Forschungsstelle "Westfälischer Friede": Dokumentation

DOCUMENTATION | Exhibitions: 1648 - War and Peace in Europe
Essay Volumes > Tome II: Art and culture

WILHELM KÜHLMANN
War and Peace in the Literature of the Seventeenth Century*

I. "Punish the tyranny": [1] protest, panegyric and melancholy in political poetry

The Battle of White Mountain near Prague had turned the Elector Palatine Frederick V into the sometimes pitied, sometimes sneered-at "Winter King". Flanked by the Spanish on the left bank of the Rhine, the troops of the Catholic League were marching towards Heidelberg, the intellectual centre of German Calvinism and the anti-Catholic alliance. In February 1621, Julius Wilhelm Zincgref (1591-1635), poet, publicist and Palatine official, found himself and the city threatened by "lightning bolts" [2] on all sides. A short time later, letters such as those written by Konrad Schoppius reported on the vain hopes and sad fates of the besieged; Tilly's troops had overcome their desperate and sorry attempt at defence: "the university has been scattered as dust to the winds; its remains can hardly be recognised." [3] The young Silesian, Martin Opitz (1597-1639), later to be lauded as the "father of German poetry", had already fled from Heidelberg to the Netherlands. In the Palatinate, the circle of young scholars who embodied the programme and practices of new German poetry was dispersed; later the literary men of Silesia and Saxony would suffer the same fate. Opitz's path led to Transylvania; Paul Fleming (1609-40) was able to avoid the havoc by embarking on a political mission taking him all the way to Persia; Andreas Gryphius (1616-64) found refuge within the fortifications of Danzig, later going to the Netherlands to study in Leiden. Grimmelshausen (circa 1622-76), who had already been drawn into the whirlpool of the events as a child, worked his way up as a soldier. He later wove his experiences into the fictive autobiography Simplicissimus but not until he had put twenty years between himself and the war.

Opitz's ardent prayer to God to drive the Spanish "from the river Rhine" (1620) [4] had no effect on the military disaster. Many a Protestant patriot's text was put aside; death and emigration decimated the number of those whom a "German muse" might have been able to count on. Zincgref B like many other citizens of the Palatinate or later of Baden and Württemberg B retreated to Strasbourg, only to fall into the hands of marauders who wounded him fatally. In a poetic vision of 1843 in the graveyard of Saint Goar, the Vormärz poet Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810-76) resurrected Zincgref as a fellow combatant for the cause of German "freedom":

Georg Rudolf Weckherlin's biography (1584-1653) took an eccentric course. As a diplomatic representative of Protestantism, he became a citizen of London in 1630 and eventually attained the position of under-secretary of the Foreign Office: a germanophone poet was thus the great John Milton's predecessor in office. Not until his complete works were published in Amsterdam in 1641 and 1648 could the entire spectrum of his verses be studied, including a cycle of "heroic" sonnets and other poems. [6] The work begins with verses strikingly entitled "An das Teutschland" ("To Germany"), portending that the last remaining hope of Protestant patriotism B beyond all Imperial romanticism B was in the religious zeal of a few princes. Here freedom of conscience fuses with the rallying cry of princely liberty, and any scepticism that might arise is refuted by the categories of a clear front between tyranny and oppression: Using a form brand new to Germany B the sonnet B Weckherlin designed an epic gallery of fighters for the Protestant cause. Naturally, the central figure was Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. In the elevated tone of classical panegyric, he is celebrated as "the heart of German freedom" and placed God-like on the firmament. It is doubtful whether the following song of praise to Richelieu B "France, yours is the victory" B invited applause on the upper Rhine. Indeed, even "old German" and Lutheran-oriented patriots such as the satirist Johann Michael Moscherosch (1601-69) admired French cultural politics and the display of power emerging from the court at the nation's centre B quite an unusual apparition for German eyes. [8] Nevertheless the issue of France's expansion aims remained highly controversial among the councilmen of Strasbourg and politically sensitive scholars. What is more, approval of French assistance in staving off violent re-Catholicisation attempts went hand in hand with a clear denial of Francophile à-la-mode culture.

On the upper Rhine, a group of young writers founded the Aufrichtige Tannengesellschaft with the intention of emulating the large literary societies, specifically the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft. Following the battle of Nördlingen (1634), as waves of refugees were pouring into the Imperial city of Strasbourg, visions of past Imperial glory were reactivated B not unchanged, but nevertheless borne by a sense of disapproval lamenting the war as due punishment by God, the deprivation of Germany's power for having become so "un-German". In a passionate appeal to "raging Germany", Rompler von Löwenhalt (1605- circa 1676) looked back beyond courtly stylistic conventions to the coarse metaphorical language of the Reformation: Despite continually changing circumstances within the political-military power play, the literary-publishing world was invariably dominated by Protestant voices. This was particularly true of the chiefly urban printing industry, and represented an advantage which would continue to have an impact well into the era of liberal historiography. The "Winter King" had to put up with the scorn of many a Lutheran loyal to the Empire; the conquest of Magdeburg by Tilly (1631) brought about a nearly unanimous outcry of indignation, resounding in numerous flysheets and pamphlets, including first cheerful, later furious song propaganda. [10] Tilly, a gruff Catholic general who nevertheless possessed integrity, served as the foundation for an elaborate enemy image designed to conceal the fatal misjudgements of the Magdeburgers B the town council, the clergy and above all the military leader. Nearly a century earlier, the city had withstood a siege by Imperial execution troops during the Schmalkaldian War (1547). Memories of this famous act of resistance sometimes echoed in the publicity campaign ignited by horror scenes of the pillaged and burnt Elbe metropolis. A well-known elegy of the Schmalkaldian period by the humanist poet Petrus Lotichius Secundus (1528-60) [11] was now interpreted as an anticipation of things to come. Translated into German, it was used to flank well-meaning appeals to the effect that the "poor maiden" (derived etymologically from "Magde-Burg") should tell her uninvited "suitors" to go to the devil: Even one of the leading members of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, Diederich von dem Werder (1584-1657) B a translator of Tasso who would later (1639) write a call for peace in the tradition of Erasmus von Rotterdam's Querela Pacis [13] B contributed to the pressure exerted by anti-Catholic agitation, formulating his "TrawerLied / Uber die klägliche Zerstörung der Löblichen und Uhralten Stadt Magdeburg" in heroic alexandrine verse. Breathless strings of words churn up emotions then vented in a flaming invective against Tilly, the "raging old dog", the beast, the violator of the "virgin" Imperial city: The fact that soon thereafter Tilly was defeated by Gustavus Adolphus in the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) brought about compensatory relief B particularly among the young poets of Leipzig, of whom Georg Gloger (born 1603) was one. Gloger's satiric verses are precise recapitulations of popular stereotypes: "For he who gorges himself with blood has no real fortune; and he who rapes virgins has neither star nor luck. Therefore he is now justly called B as he deserves B a whoremaster / drunkard / and runaway soldier." [15]

Gloger died in October 1631 in Leipzig "of the acute fever" and was mourned by his friend Paul Fleming in a moving epitaph. [16] The circumstances of his death heighten our awareness of the fact that, with the exception of the Magdeburgers, people living within protective town walls were relatively safe from military violence. On the other hand, cities overcrowded with refugees provided fertile ground for the devastating epidemics which in the end claimed more lives than all the battles and skirmishes.

And what about the Catholics and their so learned and literary "fighting troop" the Jesuits? One major Jesuit poet of the German language, Friedrich Spree von Langenfeld (born in 1591), died in Trier in 1635 while attending plague-stricken soldiers. He had been the author of Trutznachtigall, a lyric collection uniting virtuoso wordplay, mystic imagery and sophisticated methods of steering religious emotion, as well as an influential petition against witch-hunting (Cautio Criminalis, unsigned, 1631) and several books of devotion tailored to the needs of intimate piety. Yet despite his prolificacy, he refused to take part in a war of printed words. For an impression of Catholic Germany's poetic reactions to the events of the time, one must turn to the Latin oeuvre of another significant German Jesuit poet, Jacob Balde (1604-68), whose works were read even beyond national borders. During his period of employment at the court of Munich, this native of Alsatian Ensisheim lamented "Germany's devastation" [17] in his Horatian odes and mourned the loss of his homeland and the fall of Breisach, [18] usually without recourse to malicious polemics. In the end he found himself B a loyalist to the Imperial cause, an Alsatian, a man with his own share of inner conflict B directly involved in Bavaria's negotiations alongside Claude Meme d'Avaux, a French diplomat with a great appreciation for Balde's poetry. [19] Balde wrote an elegy of epic proportions in Tilly's honour, representing an ambitious literary counterpart to Protestant agitation. [20] In the foreword, the author relates how he, also residing in Ingolstadt just a few houses away, received the dreadful news of Tilly's death (30 April 1632). The description reveals a noteworthy constellation: the era's most impressive Catholic poet at the deathbed of its most important Catholic military commander (at least in the early phase of the war):

II. The antipodes: Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein among the literary public

Gustavus Adolphus was worshipped as a Protestant saviour, a fact explained not only by his achievements and deeds, but to an equal extent by skilful "public relations" efforts: with the aid of text and image media, he was mythologized to an extent unmatched in more recent German history. Great numbers of songs, panegyrics and sermons as well as popular fly-sheets and pamphlets [22] spread the comforting news of the "heroic Christian soul" of a selfless helper who seemed to embody the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy of the "lion come up from his thicket" [23] (Jeremiah 4: 5-7): "Praise be to God; with His succour I come with chivalrous hand to save my German brothers in faith from agony and bondage." [24]

If the content of these and other such clumsy verses gradually evolved into a credible announcement of credible intentions, so it did with all the greater intensity in literature of higher aesthetic standards: the latter included even devotional anecdotes spread by word of mouth and products of picturesque fantasy which entwined themselves around the piety and just austerity of the ideal Christian ruler. Gustavus Adolphus' supposed prayer before the Battle of Lützen resounded everywhere as a battle chant and song of consolation, attaining nearly the degree of identity-endowing influence enjoyed by the songs of Luther: "Despair not, little troop, though the enemies are willed to destroy you completely and seek your downfall, putting so much fear into your hearts; it won't be longY." [25]

The Swedish triumphal procession made its way through the Pfaffengasse (Shavelings' Lane) to Bavaria, accompanied by addresses of tribute from the Protestant clergy and the delighted or dismayed authorities of town and countryside B and, naturally, exploited to the full for various propagandistic purposes, depending on party sentiments. In the process, texts were produced for the simple mercenaries, the guarantors and profiteers of the unexpected turn of fortune which had come about under the wings of the "new German Hercules". A soldatesca song or Schönes Lied der schwedischen Soldaten (Beautiful Song of the Swedish Soldier) provides an impression of that brand of piously trimmed versification channelling the ups and downs of war's fortune into demonstrative displays of enthusiasm: "Adieu, let's drink another, the emperor waging war, the Swede is on his way, may God give him good victory. Mere soldier, in our array, come along, soldier! May God help us early and late." [26]

All the more painful was the news of Gustavus Adolphus' death in the Battle of Lützen (16 November 1632). The sermons of thanks and salvation, calls for help and songs of praise were now joined by a flood of mourning and condolence literature in verse and prose; hardly a Protestant author left his pen untouched. In their basic structure, nearly all of these texts adhere to the characteristic pattern of condolence poetry [27] B amplifying the pain of the bereaved, remembering the "virtues" of the deceased with all the means of traditional sovereign panegyric [28] and finally, indispensably, recalling the Christian formulae of solace. In the modus of ideational analogy and typological transferability, Gustavus Adolphus was likened primarily to those figures who once, like Gideon, saved the people of Israel or, like Scipio or Caesar, embodied the might of ancient Rome, and whose deaths were to be lamented not as mere historical calamities but as cosmic catastrophes, synonymous with the collapse of the propitious world order: Whereas the just and Christian bringer of peace Gustavus Adolphus was surrounded by an aura of secular holiness B and his misfortune accompanied by the poetically imagined sympathy of nature in mourning B the figure of Wallenstein inspired no such adoration. His murder upon Imperial command aroused even greater publicist silence than the relatively sparse literary response to his ascent and victorious deeds would lead one to expect. [30] Perhaps Wallenstein underestimated the influence of literature and publicity on the formation of public opinion; perhaps his tense relationship to the Catholic powers hardly invited even political sympathisers to identify with him unquestioningly. Or perhaps the enigmatic sides of his personality B delineated with unsurpassed subtlety in Schiller's well-known drama (1798) [31] B evoked perplexity, cold wonder and fearsome respect rather than stimulating images of literary tribute and partisan idolisation. These are all possibilities to be considered.

In any case, it is hardly surprising that the few lyrical epitaphs dedicated to Wallenstein were formally quite different from the Gustavus Adolphus panegyrics. The most sophisticated B both intellectually and aesthetically B of the works composed in response to Wallenstein's death was a Horation ode by the above-mentioned Jesuit Jacob Balde B a member of the circle immediately surrounding the Bavarian duke Maximilian I, Wallenstein's intimate enemy. [32] Here the history of the Imperial generalissimo corresponds to the inevitable fate of those who in their "wickedness" are unable to take advantage of their fortune. Croesus, Crassus, Hannibal and Polycrates form the hybrid of the general who is destroyed by his own greatness. Actually B and this is Balde's politically most astute diagnosis B Wallenstein resembles the Roman praetorian prefect Sejan. As reported in the Annals of Tacitus, Sejan was killed by order of Emperor Tiberius, who had first favoured and then felt deceived by him. In general, Protestant authors expressed themselves more tersely in partly awkward, partly satirically pointed résumés. Johann Rist (1607-67), the renowned literary representative of northern German Protestantism, fashioned Wallenstein as the hero of a tragedy whose dreadful ending was intended to usher the reader into a state of contemplative reflection: Greater political perspicacity was exhibited by the Silesian Daniel Czepko (1605-60). He was primarily known as an author of religious epigrams, a form of mystical literature far removed from confessional squabbling. Without any illusions, he places the new catchword B whose relevance would gradually become clear even to religious fanatics B at the end of a quatrain entitled "Ehrsucht nechster Todtengräber / Wallsteinischer Tod" ("Ambition's next Gravedigger. The Death of Wallenstein"): "He alone knew how he used others for his deeds. He came from Friedland (literally the land of peace) but brought about war and conflict: lies there without a title. You ask who buried him? I do not know the German, but another name for it is la raison d'Etat." [34]



III. Lamentation of war and longing for peace

Expressions of increasingly spiritual piety emerging from the intimate experience of God spread in hymns and devotional songs by such authors as Paul Gerhardt (1607-76). In addition to these, the lyrical work of the Silesian Andreas Gryphius is certainly among the otherwise rather scanty remainders of seventeenth-century literature known to us today. As a child, he was exposed to the hardships of Silesia's re-Catholicisation; as an old man he was the syndic of the estates of Glogów, responsible for creating a balance between Imperial interests and the legal claims of the Silesian territories. The fact that Gryphius remained a loyal Lutheran put him at a distance to Calvinist activism. In his writings, models of Christian forbearance and the theology of the cross [35] evolved into the glorification of a stoically interpreted "high spirit". His poetry propagated intellectual and moral independence in a free and objective stance toward the chaotic events of the times, the recognition of their true significance from the perspective of the history of salvation and their minimisation as a theatre of vanities.

Gryphius wrote a sonnet which has come down to us in two versions: the Thränen des Vaterlandes / Anno 1636, [36] a thorough rhetorical construction with an abstract view of concrete occurrences. Hardly another literary document so impressively sums up the collective catastrophe taking place in seventeenth-century Germany.

Unlike the above-quoted text by Weckherlin, this work does not reserve the term "fatherland" exclusively for the Protestants. Rather than revolving around specific "experiences" it focuses on the collapse of the political and social order (city hall and church), heralded by the apocalyptic tones of the trumpet, as well as presenting a tableau of immense suffering, moral degeneration and tragedy expressed in the very cadence of the lines "das vom Blutt fette Schwerdt" ("the sword dripping with blood") The events are witnessed by an imaginary observer "from the entrenchment", his mourning gaze implying the certainty of the historical instant "Three times six years have already passed." Not until the last verse does Gryphius point out a truth which seems argumentatively even more significant than the perception of widespread ruin: the bitter realisation "that so many were forced to relinquish their spiritual wealth". This is probably above all an allusion to the forced Catholicisation carried out by Habsburg. Yet Gryphius was well aware of the fact that, in the wake of general disillusionment, religious faith and Christian spiritual welfare had been shaken, and that many had turned to dogmatically suspicious forms of devotion, often emphasising mysticism or theosophy. Clergymen sought to warn their congregations with chilling reports of the temptations of confessional opportunism B not only in Silesia but also in view of the circumstances caused by the struggle for power in southern Germany: The observations so emphatically expressed by Gryphius in his much-praised Zentnerworte, signatures of a disastrous epoch, are illustrated by the descriptions of everyday life appearing in the abundant number of autobiographical notes, letters and local chronicles which have survived. This mass of source material B which has only recently received more in-depth scholarly attention [38] B includes the journals of rulers and diplomats [39] as well as the diaries of persons such as the highly productive writer Jeremias Drexel (1581-1638) who accompanied the Bavarian expedition of 1620 as a Jesuit chaplain, [40] and notes made by town clerks as well as ecclesiastical and secular officials. They provide eye-witness reports of all the atrocities to which the flatlands were subjected and which Grimmelshausen described in the first chapters of his novel Simplicissimus from the perspective of estranging naiveté. To be sure, some regions remained untouched by the war for long periods, and many a city dweller even managed to profit from the events. In the hotly contested territories, on the other hand, it soon became impossible to distinguish between military cruelty and the pillaging, blackmail and rape with which the various alliances of troops B often unpaid, hungry and eager for booty B attempted to secure their slice of the pie.

Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), a pastor of Calw and intellectual leader of Lutheran Württemberg B who, in his youth, had co-authored the Rosicrucian writings B provided an account of how the flourishing city was harassed in September 1634 and finally burnt to the ground. His prose description was published in Strasbourg in 1635 under the title Threni Calvenses along with a multi-stanza lament intended to serve as a literary beacon to the broad public, particularly the friendly neighbouring towns. It comprises not only justifications, calls for help and indications of personal loss (including a considerable art collection) but also a very precise observation of the social anarchy and economic calamity which the events threatened to bring about: Many a story was told of cannibalism, [42] and epidemics heaved the final blow among the simple folk and scholars alike. Tübingen professor Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635), a friend of Andreae's and highly esteemed mathematician, geographer and philologist, included the following passage in a letter of 29 September: Less than a month later Schickard died of the plague himself. Lamentations of war atrocities increasingly took the place of religious-political fanaticism. Many a poet slid into the role of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and took to interpreting contemporary events as divine punishment for political and private sins. This theocratic approach to history also inspired poetry whose content revolved around current topics and whose form imitated the canonical psalms of penitence; in addition, there were verses conceived as "prayer songs" B some quite simple, some more artful. Other writers B such as Josua Stegmann (1588-1632) B produced carefully devised cycles combining verse and prose and covering the entire emotional spectrum from total desperation to religious hopes for peace. Stegmann's prayers implore the regents to counter all the devil's machinations with harmony and pacifism, regardless of their confession. His petitions read like literary drafts of successful peace negotiations: This vision of peace concluded with the restoration of the social order, the triumph of justice, "golden times" as the paragon of that state once taken for granted: From the mid-1630s on, there was hardly a region whose prominent literary representatives did not cultivate the forms we can refer to as the poem of repentance and the lyrical Querela Germaniae. Collective hope and collective horror were expressed in simple song stanzas, short poems, sweeping elegies and allegorical verse epistles alternating between religious fervour, satirically tinted sarcasm and political-patriotic meditation. A literary map could be drawn of the entire land of Germany, the density of its markings illustrating the correspondence between the experience of war and poetically formulated moral response.

With varying emphases, many writers made use of the dialectic between the lamentation of war and the appeal for peace B whether we look to Czepko of Silesia, [46] or the great language theoretician of the Braunschweig region, Justus Georg Schottelius (1612-76), [47] the journalist, former soldier and author of an unusual verse epic about the war, [48] Georg Greflinger (circa 1620-77) of Danzig and Hamburg, [49 ]or the most significant writers of Nuremberg, where the art of poetry attained a particularly high standard, [50] Johann Klaj and Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, or finally Johann Rist with his drama Peace-desiring Germany, (Das Friedewünschende Teutschland, 1647). [51] To accompany Rist's play, for example, Moscherosch of Strasbourg sent a poem which - avoiding euphemistic turgidity - evokes the condition of the Holy Roman-German Empire in the image of a deathly ill body: Occasionally verses such as these can be quite precisely co-ordinated with political events and diplomatic activities taking place even before the final peace negotiations. This is particularly true of one of the most well-known texts from the pen of Paul Fleming, the allegorical verse epistle Letter from the Banished Madame Germania to her Sons or: the prince electors, princes and estates in Germany [53] (Schreiben vertriebener Frau Germanien an ihre Söhne oder die Churfürsten, Fürsten und Stände in Deutschland), published as a fly-sheet in German and Latin. Taking direct recourse to analogous patterns of representation stemming from humanism, Fleming drafted an appeal for the unity of the Empire. Mother Germany, lonely and miserable, turns to her children who fail to counter the external enemy, causing her own downfall instead. In the process, Fleming combines allusions to the model of the stout-hearted Netherlands with well-known ideas from the patriotic myth of the Germanic peoples spun from Tacitus' Germania. In the words of the narrator B who has degenerated into a wizened and consumptive figure B memories well up of a Germanic hero whose fame was first proclaimed by Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523): Arminius the Cheruscan, who once defeated the Romans, as much a contrast to the present as the ironically sarcastic citation of the proverb of "German loyalty". "The three-way split of the religion pains me on all sides" ("mich schmerzt auf allen Seiten / der dreigespaltene Riß in der Religion"), groans Madame Germania. Fleming has no solutions to offer. Here poetry has been employed to bring about a change of awareness, sensitise those in power to the misery of the circumstances, trigger their sympathy and steer their fantasies and emotions B as is seen in passages such as the following: In this poem, the warring parties and territories are meticulously named B Madame Germania even proposes to express her misery to the "high (Emperor) Ferdinand" B thus indicating the occasion and context of its writing. [55] It was composed after Gustavus Adolphus' landing and with a view to the up-coming Convention of Leipzig (February 1631), an assembly intended to overcome the Empire's weaknesses and prepare the way for negotiations in Regensburg. Thus, with regard to content, this verse epistle can be understood to presage the voices accompanying the steps taken toward the peace negotiations of Osnabrück and Münster fifteen years later. Fleming's work even anticipates those fantasies of peace and hopes of order and happiness which would later B at a time when they were safely founded in reality B find expression in the literature of the peace celebrations. In Klaj's poems of peace, "Teutschland" was still introduced as a "desperate" woman, going her way "with idle thoughts of death". [56] The echo of Fleming's allegorical depiction of misery could still be heard, but temporarily ignored in view of the "festival of joy" at hand.




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FOOTNOTES

* This essay avoids the sectors of literary life discussed in other articles appearing in this volume, by Wolfgang Harms, Klaus Garber, Hartmut Laufhütte and Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann. Preference has been given to quotations contained in easily available anthologies: Maché/Meid 1980; Haufe 1985. Unfortunately only excerpts of the works mentioned have been printed here. The author recommends the brief survey by Ingen 1985. For more detailed treatment of specific topics as well as for the biographies and bibliographies of the authors, the reader's attention is drawn to the following reference works: Dünnhaupt 1990 ff.; Killy 1988 ff.; Steinhagen/Wiese 1984.

1. Excerpt from a prayer.

2. Excerpt from a poetic Latin epitaph commemorating a professor of Heidelberg. Here Zincgref describes the fear and desperation spreading through the city; see Kühlmann 1981.

3. From a letter written in Latin to the Altdorf professor Jeremias Hölzlin, Heidelberg, 26 September 1622, quoted from the reprint in Winkelmann 1886.

4. Maché and Meid 1980, p. 21.

5. "Ich war in meinen Tagen / Ein Dichter, weitgenannt; / Ich habe frisch geschlagen / Die Leier durch das Land. / In wüsten Kriegesläuften / Mut singend stand ich da, / Ach, in der blutersäuften, / Der zitternden Germania...." Freiligrath, no year mentioned, III, Vaterländische Lieder, pp. 11-13, excerpt.

6. Weckherlin 1894-5, I, pp. 422-40; II (according to the supplemented edition of 1648), pp. 306-39.

7. "Zerbrich das schwere Joch / darunder du gebunden / Teutschland / wach doch auff / faß wider einen muht / Gebrauch dein altes hertz / vnd widersteh der wuht / Die dich / vnd die freyheit durch dich selbs überwunden." Quoted in Weckherlin 1972, p. 189; see the interpretation by Meid 1982a.

8. See Kühlmann and Schäfer 1983, pp. 112-29.

9. "Nun zeigt der Himmel recht / wie wohl ihm dein Vergaffen / In Eitelkeit behagt. Gelt-gelt! Sie ziehen dir / Die Narrenkappen ab / und gerben dir darfür / Das Leder also bloß! Da liegst du ganz beraubet / Und ist dir freilich wohl das Aufsatz-Haar bestaubet. / Mit Füssen tritt man dich auf deinem eignen Mist / Darauf doch jeder Hahn sonst Herr und Meister ist." Quoted in Rompler 1647, pp. 87-90, here 90.

10. See Lahne 1931; for information on the events of Magdeburg and the historical persons and processes mentioned in this context, the reader is referred to Harms 1980 ff.

11. Ad Joachimum Camerarium Pabenbergensem. De obsidione vrbis Magdeburgensis (Elegiarum Liber II, 4). With German translation and annotation in Kühlmann, Seidel and Weigand 1997, pp. 458-65; on reception by the public, see Sperberg-McQueen 1981 and Lenz 1987.

12. "In Magdeburg, der festen / Ist manch Jungfräulein fein, / Sie bitten vor die Christen, / Den Spaniern sind sie feind." Excerpt from Ein schön Lied von der Stadt Magdeburg (1629), quoted in Ditfurth 1882, no. 51, pp. 121 ff. (verses 11-13).

13. Dünnhaupt 1990 ff., VI, pp. 4,258-60, nos. 16.1-16.4; Dünnhaupt 1973.

14. "Die gülden' EhrenCron / und Jungfräwlicher Krantz / Auff deinem gelben Haar: Jetzt ligstu da gestrecket / Als ein' ermordte Braut / bist überall bedecket / Mit Eisen / Asch / und Blut / erschrecklich / blaß / verbrendt /Geschwollen / stinckicht / schwartz / unflätig / und zerschendt / Zerschendt durch Nothzucht auch / durch Nothzucht so zerrüttet / Daß sich die Sonn' entsetzt / die Erde drob erschüttet / Der Himmel selbst erschrickt. Gottloser BulenKnecht / Es werden ja für dich die drey HöllHuren recht / Ihr Bräutigam zu seyn: Mit solchem Brand und Morden / Ist auch des Plutons Weib selbst nicht geraubet worden / Du alter kahlkopf / du verdientest / daß das Schiff / Charontis mit dir stracks in seinen Abgrund lieff." Maché and Meid 1980, pp. 49-51, here p. 50.

15. "Denn wer sich Blutvoll säuft / hat gar kein recht Geschicke; / Und wer Jungfrawen schändt / hat weder Stern noch Glücke. / Drümb heist er billich / wie ers verdienet hat / Ein Hurer / Trunckenpolt / und flüchtiger Soldat." Ibid., p. 53; excerpt from General Tyllis drey Tugenden in Laster verkehret.

16. For a more detailed discussion, see Entner 1989, pp. 263-75.

17. See Balde 1990; see here II (corresponding to Liber IV in the Sylvae collection), pp. 86-100: ThreniYvidentis vastationem Germaniae.

18. Lyricorum Liber I Ode XXXVI: "Auctoris Melancholia. Quum è campis redux, audiret, Brisacum à Duce Vinmario occupatum", in Balde 1990, I, pp. 54 ff.

19. Liber IX of the Sylvae was dedicated to D'Avaux. See Balde 1990, II, pp. 289-380; here and elsewhere in the complete works numerous references are made to persons and events of both the war and the negotiations for peace, Sylvae, Liber IX, Ode XXI, pp. 341-43, "ad Illustrissimos Pacificatores Monasterii Congregatos" ("to the noble negotiators for peace assembled in Münster"). For information on the political circumstances and their treatment by Balde, see Breuer 1980; for a summary of further research, see Kühlmann 1988a.

20. Balde 1990, VIII, pp. 1-332: "Magnus Tillius Redivivus sive M. Tillij Parentalia".

21. From the German translation by Westermayer 1868, pp. 46-49 (excerpt). Tilly's heart was later entombed in the pilgrimage church of Altötting. In a subtle allusion to the name "Tilly", Balde wrote a poem on the linden (or "Tilia") tree in front of this church: "Origo arboris Tillaie, ante Saocellum Oetingae Stantis" (Liber Epodon, Ode VII, Balde 1990, I, pp. 274-78); see also the interpretation by Schäfer 1986.

22. In addition to Harms 1980 ff., see Pfeffer 1993, pp. 89-93; Wang 1975, pp. 102-17; Tschopp 1991; a good impression of the extent of the publication activities is given by Hohenemser 1966, Chap. XXIII, pp. 307-88.

23. See Edighoffer 1967.

24. "Gott zu Lob vnd mit seim Beystand / Will ich mit Ritterlicher Hand / Meins Glaubensgenossen im Teutschland / Erretten auß Trangsal und Band." From a single sheet edition in the Stadtbibliothek of Ulm; quoted in Spiegel 1977, p. 184, verse 1.

25. "Verzage nicht, du Häuflein klein, / Ob schon die Feinde willens sein, / Dich gänzlichen zu verstören, / Und suchen deinen Untergang, / Darvon dir wird ganz angst und bang; / Es wird nicht lang mehr währenY." Königlicher Schwanengesang, so Ihre Majest ät vor dem Lützenschen Treffen inniglichen zu Gott gesungen, verses 1 and 3 quoted in Haufe 1985, I, p. 222; the song is attributed to Jacob Fabricius, Gustavus Adolphus' confessor.

26. "Ade, noch eins gesoffen, / Der Kaiser führt den Krieg, / Der Schwed ist aufgebrochen, / Gott geb ihm guten Sieg. / Blanker Soldat / In unserm Ornat / Frisch auf, Soldat, / Gott helf uns früh und spät." The final three verses, quoted here in Haufe 1985, I, p. 221.

27. See Krummacher 1974.

28. See Verweyen 1976.

29. "Der Held / der Siegesfürst / die Kron in Israel /Der König ist dahin / er ist gestorben schnell: / Er leider hat der frewd deß Sieges nicht genossen / weh / der grossen noth / er hat sein Blut vergossen / Sein Blut / sein edles Blut / daß er sampt Reich vnd Kron / Gewaget hat für vns vnd die Religion. / Ach schawet an den leib wie liegt er außgezogen / Nach dem der hohe Geist von jhm' hinweg geflogen / Hie ist sein tapffre Brust / hier ist sein Angesicht / Hie sind die starcken Arm / hie seiner Augen liecht. / Seht / hie liegt Hannibal, Hector, vnd Alexander, / Gottfriedus, Carolus, vnd David mit einander / Hie Keyser Julius, hie Josua der Held / Hie Scipio von Rom / hie liegt das Haupt der Welt. / Hie liegt die Frommigkeit / die Gottesforcht daneben / Hie liegt Gerechtigkeit / mit wahrer Lieb' vmbgeben; / Lauff Fama, lauff geschwind / fleug schnell durch alle Land' / Und mach deß Helden Todt / (ach weh) der Welt bekandt." Excerpt from: Als der Durchleuchtigster und Unuberwindtlichster Fürst und Außerwehlter Heldt Gottes Gustavus Adolphus magnusY gantz Ritterlich vor die Evangelische Warheit unnd Teutsche Freyheit streitendt / war umbkommen / und auß dem Vergänglichen in die Ewigkeit auffgenommen, by Johann Rist quoted from the reprint in Schöne 1968, pp. 339-44, here p. 343.

30. For more information on reactions to Wallenstein's murder, see Mann 1971, esp. 1,137-54; a compilation is contained in Frenzel 1970, pp. 766-69; of particular interest is the Latin drama by Flemish author Vernulaeus 1637; in addition there are songs such as Ein Valet Liedlein vor Wallenstein, see Ditfurth 1882 ff., nos. 108 ff., pp. 270-73.

31. See the summarising analysis by Hinderer 1983a.

32. Jacob Balde, "Ad Cl. Virum Comitium Bascaudum, Stoicum, Cum de Alberti Wallensteinii, Fridlandiae Ducis, funesto exitu verba fecisset" (Lyric Book II, 37; Balde 1990, I, pp. 102 ff.); text, translation (after Herder) and interpretation by Kühlmann 1982a.

33. "Was ist dieß Leben doch? Ein Trawrspiel ists zu nennen / Da ist der Anfang gut / auch wie wirs wünschen können / Das Mittel voller Angst / das End' ist Hertzeleid / Ja wol der bittre Todt / O kurtze Fröligkeit! / Dieß thut uns Wallenstein in seinem Spiel erweisen / Der Kaeyser pflag ihn selbst anfenglich hoch zu preisen / Als' eine Seul deß Reichs (so nand' ihn Ferdinand) / Der Teutschen Furcht und Zwang / deß Kaeysers rechter Hand. / Bald aber / wie sein Glaub' unnd Trew fieng an zu wancken / Verkehrte sich das Spiel / man wandte die Gedancken /Auff seinen Untergang / der Tag gebahr die Nacht / Das Trawrspiel hatt' ein End' unnd er ward umbgebracht. / So tumlet sich das Glück / so leufft es hin unnd wieder / Den einen macht es groß / den andren drückt es nieder / Sein End' ist offt der Todt. O selig ist der Mann / Der sich der Eitelkeit deß Glücks entschlagen kann." Johann Rist, Als die wunderbahre / oder vielmehr ohnverhoffte Zeitung erschalllete / daß der Hertzog von Friedland zu Eger wehre ermordet worden, quoted in Maché/Meid 1980, pp. 70 ff.

34. "Der alles wust allein, was er durch andre that, / Und zwar von Friedland kam, doch Krieg und Streit erhaben: / Liegt ohne Titul dar. Fragstu, wer ihn begraben? / Deutsch weiß ich's nicht, sonst heist es la raison d'Estat." Quoted in ibid., p. 198.

35. For a basic discussion of Gryphius' stance, see Mauser 1976.

36. Quoted in Maché/Meid 1980, p. 116; for new interpretation and comprehensive discussion of the research, see Verweyen 1997.

37. "Zu Kitzingen war ein Bürger und Büttner, Hans Megel. Der erklärte den Würzburgischen Commissären, er wolle päpstisch werden. Als ihm aber das Gewissen aufwachte und ihn Hans Graser, sein GevatterY erinnert hatte, warum er das gethan habe, geriet er darüber in Melancholie und wollte sich aus Verzweiflung selber ermorden. Er riß sich mit einem Messer eine Wunde in den Leib, daß ihm die Därme herausliefen.... Die Kapuziner, die ihn besuchten schalt er Diebe und Seelenmörder, und sagte, sie seien die Ursache dieses seines Jammers." Dietwar 1887, p. 62.

38. See Krusenstjern 1997.

39. For example the journal of Prince Christian II of Anhalt-Bernburg (1599-1656), in ibid., no. 34 A, pp. 65 ff.

40. In the excerpt reprinted in Pörnbacher 1986, II, pp. 321-27; Krusenstjern 1997, no. 41, p. 76 ff.

41. "Das [Hunger und Pest, W.K.] ist aber noch nicht alle unsere Not. Sie wissen, daß all unsere Nahrung in Wollenarbeit und in der Färberei bestanden, und wenn diese noch verloren, aber nur verhindert werden sollte, daß uns alsdann das Messer an die Kehle gesetzt werde, und daß mit gedachter Arbeit unsere Nahrung stehe und falle. Bei aller der Verwüstung und Seltenheit von Leuten, sind doch noch von dieser Profession 243 Meister vorhanden, die alle zu ihrem größten Verdruß und Schaden feiern müssen. Zu diesen kommen noch in der allernächsten Nachbarschaft 64, die ebenso als wir, ohne Arbeit sind. Doch ist dieses alles nicht das Ende der Trübsal. Denn wie jener in seiner Fabel recht gesagt, daß, wenn man dem Magen die Nahrung versage, alle Glieder darunter Not leiden, so kann man auch von Calw sagen, daß, wenn diese gesperrt ist, die ganze Nachbarschaft sich verbluten und umkommen müsse. Von dieser Stadt hingen ringsherum 1200 Zeugmacher, und ebensoviel, ja wohl noch mehrere 1000 Spinnerinnen ab, wie ich aus den Registern gewiß weiß. Wenn Calw Hunger leidet, so müssen die meisten derselben mit uns Hunger leiden. Es glaubt es niemand, als wer das Wehklagen dieser Leute hört." Quoted in Andreä 1934, here p. 6; see Krusenstjern 1997, no. 10 B, pp. 44 ff.

42. Particular fame was attained by a report from the pen of the poet, friend of Opitz's and later prefect of Zweibrücken Venator 1638; see the lecture by Volkmann 1936, pp. 24 ff., and the summarising article Kühlmann 1992.

43. "Auch wenn du also heimkehrst (wir hoffen alle, daß es bald geschehe), wirst du vom Vaterhaus nichts übrig sehen, als vielleicht ein paar durcheinandergeworfene Steine, vermischt mit Asche und verkohlten Balken. Nicht wird dich bei der Heimkehr die liebe Schwester begrüßen, was sie so ersehnte. Als sie durch den schrecklichen Brand vertrieben wurde, zog sie mit ihren drei Kindern zu mir, ich nahm sie in brüderlicher Nächstenliebe auf und gab ihr Wohnung und Nahrung, und wir glaubten schon, nach jenem Schicksalsschlag etwas aufatmen zu können, als die grausame Pest uns diesen Trost ganz unerwartet völlig zunichte machte. Am vergangenen Matthäustag (dem 21. September) starb nämlich zuerst nach nicht mehr als zweitägiger Krankheit ihre Tochter Gretchen, ein hochbegabtes Kind, für das ich große Hoffnungen hegte, kaum drei Tage später (am 25. des Monats, der uns immer Tod bringt) folgte die Mutter selbst und wurde folgenden Tags in einem Massengrab mit mehreren am gleichen Tag Verstorbenen begrabenY." Quoted in Seck 1987, p. 46; see Seck 1978.

44. "O du Hertzog des Friedens / Hilff daß alle Regenten und Oberherrn einträchtig und friedfertig seyn / Gerechtigkeit und den Frieden lieben / die Einigkeit suchen und ihr nachjagen / Wehre dem höllischen Störenfried / dem Teufel / daß er nicht den Saamen der Uneinigkeit außstreue / Mißtrawen anrichte / und alles Elend stiffte. Stewre allen Friedhässigen Leuten / die zum Krieg und Unruh Lust haben / zu Zwietracht und Unfriede Anlaß geben / mach ihre Anschläge zu nichte / und laß sie in ihrem Vornehmen zu Schanden werden / verbinde die Hertzen aller Potentaten unnd Oberherren mit dem Bande der Liebe / mit dem Bande des Friedens / mit dem Bande der Einigkeit / daß der Friede daher fliesse wie ein Bach / und die Versöhnligkeit wie ein Strom sich ergiesse." Quoted in Gryphius 1987. The first edition of Stegmann's Christliches GebetBüchlein / Auff die bevorstehende Betrübte Kriegs / Theurung und SterbensZeitenY gerichtet most likely appeared in 1626 (not preserved); this was followed by various editions in Rinteln (1627), Nuremberg and Frankfurt/Main; a reprint of the cycle exists, referred to above, pp. 179-202, here pp. 188 ff.

45. "Heiliges Himmels Kind / der du wider zur Stelle / Bringest die güldne Zeit / der du machst wider helle / Dieses Landes trübe Lufft / machst lachen unser Feld / Dardurch der Böse Straff / Hoffnung der Fromm erhält / Von dem man nichts bey uns in viel Jahren vernommen / O Fried / glücklicher Fried / wir heissen dich willkommen / Weil du ankompst so bald tief ins vergessens Fluth / Versencket unser Zänck / man wider bawen thut / Die Mawren so zerstört / Der Raht sich nieder setzet / Sein Scharlach wieder nimpt und sein Macht das GesetzeY." Gryphius 1987, p. 203.

46. Czepko 1989; concerning the war events, see the cycle Überschriften seltsamer Geschichte, same volume, pp. 351-73.

47. Lamentatio Germaniae Expirantis, Der nunmehr hinsterben Nymphen Germaniae elendeeste Todesklage, Braunschweig 1640; see Dünnhaupt 1990 ff., V, p. 3827, no. 5.

48. Greflinger 1640; see the references in Dünnhaupt 1990 ff., III, pp. 1681 ff., nos. 1.1-1.5.

49. New edition, Greflinger 1983.

50. See Klaj 1968; Harsdörffer 1647.

51. See the references and evidence in Dünnhaupt 1990 ff., V, pp. 3397 ff., nos. 39.1-39.6; here also nos. 3.1-3.4 (on Irenaromachia, Das ist Eine newe Tragico-comaedia Von Fried und Krieg, first published in 1630) or no. 13, I, II (on the Kriegs- und FriedensSpiegel, first published in 1640); Rist's peace dramas are available in Rist 1967 ff.

52. "Teutschland ist zur Neige kommen, / Worden eine Barbarei / Und verfluchte Wüstenei, / Ihm ist Kraft und Saft benommen. / Teutschland und das Römisch Reich / Sind in so betrübtem Wesen, / Weil die Welt steht, nicht gewesen, / Dem fast toten Körper gleich, / Einem Körper, der da lieget, / Kann nicht von der Lagerstatt / Und mit Not den Atem hat, / Sich vor Weh zur Grube bieget." Quoted in Haufe 1985, I, pp. 217 ff. (without the concluding passage).

53. Evidence of the single sheet edition is contained in Dünnhaupt 1990 ff., II, p. 1488, no. 18; here quoted in Fleming 1865, pp. 102-10; also see reprint of text in Fleming 1969, pp. 112-21; see Sperberg-McQueen 1985.

54. "Das Zeichen ist nicht gut, in dem ich bin geboren, / weil Volk und Reich und ich auf Eins in Trümmern gehen. / Es hat die Götterzunft zusammen sich verschworen, / daß ich in solcher Angst soll so verlassen stehn. / Es war ein böser Fall, als von dem falschen Stiere / die Mutter ward geraubt. (Und, wie sie oft erzählt, / war sie gleich mit mir schwer!) Daher ich, wie ich spüre, / bin, eh' ich geboren, zum Räuberpreis erwählt. / Hier stößt, dort hält man mich, bald werd' ich da gezupfet. / Ich bin der Meinen Spiel. Gleich wie der Wolf das Schaf, / der Geier ein jung Huhn und Taube grimmig rupfet, / so fleischet mich die Welt. Ich bin in steter Straf' / und doch ohn' alle Schuld. Ich wuste nichts von Dienen, / als ich noch meine war. Itzt bin ich mehr als Magd. / Ich muß zu meinem Leid' auch Einen mir versühnen, / der mich nicht Mutter heißt, der mich ohn' Ende plagt. / So vieler Herren Grim, so viel Uneinigkeiten, / die töten vollends mich, die vor ich röchle schon." Fleming 1865, excerpt, pp. 104-10.

55. See also Entner 1989, pp. 180-205.

56. Klaj 1968, p. 119.



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