Die Geschichte der Abderiten (English: The Story of the Abderites), subtitled Eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte (English: A very probable story), is a satirical novel by the German poet and writer Christoph Martin Wieland. Written between 1773 and 1779, it was published in part in the periodical Der teutsche Merkur (The German Mercury) in 1774 and was first issued as a collection in book form in 1780. It satirises the pettiness of the inhabitants of small-town Germany, using the ancient Greek town of Abdera as a stand-in for the contemporary German towns which Wieland was critiquing. Abderit is a name for a 'Schildbürger', a naive and simple but also conceited person. The term likely targeted the often hypocritical citizens of Wieland's home town of Biberach. Source: Wikipedia (en)