GRIMMELSHAUSEN, HANS JAKOB CHRISTOFFEL VON (c.6251676)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 603 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GRA-GUI

GRIMMELSHAUSEN, HANS JAKOB CHRISTOFFEL VON (c.6251676) , German author, was born atGelnhausen in or about 1625. 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. At its close, Grimmelshaiisen entered the service of Franz Egon von Fiirstenberg,

bishop

of Strassburg and in 1665 was made Schultheiss (

magistrate

MAGISTRATE (Lat. magistratus, from magister, master, properly a public office, hence the person holding such an office)

) at Renchen in Baden. On obtaining this appointment, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and in '669 published Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, Teutsch, d:h. die Beschreibung des Lebens eines seltsamen Vaganten,' genanntMelchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim, the greatest German novel of the 17th century. For this

work

WORK

he took as his model the picaresque romances of Spain, already to some extent known in Germany: Simplicissiy nuts is in

great

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 realistic 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

ALLEGORY (iXXos, other, and ayopeuav, to speak)

, and finally loses himself in' a Robinson Crusoe story. Among his other works the most important are the so-called Simplicianisch'e Schriften: Die Erzbetriigerin and Landstortzerin Courasche (c. 1669); Der seltsame Springinsfeld (167o) and Das wunderbarlithe Vogelnest (1672). His satires, such as Der teutsche Michel (1670), and " gallant" novels, like Dietwald and Amelinde (167o) are of inferior

interest

INTEREST

. He died at Renchen on the 17th of August 1676, where a

monument

MONUMENT (Lat. monumentum or monumentum; from monere, to advise, bring to mind, remind; the German equivalent is Denkmal)

was erected to him in 1879.
Editions of Simplicissimus and the Sim licianische Schriften have been published by A. von Keller (1854), H. Kurz (1863-*1864), J. Tittmann (1877) and F. Bobertag (1882). A reprint of the first edition of the novel was edited by R. Kogel for the

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of Weudrucke des z6. and 17. Jahrhunderis (188o). See the introductions to these editions; also F.

Antoine

ANTOINE, ANDRE (1858- )

, Etude sur le Simplicissimus de Grimmels-
hausen(1882) and E. Schmidt in his Charakteristiken, vol. i. (1886).

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