The "people of Schilda", of a German
town of fools named "Schilda" (fictitious – not the actual town of
Schilda), figure in short tales, known as
Schildbürgerstreiche ("pranks of the citizens of Schilda"). Alongside
Till Eulenspiegel, the
Schildbürger chapbooks are the best-known collection of the
prankster type in German literary tradition. The oldest known edition was printed in
Strasbourg in 1597 under the title of
Lalenbuch. Here, the town was known as Lalenburg (Laleburg) and its inhabitants
Lalen. The second edition, printed in 1598, changed this to
Die Schiltbürger. The author of the original collection is unknown. One of the suggested possible authors is
Friedrich von Schönberg (1543–1614), a native of
Schildau. The first edition was printed anonymously; the title page gives the "author's name" as a subset of the full alphabet. Sources used include
Rollwagenbüchlein by
Jörg Wickram (1555),
Gartengesellschaft by Jacob Frey (1557) and
Katzipori by
Michael Lindener (1558),
Nachtbüchlein by
Valentin Schuhmann (1559) and the
Zimmern Chronicle (1566). A related or derived publication is
Grillenvertreiber (1603). The 2010
Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains a
fictitious entry about a supposed
Chronica sive Historia de populo Schildorum.
Julius von Voss wrote a comical novel
Die Schildbürger: ein komischer Roman (1823). ==See also==