MINNESINGERS, the name given to the German lyric poets of the 12th and 13th centuries. The term Minnesang, strictly applicable to the poems expressing the homage (Minnedienst) rendered by the knight to his mistress, is applied to the whole body of lyric poetry of the period, whether dealing with love, religion or politics. The idea of amour courtois, with its excessive worship of woman, its minute etiquette and its artificial senti ment, was introduced into German poetry from Provencal litera ture; but the German Minnesang was no slavish imitation of the poetry of the troubadours. Its tone was, on the whole, healthier and more sincere. The minnesinger usually belonged to the lower ranks of the nobility, and his verses were addressed to a married woman, often above him in rank. He was not permitted to give his lady's name, or to betray her identity; and a direct expression of passion would also have contravened the rules. The poems were from the first sung in open court to a melody (Weise) of the poet's own composing, with the accompaniment of a fiddle or small harp.
These consisted of a single strophe cast in three divisions, two (known as Stollen) identical in form, stating and developing the argument, the third (Abgesang) of different form, giving the conclusion. Later on, two or more strophes were used in a single poem, but the principle of their structure was retained. In this form were cast the Tagelied, a dialogue describing the parting of lovers at dawn; and the crusad ing song. Side by side with these existed the Spruch, written in a single undivided stanza, destined for recitation and often cast in the form of a fable. The lay (Leith) was written in unequal strophes, each formed of two equal divisions. It was applied in the first instance to sacred lyrics, and was first used in love poems by the Alsatian minnesinger Ulrich von Gutenberg.
The earliest minnesinger whose name has come down to us is von Kiirenberg (fl. c. 116o), a scion of an Austrian knightly family whose castle lay on the Danube, west of Linz. His songs, however, contradict the root idea of Minnedienst, since the lady is the wooer, and the poet, at the most, an acquiescent lover. They take the form of laments for an absent lover, complaints of his faithlessness and the like. Among the other Austrian and south German lyrists who show small trace of foreign influence was Dietmar von Aist (d. c. 1171), though some of the songs attrib
uted to him seem to be of later date. While the love-song re mained in the hands of noble singers, the Spruch was cultivated by humbler poets. The elder of the two or three poets concealed under the name of Spervogel was a wandering singer who found patronage at the court of the burgraves of Regensburg, one of whom himself figures among the earlier minnesingers.
In German Minnesang this begins at the close of the 12th century with the establishment of the Proven cal tradition in western Germany through the poems of Heinrich von Veldeke and Friedrich von Hausen. National elements abound in Veldeke's songs, although the amour courtois dominates the whole; Friedrich von Hausen (d. 1190) followed Provencal models closely, as did also the Swiss Count Rudolf von Fenis. The greatest name among the earlier minnesingers is that of Heinrich von Morungen, a Thuringian poet who lived on in popular story in the ballad of "The Noble Moringer." He brought great imagina tive power to bear on the common subjects of Minnesang, and his poetry has a very modern note. The formal art and science of Minnesang reached full development in the subtle love-songs of Reinmar, the Alsatian "nightingale of Hagenau." He became a member of the court of Duke Leopold V. (d. 1194) of Austria, and there Walther von der Vogelweide (q.v.) was first his dis ciple, and then perhaps his rival. Walther, the greatest of mediaeval German lyric poets, had Reinmar's technical art, but in feeling was more nearly allied to Morungen. He raised the Spruch to the dignity of a serious political poem, which proved a potent weapon against the policy of Innocent III. The Tagelieder of Wolfram von Eschenbach give him a high place in Minnesang, although his fame, like that of Heinrich von Veldeke and Hartmann von Aue, chiefly rests on his epics. A new style—called by Lachmann hofische Dorfpoesie—was developed by Neidhart von Reuental (d. c. 125o), who belonged to the lower Bavarian nobility. He wrote songs to accompany the dances of the village beauties, and comic and realistic descriptions of village life to please the court. He was acknowledged by the Meistersinger as one of the 12 mas ters of song. Nevertheless, with him the decadence may be said to have begun.