Fortunate Son

What I found particularly interesting about the Adel und Bürger reading was the response of the knights to their military unemployment. Some sold textiles and weapons and became financially successful. Others became “Raubrittern” and used their warring experience for personal gain by stealing from merchants. Naturally this pissed off die Bürger and they published works criticizing the knights and eventually inspiring Parodies and Satires. What is so interesting about this sequence of events and the various reactions and decisions is, like many concepts throughout history, it is timeless. Any particular time in history we can see similar reactions of soldiers that return from war and what kinds of trouble they face on returning. Also the reaction of society to the returning soldiers is sometimes similar as well. The reason why is very simple. When a large group of men at any place in history have spent many years of their lives dedicated to warring, in the name of freedom, out of fear, or for any particular cause seen fit to provoke massacre, they return having lost: their childhood, the raising of their children, jobs or marriages. In such situations one can either, conditions permitting, press on and be successful despite loss, or be angry, drunk, make noise and get into trouble. We see these problems in World War II Vietnam etc, as well as in the Middle Ages when knights are out of commission. People were especially divided over a conflict in the 60’s and 70’s and naturally upon returning the soldiers that were participants, willing or otherwise, were largely ill received. This is a difference from the societal reaction to the knights as the robbing variety provoked a response and Vietnam vets didn’t necessarily. The similarity however is that both societal reactions did have a significant affect on literature and in the modern case, music as well. The more I study this time period, the more connections are easily visible.

, C. Demes