Hans von Rüte

Hans von Rüte (* around 1500 ; † March 23, 1558 in Zofingen ) was a Bernese playwright and chronicler of the Reformation period .

His dramas , performed on several days during Carnival in the old town of Bern , are considered representative evidence of the Swiss Reformation.

Life

In 1528 Hans von Rüte bought six amber pounds into the Bernese company for smithing and thus became Burger von Bern. Nothing is known about his origins, his training or his career before the Bernese period. A descent from Solothurn seems likely, but an origin from the Emmental , from the city of Bern itself or from Aarau is also possible .

Also in 1528 he married the illegitimate former nun Cathrin Hetzel von Lindnach, who came from a noble burgher family in Bern, and had at least 11 children.

After his first employment as a notary and signatory, Hans von Rüte was appointed court clerk in Bern on Easter Monday 1531 and was also elected to the Grand Council. This rapid rise is remarkable, because as a clerk he was one of the most important civil servants in the reformed city-state of Bern. As an important magistrate official, he was not only highly regarded but also had a considerable income. His high status can be recognized, among other things, by the fact that he had his own personal seal , which was supposed to guarantee the authenticity of the documents he created. As the only legally trained official in Bern, the clerk was the main bearer of judicial processes. He had to set up the court files and the trial protocols and performed other police and representative tasks. The office of court clerk also included various secondary offices, such as B. the office of Kornschreiber or taking examinations of future clerks. Hans von Rüte's minutes show that he mastered the craft of the scribe excellently: there are hardly any corrections or deletions in his notes.

In 1545 he had to answer for adultery before the Bern Choir Court and lost his position as clerk because he was found guilty of the offense. Public officials, because they had to fulfill a role model function, were punished with the loss of their employment if they violated the moral law. In addition, a five-day sentence with bread and water was provided for adultery. However, we have no knowledge of whether Hans von Rüte had to serve such a prison sentence. After his release he took on the task of copying the Bern Chronicle of Valerius Anshelm .

In the summer of 1546, however, he was reinstated in his office as clerk of the court and remained there until 1555 when he was elected conductor of the Zofingen monastery . For a long time he was the senior clerk in the city of Bern. In 1558 Hans von Rüte died in Zofingen. He held the post of conductor of the abbey until the end, although a son-in-law helped him.

Services

The work of Hans von Rüte includes a carnival game and five longer Reformation dramas. His dramas have a biblical fable as a basis, which he carefully and with great attention to detail flows into the otherwise completely freely designed games . In addition, the adjusted and systematically structured Bern city statute from 1539 bears his signature. Hans von Rüte eliminated everything that did not belong to the city law and rearranged the remaining parts into four main sections. Even during his lifetime, this was considered an excellent achievement and testimony to his extraordinary legal expertise.

The carnival game , performed shortly before Hans von Rüte's appointment as court clerk in Bern in 1531 and printed in 1532, combines a conventional carnival game based on the model of the games by Niklaus Manuel with the fight of the Protestant authorities against idolatry . The story about the lady "Verrwärr" mocked the veneration of saints by Catholics. The second game on the story of Joseph and his brothers - performed in 1538 - is so extensive that it had to be staged on two game days. The performances took place in the open air on Kreuzgasse . In order to keep the audience's attention and loosening up, the games were enriched with choral songs and interrupted by banquets. In terms of content, it complements the frame story with numerous details, e.g. B. a court scene from medieval Bern.

The main theme of Gideon (1540) was the relationship of the one true God to the idols of the Philistines , in Noah (1546) the plot revolved around the generation problem between Noah and his son Cham. The career of Hans von Rüte and his knowledge of the classics, which can be seen in the dramas, show the good humanistic education that he must have had.

The Easter play of 1552 was probably a commissioned work and was no longer performed publicly, but only performed in the guild "zu Schmieden". In terms of content, it had no connection with Easter, because it showed the opening of the book of the seven seals (described in the Gospel of John). Large parts of this piece were probably sung. His last drama, Goliath , was printed in 1555 and probably performed earlier in Bern. Here, Hans von Rüte addressed the life of the Swiss soldiers in the 16th century.

Hans von Rüte represented the official policy of the Bern Council in his dramas. Not least because of this, the Bern authorities used him as a censor for other games from 1552 onwards.

Works

• All dramas in three volumes. Edited by Friedericke Christ-Kutter et al., Paul Haupt, Bern 2000, ISBN 3-258-06157-2 .

The individual Reformation dramas

• 1532 Fasznachtspiel
• 1538 Joseph
• 1540 Gedeon
• 1546 Noe
• 1555 Goliath
• 1552 Easter play

literature

• Rüte, Hans von. In: Heiner Schmidt (Hrsg.): Sources encyclopedia for the history of German literature. Personal and individual work bibliographies of international secondary literature 1945–1990 on German literature from the beginnings to the present. Ed. Von, Publishing House for Pedagogical Documentation, Duisburg, ISBN 3-930551-26-8 , Volume 26 (2001), p. 424 f.
• Jakob Baechtold :  Rüte, Hans von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 39.
• Dorothea Christ : moods and tradition. The biblical dramas by the Bernese historian Hans von Rüte. In: Against the «dark Middle Ages». Festschrift for Werner Meyer on his 65th birthday. Basel 2002, ISBN 3-908182-13-1 ( Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages. Vol. 29), pp. 197–206.
• Friedericke Christ-Kutter: Hans von Rüte. A still unknown Bernese poet from the time of the Reformation. In: The Mohr. Vol. 25, Bern 1998, pp. 11-25.
• Glenn Ehrstine: Theater, Culture, and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523-1555 . Leiden 2002, ISBN 90-04-12353-9 .
• Glenn Ehrstine: Motherhood and Protestant Polemics. Stillbirth in Hans von Rüte's «Idolatry» (1531). In: Naomi J. Miller et al. (Ed.): Maternal measures. Figuring caregiving in the early modern period. Aldershot 2000, ISBN 978-0-7546-0031-2 , pp. 121-134.
• Kenneth Alan Fisher: Hans von Rüte. A dramatist of the Swiss Reformation , Austin (Texas) 1975.
• Heidy Greco-Kaufmann: Hans von Rüte . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 3, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1546 f.
• Wolfgang F. Michael: Rüte, Hans von. In: Killy Literature Lexicon. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-932544-13-7 , p. 68.
• Hellmut Thomke: Rütte [Rüte], Hans von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Hellmut Thomke: The iconoclasm in Swiss dramas during the Reformation. In: Peter Blickle et al. (Ed.): Power and powerlessness of images. Reformation iconoclasm in the context of European history. Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-64433-5 , pp. 379-390.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christ-Kutter: Dramas. Volume 3, p. 33. Six pounds was about the annual wage of a maid.
2. ↑ Christ-Kutter: Dramas. Volume 3, pp. 17-22.
3. ↑ Christ-Kutter: Dramas. Volume 3, p. 32.