Heinrich Wittenwiler is today regarded as the author of a major didactic-encyclopedic work entitled Der Ring [The Ring]. Contemporaries, however, obviously did not think much of it, considering that the work has survived in only one manuscript (originally Meiningen, Thuringia, formerly East Germany [No. 502, Hs. 29], today Munich, Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 9300). Modern scholarship has recognized in Der Ring a significant contribution to late medieval, perhaps already early-modern German literature in which, like in a traditional medieval Summa, much of traditional knowledge is presented in the form of a variety of teachings to a young peasant, Bertschi Triefnas, on the occasion of his marriage to a young woman, Mätzli Rüerenzumpf. Both are rather grotesque figures, as their names indicate: Bert with the Dripping Nose, and Metzli who Touches the Penis. They are foolish representatives of...
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Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Heinrich Wittenwiler". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11850, accessed 09 June 2026.]
