Fastnachtsspiel

Fastnachtsspiel

Carnival or Shrovetide play that emerged in the 15th century as the first truly secular drama of pre-Reformation Germany. Usually performed on open-air platform stages by amateur actors, students, and artisans, the plays mixed popular comic and religious elements, reflecting the tastes of their predominantly bourgeois audiences. They often contained satirical attacks on greedy clergymen and other traditional dislikes of German burghers and are believed to have been influenced by pre-Christian folk traditions.

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Fastnachtsspiel 

a type of German folk play related to the medieval farce. The Fastnachtsspiel evolved from Shrovetide or carnival presentations and originally depicted scenes, often humorous, from everyday life. Between the 14th and 16th centuries it developed as a literary genre, extending its thematic range with the inclusion of subject matter from chivalric romance and other sources. It reached its highest level of development in Nuremberg, where many Fastnachtsspiele were written by the meister-singers. H. Sachs produced the finest examples in this genre.