Dietmar von Aist

Dietmar von Aist (Codex Manesse), f. 64r

Dietmar von Aist was a Minnesinger from a baronial family of Upper Austria, documented between 1140 and 1171, whose work is representative of the lyric poetry of the Danube region.

Life

A Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from c 1139 onwards in contemporary records from Salzburg, Regensburg and Vienna. The name Aist probably refers to the River Aist, which in Austria feeds into the Danube below the Enns. The family von Aist is evidenced in Austria from about 1125, where today the ruins of the ancestral castle stand on the River Aist.

Whether the Freiherr (Baron) Dietmar von Aist mentioned in the records is really the same as the poet, is not completely certain on chronological grounds. It is definite however that a certain "Ditmarus de Agasta" mentioned in the records, who died in about 1171, was not the same as Dietmar von Aist.

Works

A whole series of songs is ascribed to Dietmar, but his authorship can be clearly decided in only a few cases. With those verses which can be attributed to him without any doubt, he belongs in the earliest period of the Minnesang. Dietmar von Aist and his work represent the link between the uncourtly and the courtly forms.

He was one of the first poets to use the refrain and the Wechsel. The themes of his songs are mostly to do with the relationship of men to women (love, parting, partnership), in which connection it is worth noting that some of his poems are written from the female perspective and others from the male. The woman takes a decidedly strong position: for example, she is to be able to choose her own partner freely - cf the poem Ez stuont ein frouwe alleine - There stood a woman alone (eLib Austria; full text in the original). The first surviving Tagelied is also by Dietmar: Slâfest du, friedel ziere? (Are you asleep, dearest one?).

References (in German)

Texts

• Hugo Moser and Helmut Tervooren (ed.): Des Minnesangs Frühling, 38., new revised edition Stuttgart 1988, pp. 56-69 ISBN 3-7776-0448-8

Secondary literature

• Joachim Bumke: Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im hohen Mittelalter, München 1990, pp 85-86 ISBN 3-423-04552-3
• Hans Fromm (ed): Der deutsche Minnesang: Aufsätze zu seiner Erforschung, Vol 1, Darmstadt 1961; Vol 2 (= Wege der Forschung; Band 608), Darmstadt 1985 ISBN 3-534-08604-X
• Rolf Grimminger: Poetik des frühen Minnesangs, (= Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters; vol 27), München 1969
• Andreas Hensel: Vom frühen Minnesang zur Lyrik der Hohen Minne: Studien zum Liebesbegriff und zur literarischen Konzeption der Autoren Kürenberger, Dietmar von Aist, Meinloh von Sevelingen, Burggraf von Rietenburg, Friedrich von Hausen und Rudolf von Fenis, Frankfurt am Main 1997 ISBN 3-631-31138-9
• Fritz Peter Knapp: Deutschsprachiges Schrifttum, in: Anna M. Drabek (Redaktion), Österreich im Hochmittelalter (907 bis 1246), (= Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für die Geschichte Österreichs/Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Band 17), Wien 1991, pp 505-526 ISBN 3-7001-1861-9
• Alfred Romain: Die Lieder Dietmars von Eist, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 37 (1912), pp 349-431, 565
• Günther Schweikle: Minnesang, (= Sammlung Metzler; vol 244), 2., corrected edition Stuttgart 1995 ISBN 3-476-12244-1
• Helmut Tervooren: Dietmar von Aist, in: Verfasserlexikon, vol 2, 2nd edition Berlin [and elsewhere] 1980, Spalte 95-98 ISBN 3-11-007699-3
• Codex Manesse. Die Miniaturen der Großen Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, edited and explained by Ingo F. Walther, Frankfurt a.M 1989 ISBN 3-458-14385-8
• Herbert Zeman (Hg.): Literaturgeschichte Österreichs: von den Anfängen im Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Graz 1996 ISBN 3-201-01650-0

External links

• Codex Manesse
• LitLinks
• Dietmar von Aist, a discography