SACHS, HANS (1494-1576), German poet and dramatist, was born at Nuremberg on Nov. 5, 1494. His father was a tailor, and he himself was trained to the calling of a shoemaker. Before this, however, he received a good education at the Latin school of Nuremberg. In 1509 he began his apprenticeship, and was initiated into the art of the Meistersingers by a weaver, Leonhard Nunnenpeck. In 151I he set out on his Wanderjahre, and worked at his craft in many towns, including Regensburg, Passau, Salz burg, Munich, Osnabriick, Lubeck and Leipzig. In 1516 he re turned to Nuremberg, where he remained during the rest of his life, working steadily at his handiwork and devoting his leisure time to literature. In 1517 he became master of his gild and in 1519 married. Sachs became an ardent adherent of Luther, and in 1523 wrote in Luther's honour the poem beginning Die witten bergisch Nachtigall, Die man jetzt horet Uberall, and four dia logues in prose, in which his warm sympathy with the reformer is tempered by counsels of moderation. The town council of Nurem berg then forbade him to publish any more Bfichlein oder Reimen. Before long, however, the council itself declared for the Reforma tion. Sachs died on Jan. 19, 1576.
By the year 1567 Sachs had composed, according to his own account, 4,275 Meisterlieder, 1,700 tales and fables in verse, and 208 dramas, which filled no fewer than 34 large manuscript vol umes; and this was not all, for he continued writing until 1573. The Meisterlieder were not printed, being intended solely for the use of the Nuremberg Meistersinger school, of which Sachs was the leading spirit. His fame rests mainly on the Spruchgedichte, which include his dramatic writings. His "tragedies" and "com
edies" are, however, little more than stories told in dialogue, and divided at convenient pauses into a varying number of acts. The subjects are drawn from the Bible, the classics, the Italian novel ists and elsewhere. He succeeds best in the short anecdotal Fastnachtsspiel or Shrovetide play, where characterization and humorous situation are of more importance than dramatic form or construction. Farces like Der fahrende Schuler im Paradies (155o), Das Wildbad (155o), Das heiss Eisen (1551), Der Bauer im Fegefeuer (1552), are inimitable in their way, and have even been played with success on the modern stage.
Hans Sachs himself made a beginning to an edition of his collected writings by publishing three large folio volumes (1558-61) ; after his death two other volumes appeared (1578, 1579). A critical edition has been published by the Stuttgart Literarischer Verein, edited by A. von Keller and E. Goetze (23 vols., 5870-96) ; Samtliche Fastnachtsspiele, ed. by E. Goetze (7 vols., 188o-87) ; Sdmtliche Fabeln und Schwiinke, by the same (3 vols., 1893). There are also editions of selected writings by J. Tittmann (3 vols., 187o-71; new ed., 1883-85) and B. Arnold (2 vols., 1885). See E. K. J. Liitzelberger, Hans Sachs (1876) ; C. Schweitzer, Etude sur la vie et les oeuvres de Hans Sachs (1887) , K. Drescher, Hans Sachs Studien (1890, 1891) ; E. Goetze, Hans Sachs (1891) ; A. L. Stiefel, Hans Sachs-Forschungen (1894) ; R. Genee, Hans Sachs und seine Zeit (1894 ; 2nd ed., 1902) ; E. Geiger, Hans Sachs als Dichter in seinen Fastnachtsspielen (1904) •