Volksbuch

Volksbuch, term applied to popular literature in prose narrative form, either continuous or in separate episodes. The heyday of Volksbücher is the 16th c., when they multiplied rapidly as printing-presses proliferated; they continued to be printed well into the 18th c. Their subject-matter came from a variety of sources, among which French and German verse romances of the 13th c. and 14th c. are conspicuous.

Among Volksbücher derived from the former are Fierabras, Kaiser Octavianus, Olivier und Artus, and Von den vier Haimonskindern (see Haimonskinder, Die). Among German epics adapted are Herzog Ernst, Gregorius, Tristrant und Isalde (Eilhart von Oberge's form), Willehalm, and Wigalois (see Wirnt von Grafenburg). Shorter French and Italian works form the basis of Die schöne Magelone, Die schöne Melusine, and Griselda and of the Volksbuch von der Pfalzgräfin Genoveva (1647). The source of Fortunatus is unknown, and the Volksbuch of Dr. Faust (see Faustbuch, Spiess'sches) brings new material. Von dem gehörnten Siegfried, based on Der hürnen Seyfrid, was first printed as late as 1726. Animal stories such as Reineke Fuchs (see Reinke de vos and Neidhart Fuchs) were popular; and so, too, were collections of Schwänke (see Schwank) such as Till Eulenspiegel and those concerned with Claus Narr (see Bütner, W.).

The stories of Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken and Eleonore von Österreich, both writing in the 15th c., are on a somewhat higher level and are usually designated Prosaromane.

The term Volksbuch was coined by J. J. Görres, who published in 1807 Die teutschen Volksbücher. The Romantics, especially Tieck (e.g. in Kaiser Octavianus), attempted to give a new life to Volksbücher, and they were, for a time, regarded as a valuable expression of ‘deutscher Volksgeist’. Gustav Schwab (1836) and Karl Simrock (1839) retold the stories for the public of the post-Romantic era. In reality Volksbücher, which are not all anonymous (e.g. Warbeck's Die schöne Magelone or Stainhöwel's Grisardis), represent a degenerate form of literature, expressed in the German phrase ‘gesunkenes Kulturgut’. They were an attempt to satisfy the hunger of a new public, eager to read, but without knowledge or taste. An example is the collection Das Buch der Liebe by S. Feyerabend (1578, ed. P. Ernst 1911). An extensive collection of Volksbücher was published by R. Benz (Die deutschen Volksbücher, 6 vols.) in 1911-24 (reissued 1956). The series Deutsche Volksbücher in Faksimiledrucken, ed. L. E. Schmitt and R. Noll-Wiemann, began to appear in 1975; J.-D. Müller edited Romane des 16. Jahrhunderts, 1989.