"Hanswurst was a popular coarse-comic figure of German-speaking impromptu comedy. He is "a half doltish, half cunning, partly stupid, partly knowing, enterprising and cowardly, self indulgent ...
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and merry fellow, who, in accordance with circumstances, accentuated one or other of these characteristics."
Through the 16th and 17th centuries, he was a buffoon character in rural carnival theaters and touring companies. The name first appeared in a Middle Low German version of Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools (1494) (using the name Hans myst). "Hanswurst" was also a mockery and insult. Martin Luther used it in his 1541 pamphlet Wider Hans Worst, when he railed against the Catholic Duke Henry of Brunswick. " - (en.wikipedia.org 21.12.2020)