Devil literature
As vicious literature is called didactic , for Rügedichtung counting tracts satirical character which were written especially in the second half of the 16th century. They were directed against sins and vices , behind which a responsible devil was suspected.
development
The interpretation of the story of paradise led to the devil becoming part of the Dramatis personae in creation stories and world chronicles .
He appeared in the spiritual drama and passion play of the Middle Ages as an opponent and tempter of Christ . The awareness of God's victory assigned him the stereotypical role of the inferior in the dramatic implementation. In this way he got comical traits in addition to the terrible ones. The most beautiful and cleverest of the angels , who, according to legend, had been thrown into the abyss by the Archangel Michael because of his pride, pride and rebellion against God , turned into an ugly deceiver in animal-like form.
The great lamentation of the damned after his fall into hell was often described . The people of the imaginary world of that time were protected by their beliefs against the schemes of the devil portrayed in this way comically.
This is how a number of satirical didactic poems arose - such as The Devil's Net of 1441 - as well as “Confessions” and legends of the “poor devil”. In the further development, the influence of the Reformation is of particular importance.
Background and content
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With the intention of serving the purity of faith and underlining the truth of the Scriptures against a variety of different interpretations, the devil's literature sharpened a sense of sin that encompassed all classes and areas of society. This process was influenced by the Reformation doctrine of justification as well as by Martin Luther's repeatedly expressed idea of the ubiquity of the devil . In many writings, the devil - also as a compound word - is part of a common rhetoric with which he denounced the bad.
For example, in the preface to the 95 theses, which was written afterwards, Luther spoke of the fact that “Satan is not dead”, but “still a prince of the world”. Everyone is subject to his “power, cunning and wickedness”, except Christ and those “who really belong to Christ!” In the book To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation , he also tried the devil several times to clarify and accuse grievances. In his speeches at the table , he once said that one could “chase away the devil with buffoonery” when it was not possible with “serious words and with the scriptures”. "The devil only comes to me when my mind is without work." It is a matter of devilish "temptations, ... when someone (in his imagination tormented by suffering) turns God into the devil."
In the devil's literature one complained above all about the wickedness of the world and condemned the sins of everyday life, which would sneak up on people as booze, curse, play, envy, arrogance and lying devils and seduce them into an immoral way of life.
In addition to the publicly presented bad habits, the warnings mainly related to the area of marriage and family and led to a differentiated Reformation doctrine of the devil . Although this was based on medieval traditions, it developed an independent conception of the presence of evil in everyday life and sought to regulate the personal and public church piety and behavior standards with moral advice. In this sense, popular educational intent was in the foreground for the most famous authors of this genre, such as Andreas Musculus and Cyriacus Spangenberg , who advocated the Reformation as theologians and preachers.
In Sigmund Feyerabend Theatrum diabolorum of 1569, a comprehensive collection of finds Devil literature .
literature
- Heinrich Grimm: The German devil books of the 16th century . In: Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 2 (1958-1960), pp. 513-570.
- Gustav Roskoff : History of the Devil
- Günther Mahal: Book of the Devil . In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Deutschen Literaturwissenschaft . Volume 3: P - Z. Revised (3rd revised edition). de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015664-4 , pp. 592-594.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Metzler, Lexikon Literatur , Teufelsliteratur, p. 759, Weimar, 2007
- ↑ Satan. In: Elisabeth Frenzel , Sybille Grammetbauer: Substances of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 300). 10th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-30010-9 , p. 818.
- ↑ Meinolf Schumacher : Catalogs of Demons as Catalogs of Vices in Medieval German Literature: "Des Teufels Netz" and the Alexander Romance by Ulrich von Etzenbach, in: Richard Newhauser (ed.): In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages , Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 2005, ISBN 0-88844-818-X , pp. 277-290
- ↑ Martin Luther , preface to the collective edition of the early series of theses from 1538 , Die Reformationatorischen Schriften, Volume 1, Gottes Werke und Menschenwerke, Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich, 1983, p. 13
- ↑ Martin Luther, in Luther's table speeches , compiled by Jürgen Henkys, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Leipzig 2003, p. 59