The "Silver Star", a famous inn,
and the "Simplizissimus"
More famous people live in the Black Foresest than you might think. Especially poets and painters felt at home in this region.
For example Johann Peter Hebel, a poet and a person that drew up a calendar, lived in Hausen 200 years ago We still enjoy reading histories. Every year his anniversary is celebrated with a meal called the "Hebel Mähli" (12 of the oldest inhabitants of the village get a free meal). You find more information on J.P.Hebel in the chapter: "The poet and calendar maker".
Or there is Hans Thoma, the famous painter, who was born in Bernau. The people of this village have dedicated a museum to him. Gut memorials of great thinkers which give information on their lives are rarely to be found in the Black Forest. Yet there is one and this memorial is an inn!
A famous innkeeper with the name Hans Jakob Schristoffel von Grimmelshausen, in Gaisbach which today belongs to Oberkirch wrote a famous foob with the title "Simplizissimus", the most important piece of Baroque literature. His inn "the Silver Star" has existed for more than 300 years and has hardly changed. It is open every day and its innkeeper still profits from his famous forerunner.
"Well, I must say that many people come to see where Grimmelshausen lived or where he wrote his book, the "Simplizissimus". Especially in modern times people have shown increased interest. Scholars are of the opinion that the largest part of the book was written in Gaisbach, during the time when Grimmelshausen was an innkeeper. He didn‘t have many customers, because only 40 people lived in Gaisbach at that hime, so he had time to write.
"The adventurous simplizissimus" is one of the most interesting books on the "Thirty Years‘ War", as the author experienced the whole war. He was born in 1621 or perhaps 1622, three years after the war had begun, in a forest region called the "Spessart". He moved to the "Upperrhine region" where he served the emperor as a musketeer. Then in 1639 he worked as a secretary for Hans Reinhard von Schauenburg, who was in charge of the defence of the town of Offenburg.
After the war he returned to Offenburg, got married and became an administrator in Oberkirch-Gaisbach (where you can still find the ruins of the castle Schauenburg) in the service of Hans Reinhard von Schauenburg. He reconstructed the devastated system of agriculture, drew up contracts, collected dues and settled disputes.
After ten years he found employment as an administrator for the physician Dr Johannes Küffer, who needed a supervisor for his castle Ullenburg (whose ruins can still be found in Oberkirch, in the part of the town call "Tiergarten"). After that he took up writing.
> Why exactly the Black Forest?
> Partly sophisticated partly informal
> A watermill and a ski lift
> Clear sounds in the Black Forest
> Also setting the trend in jazz
> The "Silver Star", a famous inn, and the "Simplizissimus"
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