The adventurous Simplicissimus is the great novel of the Thirty Years' War, the first significant work of German literature, and a harrowing account of life and death in a time of unimaginable cruelty, despair, and hardship. It is a narrative of involuntary grandeur, colorful, wild, raw, amusing, love-struck and tattered, boiling with life, on familiar terms with the devil. Thomas Mann praised this piece of world literature so enthusiastically, which is at the center of a double anniversary in 2018: Exactly 400 years ago, the Thirty Years' War began, and it has been 350 years since the first publication of Simplicissimus. Those who read the thrilling story will continually be astonished by words from the soldier's jargon and the language of rogues, by wordplay, satirical escapades, and hidden punchlines that continue to gain fascination.