Simplicissimus

Simplicissimus

from callowness to audacity on 17th-century battlefields. [Ger. Lit.: Simplicissimus]

See: Adventurousness

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Simplicissimus

 

(Most Guileless), a German illustrated weekly journal, founded in 1896.

Simplicissimus’ approach was keenly satirical; the journal denounced imperial Germany and its aggressive foreign policy. Simplicissimus printed lampoons by F. Wedekind and works by H. Mann, K. Tucholsky, H. Hesse, A. Zweig, and A. Schnitzler. Another effective weapon utilized by the journal was its political caricatures, which were later frequently reprinted in Die Rote Fahne, the organ of the Communist Party of Germany.

Early in World War I (1914-18) Simplicissimus took a defensive position and advocated peace among classes. In 1942 the journal was closed down for printing a caricature of Hitler. An attempt to revive Simplicissimus in the Federal Republic of Germany did not succeed.

REFERENCES

Istoriia nemetskoi literatury, vol. 4. Moscow, 1968. Pages 307, 312, 313, 447,460.
Jegorov, O. “Die satirische Zeitschrift ‘Simplicissimus’: 1896-1914.” Junge Kunst, Berlin, 1960, no. 11.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.