Realism and Utopia: from More to Eberlin

Abstract

With his Statuten aus dem Land Wolfaria (1521), Johann Eberlin von Günzburg is the first author to imitate More’s Utopia, even though Eberlin’s proposals for religious, social and political reform are addressed directly at contemporary Germany, in the style of the pamphlets that characterize the first years of the Reformation. Often acknowledged as the first Lutheran utopia, Wolfaria has in fact little in common with the subtle Humanistic game played by Erasmus and More, yet it still is an extremely interesting work, precisely because it allows us to perceive, in all their unresolved issues, the enthusiastic moments of fervent Lutheran propaganda of the beginning.