Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg Explained

Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg (born 3 June 1902 in Greifswald as Heinrich Adolf Ritter; died 22 June 1994 in Schaumburg) was a German scholar and writer, who developed a hypothesis about the origin of the legends about Dietrich von Bern and the Nibelungs. He postulated that Dietrich von Bern was a historic king ruling in Bonn in Germany, who was later confused with Theodoric the Great. Similarly he proposed that the legendary Etzel (also Atilla, Atli or Atala) was a historic king residing in Soest, who was later confused with Attila the Hun. His hypothesis was either ignored or rejected by most scholars in the field, but gained a relatively large amount of attention in public since 1975.

Life

Heinz Ritter grew up in Greifswald as a child, later in Posen and in Düsseldorf in Germany. He studied medicine, German studies, Hispanism and Biology, spoke seven languages and gained a PhD "Dr. phil." in German studies. He was teacher at a school at Hanover until it was closed in 1936. Thereafter he founded a residential child care community in Schaumburg, which he led until 1967.

Heinz Ritter is author of a number of books with a total edition over 100,000.[1] His most famous book was Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts, 1981.[2] With it he proposed that the Thidrekssaga is the most basal form of the Germanic heroic legends. Based on that he also proposed that Dietrich von Bern was now an unknown king ruling over Bonn at around 500 AD.

Hypothesis about the Germanic heroic legends

Despite sharing few similarities, the legendary Dietrich von Bern and the historic Theodoric the Great were treated as the same figure since the Middle Ages. The differences between both are usually explained by motifs of oral tradition. In contrast to that, Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg postulated that the Thidrekssaga is the most ancient form of the Germanic heroic legends, and that it tells from historic events of late 5th and early 6th century in northern Germany. According to his concept, those parts of the legends, which are clearly related to Theodoric the Great and Italy, are later changes in the wrong believe that Theodoric the Great and Dietrich von Bern would be the same figure.

Ritter postulates that Dietrich von Bern was originally not based on Theodoric the Great, but instead reflects the live of another nowadays unknown king who ruled at around 500 A.D. over Bonn and the neighboring area. He points out that Bonn has reportedly been called Bern during the Early and High Middle Ages.[3] [4] [5] According to the Thidrekssaga, Dietrich is driven to exile by his uncle Ermenrik residing in Rome. Dietrich seeks refuge in Susat, the capital in the kingdom called Hunaland.[6] The king of this Hunaland is called Attala, Attila, Atilius or Aktilius in the Thidrekssaga and the Swedish Didrikssagan. The figure Ermenrik is traditionally believed to originate in the Gothic king Ermanaric, who died in 376, while Attala is believed to originate in the Hunnic ruler Attila, who died in 453. Since both persons were not contemporaries of Theodoric the Great in reality, it is generally accepted that the legends about Dietrich von Bern have been transformed in such a way that both lack any historical correctness. Ritter however postulates that Attala of the Thidrekssaga was a nowadays unknown king ruling about the Hunaland at its capital Soest in Germany.[7] [8] Ritter also believes that Rome in the Thidrekssaga is not Rome in Italy, but the post-RomanTrier which was the largest city north of the Alps in the Late antiquity of High Roman culture and known as Roma secunda.[9] [10] This center of the Treveri was already suggested for Ermenrik's Rome by August W. Krahmer, who also located the battle of the Frankish but not Italian Dietrich against Ermenrik at Traben on the Moselle, certified as Travenne in the High Middle Ages.[11]

Ritter further postulated that the legendary Nibelungs (called Niflungs in the Thidrekssaga) came from the area of the Neffel, a little river in western Germany.[12] According to the Thidrekssaga, the Nibelungs crossed the Rhine on their way to Susat, "where Rhine and Duna come together". This sentence of the legend was traditionally believed to reflect just the bad geographic knowledge of the writers, since it was assumed that the Duna of the Thidrekssaga must be the Danube. Since it is known, however, that the Danube is not a tributary of the Rhine, Ritter pointed out that there is indeed a little river called Dhünn, documented as the Dune in the Middle Ages. This watercourse was once a tributary of the Rhine and later redirected into the Wupper which also flows into the Rhine.[13] Thus Ritter proposes that the Duna of the legend is the Dhünn.

Other place names mentioned in the Thidrekssaga have been traditionally located also in Germany even before Ritter’s geographical studies.[14] Among these are the Visara (Weser), the Osning (Teutoburg Forest), the Lyravald (Lürwald), Baloffa (Balve) and the Musula (Moselle) in the more central narrative region of the Thidrekssaga. The latter is mentioned as the river where the battle of Gränsport takes place.[15]

Selected works

Germanistik

Studies about Novalis:

German studies

Language

Early history of the first century:

Poetry

Erzählende Dichtung:

Epic poetry:

Poetry for children:

Poems:

Others:

References

  1. Der Berner 84 (Bonn 2020) ISSN 1610-8191, p. 15.
  2. Der Berner 84 p. 119.
  3. See, for instance, the tenth and eleventh century epsicopal records on Heriger of Lobbes and the chronicler Anselm of Liège, MGH SS 7, p. 201; see also p. 209.
  4. See (e.g.) Wilhelm Ewald: Rheinische Siegel III. Die Siegel der rheinischen Städte und Gerichte. Series: Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde XXVII. (Bonn 1931 & Düsseldorf 1993), see p. 38, Tafel 7, no. 1 with a 13th-century seal equating Verona (= "Bern") with Bonn. Inscription: SIGILLVM . ANTIQVE . VERONE . NVNC . OPIDI . BVNNENSIS.
  5. Josef Niessen: Geschichte der Stadt Bonn I. (Bonn 1956), see p. 138f. with High Medieval coinage Verona Pfennige. Inscription (reverse): BEATA VERONA VINCES.
  6. William J. Pfaff: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga (Mouton & Co., The Hague 1959), see p. 91f.: [i]n Þíðriks saga, a kingdom in northern Germany.
  7. [Ferdinand Holthausen]
  8. The Low German Annals of Quedlinburg refer to an "Attila" of fifth and sixth century, likewise the ethnographic transmission De origine gentis Swevorum reporting on the Thuringian war of Frankish king Theuderic I.
  9. See (e.g.) Marlene Kaiser: Katalog der römischen Gräber des 1. Jahrhunderts aus Trier. In: Trierer Zeitschrift, Beiheft 36, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Wiesbaden 2020), cf. p. 10: Einführung.
  10. Seal of Trier with Emperor Henry II, see reverse fig. 8. Source: Otto Posse: Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser und Könige, vol. IV, Tafel 73 of appendix referring to vol. I–III (A.D. 751–1711).
  11. August W. Krahmer: Die Urheimat der Russen in Europa und die wirkliche Localität und Bedeutung der Vorfälle in der Thidrekssaga. Moscow 1862.
  12. [Franz Mone]
  13. Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts. 2. edition. Reichl-Verlag Der Leuchter, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 (cf. p. 47).
  14. See, for instance, Franz Mone, August W. Krahmer, Ferdinand Holthausen; cf. Geographical and Ethnic Glossary mainly by William J. Paff and Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: DNB Infourn:nbn:de:0233-2019062501.
  15. Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg (editor), Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen (Translation): Die Thidrekssaga oder Didrik von Bern und die Niflungen 2 Bde. Reichl, Otto Der Leuchter; (Völlig neubearb. Aufl. d. 2. Ausg. Breslau 1855, 1. Auflage Jan. 1990). ISBN 978-3876671017.

Bibliography

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