a German humorist and satirical author. He wrote a comic prose epic, Wilhelmine, oder der vermählte Pedant (1764); and Die Inoculation der Liebe (1771), a tale in verse. His most famous work is his Reise in die mittäglichen Provinzen van Frankreich im Jahre 1785-1786 (1791–1805), a "sentimental journey" in ten volumes, in which the influence of Wieland is unmistakable. Friedrich Schiller, in his essay "On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry", found this work wanting in aesthetic dignity yet allowed that the keen knowledge of men and things it displays makes it a valuable contribution to literature. Thümmel's other writings are not as well known.
