 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (September 2024)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
TheSchildbürger ("residents of Schilda") are residents of Schilda, a fictional (not the actualSchilda) Germantown of fools, a butt of jokes in GermanVolksbuch (chapbook) tradition corresponding to theWise Men of Gotham in English-language tradition.
The "people of Schilda", of a Germantown of fools named "Schilda" (fictitious – not the actual town ofSchilda), figure in short tales, known asSchildbürgerstreiche ("pranks of the citizens of Schilda"). AlongsideTill Eulenspiegel, theSchildbürger chapbooks are the best-known collection of theprankster type in German literary tradition.
The oldest known edition was printed inStrasbourg in 1597 under the title ofLalenbuch. Here, the town was known as Lalenburg (Laleburg) and its inhabitantsLalen.[1][2] The second edition, printed in 1598, changed this toDie Schiltbürger.
The author of the original collection is unknown. One of the suggested possible authors isFriedrich von Schönberg (1543–1614), a native ofSchildau.
The first edition was printed anonymously; the title page gives the "author's name" as a subset of the full alphabet.[a]
Sources used includeRollwagenbüchlein byJörg Wickram (1555),Gartengesellschaft by Jacob Frey (1557) andKatzipori byMichael Lindener (1558),Nachtbüchlein byValentin Schuhmann (1559) and theZimmern Chronicle (1566).[3] A related or derived publication isGrillenvertreiber (1603).
The 2010Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains afictitious entry about a supposedChronica sive Historia de populo Schildorum.
Julius von Voss wrote a comical novelDie Schildbürger: ein komischer Roman (1823).