WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE (c. 1170- c. 1230), the most illustrious of the German minnesänger, was born in Tyrol between 1165 and 1170. He belonged to a noble family, but had no hereditary possessions. At an early age he seems to have given evidence of an aptitude for poetry, and his genius was developed under the influence of the older poet Reinmar, whom he soon far surpassed. His earliest patron was the young and brilliant Duke Frederick of Austria, at whose court in Vienna he spent several years. After Duke Frederick’s death Walther betook himself to King Philip, at whose coronation in Mainz, on the 8th September 1198, he was present. King Philip appreciated his genius, but nothing is definitely known as to their relations to one another, or as to the causes which brought their connexion to an end. After a short stay at the court of Duke Leonhard of Carinthia Walther went to Eisenach, where poets were always welcomed by the landgrave Hermann. Here he remained until 1211, when the landgrave, in deference to the pope, joined some other princes in an attempt to secure the crown for the prince afterwards known as Frederick II. Walther, who disapproved of this policy, soon afterwards entered the service of the emperor Otho; but, the emperor having proved unfriendly towards him, he associated himself with the cause of Frederick, who greatly pleased him by granting him a small fief near Würzburg, thereby gratifying a wish the poet had often expressed. He might now have led a settled life, but he had so long been accustomed to go from court to court that it was apparently hard for him to live without the excitement of travel and adventure. In 1217 he was at the court of Duke Leopold of Austria, after whose departure for the Holy Land he appears to have been received ...first by the duke’s uncle, Henry of Medlik, then by Berthold of Andechs, the patriarch of Aquileia. On the return of Duke Leopold Walther again spent some time with him; but in 1220 he joined the retinue of the imperial vicar Engelbert of Cologne and Frederick Ii.’s son, Henry, to whom he seems to have acted as tutor. In 1224 Walther retired to Würzburg, where, although living in privacy, he watched closely the course of public affairs. He may have taken part in the crusade of 1228, but he certainly did not reach Palestine. He died about 1230 at Würzburg, where, under a tree in the Laurence garden of the new minster, a stone was long pointed out as that which, according to tradition, marked his grave. A new monument to him was erected at Würzburg in 1843, and a statue of him was unveiled at Innsbruck in 1877.
Walther von der Vogelweide was a poet not only of exquisite sensibility, but of a frank, independent, and manly character. He lived in a troubled age, when church and state were often in deadly conflict. In this struggle, in which he took keen interest, his sympathy was wholly with the imperial cause, and he did much to influence opinion by the vigour with which he attacked the extravagant pretensions of the papacy. While defending the rights of secular rulers, he did not forget their duties, and many of his verses—considering the period to which they belong—display a remarkably clear and generous conception of the principles of humanity and freedom. In writing of love, the favourite subject of the minnesänger, he had all the brightness, freshness, and gaiety of the best of his contemporaries, and he excelled them in his delicate appreciation of the noblest womanly qualities. His love of nature, especially in the season of spring, was an essential element of his intellectual and emotional life, and gives an enduring charm to the poems in which it is incidentally or indirectly expressed. He was a master of all the forms of verse used in Middle High German, and the perfection of his rhythm and diction, combined with the depth and wide range of his ideas, secures for him an enduring place in the front rank of the lyrical poets of his country.
A critical edition of his poems was issued by Lachmann in 1827, and there have been later editions by Wackernagel, Rieger, and Pfeiffer. There are renderings into modern German by Simrock, Koch, and Weiske. An admirable biography of the poet was written by Uhland (1S22). Biographical and critical studies have also been written by Reuss, Rieger, Menzel, and Böse.
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