The New Student's Reference Work/Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide (väl′tẽr fṓn dẽr fō′gel-vī′dā), (Walter of the Bird-Meadow), a German minstrel or minnesinger, was born in Tyrol, between 1160 and 1170. He was attached to the court of Duke Frederick of Austria, at Vienna, for many years, and at his death went from court to court after the fashion of the minnesinger. His early poems were love-songs, but the crusades and civil troubles of Germany furnished the subjects of his later verses. He stands in the front rank of the lyrical poets of his country. He died in 1228 or 1230 at Würzburg, where Frederick II had given him a valuable estate. A monument was erected there to his memory in 1843, and a statue of him at Innsbruck in 1877. See Minnesinger and Literature (German.)