Süßkind von Trimberg

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Süßkind, der Jude von Trimberg(Süßkind, the Jew of Trimberg) (Manesse Codex, 14th c.)

Landkreis Bad Kissingen (the Place of Trimberg)

Süßkind (Suezkind) von Trimberg or Süßkind of Trimberg (ca. 1230 - ca. 1300) was a German minnesinger.

He was the first Jewish poet of the German language. He flourished in the second half of the 13th century, or, according to Graetz, about 1200. He is named after his birthplace Trimberg, a town with a castle of the same name, now a part of the Elfershausen, in Bad Kissingen district, Franconia, near Würzburg. Little is known of his life, but it is supposed that he was a physician. The six poems of his which have been preserved in the Codex Manesse (now at Heidelberg) show that he took high rank among the poets of his time. He sang of the worth of the virtuous woman, and portrayed for the knights the ideal nobleman: "Who acts nobly, him will I account noble."

Sharing the suffering of his oppressed brethren, he bitterly complains that the wealthy grant him scanty support, for which reason he is determined to abandon poetry and to live henceforth as a Jew. The most characteristic of his poems is the Fable of the Wolf:

"Ein Wolf viel jaemerlichen sprach:

Wâ sol ich nû belîben,

Sît ich dur mînes lîbes nâr

Muoz wesen in der âhte?

Darzuo sô bin ich geborn, diu schult, diun ist nicht mîn;

Vil manic man hât guot gemach,

den man siht valscheit trîben

unt guot gewinnen offenbâr

mit sündeclîher trâhte;

der tuot wirser vil, dan ob ich naem ein genslein.

Jân hab ich nicht, des goldes rôt

Zegebene umb mîne spîse,

des muoz ich rouben ûf den lip durch hungers nôt,

der valsch in sîner wîse ist schedelîcher, dan ich,

unt wil unschuldic sîn."

A wolf spoke full of pain:

Now where should I remain?

Since I live off man

I must remain in ban

But I was born this way, the fault is not mine

many a man is in pleasant circumstances

whom one sees deal falsely

and evidently acquire wealth

with sinful aspirations

He does much worse than if I take a goose

I have not enough gold

to pay for my food

therefore I must steal it out of hunger

In his way, the false man acts much worse than I

and yet wishes to appear innocent

Evidently this fable refers to the author's own circumstances or at least to those of his coreligionists.

Bodmer (1759) and Von der Hagen (1838) reprinted the poems from Manesse's collection.

1 Literature
- 1.1 Bibliographies of Jewish Encyclopedia
2 External links
3 See also

[edit] Literature

Dietrich Gerhardt: Süsskind von Trimberg. Berichtigungen zu einer Erinnerung. Lang, Bern u.a. 1997, ISBN 3-906757-01-3
Friedrich Torberg: Süsskind von Trimberg. Roman. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-10-079002-2 (fiktive Biografie)