Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen was a German author. He is best known for his 1669 picaresque novel Simplicius Simplicissimus and the accompanying Simplician Scriptures series.

Grimmelshausen was born at Gelnhausen. At the age of ten, he was kidnapped by Hessian soldiers, and in their midst experienced military life in the Thirty Years' War. In 1639, he became a regular soldier in the Imperial Army. At the latest, in the year 1644 he worked as a writer in a regiment's chancellery—from that year on documents by Hans Jakob Christoffel exist. At the close of the war, Grimmelshausen entered the service of Franz Egon von Fürstenberg, bishop of Strasbourg. In 1665, he was made magistrate at Renchen in Baden. On obtaining this appointment, he devoted himself to literary pursuits.