500th birthday of Ulrich of Hutten - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1988

Ulrich von Hutten celebrates his 500th birthday On the occasion of the 500th birthday of Ulrichs von Hutten, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues a multi-colored special postage stamp block. No special first day cover letter Ulrich von Hutten In 1988, Ulrich von Hutten honored a great historical figure from the time of the early bourgeois revolution in the German Democratic Republic on the occasion of his 500th birthday. In the past, numerous works have been published in many countries about this most important branch of the von Hutten. Nevertheless, there are still research gaps, his life is overgrown with legends. In the effort to open up the historical legacy, the Marxist literature and history of the GDR has been concerned for some years with the life and work of Ulrich von Hutten, one of the most important representatives of humanism. His life is a reflection of that time on the threshold of a new social formation. Born on April 21, 1488 at the castle Steckelberg near the Hessian town of Schlüchtern, his educational career took him from the Fulda convent school via the various universities of Germany to Italy. In Erfurt he first came into contact with the new intellectual current of humanism, got to know the world and human image of renaissance humanism based on knowledge and reason. In Frankfurt (Oder), where he passed his Baccalaureate exam on September 14, 1506, he heard from his teacher Aesticampianus Tacitus, and subsequently became thoroughly acquainted with the sources of humanism. 1511 studied Hutten in Pavia and then in Bologna. Lack of funds finally took him to the army of Emperor Maximilian in northern Italy. Hutten had previously written a number of literary works, the verses of the "Vir bonus," describing the qualities of a man striving for truth and righteousness, his "De arte, versificatoria" (Introduction to the Rules of Ancient Verses) and the like , a. His experiences in Italy, 1515/17 led him the way there again, inspired him to various epigrams to Emperor Maximilian. With that he found political statement. His further insights from the court Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, his contacts with the papal legates u. a. let these become more and more clear. His complaints with the statement for the Emperor were directed against the decay of the empire, the preservation of its external independence, especially against the papal power in Rome. Until the end of his life, the "poet of knightly sex", distinguished by the emperor with the poetry wreath, defended his views. As a kind of motto was the saying "jacta est alea", freely translated by him - "I dared." Ulrich von Hutten, who was in contact with Erasmus of Rotterdam, Willibald Pirckheimer and other important humanists of his time, was one of the most politically prominent The writer of the anti-papal curia dialogue "Vadiscus", "Arminius", the co-author of the "Obscure Letters", died in 1523, probably on August 29, on the island Ufenau near Zurich.