Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg

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Heinz Ritter in 1990

Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg (born June 3, 1902 in Greifswald as Heinrich Adolf Ritter , † June 22, 1994 in Rinteln OT Schaumburg) was a German private scholar who had caused a sensation since 1975 with his theses on the Thidrek saga and the Nibelungenlied .

life and work

As the son of the surgeon Carl Ritter , Heinz Ritter grew up as a child in his native Greifswald , as a teenager in Posen and in Düsseldorf . He received his PhD studied medicine, German, Spanish and biology, spoke seven languages and Dr. phil. After working as a curative teacher, he worked as a teacher at the Waldorf School in Hanover until it closed in 1936. He then founded a children's home in Schaumburg near Rinteln in 1936 , which he managed until 1967. He was banned from publication because he had built the children's home according to pedagogical principles that were very new at the time, which contradicted the National Socialist educational principles.

Heinz Ritter is the author of numerous books with a total print run of over 100,000. His best-known work The Nibelungs moved northwards , first published in 1981 by Herbig Verlag and one of the “Seven Books of the Year” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) , has already been published in its eighth edition (now as a paperback). This is an interdisciplinary, prehistoric research report in which he used novel methodological approaches that ensured him lasting attention, but also received a lot of criticism.

He put forward the thesis that the pagan Didriks chronicle Thidrekssaga, handed down in Scandinavian languages, was a very late translation of very old German songs that describe the events of the 6th century AD. His conclusions about the Nibelung's move to Soest and the location of many other events described in this chronicle were based on this. The Upper German, Christian influenced Nibelungen-Lied is in his opinion a younger, literarily great rendition of the "old Maeren", but the Didriks Chronicle is the translation of the original, lost work, which was still very close to the historical process.

These theses and his transdisciplinary research method were very critically commented on by the disciplines of history , German and Scandinavian studies and were largely rejected. His interpretation of the Thidrek saga is rejected by large parts of the research.

For his research on this complex of topics he received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1987 and the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1989 .

Heinz Ritter is still regarded as a leading Novalis connoisseur, who has also published fundamentals in the field of Novalis research. Among other things, Ritter answered the question of the dating of some of the poems by analyzing Novalis' handwriting and thus being able to indicate the order in which the poems were created in comparison with letters.

The linguistic work Die Kraft der Sprache: On the essence of vowels and consonants , published in 1985, was particularly important to him . In it he tried to use language analysis to get to the roots of human articulation.

His creative breadth was enormous: poetry, children's poems, amateur plays and narrative poetry as well as works in the field of fine arts and last but not least tone poetry (setting of Mörike, Eichendorff and his own poems).

At the age of 92, Ritter brought out two more books. His supplementary "Weland" book was published posthumously in 1999.

The university professor Hans Martin Ritter (* 1936) is his son, the German actress Ilse Ritter (* 1944) his daughter.

Ritter-Schaumburg's written estate is on deposit in the Bückeburg State Archives .

Ritter's theses on the Nibelung saga

The Bonn city seal from the 13th century bears the inscription on the edge: SIGILLVM ANTIQUE VERONE NVNC OPIDI BVNNENSIS (The seal of old Verona now the city of Bonn)

After the controversial thesis Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg, the Thidrekssaga a source of operations during the international migration time in the Lower Rhine area is. According to him, the core of the German heroic saga goes directly to historical events in Lower Germany around the year 500 back. Among other things, he assumes that the Etzel / Attila of the legend does not go back to the Hunnish king Attila , but to a Frisian prince who is said to have conquered Soest . He suspects the Bern of the legend to be in Bonn , the origin of the Nibelungs in the Voreifel region . Legendary heroes such as Dietrich von Bern , Siegfried and the Nibelungen therefore primarily go back to real people who have not been handed down historically and were only confused and identified with historically known models such as Theodoric the Great or the Burgundians in the course of the Middle Ages . He regards the old Swedish version of the Thidrek saga as the most original version of the saga and considers it to be a chronicle-like (albeit fabulously alienated) account of the migration period from Germanic hands.

Ritter-Schaumburg's thesis is generally rejected in German research. But it caused a sensation because it paints a completely new (albeit strongly constructed) picture of early Germanic history in the Lower Rhine region. It is rejected by professional circles on the grounds that it is based on incorrect methodological foundations. A well-founded examination of Ritter-Schaumburg's arguments and a critical assessment of their evidential value is still pending.

background

The Nibelungen saga tells of the dragon slayer Siegfried , who is murdered by Hagen and finally avenged by Kriemhild . In the battle she provoked, all of the Burgundians perished under their King Gunther at the court of Attila, King of the Huns . The story is usually traced back to various events during the Great Migration Period, for example the Germanic people of the Burgundians and their King Gundahar were destroyed by a Hunnic army in 436. The legendary Dietrich von Bern has always been equated with the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great . But the Gothic king never lived at Attila's court, as the legends tell, since the Hun had died before Theodoric was born and the Burgundians certainly did not move to Attila's court either. Because of these inconsistencies, it is generally assumed that the story is a partly invented, partly constantly reassembled network of legends, based on various historical events. Ritter-Schaumburg rejects this generally accepted view and instead claims that the legend goes back directly to actual events during the Migration Period in the Rhineland and in Lower Germany.

He sees a source in the Thidrek saga , especially in the old Swedish version, that reports on these events. The Thidrek saga itself pretends to tell of true events:

“This saga is composed according to the statements of German men, but some <sagas> according to their songs, which are supposed to delight noble men and which were once composed right after the events that are told in this saga. And if you take a man from any castle in the whole of Sachsland (Northern Germany), everyone will tell this saga in the same way. But that's what their old chants do. "

Nevertheless, to this day most historians and German scholars regard it as historiographically worthless, because it is a secondary derivative of the German Nibelungen saga, if not a mutilated translation of the Nibelungenlied. One of the main reasons for this is that the location information in the Thidrek saga often does not correspond to the natural conditions. According to the Thidrek saga, when the Niflunge moved to King Attala, they crossed the Rhine at the point where the "Rhin and Duna coincide". The Rhin is certainly the Rhine, and the Duna is generally thought to be the Danube, which plays an important role in the Nibelungenlied. But since the Danube does not flow into the Rhine, it is generally assumed that the writers of the legend had no interest in Upper German geographical conditions and that the names that were meaningless to them were filled with views from their own horizons.

Geographical details of the Thidrek saga

The Duna

Ritter-Schaumburg points out that the Dhünn , a current tributary of the Wupper , flowed into the Rhine a hundred and fifty years ago before it was diverted into the neighboring Wupper. Around 1190 it was still called under the name Dune. In his opinion, the old duna can only refer to this dune, today's Dhünn. At the original confluence of the Dhünn into the Rhine, there has always been a very flat ford (today Manfort ), which has been used since ancient times to cross the Rhine. From his identification of the Duna with the North German Dhünn, Ritter-Schaumburg deduces that the allegedly most nonsensical part of the Thidrek saga could reflect geographical reality. As a result, he examined many other place names for a possible real background.

Landscapes and places of the Thidrek saga. In brackets the modern names that Ritter-Schaumburg suspects behind the information in the Thidrek saga

Attala, a king in Soest

In the Thidrek saga, the Nibelungs, who are always called the Niflungen here, move to King Attala (also Attila, Aetla, Aktilia or Atilius) in Susat before their demise. Even among the opponents of Ritter-Schaumburg there seems to be a consensus that that Susat of the Thidrek saga is identical to today's Soest in Westphalia. Ritter-Schaumburg assumes that Soest was actually the home of a King Attala. His empire, also known as Hunaland or Hymeland, would then have to have encompassed large parts of Westphalia. According to Ritter, these Huns (also called Heunen or Hünen) had nothing to do with Asian steppe warriors, but were a Germanic tribe whose king was soon confused with the better-known Hunnic Attila. The problem is that a Germanic people with a similar name is not documented. Outside of the Thidrek saga, there are at best sparse references to a possible Hun people. Beda Venerabilis reports about a planned missionary trip of the monk Egbert shortly before 700 to the home area of ​​the Anglo-Saxons, to the Fresones ( Frisians ), Rugini ( Rugians  ?), Danai (Danes), Hunni (Huns / Huns?), Aniqui Saxones (Old Saxons) , Boructuarii ( Brukterern ?). The naming of the Hunni is considered completely unclear at this point, since the existence of Huns around 700 in northern Central Europe is practically impossible. Reinhard Schmoeckel sees the mention as a reference to the Huns of the Thidrek saga. In the fragment De origine Sueborum , a parallel tale to the Saxon history of Widukind by Corvey , the flight of the Thuringian king Irminfried to Attila the king of the Huns after a lost battle against the Franks in 531 is reported. The Hunnish Attila can not be meant, because he was dead for a long time. Therefore the statement could refer to the Attala postulated by Ritter in Soest. The Quedlinburg annals could also contain a possible reference to this ruler by mistakenly assuming Attila's death to be the year 532. The Hun king Attila actually died in 453. The name Attila is actually a Germanic nickname that meant little father and was coined or re-coined by the subjugated Goths for their Hun boss; similar to how the leader of the Soviet Union was often referred to as "Father Stalin ". Both the presumed Hune Attala and the Hun King Attila could originally have had a completely different name. In accordance with the description of the Thidrek saga, which describes Attala as the Frisian king's son, the Friesian chronicle of Suffridus Petrus (printed in Cologne in 1590) tells of the conquest of Soest by a Friesian king Odilbald. He was able to hold parts of Westphalia for a long time through a military leader named Yglo Lascon.

The home area of ​​the Nibelungs

Since Ritter suspects that the Nibelungs crossed the Rhine at the mouth of the Dhünn ( Manfort in Leverkusen ), he deduces from their destination Susat (Soest) that their area of ​​origin was probably southwest of Cologne, for example in the area of ​​the Vor Eifel . According to the Thidrek saga, the Niflungs come from Vernica or Verminza, not from Worms as in the Nibelungenlied. Worms was Latin for Wormatia , mhd. Wormez . A form of the name Verminza does not seem completely absurd. Ritter-Schaumburg, however , puts forward the linguistic historical consideration that the name Verminza today should probably be Virmenich , Vernica today Virnich . He deduces this from the historical change in similar names. For example, Belgica became Billich (now cheap ) and Linnica (mentioned in 888 ) became Linnich . Virnich and Virmenich are two closely adjacent places in the Voreifel in the Zülpich area and are equated by Ritter with the Niflungenburg Vernica (or Verminza). Ritter-Schaumburg therefore assumes that a place name from the time of the Migration Period, which could not say anything to anyone because the place Virnich was meaningless, was passed down precisely and correctly for about 800 years, not only initially in local tradition, but also as far back as the old Norwegian Version inside. In the opinion of experts, such an assumption blatantly misjudges the realities of medieval name tradition. However, the Thidrek saga with Ballofa also seems to have preserved the oldest known name of Balve (first mentioned before 890 AD). In that Ballofa , Wieland is said to have learned to forge after the Thidrek saga.

According to Ritter-Schaumburg, other places in this area could be traced back to the Niflungs. The place Juntersdorf (formerly Guntirsdorp) sounds like King Gunter and the Neffelbach flows nearby . According to Ritter-Schaumburg, the Nibelungs would actually be the Neffelungen, the people from Neffelbach, so to speak. In the Thidrek saga there are no Burgundies, as Gunter's people are almost consistently called in the Nibelungenlied, here they are always called Niflungs (equivalent to Nibelungen).

Bern and Rome

Ritter-Schaumburg also provides an interpretation of where, in his opinion, Dietrich's hometown Bern should be. Today's Bern is certainly not meant. It didn't come into being until the twelfth century. It is also generally accepted that the Latin form for Bern is Verona. The famous Italian Verona and the fact that Dietrich von Bern, according to legend, also conquered Rome , are the main reasons that he is equated with Theodoric the Great. This Gothic king ruled Italy until 526 AD, and Dietrich is just another spelling for Theodoric. However, Theodoric ruled in Ravenna, not Verona, and otherwise has only relatively few parallels to the Dietrich of the legend. Ritter points out that Bonn was mentioned in documents from the 10th to the 16th century under the names Verona and Berne, and considers Bonn to be the Bern of legend.

The city, which is always called Rome in the Thidrek saga, was, according to Ritter-Schaumburg, not the "real" Rome in distant Italy, but the old imperial city of Trier . Trier was once the capital of the Roman Empire and was often called Roma Secunda or Rome of the North in late antiquity . Dietrich von Bern would therefore be a king of Bonn who conquered Trier and not Theodoric the Great. According to Ritter's theory, Cologne appears in the Thidrek saga under the name Babilonia (spelling mistake or old name of Colonia?), Which the heroes always circumvent carefully.

Foundation of the Dietkirche in Bonn, which was built in the 8th century and , according to Ritter, could be named after Dietrich von Bern.

Dietrich as a historical ruler

After the story of the Thidrek saga, Dietrich's grandfather Samson conquered an empire in Hesbania with its seat in Salerna. Hesbania is usually understood to mean Spain, and Salerna is equated with Salerno in Italy. According to Ritter-Schaumburg's speculations, however, Hesbania is to be found in the Belgian Hesbaye (in German Haspengau) and he equates Salerna with the small Salvenerias. Today it is called Sauvenieres , but in 946 it was mentioned in a document as Salvenarias. About 25 km from Sauveniere on the south bank of the Meuse there is still a place that has been called Samson since ancient times and war graves from the second half of the 5th century were discovered in the vicinity. According to the legend, Samson left his kingdom and conquered two new kingdoms for his two sons. Rome (= Trier?) For Ermenrich and Bern for Dietmar, Dietrich's father. According to Reinhard Schmoeckel, this should have happened around the year 470, since Trier was conquered by the Franks, probably between 475 and 479. Shortly before that, the Roman Comes Arbogast ruled there . After the Thidrek saga, Ermenrik first conquered the area around Rome and only later the city itself, which is why a date before 480 is possible for Samson's move. According to Ritter-Schaumburg's theses, the year of birth of a historical Dietrich von Bern was probably around 470. According to legend, King Dietmar died early and the young Dietrich inherited the Bernese Empire. Ermenrich later conquered the land of his nephew Dietrich and he fled to King Attala, who ruled in Susat (= Soest in Westphalia). After many years, Dietrich managed to retake Bern with Attala's help. In the end he even conquered Trier and received Attala's empire when he died without heirs. According to Reinhard Schmoeckel , Dietrich died as an old man around 540 AD, after which his empire is said to have been incorporated into the Franconian Empire of the Merovingians.

Archaeological finds

Ritter connects some archaeological finds with the legend. Around the year 1700, a large stone coffin was discovered just a few kilometers from Virnich, in which, according to legendary tradition, a gigantic warrior with gold armor and crown was buried. He suspects that this stone coffin might have been Siegfried's final resting place. The find became known as the "royal tomb of Enzen ". In addition to the stone coffin, a gold crown and a gold bracelet have been preserved. These finds make it possible, contrary to Ritter's assumption, to clearly identify the grave as a rich Roman women's burial from the 3rd century AD.

The runic writing on the back of the golden disc brooch
from Soest and the possible interpretation: ATAN / LO

In 1930, several richly furnished chamber graves were discovered near Soest, most of which were women’s graves and especially notable for their great wealth of gold. In the richest of these graves, the latest coin that was found in the grave dated at the earliest to the year 527 AD (terminus ante quem non) . According to Reinhard Schmoeckel's calculations, the fight between Hunen and Niflungen should have taken place around this time, in which Kriemhild was also killed. The dead woman in the Soest grave wore a golden disc fibula , on which, according to Ritter-Schaumburg's interpretation, a royal monogram with the name Atano or Atalo in runic script should be recognizable. The fibula could have been a gift from King Attalo to his wife.

A coin with an archaic portrait and the inscription PALATIOLO UOMERIGE from the early Merovingian period was found in Trier-Pfalzel , which could possibly be traced back to King Ermenrik, who was suspected by Ritter. Palatiolum is a Roman summer palace that the Roman emperors had built here when they were still ruling in Trier.

Criticism of Ritter-Schaumburg's theses on the Nibelung saga

Ritter-Schaumburg adopted a lost early version of the Swedish tradition, which is said to have been written before the reorganization of the city of Soest (1170–1180) or, as Ritter-Schaumburg claimed in 1992, to have existed before or during the time of Charlemagne . However, there is no evidence of such a “original version”.

A great difficulty with Ritter's theses is the fact that in the oldest known source of legends, the Hildebrand's song from the 9th century, Odoacer and not Ermenrich or Sibich is named as Dietrich's adversary. Odoacer was Theodoric the Great's opponent in the battle for Italy. Ritter's thesis therefore presupposes that the writer of the Hildebrand's song had already introduced a change in favor of Theodoric the Great, while later versions of the legend would have preserved the true name.

Among specialist Germanists - who had previously dealt little with the Thidrek saga, as this is considered a later copy and secondary combination of other, older individual sagas - Ritter-Schaumburg's theses are viewed critically and are considered invalid. They also consider his methods unscientific, because Ritter-Schaumburg ignores reliable literary-historical knowledge about the legends and historical transmission of the Germanic-speaking peoples.

One of the biggest weaknesses in Ritter's theses is the fact that the old Swedish version of the Thidreks saga, which he considers the most original, is also represented by the most recent manuscripts. They date from the 15th century, while the manuscript of the oldest version of the Thidreks saga, the so-called membrane, dates from the 13th century.

About the relationship between the membrane and the old Swedish version

That the old Swedish version (the so-called Didriks Chronicle or "Svava", abbreviated to Sv) of the Thidrek saga is a translation, she herself indicates at the very end, with the words: Mr Didrik's book has now come to an end, May God send His grace to Him who did it in Swedish . This is one of the reasons why the old Swedish version is generally considered to be a shortened translation of the Old West Norse membrane. Heinz Ritter denies this dependency and considers the Swedish version to be the translation of a Danish or Low German text that no longer exists, which is also supported by the Low German names of the heroes and numerous Danisms. He refers to the relationship between the two manuscripts (Sv A and Sv B) of the old Swedish version, which according to him must be separate translations of the same text. This could be recognized by the frequently used synonymous but different words. However, due to the close relationship between the two manuscripts, the foreign source does not have to be one of the Old West Norse versions. The manuscript Sv B only contains the first part of the Thidrek saga up to about Sevekin's Vengeance, which is why this argument is only relevant for this part.

Furthermore, the old Swedish didric chronicle refers to the fact that the sites of the Nibelungenkampf could still be seen in Soest, while the old-west Nordic membrane explains that some German men have seen the sites undamaged. Ritter concludes from this that the old Swedish didric chronicle was written down before the great reorganization of Soest (this took place after Ritter between 1170 and 1180), while the diaphragm must have been written down shortly after the rebuilding of the city. In this context, Ritter also points out that the membrane directs its gaze from abroad to Soest, while the old Swedish version apparently reports from the area of ​​the events.

Germanists today mostly assume that the old Swedish form of the Thidrek saga is not a translation of an old German hero song, but was translated from the Old West Norse versions of the Thidreks saga, in particular the so-called Membrane (Mb). However, there has also been some controversy about this. Klockhoff believed to have found 125 matches between Sv and the Icelandic version against the Norwegian Mb. That would make it impossible for Mb to be Sv's direct submission. Klockhoff suspected that besides Mb there must have been a second, very similar handwriting of the Ths that did not contain those mistakes of Mb.

Bertelsen, however, greatly reduced the number of these significant discrepancies; the majority of Klockhoff's 125 documents can therefore be explained by simple spelling mistakes in the Mb. However, Bertelsen could not explain some deviations between Mb and Sv differently than Klockhoff. In his edition of the Ths, Bertelsen formulates that Sv offers a “closer to Mb” version but not a copy of Mb itself. Hempel, on the other hand, argues that even the few arguments in favor of Sv's own submission that were not included in Bertelsen's opinion Mb is identical, does not hold water. In this view he is supported by recent studies, which bring further arguments in the sense of Hempel and also check several times that Mb must have been the direct source of Sv. Ritter comments on Bertelsen's, Hempels and Henning's statements and points out that when assessing the history of Sv's origins, these ultimately only refer to C. R. Unger's book with the title Saga Thidriks Konungs af Bern from 1853. In turn, he accuses Unger of not considering other languages ​​besides Norwegian and German (e.g. Danish) as templates and then, mainly due to the fact that no German prose story is known today, he comes to the conclusion that Sv must originate from the Norwegian processing.

According to German studies, the old Swedish version does not contain an older version, but was apparently copied directly from the membrane when it was still complete. However, the Swedish translator must have also known other works of the saga and in places incorporated these details. For example, he added the linden leaf from the Nibelungenlied (which he made into a maple leaf, only slightly changing it), which fell between Siegfried / Sigurd's shoulder blades. However, many points of Ritter refer to the fact that the Didriks Chronicle is usually more original and therefore closer to the actual events than the other manuscripts of the Thidrek saga. The vast majority of German scholars are of the opinion that the Nibelungenlied uses a more original version of the saga and not, as H. Ritter-Schaumburg claims, the Thidrek saga. Ritter-Schaumburg suspects that the origins of didric chronicle, which was written down in the 15th century, should go back to the times of Charlemagne. This completely contradicts the prevailing doctrine. Two more recent works that deal with this topic and were written by Scandinavians contradict Ritter-Schaumburg and assume the opposite of his claims.

Contradictions to known historical facts

The thesis seems to collide relatively little with known historical facts, which can possibly be explained by the fact that the history of the Rhineland in the 5th century was largely in the dark. One well-known event in particular speaks against Ritter's thesis. The Battle of Zülpich , which took place around the year 500 between Alemanni and Franconia near Zülpich , is difficult to reconcile with a Niflungenreich near Zülpich. The private researcher Reinhard Schmoeckel points out, however, that the place of this battle was only known from a single line in Gregor von Tours and that the battle did not necessarily have to have been a major decisive battle between Franconia and Alemanni, but also a smaller one Could have acted in battle.

In addition, the area of ​​origin of the Niflungs in the Zülpich area is not a prerequisite for Ritter's theses. The writer Walter Böckmann , who essentially follows Ritter, questions the area of ​​origin of the Niflungs in the Neffel area. He believes that assumptions that have been made earlier, such as an origin from the region around Waremme and Nivelles, are another plausible possibility.

However, there are hardly any sources that speak for a historical core of the Thidrek saga. A family of the Niflungs as a Rhine-Franconian tribe cannot be historically proven. In the genealogy of the Franks you can occasionally find references ( Gertrud von Nivelles ), but in Franconian historiography (especially with Gregor von Tours) one finds nothing about this sex.

A significant weak point in Ritter's argument is in particular the fact that none of the characters in the saga can be identified in historical sources and at the same time no historically known person appears in the sagas.

Fonts (selection)

German studies

Novalis research:
  • The dating of the <Hymns to the Night>. In: Euphorion 52, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1958, ISSN  0012-0936 , pp. 114-141.
  • The sacred songs of Novalis. Their dating and origin. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society 4, Wallstein, Göttingen 1960, ISSN  0070-4318 , pp. 308–342.
  • The Azzo Fragment. An unknown Novalis manuscript. In: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 34, Metzler, Stuttgart 1960, ISSN  0012-0936 , pp. 378–383.
  • The creation of Heinrich von Ofterdingen. In: Euphorion 55, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1961, ISSN  0014-2328 , pp. 163-195.
  • The unknown Novalis. Sachse & Pohl, Göttingen 1967.
  • Novalis' hymns to the night. Their interpretation according to content and structure on a text-critical basis. 2nd significantly expanded edition with the facsimile of the hymns manuscript, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1974, ISBN 3-533-02348-6 and ISBN 3-533-02349-4 .
  • Novalis: writings. The works of Friedrich von Hardenberg. Edited by Heinz Ritter and Gerhard Schulz, 3rd supplemented and expanded edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 978-3-17-001299-8 .
  • Novalis and his first bride. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87838-480-7 .
  • Novalis vu par ses contemporains. Karl von Hardenberg. Trad. de l'allemand by Vincent Choisnel. Préf. de Paul-Henri Bideau. Postface de Heinz Ritter, Ed. Novalis, Montesson 1994, ISBN 2-910112-08-X .
German Studies and Early History
  • Dietrich von Bern - King of Bonn. Herbig, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7766-1227-4 .
  • The Thidrekssaga or Didrik von Bern and the Niflungs . In the translation by Friedrich von der Hagen. Completely reworked 2nd edition Breslau 1855. Edited and with geographical notes by Heinz Ritter, Reichl , St. Goar 1990, ISBN 978-3-87667-101-7 .
  • Sigfrid - without a magic hat. Herbig, Munich 1990, ISBN 978-3-7766-1652-1 .
  • The Didriks Chronicle or the Svava . The life of King Didrik of Bern and the Niflungs. For the first time completely translated from the old Swedish manuscript of the Thidreks saga and provided with geographical annotations, 2nd unchanged edition, Reichl, St. Goar 1991, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .
  • The Nibelungs moved north. 6th unchanged edition, Herbig, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7766-1155-3 .
  • The Nibelungs moved north. Paperback edition with register, 8th unchanged edition, Reichl, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 .
  • Weland the blacksmith. Olms, Hildesheim 1999, ISBN 3-487-11015-6 .
Language research
  • The power of language, On the meaning of vowels and consonants in language. Herbig, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7766-1287-8 .
  • Original language lives , Reichl, 2nd unchanged edition, St. Goar 1999, ISBN 3-87667-207-4 .

Early history of the 1st century:

  • The Cheruscan. Arminius fighting against the Roman world power. Herbig-Verlag, Munich / Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7766-1544-3 , new edition with the same content under the title Hermann der Cherusker. The battle in the Teutoburg Forest and its consequences for world history. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-928127-99-8 .

poetry

Narrative poetry:
Epic poetry:
Narrative poetry for children:
  • The most beautiful sagas. 2nd edition, 21. – 28. Tsd., Bertelsmann, Gütersloh no year (1960).
  • The golden ball. Singspiel, Möseler, Wolfenbüttel / Zurich 1966.
  • Say of the peoples. 5th unchanged edition, Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7725-0664-X .
Poems:
  • The golden car. Bösendahl, Rinteln 1953.
  • Growing rings, poems of my life. Reichl, St. Goar 1995, ISBN 3-87667-205-8 .
  • Tendons and strivings. Poems from my hiking time, Manufactur, Horn 1984, ISBN 3-88080-061-8 .
  • The Pfeiffer of Hameln. With illustrations by Christiane Lesch, Ogham, Stuttgart o. J. (1986), ISBN 3-88455-153-1 .
  • One and everything. Poems for childhood and adolescence. 12th, unchanged edition, Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-7725-2373-1 .
  • Love earth. Poems and sayings. 5th expanded edition, Ogham, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-88455-006-3 .
  • The mole hedgehog. Ogham, Stuttgart 1989-2, ISBN 3-88455-037-3 .
  • The motley poet's workshop. edition fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1993, ISBN 3-89406-809-4 .

Bibliophile editions:

  • The seasons in songs. Initial painting by Adolph BG Ritter, edited by Heinz Ritter, Reichl, St. Goar o. J. (1993), ISBN 978-3-87667-228-1 .

literature

  • Hinrich Jantz: Heinz Ritter . Working group for German poetry, Niederems 1963.
  • Fritz Raeck : Pomeranian literature. Samples and dates. Pomeranian Central Association, Hamburg 1969, p. 351.
  • Walter Böckmann : The Nibelung death in Soest. New insights into historical truth . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf et al. 1981, ISBN 3-430-11378-4 .
  • Roswitha Wisniewski: Medieval lock pick poetry . Metzler, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-476-10205-X ( Metzler collection 205).
  • Kürschner's German Literature Calendar. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1988, ISBN 3-11-010901-8 .
  • Hans the Best: Comments on a criticism by Johannes Jonatas, including on Ritter-Schaumburg's "The Nibelungs moved northwards" . In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies 33, 1991, ISSN  0165-7305 , pp. 117–130.
  • Heinrich Beck : On the Thidreksaga discussion . In: Journal for German Philology 112, 1993, ISSN  1865-2018 , pp. 441–448.
  • Hans Rudolf Hartung : Soest in the legend. A series of scoreboards . Griebsch, Hamm 1994, ISBN 3-924966-04-4 .
  • Reinhard Schmoeckel : German heroes of legends and historical reality. A new look at two centuries of early German history . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim u. a. 1995, ISBN 3-487-10035-5 ( For Discussion  1).
  • Hermann Reichert : The Nibelungen saga in medieval Scandinavia. In: Joachim Heinzle , Klaus Klein, Ute Obhof (eds.): The Nibelungs. Saga - epic - myth. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89500-347-6 , pp. 29-88.
  • Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards . 2nd Edition. Reichl-Verlag Der Leuchter, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 .
  • Reinhard Schmoeckel: Before Germany existed. Expedition into our early history - from the Romans to the Saxon emperors . 4th edition. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, ISBN 3-404-64188-4 ( Bastei Lübbe 64188).
  • Harry Böseke : Unbelievable errors . Ah! -Erlebnis-Verlag Frank Ahlert, Mönchengladbach 2006, ISBN 3-9811054-0-0 .
  • Martin Huber: Seeds of Vengeance - The Chronicle of Niflungs . Neopubli GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-7450-9702-3 .

Web links

Sources and Notes

  1. Reviews: Kratz, Henry (1983). "Review: the Nibelungs moved northwards by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg". The German Quarterly . 56 (4):. 636-638 .; Müller, Gernot (1983). "The very latest Nibelung heresies: To Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg's Die Nibelungen moved northwards, Munich 1981". Studia neophilologica. 57 (1): pp. 105-116; Hoffmann, Werner (1993). "Siegfried 1993. Comments and reflections on research literature on Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied from 1978 to 1992". Mediaevistics. 6: pp. 121-151. JSTOR 42583993. pp. 125-128
  2. An incentive for a new work - Cross of Merit for Nibelungen researcher Dr. Heinz Ritter , Schaumburger Zeitung, February 23, 1987
  3. Order of Merit for Dr. Ritter - Awarded a history book author. In: Schaumburger Zeitung, April 14, 1989.
  4. ^ Matthias Springer : The Saxons . Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-17-016588-7 , p. 90 ff.
  5. ^ Helmut Bernhard : The Roman history in Rhineland-Palatinate. In: Cüppers: The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Stuttgart 1990, p. 161.
  6. ^ J. Freudenberg: The old gold find in the so-called royal grave in Enzen not far from Zülpich. Bonner Jahrb. 25, 1857, pp. 122-137.
  7. ^ Karl Josef Gilles: Trier coinage in the early Middle Ages. Koblenz 1982, ISBN 3-9800132-4-3 , p. 22, with illustration.
  8. ^ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Didriks Chronicle. Otto Reichl Verlag, St. Goar 1989, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .
  9. Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards. 2nd Edition. Reichl-Verlag Der Leuchter, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 .
  10. Oskar Klockhoff: Studier öfver Thidreks saga af Bern. In: Upsala Universitets Årsskrift 1880.
  11. Henrik Bertelsen: Om Didriks af Berns sagas oprindelige skikkelse, omarbejdelse og handkrifter. Copenhagen 1902.
  12. Henrik Bertelsen (Ed.): Þiðriks saga af Bern. Copenhagen 1909.
  13. ^ Heinrich Hempel: The handwriting relationships of the Þiðrikssaga. In: Contributions to the history of German language and literature 48 (1924), p. 417ff.
  14. Bengt Henning: Didrikskrönikan. Handwriting relation, översättningsteknik og stildrag. Stockholm 1970.
  15. Thomas Klein: On the Þiðreks saga. In: Work on Scandinavian Studies, ed. Heinrich Beck, Frankfurt 1985, p. 487ff.
  16. Hermann Reichert: heroic saga and reconstruction. Studies on the Thidreks saga Philologica Germanica 14. Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-900538-34-4 , pp. 17-29.
  17. ^ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Didriks Chronicle. Otto Reichl Verlag, St. Goar 1989, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .
  18. The death of the Nibelung in Soest. New insights into historical truth. Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1987.
  • Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius (ed.): Sagan om Didrik af Bern (Samlingar utg. Af Svenska Fornskrift-sällskapet, booklet 14, 15, 22, = vol. 10). Stockholm 1850.
  • Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Didriks Chronicle (translation of the old Swedish version of the Thidrek saga into German by Ritter-Schaumburg). Otto Reichl Verlag, St. Goar 1989, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .
  • Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar, Munich 1983
  • Hans Rudolf Hartung: Thidreksaga before Nibelungenlied . In: Soester Anzeiger, March 5, 1991.
  • Renate Klink: What the legends tell us . In: Feuilleton, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, June 3, 1992.
  • The dispute over the early days of Soest. Soester-Anzeiger, May 25, 1993.
  • Heinz Ritter - lateral thinker on the trail of the Nibelungs. Schaumburger Zeitung, June 25, 1994.