Johann Michael Moscherosch
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Johann Michael Moscherosch (7 March 1601 – 4 April 1669), German statesman, satirist, and educator, was born at
Willstätt Willstätt () is a town in the district of Ortenau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, with a population of 9,787 as at December 31, 2017. It is around east of Strasbourg's city centre. Demographics History Medieval The earliest known mentio ...
, on the Upper
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
near
Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
. His bitterly brilliant but partisan writings graphically describe life in a Germany ravaged by the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
(1618–48). His
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
s, which at times are tedious, also show an overwhelming moral zeal added to a sense of mission.


Life

Moscherosch was the son of farmer and
bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...
Michael Moscherosch and his wife Veronika Beck. He grew up on his parents' farm in Willstätt in the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg, Germany. At the age of 11 he attended high school in Strassburg (now in France) and then studied law, philosophy and literature at the
University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...
. We owe the only eyewitness account of the theatrical performances of Caspar Brülow to his diary. In September 1623 Moscherosch defended his dissertation on Suetonius' ''The Twelve Caesars'' diatribe XV before a committee chaired by
Matthias Bernegger Matthias Bernegger (, also ''Matthew'';Jerzy Dobrzycki: ''The reception of Copernicus' heliocentric theory'', International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. Nicolas Copernicus Committe/ref> born 8 February 1582 in Hallstatt, Salzkamm ...
. Following his award of the degree of '' Magister'' on 8 April 1624 he enrolled at the
University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
in Switzerland. After completing his studies Moscherosch first took educational trips to France and Switzerland, and then worked as a private tutor. From 1631 to 1634 he was one of the bailiffs of the Lutheran branch of the Counts of
Kriechingen The County of Kriechingen was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was originally a part of the Duchy of Lorraine and was raised to an imperial estate in 1617. It belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle. In 1697, Kriechingen was inherited by the Pri ...
(today Créhange in France) and in the same capacity in the half of Saarwellingen belonging to Kriechingen. In 1636 the Pomeranian Duke of Croy-Arschot appointed him steward of his interest in the divided lordship of Finstingen (today Fénétrange), not far from Kriechingen. In this position, which he held until 1642, Moscherosch had to defend the rights of his employer in a confined space against the bailiffs of the other five lords. After his activities in the
Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...
border region Moscherosch fled the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War to
Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
where he was chief of police and tax collector from 1645 to 1655. He also studied the medieval
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
s of the city's library, such as Gottfried von Hagenau's ''Liber sex festorum beatae Virginis''. From 1656 he served as a legal adviser to Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Due to financial mismanagement the relatives of the Count, in particular the guardians of his nephew and successor,
Christian II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld Christian II (22 June 1637 – 26 April 1717) was the Duke of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler from 1654, the Duke of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld from 1671, and the Count of Rappoltstein from 1673 until 1699. Life Christian was born in Bischwiller in 1637 ...
and Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Pfalz-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler, obtained from the Kaiser sequestration of the county and a guaranteed right to share in the government in the county. The advisers to the Count including Moscherosch were dismissed. He next entered the service of the
Elector of Mainz The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archb ...
, and in 1664 he moved to
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
to the court of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. On 9 September 1628 Moscherosch married Esther Ackermann, who died in December 1632 during the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War. On 20 August 1633 he married his second wife, Maria Barbara Paniel, who died of plague on 6 November 1634, aged barely twenty. On 4 October 1636 he married his third wife Anna Maria Kilburger. From these three marriages he had fourteen children, of whom many did not survive infancy. Moscherosch died in
Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...
of a "high fever" on 4 April 1669 on his way to visit his son Ernst Bogislav in
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
. Moscherosch's life encompasses the entire Thirty Years' War whose cruelties and excesses are reflected in detail in his work.


Work

Moscherosch published essays, poems and short stories in Latin and German under the
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
''Philander von Sittewald''—"Sittewald" is a play on the name of his birthplace, Willstaett. The ''Aufrichtige Tannengesellschaft''—a German Language society founded in 1633 in Strassburg by Jesaias Rompler and Johannes Freinsheim—counted Moscherosch along with Johann Matthias Schneuber among its most eminent members. In 1645 Prince Ludwig I of
Anhalt-Köthen Anhalt-Köthen was a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the House of Ascania. It was created in 1396 when the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst was partitioned between Anhalt-Dessau and Anhalt-Köthen. T ...
awarded him membership in the ''
Fruitbearing Society The Fruitbearing Society (German Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, lat. ''Societas Fructifera'') was a German literary society founded in 1617 in Weimar by German scholars and nobility. Its aim was to standardize vernacular German and promote it ...
'', a prestigious German literary society. The society assigned him the nickname "The Dreaming" (''der Träumende'') and the motto "high things" (''hohe Sachen ''). His emblem was the nightshade (
Solanum nigrum ''Solanum nigrum'', the European black nightshade or simply black nightshade or blackberry nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. Ripe ...
). In the annals of the society Moscherosch is entry number 436. Moscherosch's most famous work is ''Wunderliche und Wahrhafftige Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald'' (Wondrous and True Visions of Philander von Sittewald), a collection of fourteen satirical narratives published from 1640, an adaptation of the Spanish book '' Los Sueños'' by
Francisco de Quevedo Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Order of Santiago, Knight of the Order of Santiago (; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, ...
. One of the stories, ''Soldatenleben'' (Military Life), was republished in 1996. Moscherosch appears in the 1979 fictional story The Meeting at Telgte (''Das Treffen in Telgte'') by
Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...
.


References


External links


Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald
at archive.org. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moscherosch, Johann Michael 1601 births 1669 deaths German satirists Writers from Strasbourg German male non-fiction writers German-language poets German male poets