Introduction
Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in 1668 wrote a classic fiction novel in German. The novel is regarded as a classic Baroque style work and is strongly influenced by the 30-year Prussian war that ram between 1618 and 1648. The story he tells us the story that discusses the German culture and societal class in the early 16th Century and provides a vivid account of the social interaction between the noble class, the army and the peasants and their interactions with the trading or the merchant class (Wallich, 1963). This paper provides an analysis of the classic and discusses the social structure of medieval Germany.
Grimmelshausen Opinions of Social Class Differences
In a translation of the original German works of Grimmelshausen (The Simplicissimus Project 2002), the students of The College of William and Mary have attempted to provide a complete translation of the original work. The story deals with the travels of Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim, an adventurer and a vagabond who travelled the war that ravaged Germany. It must be noted that while the population before the war started in 1612 was 12 million and by 1948, there were only 4 million people left. In the novel, the hero is the author who compares the German society of the times to a large forest full of trees. The author has used symbolism and has depicted the roots of the trees to the peasant class, because the peasants are children of the soil, till the land, grow crops and harvest them. In this same social class are the merchants, labourers, carters, donkey drivers, harlots, soldiers and mercenaries. All these people work hard to ensure that the upper class of society live in comfort. The author has suggested that the branches, leaves and fruits of the tree are represented by the upper classes. The roots of the tree and the upper regions of the tree are joined or segregated by a wide, waxy and smooth bark. While there is much interaction between members of the same class and there is sufficient mobility for them to move about in their own class, there is no way that a peasant can manage to climb up the wide and slippery bark. The peasants can only do this if someone from the aristocracy helps them and the nobility will only people they want while the others have to remain content in their own world.
Grimmelshausen again speaks disparagingly of certain elements of the lower class who seek to copy the mannerisms of the nobility in the hope that by adopted affected manners and clothing, they can turn into nobility. The opening statement from the work suggests this attitude:
“There appeareth in these days of ours (of which many do believe that they are the last days) among the common folk, a certain disease which causeth those who do suffer from it (so soon as they have either scraped and higgled together so much that they can, besides a few pence in their pocket, wear a fool’s coat of the new fashion with a thousand bits of silk ribbon upon it, or by some trick of fortune have become known as men of parts) forthwith to give themselves out gentlemen and nobles of ancient descent. Whereas it doth often happen that their ancestors were day-labourers, carters, and porters, their cousins donkey-drivers, their brother’s turnkeys and catchpolls, their sister’s harlots, their mother’s bawds—yea, witches even: and in a word, their whole pedigree of thirty-two quarterings as full of dirt and stain as ever was the sugar-bakers’ guild of Prague. Yea, these new sprigs of nobility be often themselves as black as if they had been born and bred in Guinea.” (The Simplicissimus Project 2002, Book I, Chapter i).
Progression from a Swineherd to a Court Jester and to a HuntsmAn
Grimmelshausen has written how Melchior who was a swineherd by birth and profession rose to be a Jester and then as a Hinstsman when he ventured into the garrison town of Hanau where he is captured by the soldiers, who want to imprison him. It is only at the intervention of the pastor, that Melchior is released and given a job as a court jester in the role of a calf. The irony and the bitterness is underplayed here as the hero realises that a calf is always fattened up before its slaughter. His role as a jester provides him with an opportunity to talk with impudence with his master, the Governor of Hanau. The jester berates the Governor and calls him the most troubled man in the town since the Governor in addition to his work is answerable for this misdeed of the garrison soldiers for whom loot and banditry are perfectly acceptable. The Governor cannot sleep at night because of the burden of managing the town and there is the added misery that he does not know how much money has been looted and how much he would actually get.
So great is the jesters delusion that he is destined for something great that he begins to imagine that he himself is no less than the mighty king and his lineage is of equally high degree.
“’tis not untrue that I have often fancied I must have drawn my birth from some great lord or knight at least, as being by nature disposed to follow the nobleman’s trade had I but the means and tools for it. ‘Tis true, moreover, without jesting, that my birth and upbringing can be compared to that of a prince if we overlook the one great difference in degree. How ! did not my dad (for so they call fathers in the Spessart1) have his own palace-like any other, so fine as no king could build with his own hands, but must let that alone forever. ‘Twas painted with lime, and in the place of unfruitful tiles, cold lead and red copper was roofed with that straw whereupon the noble corn doth grow”. (The Simplicissimus Project 2002, Book II, Chapter xxvii)
Grimmelshausen again points out how the hero rose to the exalted position of Huntsman of Soest by befriending the Prince. The author has written how the former swineherd wielded his new powers to levy taxes from the peasants and the merchants. But the author points out that Melchior, the hero attempts to lessen the impact of his harsh measures by treating enemy officers with courtesy, ensures that common decency is maintained in the hope that if he were stripped of his powers, then he could look to others for help. This exercise does help him when he is captured by the Swedish soldiers who treat him with consideration and offer him a chance to join their ranks as an officer but he turns down the offer.
In Chapter viii, Grimmelshausen narrates how the swineherd turned Huntsmen on the day of his marriage ventures out into the countryside with his courtiers and he comes across an old man who is hurrying with his old goat. The Huntsman recognizes the old man as his father once he begins the conversation. The Huntsman is terribly afraid that the old man would admit in front of everyone that he was from a peasant class. But the old man spins a tale of how a noble lady of rich parentage and in great labour sought the help of the farmer and his wife in delivering the baby. The farmer leaves it unsaid that Melchior, the Huntsmen who thought he was a swineherd but believed himself to be of royal parentage, is actually from a royal parentage. This seems to lift a great weight from the hero.
In effect, what Grimmelshausen suggests is that a person from the noble class will always rise to his true stature, even if this was deprived at birth. The societal stratification and class differences are clearly brought into play here.
Use of the Novel by Historians
The novel dwells at length on the various social conditions, social hierarchies and class structures of medieval Europe and Germany To a certain extent the novel can serve as a diary of the social structure and interaction patterns that existed in those times. However, the author has taken extreme liberty when it comes to depicting everyday occurrences and behaviour and as such, it would be inappropriate to take the novel as a narration of the societal forces. But overall, the condition of the lower classes and the social stratification between the rich and poor and the various forces in the society can be taken as approximations of medieval German society.
References
- The Simplicissimus Project (2002),‘H.J.C von Grimmelshausen, The Adventurous Simplicissimus, trans. A.T.S. Goodrick: London: Heinemann, 1912, Web.
- Wallich Walter (1963), ‘Translated – Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’, ‘The Adventures of a Simpleton‘, New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.