Description
GOTZ VON BERLICHINGEN (Autobiography of a 16th century German Knight)
By Gotz von Berlichingen
Translated by Dirk Rottgardt
Size: 8.5″ x 11″
Illustrations: 5 B&W illustrations.
Pages: 75 pages
Price $25
This is the autobiography of Gotz von Berlichingen, a German knight who fought numerous battles and engaged in numerous “feuds” with various other knights and even cities. He robbed the merchants of those cities, fought in a war against the Swiss, was swept into leading a peasant revolt, and had many interesting adventures.
This work is not an easy read, despite our efforts to bring it into an up-to-date literary style. It was written in the German equivalent of Chaucer, with very long paragraphs and run-on sentences are such that your teacher would have groaned. We have kept much of the flavor of Gotz’s writing style, but have gone to major efforts to make the language far more understandable and readable. The work is heavily footnoted to allow the reader to understand some of the phrasing and terminology. It is also preceded by an explanation of the time and the nature of life at that time. This is the first English translation of this work, so it is very unique.
If you are interested in Gotz’s career from another perspective let me recommend THE PEASANT WAR OF 1524 IN GERMANY, also available on this site. The author of this work was a Frenchman and he describes how Gotz betrayed the peasants he was commanding.
