Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/picturesgermanl04freygoog 2. Diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES. SECOND SERIES. * * * * * VOL. I. PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE In the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries. Second Series. BY GUSTAV FREYTAG. Translated from the Original by MRS. MALCOLM. _COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES_. VOL. I. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1863. LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. CONTENTS. SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. Introduction.--The nation and the individual--Aim of the book--Peculiarities in the development of the German people since the Thirty Years' War CHAPTER I. Life of the German Peasant (1240-1790).--The duration of modern nations--German agriculture in the time of the Romans, the Carlovingians, and the Hohenstauffen--Description of the peasants by Neidhart von Reuenthal--Narrative of young Helmbrecht, by Wernher the Gardener--The fifteenth century--The Peasant War--Eberlin von Guenzburg--Condition of the peasants after the war; their service and burdens; their different condition according to districts, and deterioration by oppression--First signs of improvement--Description of the German peasant by Christian Garve--Insurrection of the peasantry in 1790, and their present position CHAPTER II. The Life of the Lower Nobility (1500-1800).--The country nobles in the sixteenth century--The court nobles--The detrimental effects of the Great War--Description of a wealthy nobleman from 1650-1700--Patents of nobility--Description of the life of the newly-ennobled merchants from 1650-1700--The country nobles and Krippenreiters from 1660-1700--Description of the same from "The Nobleman," by Paul Winckler--Better condition after 1700--Privileges of the nobles--Introduction of a new culture--Gellert--Union of the nobles with the citizens CHAPTER III.