Simplicius Simplicissimus

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

Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch, known in English as Simplicius Simplicissimus and other titles (see below), is a German picaresque novel of the Baroque style, written in 1668 by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and published the subsequent year. Inspired by the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language. It contains autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war.

[edit] Opera adaptation

Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) wrote the anti-war opera Simplicius Simplicissimus for chamber orchestra in the mid-1930's, 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. It was revived by the Stuttgart State Opera in 2004.^[1]

[edit] Titles in English

It has been translated into English under a variety of titles:^[2]

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 a strange adventurer named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: 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."