(d before 1287). Austrian Minnesinger and composer. Coming from Sonnenburg in the Pustertal (Tyrol), probably from a ministerial family, he lived at the courts of Bavaria and Bohemia as well as in Tyrol and Thuringia. Sometimes included by the Meistersinger as one of their alte Meister, he should be counted as one of the most important Spruchdichter after Walther von der Vogelweide, Bruder Werner and Reinmar von Zweter. The 73 Sprüche (see Spruch) ascribed to him, mostly in the Jenaer Liederhandschrift (D-Ju El.f.101, ff.63v–72), may not all be authentic, but they are clearly influenced by Reinmar von Zweter and seem to have been written between about 1247 and 1275; they concern religion, morality and politics, in which Friedrich supported the pope against Rudolf of Habsburg. The song on f.72v of the Jena manuscript (Ihc wil Singhen, ed. in Holz, Saran and Bernoulli as no.XXIII, 64) is probably by Wizlâv; but the remainder of the section devoted to Friedrich’s poems includes three melodies: Eyn rîcher küninc hiez Kosdras with eight strophes both here and in the Colmar Manuscript (D-Mbs Cgm. 4997); Nû merke hô und edele man with eight strophes, all of which also appear in the Colmar Manuscript together with five others; and So wol dir werlst so wol dir hiute with 47 strophes in the Jena manuscript and others elsewhere. A further melody appears in the Colmar Manuscript (f.526) with the annotation ‘In Cunrads von wirczburg nachtwyse; alii dicunt esse In frider(ich) von suneburg sussem don’.
P. Runge, ed.: Die Sangesweisen der Colmarer Handschrift und die Liederhandschrift Donaueschingen (Leipzig, 1896/R)
G. Holz, F. Saran and E. Bernoulli, eds.: Die Jenaer Liederhandschrift (Leipzig, 1901/R)
R.J. Taylor: The Art of the Minnesinger (Cardiff, 1968), i, 20ff [edn of music]; ii, 26ff [commentary]
A. Masser, ed.: Die Sprüche Friedrichs von Sonnenburg (Tübingen, 1979)
G. Kornrumpf: ‘Friedrich von Sonnenberg’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Versfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
For further bibliography see Spruch, Minnesang.
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG