Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621 – August 17, 1676) was a German author.

Grimmelshausen was born at Gelnhausen. At the age of ten he was kidnapped by Hessian soldiery, and in their midst tasted the adventures of military life in the Thirty Years' War.Fact|date=August 2008 At its close, Grimmelshausen entered the service of Franz Egon von Fürstenberg, bishop in Straßburg and in 1665 was made "Schultheiss" (magistrate) at Renchen in Baden.Fact|date=August 2008

On obtaining this appointment, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and in 1668 published "Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch, d.h. die Beschreibung des Lebens eines seltsamen Vaganten, genannt Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim", the greatest German novel of the 17th century. For this work he took as his model the picaresque romances of Spain, already to some extent known in Germany. "Simplicissimus" is in great measure its author's autobiography; he begins with the childhood of his hero, and describes the latter's adventures amid the stirring scenes of the Thirty Years' War. The rustic detail with which these pictures are presented makes the book one of the most valuable documents of its time. In the later parts Grimmelshausen, however, over-indulges in allegory, and finally loses himself in a Robinson Crusoe story.

The historian Robert Ergang, however, draws upon Gustav Könnecke's "Quellen und Forschungen zur Lebensgeschichte Grimmelshausens" to convey the assertion that "the events related in the novel "Simplicissimus" could hardly have been autobiographical since [Grimmelshausen] lived a peaceful existence in quiet towns and villages on the fringe of the Black Forest and that the material he incorporated in his work was not taken from actual experience, but was either borrowed from the past, collected from hearsay, or created by a vivid imagination." [Robert Ergang, "The Myth of the All-Destructive Fury of the Thirty Years’ War" (Pocono Pines: The Craftsmen, 1956), 7.]

Among his other works, the most important are the so-called "Simplicianische Schriften":
*"Die Ertzbetrügerin and Landstörtzerin Courasche" (1669)
*"Der seltsame Springinsfeld" (1670)
*"Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest" (1672)His satires, such as "Der teutsche Michel" (1670), and gallant novels, like "Dietwald und Amelinde" (1670) are of inferior interest. He died at Renchen on August 17, 1676, where a monument was erected to him in 1779.

Grimmelshausen's "Landstörtzerin Courasche" became an important inspiration for Bertolt Brecht´s play "Mutter Courage".

References

Editions of "Simplicissimus" and the "Simpliclanische Schriften" have been published by
*A. von Keller (1854)
*Hermann Kurz (1863, 1864)
*Julius Tittmann (1877)
*Felix Bobertag(1882).

A reprint of the first edition of the novel was edited by R. Kügel for the series of "Weudrucke des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts" (1880). See the introductions to these editions; also

*F. Antoine, "Etude sur le Simplicissimus de Grimmelshausen" (1882)
*Erich Schmidt, "Charakteristiken", vol. i. (1886).

Notes

External links

* [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/autoren/grimmels.htm Projekt Gutenberg-DE author page for Hans von Grimmelshausen]
* [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/grimmels/simpl/simpl.htm Online Projekt Gutenberg-DE text of "Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch"]
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