Middle High German literature is literature written in German between the middle of the 11th century and the middle of the 14th. 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 (). 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 same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances. again drawing on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material. The third literary movement of these years was a new revamping of the heroic tradition, in which the ancient Germanic oral tradition can still be discerned, but tamed and Christianized and adapted for the court.
Historical overview 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. This eventually lost its urgency under the subsequent Ottonian and Salian emperors, and official promotion of the written vernacular lapsed. The result was a period of around 150 years, , when there was almost no new writing in German.
By the middle of the 11th century, there was an increasing preference for German over Latin in writing in the courts, and Henry the Lion was just the first of the princes, in 1144, to establish his own court chancery. At the same time there was a growing audience among the nobility for literature in the vernacular (as was already happening in France and England).
The earliest works of this period, such as the Ezzolied and Annolied, were still the product of clerical authors with a biblical subject, but now directed towards a lay audience at the noble courts, rather than the clerical audience of the Old High German compositions.
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. In the same period, the love lyrics of the Danubian poets mark the start of the Minnesang tradition.
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. 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. Religious concerns were not lost, but the issue was now how to reconcile worldly and divine obligations.
From around 1170 Old French romances and the songs of the Provençal troubadours and French trouvères inspired MHG adaptations, which even from the start showed great independence from their sources. The following decades were a "golden age" (German ), a sixty-year period which saw the creation of works recognized by both contemporaries and later generations as classics: the courtly romances of Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg and Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the songs of the Minnesänger, most notable among them Walther von der Vogelweide.
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. Other types of narrative with connections to oral tradition in the broader MHG period are the earlier Spielmannsepen ("minstrel epics") and the later epics surrounding the legendary figure of Dietrich von Bern.
In the later MHG period from about 1230 (sometimes termed "post-Classical"), poets built on the achievements of the and expanded the scope of German literature in form and subject matter. New genres included a new style of short tale (German ). Neidhart broadened the scope of the love-lyric with peasant characters and a satirical tone, while political uncertainty prompted a rise in didactic and political songs from the in the footsteps of Walther. With the writings of the mystics, which for the first time included a number of female writers, this period also saw the first developments in literary prose.
By the mid-14th century, however, with courtly culture in decline, the genres which had dominated MHG literature ceased to attract writers, and a new literature, centred on the towns and their urban patriciate, started to develop. Even in the following period, however, the old stories were copied and adapted for new audiences, with the result that many MHG works survive in the 15th century and even later copies, while the Meistersinger continued to develop the work of the Sangspruchdichter and were still using melodies of Walther's for new songs.
Poets There is little biographical evidence about the MHG poets. The epic poets generally name themselves in their works, and the Minnesänger are identified in the manuscript collections, but works based on oral tradition are typically anonymous.
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. However, even a poet as famous as Walther von der Vogelweide is mentioned in only a single official document, and we know little about the narrative poets apart from what they say about themselves in their works and remarks by later writers.
Given the time it would take to write such works, the epic poets would necessarily have been dependent on long-term patronage, and the many incomplete works may indicate a loss of patronage. Some Minnesänger were of high noble rank (including the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI) requiring no patronage. For them song would have been an occasional pastime, to enhance their prestige, and their œuvre is correspondingly small. 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). Much lower on the social scale were the Spruchdichter with their didactic and political songs — wandering minstrels who had limited legal rights.
Manuscripts and patrons
MHG literature is preserved in parchment and, towards the end of the period, paper manuscripts, However, there are no MHG literary manuscripts which show the hand of the original author — in fact, it is clear that many authors, even if they could read, were unable to write.
Each manuscript was written by a scribe (or several) in the scriptorium of a monastery or the chancery of a noble court, and might be several generations from any "original".
Most manuscripts are, in fact, of significantly later date than the work they record. An extreme case is the Ambraser Heldenbuch, compiled 1504–1516, which includes texts of Hartmann von Aue's Erec and the Nibelungenlied, composed in and , respectively. However, many manuscripts (perhaps 75%) survive only in fragments and an unknown number of works have been completely lost. Even literary fame is no guarantee of survival: Erec was highly influential and widely quoted, but it survives only in the Ambraser Heldenbuch and a few earlier fragments. Bligger von Steinach's narrative verse is praised by Gottfried von Strassburg and Rudolf von Ems, but none of it survives.
Manuscripts were expensive, both in terms of material and labour of copying, even without the sponsorship of creative work or the costs of decoration and illumination found in the most elaborate manuscripts. For new work:
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.
Patrons are not mentioned in love lyrics, but several are named in narrative works and Spruchdichtung. Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia, for example, sponsored Wolfram von Eschenbach's Willehalm, Herbort von Fritzlar's Liet von Troje, and the completion of Heinrich von Veldeke's Eneas. 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."
Audience and readership In the main, MHG literature was written for oral delivery and public performance. First, literacy at the noble courts was limited: while the noble ladies will have had some education as will younger sons intended for the church, most knights were unable to read. Second, the provision of public performance served to enhance the prestige of the patron.
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. The conclusion is that MHG narrative verse was intended both for readers and listeners, and Dennis Green identifies this as a trend which began around the start of the 13th century, with women readers as a particular constituency It is also reflected in the increasing number of manuscripts from the mid-13th century.
However, narrative works with strophic form were or, at least, could also be sung. Sharing its strophic form with the songs of Der von Kürenberg, the Nibelungenlied could have been sung, and in all, melodies are known for eight of the thirteen different strophic forms found in heroic verse. And while there is no evidence that the rhyming couplets of the courtly romance were sung, they were probably delivered in a recitative style.
As song genres, Minnesang and Spruchdichtung were necessarily designed for performance before an audience, and this is particularly clear from the references to dance. But even the lyric genres may have had readers. Certainly, the poets themselves, even if illiterate like Ulrich von Liechtenstein, kept written copies of their own works, which may have been copied for readers. 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.
Genres Verse narrative Religious narrative The Ezzolied (before 1064), the first literary work of the MHG period, is a strophic work of salvation history from the Creation to the Crucifixion. The other poems from the first century of this period are likewise designed to present biblical material to a lay audience, and range from "biblical ballads" — short poems on individual biblical episodes — to longer retellings of complete Old Testament books. Many of these are collected in manuscript compilations, of which the most notable is the Vorau manuscript, with a dozen Biblical pieces. This includes poems by Ava, the earliest known female poet writing in German.
Historien der alden E is a summary of the Old Testament in verse form.
Historical narrative The earliest historical poems are closely related to the biblical verse, as they view events from a Christian perspective. The Annolied ("Song of Anno") () combines salvation history, world history from the Babylonians onwards, and the life of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne. The Kaiserchronik (completed after 1146, and also in the Vorau manuscript) is the first historiographic work in any European vernacular. In a purely chronological narrative it tells the story of selected Roman emperors and their Frankish successors, but judges each emperor according to Christian standards, and includes material from the Annolied.