# Simplicius Simplicissimus

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  Simplicissimus was also a satirical German weekly inspired by this novel.

Cover page of Simplicius Simplicissimus.

Simplicius Simplicissimus (German: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is a picaresque novel of the Baroque style, written in 1668 by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and published the subsequent year. Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which had devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language.

## [edit] Plot synopsis

The novel follows a boy from the Spessart named Simplicius in the Holy Roman Empire during the 30 Years War as he grows up in the depraved environment and joins the armies of both warring sides, switching allegiances several times. Born to an illiterate peasant family, he is separated from his home by foraging dragoons and is eventually adopted by a forest hermit. He is conscripted at a young age into service, and from there embarks on years of foraging, military triumph, wealth, prostitution, disease, travels to Russia, and countless other adventures.

## [edit] Inspiration

The novel is considered by some to contain autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war.[1] The historian Robert Ergang, however, draws upon Gustav Könnecke's Quellen und Forschungen zur Lebensgeschichte Grimmelshausens to assert 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."[2]

## [edit] Opera adaptation

Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1963) wrote the anti-war opera Simplicius Simplicissimus for chamber orchestra in the mid-1930s, with contributions to the libretto by his teacher Hermann Scherchen. It opens:

  In A.D. 1618, 12 million lived in Germany. Then came the great war. … In A.D. 1648 only 4 million still lived in Germany.

It was first performed in 1948; Hartmann scored it for full orchestra in 1956. The chamber version (properly Der Simplicius Simplicissimus jugend) was revived by the Stuttgart State Opera in 2004.[3]

## [edit] Titles in English

It has been translated into English under a variety of titles:[4]

- Simplicissimus
- Simplicissimus the Vagabond
- Simplicius Simplicissimus
- The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus
- The Adventures of a Simpleton
- The Adventurous Simplicissimus

The full subtitle is "The life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will."

## [edit] Satirical weekly

Simplicissimus, derived from the above, was a satirical German weekly magazine started by Albert Langen in April 1896 and published through 1944.

## [edit] Notes

1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel von". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
2. ^ Robert Ergang, The Myth of the All-Destructive Fury of the Thirty Years’ War (Pocono Pines: The Craftsmen, 1956), 7.
3. ^ George Loomis, "The vision of 'Simplicius'", International Herald Tribune, May 19, 2004
4. ^ Harvard College Library catalogue

## [edit] External links

- "An unabridged translation of Simplicius simplicissimus" by Monte Adair (1986) - Google Books (100%)
- "The Simplicissimus Project" - Online English translation (Goodrick 1912)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus"
Categories: 1668 novels | German novels
Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica | Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference | Articles containing German language text

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