Schildbürger

The ''Schildbürger'' ("residents of Schilda") are residents of Schilda, a fictional (not the actual Schilda) German town of fools, a butt of jokes in German ''Volksbuch'' (chapbook) tradition corresponding to the Wise Men of Gotham in English-language tradition.

Background

The "people of Schilda", of a German town of fools named "Schilda" (fictitious – not the actual town of Schilda), figure in short tales, known as ''Schildbürgerstreiche'' ("pranks of the citizens of Schilda"). Alongside Till Eulenspiegel, the ''Schildbürger'' chapbooks are the best-known collection of the prankster type in German literary tradition.

The oldest known edition was printed in Strasbourg in 1597 under the title of ''Lalenbuch''. Here, the town was known as Lalenburg (Laleburg) and its inhabitants ''Lalen''. The second edition, printed in 1598, changed this to ''Die Schiltbürger''.

The author of the original collection is unknown. One of the suggested possible authors is Friedrich von Schönberg (1543–1614), a native of Schildau.

The first edition was printed anonymously; the title page gives the "author's name" as a subset of the full alphabet.

Sources used include ''Rollwagenbüchlein'' by Jörg Wickram (1555), ''Gartengesellschaft'' by Jacob Frey (1557) and ''Katzipori'' by Michael Lindener (1558), ''Nachtbüchlein'' by Valentin Schuhmann (1559) and the Zimmern Chronicle (1566).Wunderlich (1982: 660f.) A related or derived publication is ''Grillenvertreiber'' (1603).

The 2010 ''Medieval Chronicle Society#Projects, Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle'' contains a fictitious entry about a supposed ''Chronica sive Historia de populo Schildorum''.

Julius von Voss wrote a comical novel ''Die Schildbürger: ein komischer Roman'' (1823).

See also

*Wise Men of Chełm
*Molbo story
*Till Eulenspiegel

Notes

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

*Ertz, Stefan (ed.): ''Das Lalebuch'' (1971).
*Kraft, Ruth (ed.): ''Das Schildbürgerbuch von 1598'' (1985).
*Simrock, Karl: ''Die Schildbürger'' (2000).
*Wunderlich, Werner (ed.): ''Das Lalebuch'' (1982).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schildburger
German folklore
1597 books
German books
Chapbooks
Humor and wit characters
Archetypal fools
Fictional populated places in Germany
Towns of fools