Des Tüfels Segi

Des Tüfels Segi (des tuiffels segin "The Devil's Net", conventional Standard German title Des Teufels Netz[1]) is an Alemannic German satirical didactic poem of the early 15th century, most likely written during the years 1414–1420.

The contents involve a long treatise on the estates (Stände) of traditional feudalism; the "devil's net" is an allegory for the various forms of vice affecting the various classes.

The theme of enumerating the various classes of society as all subject to sin and damnation is related to the Danse Macabre theme (enumerating them, somewhat less pessimistic, as all subject to death) which first developed at about the time of the poem's composition.

The text survives in divergent forms in four manuscripts; the longest version is in a Donaueschingen ms., extending to 13,657 verses, nearly twice as long as the shortest version[2] at a still appreciable 7,050 verses.

A third ms. is both of intermediate length and age, Augsburg (formerly Maihingen) (1449, 9,979 verses).