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Der Ackermann aus Bohmen and the Destiny of Man

1958; Routledge; Volume: 33; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19306962.1958.11786941

1930-6962

Franz H. Bäuml,

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesAn exhaustive bibliography covering Ackermann-scholarship, both textual and interpretative, through 1950 is to be found in the edition of L. L. Hammerich and G. Jungbluth, in Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-Filologiske Meddelelser, XXXII (1951), no. 4, 7–18. For a survey of recent trends in research, the studies of E. A. Philippson, "Der Ackermann aus Böhmen. A summary of recent research and an appreciation," MLQ, II (1941), 263 ff., and Isaac Bacon, "A survey of the changes in the interpretation of Ackermann aus Böhmen: With special emphasis on the post1940 developments," SP, LIII (1956), 101–113, offer excellent guidelines."Der Dichter des 'Ackermann aus Böhmen' und seine Zeit," Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation (Berlin, 1926–1932), III. In connection with Burdach and his interpretation of the Ackermann must be mentioned Alois Bernt, "Forschungen zum 'Ackermann aus Böhmen'," Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, LV (1930), 301 ff.; E. DoeringHirsch, "Tod und Jenseits im Spätmittelalter," Studien zur Geschichte der Wirtschaft und Geisteskultur (Berlin, 1927), II; Walter Rehm, Der Todesgedanke in der deutschen Dichtung vom Mittelalter zur Romantik (Halle, 1928); and Günther Müller, Deutsche Dichtung von der Renaissance bis zum Ausgang des Barock (Wildpark-Potsdam, 1927)."Das Deutsche im 'Ackermann aus Böhmen'," Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Kl., XVIII (1935); "Deutsches Mittelalter und italienische Renaissance im 'Ackermann aus Böhmen'," Zeitschrift für Deutschkunde, LI (1937), 225 ff. Hübner's viewpoint is also represented by Ella Schafferus, " 'Der Ackermann aus Böhmen' und die Weltanschauung des Mittelalters," Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, LXXII (1935), 290 ff.Zur Interpretation des "Ackermann aus Böhmen" in Basler Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur (Basel, 1944), I."Der Ackermann aus Böhmen und das Renaissance-Problem," Monatshefte, XLI (1949), 213–217.Brand, pp. 21–23. The question of whether the views expressed by the figure of the ploughman could be identified with the views of the author was already broached by Fritz Martini, "Die Gestalt des 'Ackermann' im 'Ackermann aus Böhmen'," Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, LXVI (1941), 37 ff.Brand, op. cit., p. 52. The use of the term "assumptions" in this connection for what are actually conclusions within the scope of Brand's study will become selfexplanatory in the examination of these assumptions.Ibid., p. 53. The significance of this matter of form for Ackermann-research rests, of course, on the dedicatory letter which Johann von Tepl sent to Peter Rothers together with a copy of the Ackermann. Cf. M. O'C. Walshe," 'Der Ackermann aus Böhmen' and its Latin dedication," MLR, XLVII (1952), 211–212.Cf. chapters VI, VIII, X, XII, XVI, XVIII, XX, XXII, XXVI, XXX, XXXII.Cf., for instance, the earliest type of the danse macabre at the abbey-church of La Chaise-Dieu (Auvergne), and also the later examples at the charnel-house in Metnitz (Kärnten), the famous Basel Totentänze, the Lübeck and Reval examples, to mention only a few of the best-known.W. Stammler, Der Totentanz (München, 1948), p. 26. Apart from the countless better-known examples, cf. Hans v. Trennbach's verse in L. Westenrieder, Baierisch­ historischer Calender … für 1787, pp. 278 ff., and R. Priebsch in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, hrsgg. von W. Stammler (Berlin u. Leipzig, 1936), II, cols. 167–168; München Hs. clm. 641 (cf. Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit [1873], col. 131 f.); Pal. germ. 98, fol. 198b (cf. Bartsch, Die altdeutschen Handscriften der Univ.-Bibl. in Heidelberg [Heidelberg, 1886], no. 60); Keller, Fastnachtsspiele, Nachlese in Bibliothek d. Stuttg. Lit. Ver., LXVI, 329; Ms. Additional 16581 of the British Museum (cf. Priebsch, Deutsche Hss. in England [Erlangen, 1901], II, 147–158); Percy's Reliques, ed. Wheatley (London, 1927), I, 265; Adolf Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, tr. A. M. Blackman (London, 1927), pp. 133, 251–253; also the old-Babylonian fragment of the Gilgamesch in Otto Weber, Die Literatur der Babylonier und Assyrer (Leipzig, 1907), p. 89.One of the most popular of the prototypes of this tradition is the Dialogus mortis cum homine in Oxon. Laud. misc. 512, XII, f. 122; Vindob. 3848, XV; Brit. Mus. Add. 15698, XV, f. 71; Prague, Strahow DC III, 4, XIV, f. 1., etc. Cf. also Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (München, 1931), III, 953–954; H. Walther, Das Streitgedicht in der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (München, 1920), p. 80 ff.; W. Stammler, Totentanz, pp. 26 and 82, n. 64.Schirokauer, Monatshefte, XLI (1949), 214. Cf. also the studies of Hübner cited in n. 3. Schirokauer stresses, in this respect, the mediaeval tradition of the Streitgespräch and the polarity, both in its dialectic form and as topos, of the sic et non in mediaeval thought.The text used is that of L. L. Hammerich and G. Jungbluth, Der Ackermann aus Böhmen in Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-Filologiske Meddelelser, XXXII (1951), no. 4.For examples of the theme in general one needs only to turn, among the later patristic authors whose works were widely known in Germany, to Petrus Damianus, Apologeticus de contemptu saeculi in the Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne, CXLV, cols. 251 ff; Bruno of Würzburg in Patr. Lat., CXLII, cols. 39 ff.; St. Bernhard, Meditatio de hum. conditione in Patr. Lat. CLXXXIV, col. 506; Innocent III., De contemptu mundi libri III in Patr. Lat., CCXVII, col. 702; chapters IV, "De contemptu et odio mundi" and V, "De falsa mundi gloria potentia et dignitate," in the Speculum aureum animae peccatoris, to name only a few. In the charaeterization of the world the strongest epithets, some quite similar to those used by Death in the Ackermann, are to be found in tractates of the later mystics. Cf., for instance, the Fünfmannenbuch, ed. Philipp Strauch, in Altdeutsche Textbibliothek [Schriften aus der Gottesfreund-Literatur, Heft 2] (Halle, 1927), 79:,,Ach, wie mv̊the wir vns vor gotte so rehte wol schammen, das wir wol merkende sint, vnd ist es, das ein mensche mit der triegenden falschen weite vmbeget, vnd ist es dan, das der selben menschen eins ein fleislich liep nv̊went annesiht, so dv̊nket es nv́t, sin herze si v́rfroewet van eime alsollichen vnreinen detlichen stinkenden kwotsagke!" But also as early as in Alanus ab Insulis, Summa arte praedicatoria in Patr. Lat., CCX, col. 117: "O homo, memorare quod fuisti sperma fluidum, quomodo sis vas stercorum, quomodo eris esca vermium … Vermis ergo es homo de terra natus; vermis dum vivis, quia terrenis intentus; vermis dum morieris, quia vermibus in escam datus. Memorare, o homo quia terra es, et in terram ibis, quia cinis es, in cinerem revertis … ".Cf. the two exempla in Brit. Mus. MS Arundel 406, fol. 25r and the Gesta Romanorum, ed. Oesterley (Berlin, 1872), cap. 202, and p. 743, which may constitute the source for the later personification of Dame World as a woman lovely if seen from the front, but hideous if beheld from the back: R. Priebsch, "Walther von der Vogelweide: 'Abschied von der Welt'," MLR, XIII (1918), 465–473; cf. also, for instance, Konrad von Würzburg, Der werlte lon; Der Guotaere, in Minnesinger, ed. v. d. Hagen (Leipzig, 1838), III, 41; Walther v. d. Vogelweide 100, 24; but especially 101, 5–14; further references can be found in Priebsch, MLR, XIII (1918), 467–468, andin August Closs, Weltlohn, Teufelsbeichte, Waldbruder (Heidelberg, 1934), pp. 1–21.Cf., for instance, Weltlohn, ed. Closs, lines 221–231:Da stůnt sie nackent unde bloz,Ez lebet ouch niergent ir genoz.Ir lip der was behangenMit kroten und mit slangen, 225 Sie was so gar verwazen,Ir fleisch die maden azenSo vaste uf daz gebeine,Sie was ful und unreine,Daz da von irme libe dranc 230 Vil gar ein jemerlich gestanckNoch me danne ein fuler hunt.Patr. Lat. XXVI, 200. Cf. also E. R. Curtius, Europäische Literatur und lateinisch, Mittelalter (Bern, 1948), chap. IV.W. Stammler, Kleine Schriften zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1953), p. 46. How likely it was that Tepl was acquainted with fourteenth century mystical prose still remains tobe investigated.Minnesinger (see above, n. 16), especially 28, 31 ff.: "Ich hân mîn lêhen, al die werlt, ich hân mîn lêhen … " and some of his political poetry. To the latter, however, cf. Arthur Hatto, "Walther von der Vogelweide's Ottonian poems: A new interpretation," Speculum, XXIV, (1949), 542–553.Cf. Manitius, III, under the appropriate headings.Cf., for instance, the two volumes of Martin Grabmann, Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode (Berlin, 1956).lt is significant, in this respect, that even now opinions are still divided about the position, regarding this problem, of some of the greatest figures of mediaeval scholasticism, such as John of Salisbury and, particularly, Abelard. Cf. Grabmann, II, 177–193.