The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Minnesingers

MINNESINGERS (Ger. Minne, love, and Sänger, singer), a school of German poets which sprang into existence in the latter half of the 12th century, and flourished until near the close of the 13th. Their themes were amatory and heroic, and were treated in much the same manner as those of the troubadours of Provence, though in a more earnest spirit and after a purer ideal conception of love. (See Germany, Literature of, vol. vii., p. 763.)