ABSTRACT
From 1600 to 1800, the Ottoman Empire was perceived as anything but the 'sick man of Europe', as it came to be known in the nineteenth century. The phrase is attributed to Czar Nicholas I. This chapter investigates the depiction in the German drama of the Baroque and Enlightenment of one of the most striking figures from Ottoman history: Hrrem Sultan, known in the West mainly as Roxolana. According to Michel Sokolnicki, the term Roxolanes is used to refer to young women from Ruthenia in seventeenth-century Polish texts. Roxolana became a figure of much interest in the German theater of the Baroque, as has been shown specifically in the plays of Lohenstein and Haugwitz. This character continued to play an important role in Enlightenment plays by Lessing and Weisse, and her depiction moves between a fascination with the unknown and exotic to a consideration of philosophical and ethical issues.
