FISCHART, JOHANN. - Writer, b. at Mainz (?) in 1546, d. at Strasbourg in 1590. He was the most vigorous and independent German personality of the second half of the century, marked by resolute Calvinism and a bellicose attitude toward Catholicism, Jesuitism, and Lutheranism.
His vast output consists partly of poetic writings of a confessional nature (*Der Bienenkorb*, 1579; *Das Jesuitenhütlein*, 1580, etc.) and partly—where he excels—of satirical writings directed against his fellow countrymen. In these he is the jester-judge who, amid laughter and jests, speaks harsh truths.
Whether reworking in verse the popular adventures of Till Eulenspiegel (1572) or lashing out (in *Aller Praktik Großmutter*, 1572) against the prevailing corruption of sorcery, he is at his best. His fame rests chiefly on the small epic *Das glückhaft Schiff von Zürich* (1576; reprinted in Tübingen in 1828 with a preface by Uhland), but even more on the *Geschichtsklitterung* (1575), ostensibly a translation of Rabelais’ *Gargantua* but in reality sharply distinct from it, not only by the transfer of the action to Germany but also by its respect for religion and its aim, not educational but moral. His command of language is prodigious: he bends it to every purpose, almost creating a bridge to the coming Baroque.