Simplicissimus (Gekürzte Ausgabe)

At times, Grimmelshausen's great rogue novel has not been recognized as part of the classical canon of German literature and cultural heritage. In 1876, the Prussian Landtag debated this - as the speaker put it - "compilation of ribaldry and improprieties from the wild life of a peasant during the Thirty Years' War," discussing "misadventures, love affairs, theft, debauchery, murder, breach of the flag oath, etc." In his outrage over such matters in a novel, the representative captured much of what Grimmelshausen portrays with a satirical eye, depicting it with a sense of the grotesque, but also sharply criticizing: the reality of a time when the world seemed to be in chaos and the fear of catastrophe was a fundamental feeling of humanity, a time full of crises and threats.