GHDI logo

Documents - Part I: Section A – Eyewitnesses
1-7 of 7 documents    return to chapter list   |   next >  
1.   A Brave Woman Steals the Royal Crown – Helene Kottannerin (c. 1400-after 1458)
Helene Kottannerin (c. 1400-after 1458) composed what is possibly the earliest known autobiographical text written in German by a woman. The daughter of a lesser nobleman, she was probably born in....
2.   The Rise of a Burgher – Burkard Zink (1397-1474/75)
Born in Memmingen, Burkard Zink (1397-1474/75) spent most of his adult life in Augsburg as a man....
3.   Lineage, War, Family – Michel von Ehenheim (1462/63-1518)
Michel von Ehenheim came from a large family of Franconian Imperial knights who had long served the margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach. His work, not an autobiography in the modern sense but rather....
4.   A Nobleman Lives for War, Plunder, and Adventure – Götz von Berlichingen (1480-1562)
Götz (= Gottfried) von Berlichingen zu Hornberg (ca. 1480-1562), called “the Knight with the Iron....
5.   A Nobleman Transformed by Education and Travel – Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)
Perhaps the most famously atypical Imperial knight of his generation, Ulrich von Hutten attended....
6.   From Alpine Goatherd to Teacher of Greek – Thomas Platter (1499-1582)
Thomas Platter’s (1499-1582) account of his life is one of the most famous autobiographical documents....
7.   A Swabian Cobbler-Farmer Survives the Thirty Years War – Hans Heberle (1597-1677)
Hans Heberle (1597-1677) had attended school before starting an apprenticeship at the age of fourteen. A cobbler by trade, he worked a small farm a few kilometers north of Ulm. His Zeytregister,....
1-7 of 7 documents      |   next >