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 author, 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. Live. 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 lead 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". Ritter 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. 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 ("Dune" in the Middle Ages), which once was a tributary of the Rhine. Nowadays the Dhünn has been redirected into the Wupper. Ritter proposes that the "Duna" of the legend is the Dhünn. Other place names mentioned in the Thidrekssaga have been traditionally located in Germany, even before Ritter’s studies. Among these are the "Visara" (Weser), the "Osning" (Teutoburg Forest), the "Lyravald" (Lürwald), "Baloffa" (Balve) and the "Musula" (Moselle). The latter is mentioned as the river where the battle of "Gränsport" takes place. Selected works. Germanistik Early history of the first century: Poetry Others: Heinz Ritter