Till Eulenspiegel

For 460 years, the author of "Eulenspiegel" managed to keep his name a secret from the countless readers of his book. However, in 1971, his time came: the Zurich lawyer Dr. Peter Honegger unveiled his identity. The man behind the mask was Hermann Bote, a customs officer from Brunswick (circa 1467 - circa 1520). The first partially preserved edition of his book was published anonymously in 1510/11 by Johannes Grüninger in Strasbourg. Bote, who was hardly known to the broader reading public, was described by the renowned literary historian Josef Nadler in 1939 as "the most gifted poet of the 15th century, perhaps of the entire Lower Saxon tribe." The poet, born as the son of a blacksmith master in Brunswick, was a customs officer in his hometown around 1488, a lower land judge (district bailiff) around 1493, and likely later served as the administrator of the Brunswick Old Town council cellar. The folk book.