Ulrich von Hutten

Ulrich von Hutten , 1488-1523, German humanist and poet, partisan of the Reformation, an outstanding figure in German political history. Hutten's career as poet was launched by his participation in the famous Episculae obscurorum virorum (1515), which supported the cause of Reuchlin . In 1517 he was crowned poet laureate by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. He wrote innumerable epigrams, speeches, and songs, although his main literary vehicle was dialogues; Arminius, the best known, is in the collection Gesprachsbüchlein (1521). A vehement patriot, he became an associate of Luther and joined Sickingen in his war on ecclesiastical princes. He died in exile, seeking asylum with Zwingli.

Bibliography: See biography by D. F. Strauss (tr. 1874, repr. 1970); study by T. W. Best (1969).

Hutten, Ulrich von (1488–1523), German humanist and controversialist. He left the monastery of Fulda in 1505, visited various universities, and engaged in military service. About 1515 he became a contributor to the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum. From 1519 he devoted his life to the propagation of M. Luther's reformation, in which he saw the instrument for the deliverance of Germany from the power of Rome. He wrote a series of treatises in German and Latin for this purpose. At the end of his life U. Zwingli gave him refuge.