Chapter I: Front Matter

VOL. I.

PICTURES

OF

GERMAN LIFE

In the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries.

Second Series.

BY
GUSTAV FREYTAG.

Translated from the Original by
MRS. MALCOLM.

_COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES_.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY.
1863.

LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTENTS.

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

Introduction.--The nation and the individual--Aim of the book--Peculiarities in the development of the German people since the Thirty Years' War

CHAPTER I.

Life of the German Peasant (1240-1790).--The duration of modern nations--German agriculture in the time of the Romans, the Carlovingians, and the Hohenstauffen--Description of the peasants by Neidhart von Reuenthal--Narrative of young Helmbrecht, by Wernher the Gardener--The fifteenth century--The Peasant War--Eberlin von Guenzburg--Condition of the peasants after the war; their service and burdens; their different condition according to districts, and deterioration by oppression--First signs of improvement--Description of the German peasant by Christian Garve--Insurrection of the peasantry in 1790, and their present position

CHAPTER II.

The Life of the Lower Nobility (1500-1800).--The country nobles in the sixteenth century--The court nobles--The detrimental effects of the Great War--Description of a wealthy nobleman from 1650-1700--Patents of nobility--Description of the life of the newly-ennobled merchants from 1650-1700--The country nobles and Krippenreiters from 1660-1700--Description of the same from "The Nobleman," by Paul Winckler--Better condition after 1700--Privileges of the nobles--Introduction of a new culture--Gellert--Union of the nobles with the citizens

CHAPTER III.

The German Citizen and his Shooting Festivals (1300-1800).-Gradual development of the citizen class--Decline after the Thirty Years' War--The prize shooting as an example of their former wealth and importance--May feasts of the old citizens--Prize shooting before 1400--Preparations for the festival--The Pritschmeister and procession--Prizes and fortune's urn--Hospitality, and conclusion of the festival--Zurich and Strasbourg--Differences of the festivals according to districts--Their decline--Description of the Breslau "Koenigschiessens" of 1738, by Kundmann

CHAPTER IV.

The State Policy and the Individual (1600-1700).--The dissolution of the German Empire--The Prince's parties--The despotic official administration--The statesmen after the war--The insecurity of the subject; its influence on the character--Characteristics of the State system in a flying sheet of 1678--Tendencies up to 1740

CHAPTER V.

The "Stillen im Lande," or Pietists (1600-1700).--Tendencies of Protestantism till 1618--Consequences of the war--The older Pietism--Spener--Hatred of worldly pleasures--The women--Self-contemplation and social intercourse--Good effects on morals--The revival--Characters of Petersen and his wife--Narrative of Johanna Eleonora Petersen--Narrative of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen--Fate of this couple, and their revelations--The later Pietism and its aberrations--Opposition--Lamentations of the student, Ernst Johann Semler--Progress of the people through Pietism

CHAPTER VI.

The Dawning of Light (1750).--Changes in the human mind from the invention of printing--Mathematical discipline and natural science--Law--Philosophy and its position with respect to theology--The leaders--Change of literature by Wolf and his disciples--Description of a German city about 1760, its police and artisans--The gentry--Merchants and their commerce--Ecclesiastics, teachers, and schools--Post and travelling--Dress and manners--Sentimentality, tears, and self-contemplation--Marriage a business matter--Women and house duties--Narrative of Johann Salomo Semler--Letter from a bride to her bridegroom in the year 1750

PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.

Second Series.