Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1622–1676), perhaps the greatest 17-century German author, personally experienced as a youth the Thirty-Years war. At the age of 12 years his hometown was conquered by the Catholic forces and he, born to a Protestant family, was handed over to the Catholic side. We find him later serving the Catholic side as a military secretary to Count Schauenburg. The forced change of sides certainly led him, as an author, to absain from taking sides politically and formed his ironic-skeptical attitude toward war in general. Simplicissimus had a great success since its publication (1668) until today, but its author remained for some 170 years unknown, as he consistently hid his real name behind a dazzling series of synonyms. The success of Simplicissimus led him to write a sequel series of novels, where minor characters of the first book now become the principal heroes. The best known of them is Courage, 'reused' in the 20th century by Bertolt Brecht (Mother Courage and her Children).