Johann Gottfried Schnabel

Schnabel, Johann Gottfried (Sandersdorf nr. Bitterfeld, 1692-c.1752?, Stollberg?), was orphaned early and, after some medical study, led a restless life. He served as a surgeon in the army of Prince Eugen during the War of the Spanish Succession (1708-12), and was later in the service of the Counts of Stollberg as surgeon and press officer. From 1731 to 1741 he edited an official newspaper, Stollbergische Sammlung neuer und merkwürdiger Weltgeschichte. From 1744 nothing certain is known of his whereabouts, though he appears to have lived until the early 1750s.

Schnabel's principal work is a novel in four parts in the tradition descending from Robinson Crusoe (see Robinsonade); its long descriptive title covering the title-page opens with Wunderliche Fata einiger See-Fahrer, absonderlich Alberti Julii, eines gebohrnen Sachsens, Welcher in seinem 18den Jahre zu Schiffe gegangen (1731-43), but the work, comprising some 2, 300 pages, has long been known as Die Insel Felsenburg. It has been published in abridged and revised versions several times (complete repr., ed. E. Weber, 1973). Der im Irrgarten der Liebe herumtaumelnde Cavalier is an erotic novel of picaresque character (1738, ed. P. Ernst, 1907, and H. Mayer, 1968). Both these works were pseudonymously published under the name of Gisander. For the Lebensgeschichte Prinz Eugens (1736) Schnabel is said to have drawn extensively on his own diary. In 1750 appeared Der aus dem Mond gefallene und nachher zur Sonne des Glücks gestiegene Prinz.

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Schnabel, Johann Gottfried (yō'hän gôt'frēt shnä'bəl), b. 1692, d. after 1742, German author, whose pseudonym was Gisander. He fought in the War of the Spanish Succession. Schnabel's popular novel Die Insel Felsenburg [Felsenburg island] (4 vol., 1741-43) was modeled on Robinson Crusoe but was primarily concerned with utopian ideals.