Walther von der Vogelweide

The old city feels very Tyrolean, with its narrow Gothic arcaded streets, and picturesque squares dominated by statues of Germanic heroes - like the medieval minstrel, Walther von der Vogelweide.

Walther von der Vogelweide sums up the popular appreciation of the whole ecclesiastical body, from pope downward: “St. Peter’s chair is filled to-day as well As when ’twas fouled by Gerbert’s sorcery; For he consigned himself alone to hell, While this pope thither drags all Christentie.

He was fond of the society of men of letters, and Walther von der Vogelweide and other Minnesingers were welcomed to his castle of the Wartburg.

The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown, but he was the contemporary of Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, and his epic Tristan was written about the year 1210.

These gnomic writings, running into a developed didacticism, are illustrated by the song of Walther von der Vogelweide on the restraint of eye, ear, and tongue.