Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide is the greatest lyric poet of the German Middle Ages. Born around 1170, probably in the Austrian or Tyrolean region, he is thought to have learned his art at the Vienna court of the Babenbergs, where the older poet Reinmar was his master, before leaving to wander from court to court. He died around 1230 and is traditionally said to be buried at Würzburg.

He wrote courtly love-songs, dawn-songs and songs in praise of simple, mutual love ("niedere Minne"), as well as religious verse, crusading songs and a large body of political Sprüche, in which he spoke for the Hohenstaufen emperors and attacked the papacy. These versions come from Frank C. Nicholson's Old German Love Songs (1907).