The Early Modern Period is considered a time of upheaval and new
beginnings; the memory of the past and the preoccupation with history in
this period therefore offer an exciting object of investigation. On that
basis can be analysed whether the past is actually perceived as
something to be overcome for this 'modern period', how history is retold
and also instrumentalised. Three works from the 16th century, each
combining history and stories in its own way, will be examined: the
Historia of Friedrich Barbarossa (first print 1519), the Barbarossa Vita
by Johannes Adelphus Muling (first print 1520) and the didactic poem
Thedel von Wallmoden by Georg Thym (first print 1558). The analysis
shows that in various genre and creation contexts, depending on the
particular present, literary sources and texts, historical persons and
events are assembled, synchronized and classified as 'true', either
consciously or unconsciously neglecting the chronological truth of
facts. One aim of this is to construct a glorious past for a family
(Thedel von Wallmoden) or for a 'national' group (Barbarossa) or to
instrumentalise the history thus constructed didactically, whereby the
relationship between 'fact' and 'fiction' is quite different in each
case. The High Middle Ages (12th century), which are stylised as a kind
of Golden Age, are used in this context. Thus, in the 16th century, the
past - the Middle Ages - is not conceived as a closed 'pre-time', but
the present is understood as a linear continuation of the past; the
authors do not pursue medievalism in the contemporary sense. The
mythogenetic process (P. Burke) - the detachment of the narrative from
history - has in some cases already progressed so far that 'memory
implants' (J. Fried) are also created, i.e. the narratives of events not
actually having happened, but which find their way into history, are
integrated and perceived as 'true' in historiography. A central part of
the postdoctoral thesis are the new critical editions of the Historia of
Friedrich Barbarossa and Georg Thyms Thedel von Wallmoden, which after
the editions of the 19th century are thus made accessible for the first
time, taking into account all the surviving printed works.
