Clear the stage for the famous German poets of the High Middle Ages: A philologist from the University of Bamberg focuses on Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach and explains why 2020 is considered the 850th year of their birth, even though the exact dates of their lives are not known.
The Middle Ages are a mysterious time and many of their personalities remain shadowy because there are few tangible evidence. This also applies to the two best-known German authors of this era: Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Ingrid Bennewitz of the University of Bamberg emphasizes that both owe their fame, which is still widely known today, to the grace of their poetry, and above all to the work of Richard Wagner.
“Wagner’s radical new version of Wolfram’s ‘Parzival’, but also his daring interpretation of the medieval minnesong with the opponents Walther, Wolfram and Tannhäuser in the ‘Tannhäuser’ paved the way for the two Franconian authors of the Middle Ages to achieve worldwide recognition up to the present day,” says the Philologist. It so happens that the works of both authors are still discussed in schools today.
850th birthday year – approximately
As she explains, 2020 is a special year in relation to the two authors, because they are celebrating a “rounded” anniversary: their year of birth is set at 1170. “The dates of birth of poets of the Middle Ages are only known in the rarest of cases,” explains Bennewitz. “You always need a portion of criminal curiosity to research the approximate life dates of medieval authors.” Why it is nevertheless justified to speak of an anniversary, she explains: “The works provide clear clues to the life dates. In both cases one can assume a literary creative phase from the end of the 12th century to the 1230s, which in turn makes a birth around 1170 appear very likely, ”says Bennewitz.
Walther von der Vogelweide was probably born in Austria or South Tyrol and, according to evidence, later lived in Franconia. “Walther von der Vogelweide dedicated many of his most famous political sayings to Philip from the Staufer,” says Bennewitz. It is known of this king that he began his reign in 1198 and was murdered in the old court of Bamberg in 1208 because of family disputes with the Wittelsbach dynasty.
“It is very likely that Walther received a fiefdom from the last Hohenstaufen Emperor Friedrich II near Würzburg – which can be described as a home with a pension,” reports the scientist. He was probably buried there after his death. The first written information on this can be found in the “House Book of Michael de Leone”, a song manuscript from around 1350, says Bennewitz.
Wolfram actually came from Eschenbach
As far as Wolfram von Eschenbach is concerned, it can actually be assumed that he was born in the town of Eschenbach, between Ansbach and Gunzenhausen. The place has therefore been allowed to call itself Wolframs-Eschenbach since 1917. “It seems plausible that Wolfram came from a ministerial family of the Counts of Wertheim. Ministerials are civil servants in the service of the nobility, ”says Bennewitz. This reference is supported by the fact that his novels and epic poems such as “Parzival” and “Willehalm” reflect contacts with the Lords of Durne, von Truhendingen, the Counts of Dollnstein and von Abenburg, and in particular with Landgrave Hermann von Thuringia.
When asked whether the two contemporaries Wolfram and Walther knew about each other, Bennewitz says: “Wolfram at least knew about Walther’s work. He quotes one of his political songs in a clear context in his ‘Willehalm’. And – almost even more exciting: He mentions another of his songs in Parzival, which is still unknown to this day, so it is missing in the manuscripts we have received, ”says Bennewitz.
As the holder of the chair for German Medieval Philology at the University of Bamberg finally reports, she and her team have already carried out several successful school projects at elementary schools in the Bamberg and Erlangen area during the Parzival. “Some students love to go on the search for the origins of our language and literature in the role of language and literature detectives,” says Bennewitz. “This attractiveness is reinforced by the regional reference: Because Wolfram has also called himself Franke”, says the scientist.