Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books Transcriber's notes: 1. Page scan source: Google Books http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA315&dq=editions:52ZfIxnPQ6cC&id=52Zf IxnPQ6cC 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE IN THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. * * * * * VOL. I. PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE In the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries. BY GUSTAV FREYTAG Translated from the Original by MRS. MALCOLM. _COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES_. VOL. I. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1862. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The great interest which these graphic Pictures of Life in Germany have created in that country, has induced me to translate them. The object of the distinguished author seems to have been, to convey a lesson, a warning, and at the same time an encouragement to his countrymen, derived from the experience of the past; whilst he demonstrates to other nations how it is, that a people so superior in intellectual power, has remained so far behind in social and political development. I have also felt as an additional reason, that at the present moment, the British public must take a deep interest in everything connected with the past, and future, of the country in which the daughter of our beloved Queen has cast her lot, and which was the Fatherland of the revered Prince, who has been a source of blessing to England for so many years, and whose irreparable loss we now so deeply deplore. GEORGIANA MALCOLM. CONTENTS. FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. Introduction.--Life of a German proprietor, 300, 200, and 100 years ago--In what respect the life of the past appears alien to us--Greater repression of the individual mind--Significance of the last four centuries CHAPTER I. Scenes From The Hussite War (1425)--Emigration of Germans to the east after the thirteenth century--Silesia and its Sclave Princes--Colonization, the blessing of free labour recognized-- Character and fate of the German Silesians--Contrast of the Bohemians--Narrative by Martin von Bolkenhain--Consequences of the Hussite war and subsequent fate of the Silesians CHAPTER II.