Graf Spee

Spee von Langenfeld, Friedrich (Kaiserswerth nr. Düsseldorf, 1591-1635, Trier), a religious poet who came from a Rhenish noble family and entered the Society of Jesus in 1610, after which he studied philosophy, taught in schools in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz, and then studied theology. He later taught at the Jesuit colleges of Paderborn, Cologne, and Trier, becoming professor of moral theology. His wish to become a missionary in India was never granted. The members of the Society were engaged in the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in Westphalia and the Rhineland, and Spee was wounded in the course of these duties when a religious opponent made an attempt on his life from which he never recovered entirely; the incident occured in Peine in 1629. He died of the plague while tending the sick at Trier.

The publication of Cautio Criminalis (1631, translated and introduced by J. F. Ritter, 1982) put Spee's relations with the Jesuit hierarchy under considerable strain, even jeopardizing for a time his membership of the Society. This work, which appeared anonymously, attacks as a travesty of Christian love the legal procedures, particularly the use of torture, to which women accused of witchcraft were subjected. The furore it caused may explain the posthumous publication of two important works. His Güldenes Tugend-Buch (1649, selection, intro. by A. Arens, 1991), is a work of religious exercises intended to encourage the practise of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. Composed in prose dialogue form, it also contains numerous songs and poems which contributed towards Trutz-Nachtigal, Oder Geistlichs-Poetisch Lust-Waldlein (1649). This collection of religious verse incorporates the mystical tradition of Christ as the bridegroom of the soul and devices associated with secular verse which are adapted to enhance the work's spiritual message. According to Spee himself, the collection demonstrates the suitability of the German language for poetic expression, and, independently of Martin Opitz, he unites word accent and metrical stress.

Sämtliche Schriften. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, ed. Th. G. M. von Oorschot, 3 vols., 1968-92. Die anonymen geistlichen Lieder vor 1623, ed. M. Härting, appeared in 1979.

Graf Spee may refer to:

• Graf Maximilian von Spee, German admiral in World War I

or to several German ships that were named after the admiral:

• SMS Graf Spee, incomplete Mackensen class battlecruiser of World War I, scrapped in 1923
• The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, launched in 1934, that saw action in World War II

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