Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide (c.1170-c.1230), the greatest Middle High German lyric poet, was probably an Austrian by birth, but there is only one documentary reference to him (in the accounts of the Bishop of Passau in 1203), and his life is largely constructed from his poetry.

Walther may have been a ministeriale, a knight in the service of greater noblemen, but his rank is uncertain, and it is possible that he was a hanger-on of little social consequence, who undoubtedly spent his life in the service of the great. As a young man at the Viennese court of Leopold V (1157-94), he modelled himself on Reinmar der Alte, whose rival in poetry he later became, though this rivalry is now (G. Schweikle) thought to have existed from the beginning and later undergone a change of tune (the so-called ‘feud’, Reinmar-Fehde, was over the issue of Reinmar's stylized praise of women which provoked Walther's parody). After 1198, when his patron Duke Friedrich von Österreich died, he attached himself for a time to Philipp von Schwaben, and he was later at the courts of various lords, including Bishop Wolfger von Passau, Leopold von Österreich (1176-1230), Hermann, Landgraf von Thüringen, and Dietrich von Meißen (d. 1221). About 1212 he was in the suite of Otto IV, and from 1214 with King Friedrich II (see Friedrich II, Kaiser). In 1220 he was granted a fief or pension, an event which is the subject of one of his poems. He was probably buried in Würzburg.

Walther was exclusively a lyric poet, and his extant œuvre of more than 100 poems consists mainly of Minnelieder and political Sprüche (see Spruch). He also wrote two Kreuzlieder (crusaders' songs) and a leich. Walther's poems are usually divided into three groups, which were formerly held to correspond to stages in his development. Those which were held to be the earliest are conventional expressions of Minnedienst, modelled on the poetry of Reinmar. The second group consists of poems in which courtly conventions are discarded, and man and woman love spontaneously and responsively on equal terms. These poems are technically expert and skilfully organized, but their emotional freshness gives them an appearance of naturalness, which is heightened by the references to landscape. These are sometimes aptly termed Mädchenlieder. A third (possibly later) group applies the spontaneousness of niedere Minne to the aristocratic sphere of hohe Minne. In these poems Walther transcends the courtly conventions and produces some of the finest examples of Minnesang.

The Sprüche are Walther's most individual creation. They represent his responses to political events and personal experiences, which are frequently combined in a single poem. His contact with men of power, especially at the Hohenstaufen court, gives much of his poetry a considerable documentary value. But it is also intensely poetic, the vivid record of the aspiration, exultation, indignation, and despondency of this sensitive and touchy man. It is not always possible to sympathize with his moods, for he can be both ungrateful and unjust, but the keenness of his vision and the power of his poetry are constant. The handful of late poems reveals the embittered, yet dignified and courageous response of an ageing man out of sympathy with the changing world around him.

Walther's personal flexibility, the vividness of his response, the freshness of his humour, and the vehemence of his anger are transmitted by an assured and brilliant technique, which enables him to perform tours de force of verbal manipulation.

In the larger Heidelberg manuscript collection of medieval poetry (see Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, Grosse) Walther is represented seated with his legs crossed, a posture suggested by the Spruch beginning: ‘Ich saz ûf eime steine/und dahte bein mit beine’ (I sat on a stone and crossed one leg over the other).

K. Lachmann published a notable edition of Walther von der Vogelweide's poems (1827), which was revised by C. von Kraus (1936) and H. Kuhn (1965). F. Maurer's edition (2 vols., 1967-9) contains melodies as well as text and apparatus. P. Wapnewski's selection (1962, text based on Lachmann-Kraus) contains a modern German translation. Other editions include one by J. Schaefer (1972, 2nd edn. 1987) and H. Witt, with introduction by U. Schulze (1984). A comprehensive edition by H. Brunner, U. Müller, F. V. Spechtler et al. appeared in 1977.