Georg (orJörg)Wickram (c.1505 – before 1562) was a Germanpoet andnovelist.
Wickram was born atColmar inAlsace; the exact date of his birth and death are unknown. He founded aMeistersinger school in Colmar in 1549, and has left a number of Meistersingerlieder. He passed the latter part of his life until his death as the town clerk ofBurkheim on the Rhine.[1]
Wickram was a many-sided writer. He editedAlbrecht von Halberstadt'sMiddle High German version ofOvid'sMetamorphoses (1545), and in 1555 he publishedDas Rollwagenbuchlein, one of the best of the many German collections of tales and anecdotes that appeared in the 16th century. The title of the book implies its object, namely, to supply reading for the traveller in the "Rollwagen" or diligences.[2]
As a dramatist, Wickram wroteFastnachtsspiele (Das Narrengiessen, 1537;Der treue Eckart, 1538) and two dramas on biblical subjects,Der verlorene Sohn (1540) andTobias (1551). A moralizing poem,Der irrereitende Pilger (1556), is half-satiric, half-didactic.[3]
It is, however, as a novelist that Wickram has left the deepest mark on his time, his chief romances beingRitter Galmy aus Schottland (1539),Gabriotto und Reinhard (1554),Der Knabenspiegel (1554),Von guten und bösen Nachbarn (1556) andDer Goldfaden (1557). These may be regarded as the earliest attempts in German literature to create that modern type of middle-class fiction which ultimately took the place of the decadent medievalchivalric romance.[3]
Wickram's works have been edited by:
See A Stober,J Wickram (1866);Wilhelm Scherer,Die Anfange des deutschen Prosaromans (1897).[3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wickram, Jörg".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 619–620.
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