GRIMMELSHAUSEN, HANS JAKOB CHRISTOF FEL VON (c. 1625-1676), German author, was born at Gelnhausen. At the age of ten he was kidnapped by Hessian soldiery, and with them saw military life in the Thirty Years' War; at its close he entered the service of Franz Egon von Fiirs tenberg, bishop of Strasbourg, and in 1665 was made Schultheiss (magistrate) at Renchen, Baden. In 1669 he published Der aben teuerliche Simplicissimus, Teutsch, d.h. die Beschreibung des Lebens eines seltsamen Vaganten, genannt Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim, the greatest German novel of the 17th century. It is modelled on the picaresque romances of Spain, and, begin ning with the childhood of its hero, describes his adventures in the Thirty Years' War. The realistic detail with which these pictures are presented makes the book a valuable historical document. Towards the end Grimmelshausen over-indulges hi allegory, and finally loses himself in a Robinson Crusoe story.
Among his other works are the so-called Simplicianische Schrif ten: Die Erzbetriigerin and Landstortzerin Courasche (c. 1669) ; Der seltsame Springinsfeld (1670) and Das wunderbarliche Vogel nest (1672). His satires, such as Der teutsche Michel (1670), and "gallant" novels, like Dietwald and Amelinde (1670) are of inferior interest. He died at Renchen on Aug. 17, 1676.
There are numerous modern editions of Simplicissimus, and the Simplicianische Schriften have been published by H. Kurz (1863-64) , J. Tittmann (Leipzig, 1877), and Scholte (1923) . A reprint of the first edition of the novel was edited by R. Kugel for the series of Neudrucke des 16. and 17. Jahrhunderts (188o) ; it was first published in an Eng. trans. in 1912. See the introductions to these editions; also F. Antoine, Etude sur le Simplicissimus de Grimmelshausen (1882) ; A. Bechtold, J. J. C. von Grimmelshausen and seine Zeit . (1914) ; Lochner, Ein deutscher Mensch im 17ten Jahrhundert (1924) .