HARTMANN VON AUE (I170?-12Io?), Middle High German poet, belonged to the lower nobility of Swabia. He be came retainer of a nobleman whose domain, Aue, has been identi fied with Obernau on the Neckar, and took part in the Crusade of 1196-97. He is mentioned by Gottfried von Strassburg (c. as still alive, and in the Krone of Heinrich von dem writ ten c. 1220, he is mourned for as dead. Hartmann was the author of four narrative poems. The oldest of these, Erec, which may have been written as early as and the latest and ripest, Iwein, belong to the Arthurian cycle and are based on epics by Chretien de Troyes (q.v.) ; between them lie the romance, Gregorius, also an adaptation of a French epic, and Der acme Heinrich, a charm ing specimen of mediaeval German poetry. The theme of the latter is the cure of the leper, Heinrich, by a young girl who is willing to sacrifice her life for him. Hartmann's language is care fully chosen, his narrative lucid, flowing and characterized by a sense of balance and proportion which is rarely to be found in German mediaeval poetry. His lyrics, which are all fervidly religious, relate in some cases to the crusade.
Erec has been edited by M. Haupt (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1871) ; Gregor ius, by H. Paul (2nd ed., Halle, 1900) ; Der arme Heinrich, by W. Wackernagel and W. Toischer (Basel, 1885) and by H. Paul (2nd ed., Halle, 1893) ; by J. G. Robertson (London, 1895) , with English notes; Iwein, by G. F. Benecke and K. Lachmann (4th ed., Berlin, 1877) and E. Henrici (Halle, 1891-93) . A convenient edition of all Hartmann's poems by F. Bech, 3 vols. (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1891-93, vol. 3 in 4th ed., 1902) .