Johann Beer
Beer, Johann (St Georgen, Austria, 1655-1700, Weißenfels), a Protestant by upbringing, emigrated with his parents from Austria to Regensburg in 1670. In 1676 he entered Leipzig University, but in the same year was accepted into the private choir of the Duke of Weißenfels at Halle. In addition to singing, he composed and wrote on music (Musikalische Discurse, published posthumously in 1719). He became the Duke's chief musician (Konzertmeister) in 1685, and court librarian as well in 1697. In 1680 he accompanied the court when it moved to Weißenfels.
A rich and ebullient character, Beer possessed also a considerable talent for story-telling, which he exercised in some twenty novels, all written before 1685, but published under pseudonyms between 1677 and 1704. They include Der simplicianische Welt-Kucker (1677-9), Der Abentheuerliche und unerhörte Ritter Hopffensack (1678), Printz Adimantus und der Königlichen Princeßin Ormizella Liebes-Geschicht (1678), Jucundi Jucundissimi wunderliche Lebensbeschreibung (1680), Das berühmte Narren-Spital (1681), Der politische Feuermäuer-Kehrer (1682), Der politische Bratenwender (1682), Zendorii à Zendoriis Teutsche Winternächte (1682), Die kurtzweiligen Sommer-Täge (1683), and Der verkehrte Staatsmann (1700). Beer is a fluent narrator and has little concern for character or motive; he writes in a popular manner, which is sometimes vulgar and occasionally obscene.
Among Beer's outlandish pseudonyms were Wolfgang von Willenhag, Antonio Caminero, and Amando de Bratimero, and he also attributes novels to Simplicius (the character created by Grimmelshausen) and to Expertus Robertus from Moscherosch's Philander von Sittewalt. These attributions disguised his identity until the 20th c. His authorship was detected by R. Alewyn in 1932. His autobiography was discovered even more recently and was published in 1965 as Johann Beer. Sein Leben von ihm selbst erzählt by A. Schmiedecke with a preface by R. Alewyn.
