This German commemorative has an unusual design which I thought would be informational to describe the back-story to it. The coin depicts the preface to a book written by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621/22). Born in Geinhausen, County of Hanau of the Holy Roman Empire. At the age of ten he was kidnapped by Croatian soldiers, and in their midst experienced military life in the Thirty Yea's War. In 1639 he became a regular soldier in The Imperial Army. In the year 1644 he worked as a writer in a regiment's chancellery—from that year on documents by Hans Jakob Christoffel exist. At the close of the war, Grimmelshausen entered the service of the Bishop of Strasbourg. In 1665, he was made magistrate at Renchen in Baden. On obtaining this appointment, he devoted himself to literary pursuits. Grimmelshausen's work is greatly influenced by previous Utopian literature, and the Simplicissimus series attained a readership larger than any other seventeenth-century novel. In 1668, Grimmelshausen published Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, which has been called the greatest German novel of the 17th century. For this work he took as his model the picaresque romances of Spain, already to some extent known in Germany. He begins with the childhood of his hero, and describes the latter's adventures amid the stirring scenes of the Thirty Years War. The rustic detail with which these pictures are presented makes the book a valuable document of its time. He died in Renchen in 1676, where a monument was erected to him in 1879. Frontispiece of novel My Coin SIDE NOTE The central character of Le Carre's novel A Perfect Spy uses Simplicissimus as the code for his "one time pad" when transmitting info.
Fascinating back story! I love to learn about these historical little gems. Thanks for posting it! And, nice coin!
