HANS

JAKOB CHRISTOFFEL VON

See also:

• HANS JAKOB CHRISTOFFEL VON GRIMMELSHAUSEN (c.625—1676)

GRIMMELSHAUSEN (c.625—1676)  , 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) 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 he took as his model the picaresque romances of Spain, already to some extent known in Germany: Simplicissiy nuts 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 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, 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 . He died at Renchen on the 17th of August 1676, where a monument 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 of Weudrucke des z6. and 17 . Jahrhunderis (188o) . See the introductions to these editions; also F . Antoine, Etude sur le Simplicissimus de Grimmels- hausen(1882) and E . Schmidt in his Charakteristiken, vol. i . (1886) .