Walther von der Vogelweide

German poet

• Born: c. 1170
• Birthplace: Probably in lower Austria
• Died: c. 1230
• Place of death: Near Würzburg, Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (now in Germany)

Walther von der Vogelweide was the greatest lyric poet of the German High Middle Ages; his writings set high standards of artistic quality in the genre of the courtly love lyric as well as that of political poetry.

Early Life

Few details are known regarding the life of Walther von der Vogelweide (WAHL-thuhr fuhn dehr VOH-guhl-vi-duh). He was born within the area of Austria and was in Vienna around 1190 at the court of the Babenberg rulers. At the death of his sponsor, Duke Frederick, in 1198, he wandered around Austria in search of another wealthy patron. He resided at various royal courts and finally settled in Würzburg at the court of Emperor Frederick II, from whom he received a small stipend in 1220. Only one document exists that testifies to his life: a note that he was given money by Wolfger, bishop of Passau, in 1203 in order to purchase a winter coat. He is depicted in a colorful illumination (from the famous Manessische Handschrift manuscript) as the “king of poets,” in a pose described in one of his most famous poems.

Walther was born toward the end of the period of the German High Middle Ages, when the culture and art of the royal courts were at their zenith. Courtly society was highly codified and stratified; hierarchies of rank and authority were carefully observed. This period was the legendary age of chivalry and knightly virtues, an era whose ideal knight combined the bravery of the Germanic warrior with the spiritual discipline of Christianity. The knights were a class of soldiers who pledged fealty to a lord and were in attendance at his court when not engaged in battle or a crusade. Since many were literate, they were devoted to the arts of song and the lyric.

The knightly caste had strict rules of conduct that promoted certain primary social virtues. Honor, loyalty, and discipline were important qualities of the warrior who served a lord in battle. Mildness and steadfastness of character and moderation in all behavior were social and psychological virtues that complemented as well as moderated the more aggressive qualities of the soldier. The goals of a knight were threefold: to attain worldly honor, material wealth, and, above all, the blessings of God.

Knights who were in attendance at a court often practiced devotion to a noblewoman of higher station (Minnedienst); the knight who undertook such a commitment dedicated all of his heroic efforts to his lady and composed in her honor highly stylized love poetry (Minnesang). This idealized love was thought to be a spiritual exercise that would ennoble the soul of the knight. If the knight were dutiful in his service to the lady, she might grant him the favor of a glance or a nod.

Because Walther both incorporated and transcended the conventions of the courtly love lyric in many of his poems, a closer look at the genre and its history is in order. The tradition of the love lyric in Germany was determined primarily by foreign influences, descending from the older cultural heritage of Arabic love poetry by way of the Moorish invasion of Spain and then subsequently from the Provençal area of France, where the tradition of Latin love poetry remained and where the ideals of knighthood also flourished. Provençal poetry reached its high point around 1100 in the songs of the troubadour. Prominent poets of the French tradition were Bertrand de Born, William of Poitou, and Bernard de Ventadour.

These Provençal poets devoted themselves and their poetry to an unreachable ideal, to the honor of a married lady of the court which therefore (usually) excluded the possibility of physical love and this striving for the ideal in attitude and behavior ennobled their souls. Love expressed to a young, unmarried woman was discouraged. The earlier Christian tradition of love poetry dedicated to the Virgin Mary is here also an obvious influence. Because this love service to the married woman was extremely passionate, in spirit at least, the affairs of the knight and his chosen lady were closely watched by others of the court. Secret meetings between the lovers were presumed by all, and such a clandestine rendezvous was a perennial theme in much of the poetry. The alba, or morning song, for example, celebrated the awakening of the two lovers after a night of secret passion. They were usually outdoors and romantically awakened by the singing of a bird. These motifs became highly stylized and were part of the poet’s standard lyric repertoire.

The German reception of the French tradition of courtly poetry began in northern Germany and the Low Countries (by way of northern France) in the realistic love lyrics of Heinrich von Veldeke. From there, it was transmitted to the Rhineland area in the works of Friedrich von Hausen and to Middle Germany in the poetry of Heinrich von Morungen. These early German poets gave fresh inspiration to the conventions of the genre, writing lyrics that captured the passion and intensity of this spiritualized love experience in naturalistic imagery. By way of northern Italy, the tradition came to Austria, and at the Babenberg court in Vienna, the love lyric attained a high degree of formal stylization. The poet Reinmar von Hagenau (from the Franco-German area of Alsatia) produced poems in a folklike style and wrote of the sadness and melancholy longing of the lovers rather than the intensity and energy of their passion. The social prohibitions that denied the natural consummation of the love relationship had eventually produced an experience that was more form or gesture than content. This shift in theme toward the introspective suggests the waning of the genre. Reinmar was the major influence at the Babenberg court and was Walther’s teacher. The German tradition of the love lyric became highly conventionalized and artificial at this stage. Numerous writers of lesser talent than Reinmar and Walther merely imitated the particulars of the style and form without entering into the original spirit of its early poets.

The impossibility of intimate union with the idealized lady gave rise to a variant of the courtly love genre, called “common love” (niedere Minne). This was a love lyric dedicated to the young and accessible girls of the local villages rather than the unapproachable, idealized ladies of the court. It was a poetry that celebrated the joys of reciprocal love and the simple village life, free of the formal and codified rules of courtly society. Its imagery was that of rural life and the simple pleasures of the village community. The rise of the common-love school again suggests that the tradition of the courtly love lyric had exhausted its thematic and stylistic possibilities.

The medieval courtly love lyric eventually devolved into a mere formal exercise during the fourteenth century, the period of the “master song” (Meistergesang). The meistersingers imitated the style of masters such as Walther in a mechanical and highly formalized manner. Singing schools (Singschulen), structured much like guilds, were organized in towns, and strict rules for composition were established. Competitions were held in which judges counted the syllables and assessed the rhymes in each line. Michel Beheim, a weaver, was one of the more famous meistersingers of the period.

Life’s Work

Walther’s career thus spanned the zenith and the decline of the courtly love genre. His poetry shunned the artificiality and conventionality so prominent in the works of others. His language and imagery were natural, spontaneous, and vital. Poems such as “Sô die Bluomen ûz dem Grase dringent” (“When the Flowers Spring out of the Grass”) celebrate in natural images of spring the physical as well as the inner spiritual beauty of the beloved lady. In many of his texts, Walther questions the nature of the courtly love experience itself. Love is not the stylized and formal gestures of favor granted by the revered lady of the court of the dutiful knight, but the harmony of two hearts in delighted union. The poem “Saget mir ieman, waz ist Minne?” (“What Is Loving?”), for example, rejects the unequal relationship between a woman placed on an idealized pedestal and a subservient man kneeling before her. Love, Walther suggests, is a natural relation of equality between two lovers that enriches both participants. Consequently, Walther also composed poetry in the vein of the common love style. In texts such as “Herzeliebes Frouwelin” (“Dear Young Woman”) and “Nemt, Frouwe, disen Kranz” (“Take, Young Woman, This Wreath”), as well as the well-known poem “Unter der Linden” (“Under the Linden-Tree”), he described the natural passions of the simple girl and his reciprocal affection for her.

Walther lived during a period of great political turmoil, and in many of his poems he gave voice to his concerns. After the death of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1190, conflicts ensued among the royal houses of the Guelphs and the Waiblingen. The Guelphs sought to assume leadership from the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. Frederick II, son of Barbarossa, was finally crowned as emperor in 1220. This was also the era in which church and state vied for political hegemony in Europe, a conflict that extended over most of the thirteenth century. Walther was distressed at the loss of harmony and unity that had marked the earlier years of the Hohenstaufen empire. In many of his poems, he praised his German homeland, lauding its beautiful women, its landscapes, and its brave knights and chivalry. In his best-known poem, “Ich saz uf eine Steine” (“I Was Sitting upon a Rock”), he laments the violence and discord that had disrupted the land. He fears that the knightly ideals of honor, wealth, and God’s blessings are threatened by the conflicts he sees around him. Unfortunately, the gradual process of disintegration within his beloved empire continued long after his death. The Hohenstaufen Dynasty came to an end in 1268 with the execution of Conradin in Naples.

Significance

If Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the lyric genius of Germany’s second golden age of literature (during the eighteenth century), then Walther von der Vogelweide was certainly the greatest genius of its first great era, during the Middle Ages. His poetry achieved a splendid union of form and content. He was able to infuse the conventions of the courtly love lyric with a freshness and vitality unequaled by others of his generation. His imagery is distinguished by a keen sense of realism combined with a genuine poetic sensibility. His love for his homeland, his concern for its future, and his egalitarian attitudes suggest a warm-spirited individual able to look beyond the parochial concerns that marked so many of his contemporaries.

If it can be said that the literary production of a society is the highest expression (in linguistic terms) of its values and ideals, then Walther’s place in the history of German culture and civilization is assured. In certain respects, the tradition of the courtly love lyric manifested European (and especially Germanic) society’s attempt to harmonize the virtues of two distinct cultural traditions, that of the strong and fearless tribal warrior and that of the humble Christian whose strength lay not in the physical but in the spiritual domain. As the foremost poet of this tradition, one who both epitomized and transcended its limits, Walther left a legacy that will continue to be examined by future generations.

Bibliography

Garland, Henry, and Mary Garland. Oxford Companion to German Literature. 2d ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1986. Encyclopedic reference work with brief but informative section on Walther. Contains several important bibliographic references.

Heinen, Hubert. “Lofty and Base Love in Walther von der Vogelweide’s ’So die bluomen’ and ’Aller werdekeit.’” The German Quarterly 51 (1978): 465-475. Treats Walther’s concept of love; includes quotations in German and English, notes, and bibliography.

O’Connell Walshe, Maurice. Medieval German Literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962. A good history of literature in the Middle Ages that contains a substantial section on Walther. Also includes a bibliography.

Reinhardt, Kurt Frank. Germany: Two Thousand Years. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1950. A very useful history of German civilization with a section on medieval culture, history, and literature including a discussion of Walther. Contains a bibliography.

Scheibe, Fred Karl. Walther von der Vogelweide: Troubadour of the Middle Ages. New York: Vantage Press, 1969. A good brief introduction to Walther’s life and poetry that also surveys the reception of his works and lists English translations. Contains a bibliography.

Sullivan, Robert G. Justice and the Social Context of Early Middle High German Literature. New York: Routledge, 2001. A history of the Holy Roman Empire hinging on an examination of High German literature and its authors’ focus on social, political, and spiritual issues during a time of transformation. Bibliographical references, index.