German Poetry from the Beginnings to 1750: Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Martin Luther,

Born in Swabia, Hartmann von Aue is generally credited with having introduced Arthurian romance into German literature. It seems evident that he attended a monastery school and visited France during his youth. He entered service with a lord of Aue to whom he was deeply attached. When his master died, Hartmann joined the crusade of Henry VI in 1197. He wrote epics, love songs, and crusading lyrics, as well as a "Buchlein," a lover's complaint in the form of a debate between the heart and the body. His Erec (c.1180) is the first known Arthurian romance in German. It closely follows its French model, the Eric of Chretien de Troyes. Hartmann's Der Arme Heinrich and his Iwein (c.1190) are famous and influential romances. In the poem Gregorius (c.1195), Hartmann virtually created a new genre, the so-called courtly legend, in which an edifying story is told with all the refinements of courtly style. Gegorius is a moral tale of sin and suffering in which penance is followed by reward. The hero is the child of an incestuous union of brother and sister. The boy is abandoned, discovered, raised by monks, becomes a knight-errant, saves a lady in distress, and marries her. Later he discovers that she is his mother. In despair he undertakes a prolonged and bitter expiation. His penance is at last accepted, his virtue recognized, and he is crowned pope. Hartmann's version of the ancient Oedipus legend became the source for Wolfram's Parzival and for Thomas Mann's The Holy Sinner. Wolfram Von Eschenbach was born around 1170. He led a life as a Bavarian knight, serving lords in Abensburg, Wildenburg, and Wertheim. By 1203 he was in the court of Landgrave Hermann von Thuringen. He was also a poet. His surviving writings include eight lyric poems. The most important of these is Parzival, a poem of 25,000 lines in 16 books that introduced the theme of chivalry and the search for the Holy Grail into German literature. The work had an influence on later poets and it was the basis for Richard Wagner's final opera, Parsifal. His other works include Tagelieder, Willehalm, and Titurel. He died around 1220.