# Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg

Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg (born 3 June 1902 in Greifswald as Heinrich Adolf Ritter; died 22 June 1994 in Schaumburg) was a German scholar and writer, who developed a hypothesis about the origin of the legends about Dietrich von Bern and the Nibelungs. He postulated that Dietrich von Bern was a historic king ruling in Bonn in Germany, who was later confused with Theodoric the Great. Similarly he proposed that the legendary Etzel (also Atilla, Atli or Atala) was a historic king residing in Soest, who was later confused with Attila the Hun. His hypothesis was either ignored or rejected by most scholars in the field, but gained a relatively large amount of attention in public since 1975.

## Life

Heinz Ritter grew up in Greifswald as a child, later in Posen and in Düsseldorf in Germany. He studied medicine, German studies, Hispanism and Biology, spoke seven languages and gained a PhD "Dr. phil." in German studies. He was teacher at a school at Hanover until it was closed in 1936. Thereafter he founded a residential child care community in Schaumburg, which he led until 1967.
Heinz Ritter is author of a number of books with a total edition over 100,000. His most famous book was Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts, 1981. With it he proposed that the Thidrekssaga is the most basal form of the Germanic heroic legends. Based on that he also proposed that Dietrich von Bern was now an unknown king ruling over Bonn at around 500 AD.

## Hypothesis about the Germanic heroic legends

Despite sharing few similarities, the legendary Dietrich von Bern and the historic Theodoric the Great were treated as the same figure since the Middle Ages. The differences between both are usually explained by motifs of oral tradition. In contrast to that, Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg postulated that the Thidrekssaga is the most ancient form of the Germanic heroic legends, and that it tells from historic events of late 5th and early 6th century in northern Germany. According to his concept, those parts of the legends, which are clearly related to Theodoric the Great and Italy, are later changes in the wrong believe that Theodoric the Great and Dietrich von Bern would be the same figure.
Ritter postulates that Dietrich von Bern was originally not based on Theodoric the Great, but instead reflects the live of another nowadays unknown king who ruled at around 500 A.D. over Bonn and the neighboring area. He points out that Bonn has reportedly been called Bern during the Early and High Middle Ages. According to the Thidrekssaga, Dietrich is driven to exile by his uncle Ermenrik residing in Rome. Dietrich seeks refuge in Susat, the capital in the kingdom called Hunaland. The king of this Hunaland is called Attala, Attila, Atilius or Aktilius in the Thidrekssaga and the Swedish Didrikssagan. The figure Ermenrik is traditionally believed to originate in the Gothic king Ermanaric, who died in 376, while Attala is believed to originate in the Hunnic ruler Attila, who died in 453. Since both persons were not contemporaries of Theodoric the Great in reality, it is generally accepted that the legends about Dietrich von Bern have been transformed in such a way that both lack any historical correctness. Ritter however postulates that Attala of the Thidrekssaga was a nowadays unknown king ruling about the Hunaland at its capital Soest in Germany. Ritter also believes that Rome in the Thidrekssaga is not Rome in Italy, but the post-RomanTrier which was the largest city north of the Alps in the Late antiquity of High Roman culture and known as Roma secunda. This center of the Treveri was already suggested for Ermenrik's Rome by August W. Krahmer, who also located the battle of the Frankish but not Italian Dietrich against Ermenrik at Traben on the Moselle, certified as Travenne in the High Middle Ages.
Ritter further postulated that the legendary Nibelungs (called Niflungs in the Thidrekssaga) came from the area of the Neffel, a little river in western Germany. According to the Thidrekssaga, the Nibelungs crossed the Rhine on their way to Susat, "where Rhine and Duna come together". This sentence of the legend was traditionally believed to reflect just the bad geographic knowledge of the writers, since it was assumed that the Duna of the Thidrekssaga must be the Danube. Since it is known, however, that the Danube is not a tributary of the Rhine, Ritter pointed out that there is indeed a little river called Dhünn, documented as the Dune in the Middle Ages. This watercourse was once a tributary of the Rhine and later redirected into the Wupper which also flows into the Rhine. Thus Ritter proposes that the Duna of the legend is the Dhünn.
Other place names mentioned in the Thidrekssaga have been traditionally located also in Germany even before Ritter’s geographical studies. Among these are the Visara (Weser), the Osning (Teutoburg Forest), the Lyravald (Lürwald), Baloffa (Balve) and the Musula (Moselle) in the more central narrative region of the Thidrekssaga. The latter is mentioned as the river where the battle of Gränsport takes place.

## Selected works

Germanistik
    Studies about Novalis:
   * Die Datierung der ‹Hymnen an die Nacht›. In: Euphorion 52, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1958, ISSN 0012-0936, pp. 114–141.
   * Die Geistlichen Lieder des Novalis. Ihre Datierung und Entstehung. In: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Schiller-Gesellschaft 4, Wallstein, Göttingen 1960, ISSN 0070-4318, pp. 308–342.
   * Das Azzo-Fragment. Eine unbekannte Novalis-Handschrift. In: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 34, Metzler, Stuttgart 1960, ISSN 0012-0936, pp. 378–383.
   * Die Entstehung des Heinrich von Ofterdingen. In: Euphorion 55, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1961, ISSN 0014-2328, pp. 163–195.
   * Der unbekannte Novalis. Sachse & Pohl, Göttingen 1967.
   * Novalis' Hymnen an die Nacht. Ihre Deutung nach Inhalt und Aufbau auf textkritischer Grundlage. 2nd substantially expanded edition with the facsimile of the hymn manuscript, C. Winter, Heidelberg 1974, ISBN 3-533-02348-6 und ISBN 3-533-02349-4.
   * Novalis: Schriften. Die Werke Friedrich von Hardenbergs. Ed. Heinz Ritter and Gerhard Schulz, 3rd supplemented and expanded edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 978-3-17-001299-8.
   * Novalis und seine erste Braut. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87838-480-7.
   * Novalis vu par ses contemporains. Karl von Hardenberg. Trad. de l’allemand par Vincent Choisnel. Préf. de Paul-Henri Bideau. Postface de Heinz Ritter, Ed. Novalis, Montesson 1994, ISBN 2-910112-08-X.
    German studies
   * Dietrich von Bern – König zu Bonn. Herbig, München 1982, ISBN 3-7766-1227-4.
   * Die Thidrekssaga oder Didrik von Bern und die Niflungen. In der Übersetzung von Friedrich von der Hagen. Völlig neu bearb. Aufl. der 2. Ausgabe Breslau 1855. Hrsg. und mit geographischen Anmerkungen versehen von Heinz Ritter, Reichl, St. Goar 1990, ISBN 978-3-87667-101-7.
   * Sigfrid – ohne Tarnkappe. Herbig, München 1990, ISBN 978-3-7766-1652-1.
   * Die Didriks-Chronik oder die Svava. Das Leben König Didriks von Bern und die Niflungen. Erstmals vollständig aus der altschwedischen Handschrift der Thidrekssaga übersetzt und mit geographischen Anmerkungen versehen, 2. unveränderte Auflage, Reichl, St. Goar 1991, ISBN 3-87667-102-7.
   * Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts. 6th unchanged edition, Herbig, München 1992, ISBN 3-7766-1155-3.
   * Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts. Paperback edition with index, 8th unchanged edition, Reichl, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9.
   * Der Schmied Weland. Olms, Hildesheim 1999, ISBN 3-487-11015-6.
    Language
   * Die Kraft der Sprache. Von der Bedeutung der Vokale und Konsonanten in der Sprache. Herbig, München 1985, ISBN 3-7766-1287-8.
   * Ursprache lebt. Reichl, 2nd unchanged edition, St. Goar 1999, ISBN 3-87667-207-4.
Early history of the first century:
* Der Cherusker. Arminius im Kampf mit der römischen Weltmacht. Herbig Verlag, München/Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7766-1544-3; new edition with identical contents under the title: Hermann der Cherusker. Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald und ihre Folgen für die Weltgeschichte. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-928127-99-8.
Poetry
    Erzählende Dichtung:
   * Welche Kraft war es? dipa, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, ISBN 3-7638-0900-7.
   * Der Traum vom Gralsfelsen. Erzählungen und Gedanken, Ogham, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-88455-853-6.
   * Mit Lied und Laute durch Spanien. Jahn & Ernst, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89407-067-6.
    Epic poetry:
   * Das Erdeneiland. Reichl, St. Goar 1990, ISBN 3-87667-130-2.
    Poetry for children:
   * Die schönsten Sagen. 2nd edition (21–28k), Bertelsmann, Gütersloh o. J. (1960).
   * Die goldene Kugel. Singspiel, Möseler, Wolfenbüttel/Zürich 1966.
   * Sagen der Völker. 5th unchanged edition, Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7725-0664-X.
    Poems:
   * Der goldene Wagen. Bösendahl, Rinteln 1953.
   * Wachsende Ringe, Gedichte meines Lebens. Reichl, St. Goar 1995, ISBN 3-87667-205-8.
   * Sehnen und Streben. Gedichte meiner Wanderzeit, Manufactur, Horn 1984, ISBN 3-88080-061-8.
   * Der Pfeiffer von Hameln. Mit Illustrationen von Christiane Lesch, Ogham, Stuttgart o. J. (1986), ISBN 3-88455-153-1.
   * Eins und Alles. Gedichte für Kindheit und Jugend. 12th unchanged edition, Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-7725-2373-1.
   * Liebe Erde. Gedichte und Sprüche. 5th expanded edition, Ogham, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-88455-006-3.
   * Das Maulwurfs-Igelchen. Ogham, Stuttgart 1989-2, ISBN 3-88455-037-3.
   * Die Kunterbunte Dichterwerkstatt. edition fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1993, ISBN 3-89406-809-4.
Others:
* Die Jahreszeiten in Liedern. Initialmalerei von Adolph B. G. Ritter, Ed. Heinz Ritter, Reichl, St. Goar o. J. (1993), ISBN 978-3-87667-228-1.