Schildbürger
Comic tales of a make-believe German town where everyone is a fool
A cycle of comic tales from the German-speaking world about Schilda, a town of fools that exists only in the stories. The oldest surviving printing, from 1597, called the place Lalenburg; a second edition a year later gave the townsfolk the name they still carry.
Schildbürger is the name given to the people of Schilda, a town that exists only in stories and is peopled by fools. Their muddled decisions fill short comic tales, the Schildbürgerstreiche, which were gathered into chapbooks from the late sixteenth century onward and are still among the best known prankster tales in German.
What it is
The Schildbürger are the townsfolk of Schilda, a place that exists only in fiction and whose inhabitants are fools. Jokes about them were told in German Volksbücher, the cheap chapbooks sold to ordinary readers. The separate stories are called Schildbürgerstreiche, which can be rendered as pranks of the people of Schilda. Together with the tales of Till Eulenspiegel, this is the most familiar collection of prankster material in German writing. In English, a like body of jokes grew up around the Wise Men of Gotham.
The first editions
The oldest printing anyone knows of came from Strasbourg in 1597 and carried the title Lalenbuch. In that version the town was Lalenburg, sometimes written Laleburg, and its people were the Lalen. A second printing in 1598 made the change to Die Schiltbürger, and that is the name that lasted. No name appears for whoever assembled the collection; the first edition came out anonymously, and its title page offers part of the alphabet in the place where an author would be named. Friedrich von Schönberg, born at Schildau in 1543 and dead in 1614, is one of the people suggested as its compiler.
Earlier sources
The people who put the chapbooks together drew on comic writing that was already in circulation. Among the works used are the Rollwagenbüchlein of Jörg Wickram, printed in 1555, the Gartengesellschaft of Jacob Frey from 1557, and Katzipori by Michael Lindener, from 1558. Two further titles belong here: the Nachtbüchlein of Valentin Schuhmann, which appeared in 1559, and the Zimmern Chronicle of 1566. Out of this material the jokes about the foolish town were shaped. A related or derived publication, Grillenvertreiber, followed in 1603.
Later retellings
Later writers kept returning to Schilda. In 1823 Julius von Voss made the material into a comic novel, Die Schildbürger: ein komischer Roman. Reference works of a much later date took an interest too: the 2010 Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle includes a fictitious entry about a supposed chronicle of the town's people, the Chronica sive Historia de populo Schildorum. That entry describes a book that is supposed rather than real, which suits a set of stories about a town that never existed. Beyond these, the tales survive chiefly in the chapbooks themselves.
Similar cycles
The Schildbürger are often met in the company of other foolish communities. The Wise Men of Gotham in English, the Wise Men of Chełm and the Molbo stories are counted as cousins of a kind, and Till Eulenspiegel, the wandering prankster, is named as the other great figure of German comic storytelling. Schilda is not a real place; it shares a name with a real town but is not that town. Anyone who wants the printed tales will find them in the chapbook editions that begin in 1597.
When and where
The tales belong to German-speaking lands, where chapbooks carried them to a wide readership. The earliest known printing came from Strasbourg. The town in the stories, Schilda, is invented, and it is not the real town of that name. One suggested author, Friedrich von Schönberg, came from Schildau.
What Schildbürger means
For readers of German humour, the Schildbürger stand for the comedy of bad decisions taken with great confidence. The jokes work because the townspeople act together, as a community, and get things wrong. The collection ranks with the tales of Till Eulenspiegel as the best known of its prankster kind in German letters, and later writers kept coming back to it, among them Julius von Voss, whose comic novel of 1823 borrows the name.
Questions people ask about Schildbürger
What are the Schildbürger?
They are the people of Schilda, a town invented for jokes and peopled entirely by fools. Stories about their mishaps, known as Schildbürgerstreiche, sit in the German chapbook tradition and rank among the best known prankster tales in German literature.
When did they first appear in print?
The earliest known edition came out in Strasbourg in 1597 under the title Lalenbuch. Its town was called Lalenburg, sometimes Laleburg, and its people Lalen. The second edition, in 1598, renamed them Die Schiltbürger.
Who put the collection together?
Nobody knows. The first edition was printed anonymously, and its title page gives part of the alphabet in place of an author's name. Friedrich von Schönberg, a native of Schildau who lived from 1543 to 1614, is among those suggested as a possible compiler.
Where are these tales kept?
They were carried through German-speaking lands in cheap chapbooks, with the earliest known printing from Strasbourg. Comparable cycles of jokes are found elsewhere, and the Wise Men of Gotham, the Wise Men of Chełm and the Molbo stories are named alongside them.
See also
MolybdomancyPouring molten lead or tin into water, then reading the shape as an omen
Need-fireA ritual fire kindled by friction to ward off cattle plague, disease and harm
TurońA shaggy horned beast led from house to house by carol singers at carnival time
Fairy-locksA folk belief that fairies and spirits tangle the hair of sleeping children and animals.Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Schildbürger", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.
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