Johann Rietsch (1778 – 10 January 1814) was a German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, writing in the

East Franconian East Franconian ( ), usually referred to as Franconian (' ) in German, is a dialect spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth, ...

dialect of his native

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. Rietsch was born in Nuremberg, and trained there as a bellmaker, which was at the time a major industry in the city. He was a younger contemporary of Konrad Grübel, and inspired by the latter to write poems in the local Nuremberg dialect as well; these were collected in the volume ''Anekdoten in Nürnberg Mundart'' ("Anecdotes in the Nuremberg Dialect", 1811), which proved popular enough to run to a second edition. He gained a general reputation locally for his intelligence and education, owing to his poetry, ability at playing the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

, and command of

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. He died young, during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

: when

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n troops were quartered in Nuremberg in 1813 on their way to

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, Rietsch caught

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

from them, and died in January 1814. His son published a posthumous third edition of his poems much later, with additional poems of his own added, as ''Gedichte in Nernberger Mundart von alten und von junga Rietsch'' ("Poems in the Nuremberg Dialect by the Elder and the Younger Rietsch", 1853).

References

Note

* ''This article, or an earlier version, contains text translated from the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), a publication now in the public domain.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rietsch, Johann 1778 births 1814 deaths 18th-century German people 19th-century German people 18th-century German poets 19th-century German poets Writers from Nuremberg Deaths from typhus in Germany German male poets 19th-century German male writers 18th-century German male writers