author
von Tepl Johannes
d. 1414
A pioneering Bohemian writer of the German language, he is remembered above all for Der Ackermann aus Böhmen, a powerful dialogue that helped shape early German prose. His writing brings together grief, argument, and moral reflection in a way that still feels vivid centuries later.
1 Audiobook
Der Ackermann aus Böhmen
by von Tepl Johannes
About the author
Born around 1350 in Bohemia, Johannes von Tepl—also known as Johannes von Saaz—worked as a town notary and was connected with urban literary and school culture in places including Saaz and later Prague. The details of his life are not fully settled, but sources consistently place him in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
He is best known for Der Ackermann aus Böhmen (often translated as Death and the Ploughman), written around 1400. In this striking prose dialogue, a grieving husband argues with Death after the loss of his wife, turning personal sorrow into a larger meditation on justice, mortality, and human dignity.
That work is often described as one of the first major prose achievements in German literature and an important early humanist text. Even with only a small surviving body of work, Johannes von Tepl holds an important place in literary history for giving emotional force and intellectual sharpness to early German prose.