Drama:
Der Henno, pr. 1531
Der schwanger Bauer, pr. 1544 (The Pregnant Farmer, 1990)
Der fahrende Schüler im Paradies, pr. 1550 (The Traveling Scholar, 1910)
Der Nasentanz, pr. 1550 (The Nose Dance, 1990)
Der böse Raunch, pr. 1551
Der fahrende Schüler mit dem Teufelsbannen, pr. 1551
Das haiss Eisen, pr. 1551 (The Hot Iron, 1910)
Das Kälberbrüten, pr. 1551
Der Bauer im Fegefeuer, pr. 1552
Der gestohlene Bachen, pr. 1552
Der Bauer mit dem Blerr, pr. 1553
Das böse Weib, pr. 1553
Der Fortunato mit dem Wünschhuet, pr. 1553
Der Kezermaister mit wort, würz und stain, pr. 1553
Der Rossdieb zu Fünsing, pr. 1553 (The Horse Thief, 1910)
Das Weib im Brunnen, pr. 1553 (The Wife in the Well, 1990)
Herzog Wilhelm von Österreich mit seiner Agaley, pr. 1555
Das Fräulein mit dem Ölkrug, pr. 1556
Hugo Schapler, pr. 1556
Der hörnen Siegfried, pr. 1557
Ptholomeus der Thirann, pr. 1557
Cleopatra die Künigin Egipti, pr. 1558
Romulus und Remus, die Brüder, pr. 1558
Sämtliche Fastnachtspiele von Hans Sachs, pb. 1880-1887 (7 volumes)
Seven Shrovetide Plays, pb. 1930
Nine Carnival Plays by Hans Sachs, pb. 1990
Translations of the Carnival Comedies of Hans Sachs, 1494-1576, pb. 1994
Short Fiction:
Schlauraffenland, 1530
Sanct Peter mit der Geiss, 1555
Gespräch Sanct Peter mit den Landsknechten, 1556
Schwank von dem frommen Adel, 1562
Der Schneider mit dem Pannier, 1563
Poetry:
Die wittenbergisch Nachtigall, 1523 (The Wittenberg Nightingale, 1883)
Nonfiction:
Disputation zwischen einem Chorherren und einem Schuchmacher, 1524
Lovers of composer Richard Wagner will recognize Hans Sachs (saks), the greatest master singer of his time, as one of the principal characters in the opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1862; The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, 1892). Surprisingly, Sachs’s continuing fame does not rest on his songs and poems but on his 208 dramas, which helped keep the German theater alive in the sixteenth century.
Sachs was born and died in Nuremberg, a contemporary and disciple of Martin Luther. He apprenticed as a shoemaker and became a master cobbler about 1518, but he forsook his craft to become a wandering troubadour, the highest calling in a day when the arts were revered. Sachs became a master singer in 1520 and went on to conduct a school for master singers in Munich. He became leader of the Nürnberg singers in 1554. During about fifty years of composing, he is said to have produced more than four thousand songs, two thousand tales in verse, and 208 plays. His plays are considered the finest examples of the Fastnachtsspiel, the humorous plays for Shrovetide, a form paralleling the development of drama in England at the same time. Germany was torn by strife over the Reformation, however, and consequently had little patience with delightful trifles. When Sachs wrote The Wittenberg Nightingale to honor Luther, its immediate popularity rapidly advanced the cause of the Reformation.
The enthusiasm with which Sachs wrote, the advantageous times in which he lived, and the care with which his works were preserved all contribute to the information that is available about this man and his work. Wagner in The Master-Singers of Nuremberg was justly paying tribute to one of the great creators who had preceded him.