And so Johann Peter Hebel and his friend Friedrich Wilhelm Hitzig presumably founded
the “Proteuserbund” (Proteus League) in Proteopolis (Lörrach) on November 30, 1790. The friends formed the
Proteuserbund based on the model of an Oberland community with Tobias Günttert and his wife Karoline Auguste as  bailiff (Bürgermeister, mayors), Hebel as govenor (Statthalter, deputy
to the mayor), August Welper as Bammert (Bannwart, field guard), W. Hitzig, and various
members from ‘Proteopolis’ (and Basel), whose names are unknown.

 The hours spent forgetting everyday life over good wine were ‘protean’ –
and soon, in addition to special names – especially Parmenides for Hebel and Zenonides
for Hitzig – they had a special dictionary, a coat of arms, a heraldic bird – the stork,
a hymn and their own calendar, the
 
"Almanac of the [Proteus] to the merciful year 1."

The beginning and end of the year fall on 30 November, known as ‘Lostag’ (lotday), which is associated with all kinds of
superstitious events and is said to reveal the future on ‘Andreastag’ (St. Andrew's Day).

Instead of 12 months, there are 13 cycles, each with 9 triads (3 days each), i.e. 13 x 27 = 351 days
plus a leap cycle in October with 5 triads = 15 days, making a total of 366 days.

The cycles have special names:
 

Hebel as Parmenides
ink drawing by himself
 

title page of the Almanac

Proteus, the ‘Old Man of the Sea’,
is an early sea god from Greek mythology.
He is also the god of transformation,
the god of nothingness, as he transforms
 beings or things into nothingness.

2. Cycle:  Μήλον or Swabian mutton

3. Cycle:  Cynicus

4. Cykle:  Pelargos or Storkcycle

5. Cycle:  Parmenides

6. Cycle:  Anthos or Blossomscycle

7. Cycle:  Wilhelm

9. Cycle:  Pistieikos

10. Cycle:  Petrus

11. Cycle:  Horatius

12. Cycle:  Oinos or Cidercycle

13. Cycle:  Cyniculus or Switchcycle

14. Cycle:  Pisis or Faithcycle

There are several accompanying texts:  
    1. die "Proteische Zeitrechnung" / the "Protean Chronology"  
    which explains the system underlying the almanac in 20 paragraphs, 
    2. das "Lehrsystem des Proteus" / the "Teaching System of Proteus"
which sets out the basics and connections of Proteanism in 26 “sentences”,
3. das "Verzeichnis der berühmtesten Proteologen älterer u neuerer Zeiten" /
the "Directory of the most famous Proteologists of older and newer times"    
as well as 
  4. den "Anhang" zum Almanach des Proteus / the "Appendix" to the Almanac of the Proteus 
which already contains a reference to a Proteus dictionary and postal connections concerning Proteopolis - 
and  
5. das "Wörterbuch des Belchismus" / the "Dictionary of the Belchism"  
which are published here on this website for the first time in transcribed form.  

Directly linked to the Proteus period is one of his first original poetic works,
<a fantasy about the Proteus cult>, the hymn
"Ekstase" / "Ecstasy"  written in 1793,
and its  Entwurf bzw. 1. Fassung / Draft or 1st Version  

= Proteus
 
= Proteus > spoken with 'eu'
 (german diphtong)
but
 
Proteisch > spoken 'Prote-ic'.
 
In the autograph, Hebel uses almost
consistently "sch (-e, -en, -es)",
 
therefore as z. B. Proteus-sche Zahl
 or Proteus-sches Jahr to read.

The coat of arms of the Proteuses.
Pen and ink drawing by J. P. Hebel, around 1790

In the circle of clouds the sign of Proteus,
 beneath which stand two storks with their heads raised,
between them a fat ‘Swabian mutton’ with its head bowed,
placed on the throne and altar of Proteus, the Belchen.

Proteus League (at the church in Rötteln).
Watercolour pen-and-ink drawing by Christian Meichelt, 1812

Excerpt with J. P. Hebel's handwritten signature.
Based on his position, Hebel could be the fourth from the right;
the location of Rötteln suggests that at least Günttert, Hitzig
and Welper should be among those depicted,
but according to Wilhelm Altwegg: "...the second from the left is
 a 'Musician Lehmann', the others are mostly gentlemen from Basel..."

It should be noted that, apart from the
spelling, the sentence structure (Hebel has a
penchant for long, highly complicated
nested sentences) and the punctuation do not
correspond to today's conventions
(e.g. there is often a full stop where a comma or
no punctuation mark at all would be appropriate) and the
the almanac was probably not intended for
publication at the time.

He also developed his own unique
rhythm of language, which one must first ‘read into’
in order to understand the content.
 

Stork = stork

Swabian mutton = for Hebel and Hitzig, the
paragon of stupidity, stubbornness and pedantry:
‘indistinguishable from nothingness itself...’,
‘...the worst are the Hohenlohe ones...’:
Johann Christ. Riedel, who also taught at the Lörrach Pädagogium, came from Pfedelbach/Hohenlohe
and was, in a sense, their ‘prototype’.

According to Hebel's first letter to him (December 1793),
Hitzig possessed and maintained a list of the members
of the alliance: "Meanwhile, also took
Mr von Edelsheim* into his employ. The
first silly prank that  committed... I
have honoured him since his death as a progenitor
and ask you to enter his name in the register
."
However, this ‘register’ is not to be found in the estate handed over to the
Baden State Library by Hitzig's descendants.
Therefore, we can only speculate about the number and names of the
“proteopolian” circle of friends
– see here:
 'The Proteus-League - The Overview.

Unfortunately, nothing specific is known about the individuals depicted in Meichelts' drawing.
The drawing is a valuable historical document that provides insight into the social conditions of the time.
 

Plessing, F. V. L.: Versuche zur Aufklärung der Philosophie des ältesten Alterthums

* Wilhelm Freiherr von Edelsheim, born 13 November 1737 in Hanau, died 6 December 1793 in Karlsruhe. In 1758, Edelsheim entered
the service of Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden. From 1767 to 1769, he was ambassador in Vienna.
In 1774, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and was also responsible for overseeing the finances.
From 1782 onwards, he worked towards uniting the princes against Austria's
supremacy and, in 1785, pushed for Baden to join the German Princes' League.
In 1788, Edelsheim took over the management of all state affairs. His main aim was to
abolish serfdom. Additional information: https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Edelsheim, Wilhelm

Christian Meichelt (born 1776 in Nuremberg; died after 1840 (1830?), exact dates unknown)
was a copperplate engraver and miniature painter. From 1798 onwards, he worked as an art teacher in Lörrach
at the local Pädagogium. The drawing was created more than 20 years after the meeting,
so the question of its documentary value remains open.
More Information: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Meichelt