German courtly love poetry, or Minnesang,
emerged around 1170, produced both by GOLIARDIC singers who wandered from court to court
looking for patrons of their art, and also by members of the highest aristocratic circles. The first
signs of profound changes affecting Minnesang occurred around 1200 with the appearance of great
poets such as WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE and
NEIDHART, who either challenged the traditional
premises of the erotic ideals of their predecessors
or satirized the social conditions. The poems of
this “classical” period of Minnesang are contained
in the famous edition of Des Minnesangs Frühling.
Minnesang was mostly supported by members of
the Hohenstaufen family, but the songs were not
copied down until the early 14th century on behalf
of the famous Zürich family Manesse. The earliest
poets, such as DER VON KÜRENBERG, Meinloh von
Sevelingen, Der Burggraf (Castellan) von Regensburg, Spervogel, and DIETMAR VON AIST, seem to
have been influenced by autochthonous (indigenous) sources, but later poets, such as HEINRICH VON
VELDEKE, FRIEDRICH VON HAUSEN, Rudolf von Fenis,
Albrecht von Johansdorf, and HEINRICH VON
MORUNGEN, reflect clear influences from Provençal
TROUBADOUR and French TROUVÉRE poetry. Research
has also detected influences from the Dutch and the
Italian areas. Latin poetry, such as those collected
in the CARMINA BURANA, seem to have exerted additional influence in the shaping of Minnesang.
Most of these Minnelieder (love songs) commonly explore the problems of unrequited love and
the subsequent love pains that will last forever (Ulrich von Gutenburg). This “negative” experience of
love allows the singer to examine his own self and
to question the true meaning of the erotic emotion.
Modern scholarship has mostly identified the ultimate purpose of Minnesang as ritual or performance, that is, as a ludic form of courtly
self-confirmation for the male members of
chivalry. The beloved lady is never identified by
name or social status, though she always appears to
enjoy a higher rank than the singer. Minnesang
knows many different types of genres, one of which
was the Tagelied (“dawn song,” see ALBA). Here the
lovers wake up early in the morning because a bird
or a watchman has alerted them about the coming
of daylight, and lament the fact that he has to depart from her (examples appear in Dietmar von
Aist and Heinrich von Morungen). They join in
lovemaking one more time and express their deep
sorrow.
In the so-called “crusade song,” perhaps best
represented by Friedrich von Hausen, the poet formulates his grief over the dilemma between the
love for his lady and the love for the Godhead who
has called upon him to go on a crusade. Some
poets utilize a female voice to create so-called
women’s stanzas (REINMAR DER ALTE), which were
often integrated in an intricate dialogue poem, or
Wechsel (as in Albrecht von Johansdorf, Henry VI,
Reinmar, Heinrich von Morungen). The creators
of the famous Middle High German courtly romances, HARTMANN VON AUE, GOTTFRIED VON
STRASSBURG, and WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, also
composed some Minnelieder (love songs). Women,
however, seem to have been excluded from the creation of German courtly love poetry.
Bibliography
Gibbs, Marion E., and Sidney M. Johnson. Medieval
German Literature: A Companion. New York: Garland, 1997.
Heinen, Hubert. “Minnesang (12th–13th c.),” In Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, edited by John
M. Jeep, 525–532. New York: Garland, 2001.
Moser, Hugo, and Helmut Tervooren, eds. Des Minnesangs Frühling. 38th ed. Vol. 1, Texte. Stuttgart:
Hirzel, 1988.
Sayce, Olive. The Medieval German Lyric, 1150–1300:
The Development of Its Themes and Forms in Their
European Context. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
Wesley, Thomas J., trans. Medieval German Lyric
Verse in English Translation. UNC Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures, 60. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Albrecht Classen