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🇩🇪 Germany /Culture & Society

A journey through time: A 17th-century hero wins fans with a phone and AI

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Ongoing story
  • The German town of Gelnhausen created an Instagram account for Simplicissimus, the fictional hero from the Thirty Years’ War, to mark writer Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen’s 350th death anniversary.
  • The project has attracted almost 230 Instagram followers, as well as responses by phone and email from individuals, museums and municipalities.
  • Organizers say the deliberate mix of historical fiction, modern technology and AI reflects techniques used by Grimmelshausen himself.

A fictional soldier from the Thirty Years’ War has made the leap into social media. Gelnhausen’s virtual Simplicissimus now has an Instagram account, a smartphone and a habit of filming his adventures in short videos.

The town launched the experiment to mark the 350th anniversary of the death of Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, the writer born in Gelnhausen. Since mid-August, the character from his novel has been reporting from his imagined life online. Artificial intelligence helped recreate his appearance, but historical accuracy was never the goal.

I am delighted by how well it has taken off.

· Simone GrünewaldThe head of Gelnhausen’s cultural office described the response to the Instagram experiment.

The Simplicissimus account has attracted almost 230 followers. Simone Grünewald, head of the town’s cultural office, said interest had also arrived through more traditional channels. People contacted the organizers by telephone and email, including museums and municipalities, because they found the idea original.

We are essentially doing exactly what Grimmelshausen did, only with modern means.

· Simone GrünewaldShe explained the project’s deliberate use of fiction and reality.

The project’s appeal lies in its deliberate collision of reality and fiction. Grimmelshausen presented Simplicissimus’s story as an autobiography, while making it clear to readers that the account repeatedly broke with that premise. The modern version follows a similar approach by pretending to be a real profile while repeatedly signaling the fiction behind it.

“We are essentially doing exactly what Grimmelshausen did, only with modern means,” Grünewald said. Gelnhausen Mayor Christian Litzinger also gave the project a positive initial assessment, saying it creates curiosity and reaches people in a contemporary way. He called it an example of how artificial intelligence can be used meaningfully and with a sense of humor. Courage, the self-confident wandering woman from Grimmelshausen’s novel, is also expected to receive her own Instagram account.

Projects like this show that tradition and innovation do not have to be opposites. Quite the contrary, for me this is a wonderful example of how we can use artificial intelligence meaningfully and with a wink.

· Christian LitzingerThe mayor of Gelnhausen praised the project’s combination of technology and cultural heritage.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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