Walther von der Vogelweide performs at Wartburg

1203

The greatest Middle High German lyric poet competed in the legendary Sangerkrieg at the Wartburg castle in Thuringia. His songs of love, politics, and lamentation for a Christendom at war shaped German poetry for generations and were later fodder for Wagner. His biting political verses criticized popes and emperors alike with a frankness that no other German poet of the age dared match.