Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen (born 1621/22, Gelnhausen, near Frankfurt am Main—died August 17, 1676, Renchen, Strasbourg) was a German novelist, whose Simplicissimus series is one of the masterworks of his country’s literature. Satiric and partially autobiographical, it is a matchless social picture of the often grotesque Thirty Years’ War (1618–48).

Apparently the son of an innkeeper of noble descent, Grimmelshausen was orphaned at an early age. While still a child, he was drawn (or kidnapped) into the Thirty Years’ War by Hessian and Croatian troops. He served as a musketeer, formally joined the imperial army, and in 1639 became secretary to Reinhard von Schauenburg, commandant at Offenburg. After the war, as steward for the Schauenburg family, Grimmelshausen collected taxes from peasants, dragged defaulters into court, and served as host at a Schauenburg tavern. To supplement his income, he sold horses. He left in 1660 when it was found that he had bought land with money belonging to the family. Afterward he was successively a steward for a wealthy physician and art lover, Johannes Rüffen of Strasbourg; a tavernkeeper at Gaisbach; and a bailiff at Renchen, where he survived an invasion.

Grimmelshausen, who had begun writing in his army days, published two minor satires (in 1658 and 1660) and then (in 1669) the first part of Simplicissimus (full title Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch [“The Adventurous Simplicissimus Teutsch”]). Grimmelshausen’s authorship, however, was not established until 1837 from the initials HJCVG, which he used in a sequel to identify himself merely as editor.

Modeled on the 16th-century Spanish picaresque novel, Simplicissimus tells the story of an innocent child brought into contact with life through his experiences of the Thirty Years’ War. The novel traces the development of a human soul against the depraved background of a Germany riven by war, depopulation, cruelty, and fear. Simplicissimus gives full rein to Grimmelshausen’s power of narration, eye for realistic detail, coarse humour, social criticism, and gift for creating convincing characters.

Grimmelshausen’s continuations of Simplicissimus include Die Lanstörtzerin Courage (1669; Courage, the Adventuress)—which inspired Bertolt Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941; Mother Courage and Her Children)—and Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest (1672; “The Magical Bird’s Nest”). One part of the latter, translated as The False Messiah (1964), is about an adventurer whose pose as the messiah enables him to steal a wealthy Jew’s money and daughter; it is a satire on gullibility and avarice.