WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE, the greatest and most famous minnesinger (q.v.) of the middle ages, was b. 1165-70 in Franconia or in Austria. Although his family was noble, he had no possessions, and became a minstrel as much, perhaps, from necessity as from impulse. His master and early model was the elder Reinmar. It is thought that his first public performances in "singing and saying" date from about 1187; soon after which, he found a warm patron in Friedrich the Catholic, duke of Austria. But this prince having died in 1198, Walther began the life of a wandering minstrel, in the course of which he visited the courts of most of the German sover eigns. A few details of his career are known. He twice (1199 and 1205) spent some time at the court of the emperor Philipp; and then lived six years at Eisenach with a generous patron, Hermann landgraf of Thuringia. During 1214-15 he repeatedly visited the emperor Otho. by whom. as well as by Philipp, he seems to have been treated with unkingly parsimony. From 1217 to 1219 he lived with duke Bernhard in Carinthia, then returned to Austria, and in 1220 received from Friedrich II. a small estate at Wurzburg. He died about the beginning of 1228. His grave has long hem pointed out in the Laurence garden of the cathedral of Wurzburg; but a new monu ment was erected to him in 1843. Walther far excelled his master Reinmar, whom he survived about 20 years. both in matter and style; while in richness and versatility of mind all the other minnesingers must stand far behind him; for, to his wide sym pathies and matured art, all themes were alike: tenderness and depth, no less than cheerfulness and gayety, deep earnestness, as well as playful raillery. He did not confine himself, like Reinmar, to minnelays, but wrote also hymns, eulogies of his patrons, and didactic pieces. He sang of the duties and dignities of the emperor; of
the obligations of princes and vassals; of the rights and wrongs of the question between the pope and the emperor; of the glory of the true church; and often his song, conveyed earnest and cutting censure. But it was only on conviction that he gave praise or aflame, never influenced by favor or.prejudice; and his censures of the church were those of a candid but pious believer. From a decided patriotic feeling, he stood firmly by the empire and the emperor in opposing the pretensions and usur pations of the pope. His writings on this subject had a widespread and powerful effect; they alienated, aceording to the testimony of a contemporary, Thomasin, thou rands from the pope, and determined the politics, so to speak, of the German poets for the whole century. Walther was soon recognized by his contemporaries as the master of lyric poetry; and the traditions of the later minnesinger schools place him among the twelve who, in the emperor Otho the great's time, originated and established the noble art of minstrelsy. Lachmann brought out a masterly critical edition of Walther'a writings (Berl. 1827, 3d ed. 1853); and Sinirock an excellent translation (with explana tions by Simrock and Waekernagel, 2 vols. Berl. 1833; 2d ed. Leip. 1853); Uhland wrote a beautiful account of his life and writings (Walther von der VOifiliteide, ein altdeutscher _DOW?, Stuttg. and Ttth. 1822); and Hornig, a complete Glossariutu to his poems (Qued hub. 1844).—Sec Reuss, Walther von der Vogelteenie (1843); Daffis (1854), Opel (1860), Rieger (1863), Kurz (1863), and Menzel (1865).