Schreckensvision oder Drogenfreuden

Abstract

Abstract This contribution sketches out the broad field of tobacco literature, which spread rapidly in the 16th century. A single leaf print by Sigmund von Birken (1652) shows discourses for and against the consumption of tobacco. Central to my examination are two poems about the topic (1720 and 1718), which will be interpreted with regard to their contexts. The school rector of Nordhausen, Johann Joachim Meier (1682–1736), wrote a satire in Latin verses (provided here with text, translation, and commentary) against the disastrous consumption of tobacco among pupils and students. This text works with impressive framings (such as the nightly visitation of Apollo at the teacher’s sickbed) and provides a quite informative, polyhistorical commentary of contemporary tobacco literature. This poem will be compared to Johann Christian Günther’s student song “Lob des Knaster-Tobacks”, a text that praises pleasure and joy, using arguments of natural law. Within the horizon of comparable poems (e.g. Canitz), Günther repels religious and institutional paternalism, thus showing separating concepts of life and behavioral norms.