PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE

IN THE

FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

VOL. I.

PICTURES

OF

GERMAN LIFE

In the XV^th XVI^th and XVII^th Centuries.

BY

GUSTAV FREYTAG

Translated from the Original by

MRS. MALCOLM.

COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY.
1862.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The great interest which these graphic Pictures of Life in Germany have created in that country, has induced me to translate them. The object of the distinguished author seems to have been, to convey a lesson, a warning, and at the same time an encouragement to his countrymen, derived from the experience of the past; whilst he demonstrates to other nations how it is, that a people so superior in intellectual power, has remained so far behind in social and political development.

I have also felt as an additional reason, that at the present moment, the British public must take a deep interest in everything connected with the past, and future, of the country in which the daughter of our beloved Queen has cast her lot, and which was the Fatherland of the revered Prince, who has been a source of blessing to England for so many years, and whose irreparable loss we now so deeply deplore.

GEORGIANA MALCOLM.

CONTENTS.

FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.

Introduction.--Life of a German proprietor, 300, 200, and 100 years ago--In what respect the life of the past appears alien to us--Greater repression of the individual mind--Significance of the last four centuries

CHAPTER I.

Scenes From The Hussite War (1425)--Emigration of Germans to the east after the thirteenth century--Silesia and its Sclave Princes--Colonization, the blessing of free labour recognized-- Character and fate of the German Silesians--Contrast of the Bohemians--Narrative by Martin von Bolkenhain--Consequences of the Hussite war and subsequent fate of the Silesians

CHAPTER II.

A German Lady Of The Royal Court (1440)--Development of the popular mind in the Hussite time--Life at Court--The last of the Luxemburgers--The Hungarian Crown--Narration of Helen Kottanner--Struggles of conscience in the fifteenth century

CHAPTER III.

A Travelling Student (1509)--Characteristics of the fifteenth century--Introductions in the sixteenth century--Excitement in the people, wandering propensities, exciting news, Landsknechte, art of printing--German learning; the Humanitarians--The Latin schools, the children of the people as scholars--Narrative Of Thomas Platter--Influence of the Latin schools upon the people

CHAPTER IV.

The Mental Struggles of a Youth, and his Entrance into a Monastery (1510)--The wants of the popular mind--The church--Brotherhoods; Indulgences--Opposition to them--Narrative Of Friedrich Myconius

CHAPTER V.

Out of the Cloister into the Struggle (1522)--The storm among the people--Luther's popularity--Narration of Ambrosius Blaurer--The knight from the Wartburg--Narrative of Johann Kessler

CHAPTER VI.

Doctor Luther (1517 to 1546)--His importance to us--The tragic in his life--Distinct periods in it--His father--Mental struggle in the monastery, and how he delivered himself from it--His character in 1519--Three letters to the Pope--An inward struggle--Luther as a writer--At the Wartburg--Adherence to Scripture, and defects in his method--The marriage of priests--Return to Wittenberg--His political position--The crisis--How he married--Activity of his latter years--His spirit, his family, his God, his temptations, and ideas of the end of the world--From the funeral discourse of Melancthon--Letter of Luther to the Elector Friedrich the Wise, March, 1522

CHAPTER VII.

German Princes At The Imperial Diet (1547)--Luther and Charles V.--The Roman Empire--Possibility of a new confirmation--The man wanting--Princes of the sixteenth century--Charles V.--Narrative of Bartholomäus Sastrow--Weakness of the Imperial power--Alliance of the German opposition with France--Internal disorganization of the empire

CHAPTER VIII.

A Burgher Family (1488)--Insight into the lower circles of German life--Increasing popular strength--Social superiority of the Protestant provinces (1542)--Insecurity of life--Family History Of Bartholomäus Sastrow

CHAPTER IX.

The Marriage and Housekeeping of a Young Student (1557)--The female sex among the Germans--Position of women in the middle ages--Marriage considered as an alliance between families--The betrothal--Narrative of Felix Platter

CHAPTER X.

Of a Patrician House (1526 to 1598)--The patricians rich and educated--Hans Schweinichen's account of the riches of the Fuggers--Their women--Clara Pirkheimer and Argula von Grumbach--Letters of a Lady of the Glauburg Family

CHAPTER XI.

German Nobility In The Sixteenth Century (1500)--False position in the nation--Unproductiveness--Gradual change--Character of Götz von Berlichingen--Extract from his Autobiography--Character of Schärtlin--Narrative Of Schärtlin--Hans von Schweinichen and Duke Heinrich von Liegnitz--Narrative Of Schweinichen--Transition to modern life

CHAPTER XII.

German Ideas of the Devil in the Sixteenth Century (1500)--The introduction of German traditions concerning him; change in the middle ages--Luther spiritualizes the ideas regarding the devil--Activity of the devil in the new Church--Compacts with the devil after Luther's time--Favourable position of the possessed--The money devil at Frankfort--Satan exorcised from one possessed--Witches--Dreadful persecutions--Gloomy state of men's minds at the end of the sixteenth century

DEDICATION.

To my dear Friend Solomon Hertzel.

Without your knowledge I dedicate this work to you, who have taken so kind an interest in it, whose excellent library has so often helped when other sources failed, and where, as industrious collectors, we have examined so many old flying sheets and manuscripts.

To you also these records of the olden times, in which the private life and feelings of the writers are portrayed, are especially valuable,