The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Walther von der Vogelweide

WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE (“Walter of the bird meadow”), a German minnesinger, born in Franconia or Austria between 1165 and 1170, died in Würzburg about 1228. He was of a noble but not wealthy family, and learned the art of poetry under Reinmar. He found his first patron at Vienna in Duke Frederick, and about 1187 began to compose poems. After the death of the duke in 1198, he led for many years a wandering life, attaching himself to a number of princes in succession. Toward the close of his life he received from the emperor Frederick II. a valuable fief near Würzburg. His early verses were chiefly love songs, but in later years he treated of the crusades and the civil commotions in Germany. Editions of his poems have been published by Lachmann (1827; 4th ed., 1864), Wackernagel and Rieger (1862), and Pfeiffer (1864). Horing has furnished a Glossarium to his poems (1844), and his life has been written by Uhland (1822) and Menzel (1865).