(fl 1185–1205; d c1205). German Minnesinger. He was possibly a member of the family of imperial ministerial rank from Hagenau in Alsace, but it is not known whether ‘von Hagenau’ is a reference to a place (of birth or of activity) or is simply a family name. He is not attested in documents of the time: the manuscripts refer to him as ‘Reinmar’ or ‘Reinmar der Alte’, and Gotfrid von Strassburg described him as ‘die nahtegal von Hagenouwe’. He may have participated in Leopold VI’s crusade of 1197–8. Reinmar was one of the leading representatives of Hoher Minnesang, the form of which he raised to classic perfection. It was presumably he who brought this art form from his western homeland to Austria, where he was possibly employed in the Babenberg court in 1195. The character of his poetry is original and reveals hardly any influences of Friedrich von Hûsen’s Rhenish school of poetry, which was orientated towards the Provençal lyric; all that can be discerned is the adoption of motifs and themes from the Danube school.
Reinmar’s virtuosity had a far-reaching effect on contemporary poetry and poets, such as Ulrich von Lichtenstein, Neidhart von Reuental, and above all Walther von der Vogelweide, who may have been his pupil but was later his rival. The Meistersinger later regarded him as one of the 12 alte Meister. The characteristic features of his style are sensitivity, veiled circumlocutions and affected turns of phrase. His poetry combines themes of glorification of chivalrous virtue and of the lady of courtly society with reflection, self-analysis and autobiographical remarks.
Reinmar’s considerable influence on other poets and a problematic manuscript tradition make it difficult to separate the authentic strophes from the inauthentic. Von Kraus and others believed that only about half of the 60 ‘Reinmar’ poems were by the poet, but current thought considers all of them to be authentic. About 86 Töne with 340 strophes are transmitted in the manuscripts. It is possible to construct some kind of chronological order for his poems from the literary dispute between Reinmar and Walther von der Vogelweide (which is documented in several poems by both men) and from references made in his own poems.
Text edition: Des Minnesangs Frühling, ed. K. Lachmann and M. Haupt (Leipzig, 1857, rev. 38/1988 by H. Moser and H. Tervooren) [MF]
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Daz eime wol getzogenen man tzer werl, D-MÜsa VII, 51 [melody and text fragmentary but ascribed ‘Meister Reymar’; Ton not otherwise known among Reinmar’s poetry, so text and music are normally considered unauthentic]; ed. R. Molitor, ‘Die Lieder des Münsterischen Fragmentes’, SIMG, xii (1910–11), 475–500, esp. 500, with facsimile on the facing page |
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Sage, daz ich dirs iemer lône, MF 177.10, Mbs Clm 4660 (Codex Buranus) [with staffless neumes] |
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Solde ab ich mit sorgen iemer leben, MF 185.27, Mbs Clm 4660 [preceded by Latin poem in same form with staffless neumes] |
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Ze niuwen fröiden stât mîn muot, MF 203.10, Mbs Clm 4660 [with inc. staffless neumes] |
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Der winter waere mir ein zît, MF 35.16, ?contrafactum of Bernart de Ventadorn, ‘Quan vei la lauzeta mover’ PC 70.43 [cf Hân ich iht vriunt]; ed. in U. Aarburg: Singweisen zur Liebeslyrik der deutschen Frühe (Düsseldorf, 1956), 39 |
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Hân ich iht vriunt, die wünschen ir, MF 103.3 (pupil of Reinmar, though ascribed in MSS to Heinrich von Rugge): ?contrafactum of Bernart de Ventadorn, ‘Quan vei la lauzeta mover’ PC 70.43 [cf previous song]; ed. in Aarburg: Singweisen zur Liebeslyrik der deutschen Frühe (Düsseldorf, 1956), 32 |
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Mîn ougen wurden liebes alse vol, MF 194.18: ?contrafactum of Gaucelm Faidit, ‘Mon cor e mi e mas bonas chansos’ PC 167.37 |
C. von Kraus: Des Minnesangs Frühling: Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1939/R), 341ff
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: ‘Melodien zum frühen deutschen Minnesang’, Der deutsche Minnesang: Aufsätze zu seiner Erforschung, i, ed. H. Fromm (Darmstadt, 1961/R), 378–421
W. Schmaltz: Reinmar der Alte: Beiträge zur poetischen Technik (Göppingen, 1975)
G. Schweikle: ‘Reinmar der Alte’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
M. Stange: Reinmars Lyrik (Amsterdam, 1977)
J. Ashcroft: ‘“Venus clerk”: Reinmar in the “Carmina burana”’, Modern Language Review, lxxvii (1982), 618–28
A. Stevens: ‘dîn wol redender munt: Reinmar der Alte als Minnesänger’, Minnesang in Österreich, ed. H. Birkhan (Vienna, 1983), 176–96
A. Vizkelety and K.-A. Wirth: ‘Funde zum Minnesang: Blätter aus einer bebilderten Liederhandschrift’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, cvii (1985), 366–75
H. Tervooren: Reinmar-Studien: ein Kommentar zu den ‘unechten’ Liedern Reinmars des Alten (Stuttgart, 1991)
For further bibliography see Minnesang.
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG/LORENZ WELKER