Sweet child from Trimberg

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Susskind, the Jew from Trimberg ( Codex Manesse , 14th century)
Depicted on the right is an elegantly dressed Jew (recognizable by the pointed Jewish hat ) in front of an enthroned official with a bishop's staff and a hat, the bishop and the Jew in a cape with collar and lining Fehwammenfell ("Schönwerk"). Under a coat of arms, which is interpreted differently: as that of the city of Konstanz (whose bishop, Heinrich von Klingenberg , von Hadlaub is mentioned in the song manuscript and possibly belonged to its donors), the Archbishopric of Cologne , or the city of Fulda .

Süßkind von Trimberg was a German poet from the second half of the 13th century. Hardly any biographical traces have survived; a stay at the court of the Bishop of Würzburg is suspected.

He is also said to have worked as a doctor at the Würzburg Dietricher Spital (built around 1120). In Adolf Kober's register of residents: “Cologne. The Jewish Publication Society of America ”, Philadelphia 1940, pp. 353, 360 it can be seen, however, that the doctor Süskind von Würzburg is a different person and had several properties, so he was not a penniless singer. You can also see there that there were many more with the name Süskind.

In the Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift ( Codex Manesse ), twelve singing sayings in six tones are handed down under Susskind's name . Whether the author was actually a Jew, as he is referred to three times in the song manuscript, or whether the stanzas composed between 1250 and 1300 were subsequently given a Jewish name around 1330 because of the Jewish motif in V, 2, is controversial. After the historian Friedrich Lotter and the German-Jewish journalist Bertha Badt-Strauss , Süsskind existed and was Jewish. The Germanist and Medievalist Brian Murdoch , like Helmut de Boor and Raphael Straus , assumes that Süßkind existed, but believes that he was not a Jew. Attempts to prove Susskind in a document were unsuccessful, but the name Susskind could only be used by a Jew in the 13th century and the designation of origin from Trimberg (west of Bad Kissingen) fits the Central German writing language of the stanzas.

In Susskind's verses one can find parallels to Old Testament metaphors and sayings, and his praise of his own wife (III, 2), like the stanza about his hungry children (V, 1), refers to an existence that is outside the usual for a traveling singer Orbits could have moved. In verse V.2, Judaism is addressed directly when the singer threatens that he will no longer sing in the courts, but will humbly move on in old jews with a beard and long coat, hat deep in his forehead. Whether this is to be understood as a genre-typical heathen motif or as a poetic insight into one's own failure is the subject of a lively specialist discussion - because the fact that Süßkind's poetry can be read as a biographical self-representation of an early attempt by a Jew to approach the majority culture gives it a meaning, that goes beyond linguistic artistry.

The most characteristic of his poems is probably the fable of the wolf:

A wolf much annually said:
Why should I nû belîben,
Sît I dur mînes lîbes nâr
Muoz be in the seam?
That's why I was born, you go to school, you are not mine;
Vil manic one has made guot,
which one sees valscheit trîben
and guot win evidently treaded
with sinfulness;
the tuot wirser vil, then whether I name a genslein.
Yes, I don't, the golden red
time umb mîne spîse,
des must I rub ûf the lip through hunger nôt,
the valsch in sîner wîse is schedelîcher, then I, unt
wil be innocent.

References and comments

  1. ↑ The miniatures of the Great Heidelberg Song Manuscript , ed. v. IF Walther u. G. Siebert, Ff / M 1988, p. 238; "Edele frouwen, schoene man", Die Manessische Liederhandschrift in Zurich , exhibition catalog by C. Brinkler and D. Flühler-Kreis, Zurich 1991, p. 25
  2. ↑ Peter Wapnewski , ZEIT magazine 35/1985; Peter Wapnewski on the miniature of the Süezkint in the Codex Manesse
  3. ^ Gustav Roethe :  Sweet child of Trimberg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 334-336.
  4. ^ Bruno Rottenbach: Würzburg street names. Volume 1, Franconian Company Printing Office, Würzburg 1967, p. 66.
  5. ^ Friedrich Lotter: Sweet child of Trimberg. In: Julius Hans Schoeps (Ed.): New Lexicon of Judaism. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1998, ISBN 3-577-10604-2 , p. 788.
  6. ^ Brian Murdoch in Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture 1096-1996. London 1997, pp. 21-26.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Süßkind von Trimberg  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Sweet child from Trimberg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 13th century or 14th century