Heinrich Frauenlob

After several years wandering as a minstrel in the service of various patrons, he is said to have established the first school of the meistersingers at Mainz, although no documentary evidence confirms that early tradition.

The stage name Frauenlob (Middle High German Vrowenlop), meaning "praise of ladies", is said to have been given to him as the result of a poetic contest with the poet-minstrel Regenbogen, in which he maintained that the term frau "lady, high-born woman" was superior to the term weib "woman, adult female".

[2] Frauenlob was one of the most influential German poets of the 14th century, his contemporary reception being equalled only by Walther von der Vogelweide.

Frauenlob also composed a dispute between Minne and the World and a large number of Sangsprüche (estimates ranging at around 300 poems in 15 known melodies).

Tervooren (2001) sees the very popularity of Frauenlob as the culmination and end-point of the genre, after which it ceased to innovate, easing into imitation and written tradition.