany in the 16th century . When the German Peasants ' War broke out in 1524 , spurred on by Martin Luther ' s teachings , German Protestants were divided along class lines . Protestant peasants and silver miners , led by Thomas Müntzer , began taking over farms and mines . Müntzer also called for the abolition of all political posts except for that of the Emperor ( who in the Holy Roman Empire was elected by landholders — who Müntzer asserted would now include peasants and miners ) . Martin Luther thought this had gone too far , and sided with Protestant aristocrats who only wanted clerical reforms , calling upon peasants to put down their arms and surrender their farms . Müntzer ' s radical faction concluded that Luther was a traitor and continued to fight against both Catholic and Lutheran nobles . Florian Geyer , together with a handful of dissident low - ranking knights and several hundred hastily - trained peasant militiamen , established the Black Company ( often called the Black Host or Black Band ) , which was possibly the only heavy cavalry division in European history to fight on the side of a peasant revolution . By checking Imperial and Protestant knights on the battlefield , the Black Company allowed Müntzer ' s motivated infantry to score a string of victories and liberate huge swaths of the German countryside . Geyer became a notable folk hero in Franconia and the whole of Germany , and is reputed to have had the words " Nulla crux , nulla corona " " ( Neither cross nor crown ) " scratched on the blade of his sword . All sides credited him with the wanton destruction of cathedrals and castles , and summary executions of the lords and priests contained therein ; the cruelty and extent of these activities is , however , disputed . As the Peasants ' War dragged on , many of the rebel peasants returned home , and most of the knights who , alongside Geyer , had joined Müntzer deserted or defected . Müntzer himself was defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen and executed shortly afterwards . Death . Conflicting accounts place Geyer with the company , or alone in Rothingen in the aftermath of the Battle of Frankenhausen . The Black Company was falsely informed of victory at Frankenhausen , and ambushed outside of Ingolstadt . They managed to regroup , retreat , and fortify the town ' s castle and cathedral . The cathedral was burned with no survivors , and the castle was taken after three assaults . A portion of the Black Company broke free , only to be encircled again in nearby woodlands . If Geyer had been leading Black Company through the Battle of Ingolstadt , he barely escaped with his life . Geyer may , however , have been stranded at Rothingen the entire time while waiting for an escort to rejoin the Black Company , only to be banned from Rothingen . The later attempts to stamp out memory of the uprising have obscured these details . Whether or not Geyer was at Ingolstadt , he was one of the last survivors of Müntzer ' s army . In the night from 9 to 10 June 1525 he was contacted in Würzburg by two servants of his brother - in - law Wilhelm von Grumbach , who had the stated intention of helping him rekindle the Peasants ' War . While traveling together , they stabbed Geyer to death in the Gramschatzer Wald Forest near Würzburg . The location of his remains is unknown . Legacy . The family of Florian Geyer died out in the early 18th century and the original Geyer castle , in Giebelstadt , passed into other hands , but is still the site of the annual " Florian Geyer Festspiele " . Geyer was heralded as a communist revolutionary in Frederick Engels ' " The Peasant War in Germany " ( 1850 ) . In this work , Engels asserts that the war was primarily a class struggle over control of farms and mines , which subverted the Biblical language and metaphors commonly understood by peasants . Geyer was also the problematic hero of one of Gerhart Hauptmann ' s major plays , the historical drama " Florian Geyer " , published in 1896 , and the inspiration for the German folk song , " Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen " ( " We are the Black Band of Geyer " ) , which has been adopted by the international Marxist labour movement as a rousing union anthem . However , as one of the few German historical figures identifiable with the national history of Germany as a whole , and not merely of a principality or region of the country , Geyer was also considered a heroic figure by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party . As a result , the 8th SS Cavalry Division " Florian Geyer " was named after him in March 1944 , during World War II .