Middle High German literature
In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year "golden age" of medieval German literature referred to as the mittelhochdeutsche Blütezeit (c. 1170 – c. 1230).
This was the period of the blossoming of Minnesang, MHG lyric poetry, initially influenced by the French and Provençal tradition of courtly love song.
The vernacular literature of the Old High German period, written in abbeys and monasteries, had been encouraged by the Carolingian dynasty in order to support the work of the church in recently Christianized lands.
[6] By the middle of the 12th century, though, more secular works such as the Kaiserchronik ("The Imperial Chronicle") and the Alexanderlied introduced more worldly subject matter, though still within the religious world-view.
[8] Under Frederick Barbarossa (ruled 1155–1190), political stability and increasing wealth encouraged the nobility to "assert its identity in activities that enhanced its visibility and prestige", among which were the patronage of vernacular literature, sponsoring new compositions, and the performance and copying of existing works.
[4] This new, largely secular literature introduced "new ways of thinking, feeling, imagining", seen in the courtly concerns with romantic love, the challenges and obligations of knighthood, and a striving for personal honour.
[13][14] Also among these classics is the heroic epic the Nibelungenlied, which drew for form and subject matter on Germanic oral tradition rather than Romance models.
[16] In the later MHG period from about 1230 (sometimes termed "post-Classical"),[17] poets built on the achievements of the Blütezeit and expanded the scope of German literature in form and subject matter.
[26] For the higher status Minnesänger there is often documentary evidence, such as the account of the death of Friedrich von Hausen on the Third Crusade, mourned by the whole army.
[31] The large number of songs and the increasing artistry from Minnesänger such as Reinmar, Walther and Neidhart, on the other hand, suggest professional court musicians from the ranks of the unfree nobles (ministeriales).
[40] An extreme case is the Ambraser Heldenbuch, compiled 1504–1516, which includes texts of Hartmann von Aue's Erec and the Nibelungenlied, composed in c. 1185 and c. 1200, respectively.
[45]This meant that only the church, the aristocracy, or, by the second half of the 13th century, the wealthiest urban patriciate had the means to sponsor literary work.
[47] In several of his works Konrad von Würzburg refers to patrons, and these include "members of the nobility, high-ranking cathedral clergy, and wealthy citizens who played important roles in the political and administrative life of the cities.
[52] Nonetheless, there is extensive evidence for private reading of narrative works — for example, in manuscripts the presence of textual patterning such as acrostics, which would not be apparent to listeners.
[57] In any case, the song collections of the 14th century, particularly the massive and expensively illustrated Manesse Codex, are unlikely to have been intended solely, if at all, for performers.
[72] These three works were all vast narrative texts with expansive illustration programmes, in the 14th century they were combined and further expanded by the scribes of the Heinrich von München workshop.
[73] The so-called "Minstrel epics" (Spielmannsepik, Spielmannsdichtung) — a traditional term, now agreed to be inaccurate and misleading[74][75] — are a disparate group of five shorter pre-courtly narratives (Herzog Ernst, König Rother, Orendel, Oswald, and Salman und Morolf).
[9][78] From the mid 12th century the courtly romance, written in rhyming couplets, was the dominant narrative genre in MHG literature.
[80] The central concern of these Arthurian romances is a knight's pursuit of aventiure (literally "adventure") — encounters which allow him to prove his valour and moral worth — and minne ("love").
After the classical period, further developments saw an expansion in the range of themes to encompass other legendary material and stories of lovers' separation by poets such as Konrad von Würzburg and Rudolf von Ems[83] Some of these works were very widely read — there are more than eighty manuscripts of Parzival, for example[84] — but by the mid 14th century, though the most popular works continued to be copied, no new romances were being written.
[91] In the post-classical period a major development is of new short narrative forms in rhyming couplets, with few clear boundaries between genres and little connection with previous writing except in the religious sphere.
[104] The earliest songs (from c. 1160) drew on native German tradition,[105] but from around 1180, Minnesang came under the influence of the Provençal troubadours and the French trouvères, with effects on both form and subject matter.
[106] By 1200 the Minnesänger had absorbed the Romance influences and started to rework forms and themes independently,[107] leading to a period of "classical Minnesang" represented by the songs of Albrecht von Johansdorf (fl.
[109][110] Another innovator, again with a substantial œuvre, is Neidhart (d. c. 1240), whose songs introduce the peasant girl as the object of the knight's attentions, and for which, exceptionally, a large number of melodies survive.
Three fourteenth-century Dominican authors are particularly important: Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso (also known as Heinrich Seuse), and Johannes Tauler.
Female religious writers also made significant contributions, particularly Mechthild von Magdeburg (The Flowing Light of the Godhead) and Margareta Ebner.
Collective manuscripts (German, Sammelhandschriften), which combine works from a variety of different authors and genres, are a major source of MHG texts.
