The savages of Nuremberg and their lament in the press of 1545

Abstract

This article discusses the representation of a family of savages in a pamphlet titled “Lament of the Wild Forest Folk over the Perfidious World” (Nuremberg, 1545). Based upon iconographical and textual sources, from which Hans Schäufelein’s woodcut and Hans Sachs’s poem derive, the article explores specific meanings of savagery before its modern opposition to the notion of civilization. It dwells upon the specular function of the savages, i.e., their condition as indigenous Germans, who chose to become a wild folk. It argues that the German savages not only refashion classical primitivism, but also convey Protestant demands. The radicalness of the social critique they embody and articulate bears upon the emergence of “free ideal spaces” within an incipient public sphere in Protestant Germany.