(b c1160–65; d after 1210). German poet. He was a member of a freeborn family from Aue (presumably in south-west Germany or northern Switzerland), received a religious education and rose to ministerial rank. His pre-eminence as an epic poet is due to his courtly poetic romances, Erec, Iwein, Gregorius and Der arme Heinrich, and as a lyric poet to his Minnelieder. His verse is highly developed, his language graceful and both rhyme and rhythm are highly polished. Hartmann’s Minnelieder encompass the conventional concept of courtly love, yet they reveal a note of impatience with this deceptively formal, socially hidebound ideal. In its place, they portray the experience of love without the courtly conventions. He took part in a crusade, most probably that of 1189–90; and the epics which he wrote after that reflect his humility and devoutness.
Hartmann’s poetry consists of 18 lieder (without melodies), four of which may not be by him. In substance and motivic material it owes something to French and Provençal models (notably the work of Chrétien de Troyes, the legends, and troubadour strophic structure). His poem Ich muoz von rehte den tac iemer minnen (ed. Lachmann, 215.14) may be a contrafactum of one of several similarly built Romanic models, the most famous of which is Gace Brule, Ire d’amour qui en mon cuer repaire (R.171). Hartmann’s poem is published with this melody in Aarburg, 38.
K. Lachmann and M. Haupt, eds.: Des Minnesangs Frühling (Leipzig, 1857, rev. 38/1988 by H. Moser and H. Tervooren) [complete text edn]
H. de Boor: ‘Die höfische Literatur: Vorbereitung, Blüte, Ausklang, 1170–1250’, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, ed. H. de Boor and R. Newald, ii (Munich, 1953, rev. 11/1991 by U. Hennig)
U. Aarburg, ed.: Singweisen zur Liebeslyrik der deutschen Frühe (Düsseldorf, 1956)
E. Neubuhr: Bibliographie zu Hartmann von Aue (Berlin, 1977)
C. Cormeau: ‘Hartmann von Aue’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
For further bibliography see Minnesang.
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG