(b c1200; d c1260). German poet. The only biographical clues are contained in his poetry, according to which he was born of a noble family from Rhenish Franconia and was an itinerant musician. He grew up in Austria and spent time during his later travels at the courts of the Babenbergs in Vienna and of King Wenceslas I in Prague; he also spent periods in Cologne, Mainz and probably in Meissen. He composed Sprüche (see Spruch) with a variety of themes – religious, instructive, ethical and political.
Together with Bruder Wernher, Reinmar von Zweter is the most important Spruch poet of the later, less talented generation of poets after Walther von der Vogelweide. The content, style and form of his poetry is based on that of Walther. Nevertheless he is mentioned in the dedication of the Wartburgkrieg, and the later Meistersinger honoured him as one of the 12 old masters, perhaps on the basis of his ‘Frauen-Ehren-Ton’ for which he himself wrote over 200 Spruch stanzas and which formed the basis of many Meistersinger poems until the time of Hans Sachs. His surviving poetry comprises one Leich with 234 lines, several spruch-like lieder on courtly-love themes, and almost 300 authentic Spruch stanzas. The surviving musical evidence is small and confusing. The famous ‘Frauen-Ehren-Ton’ appears with three different melodies: one is in the Colmar and Donaueschingen manuscripts (ed. in Runge, 155; Taylor, i, 71 with facs.), another is in the lost manuscript of Adam Puschman (ed. in Münzer, no.69) and yet another is in D-Bsb ms.fol.25. His one Leich, entitled Got unt dîn eben êwikeit, appears with music only in the Wiener Leichhandschrift (A-Wn 2701, ed. in Rietsch, 62; Taylor, i, 72). There is considerable doubt about the authenticity of the ‘Sangweise’ (D-DO 120, ed. in Runge, 184), the ‘Schallweise’ (D-Mbs Cgm 4997, ed. in Runge, 184 and Taylor, i, 148) and the ‘Spiegelweise’ (D-Mbs Cgm 4997, ed. in Runge, 161 and Taylor, i, 72; a different melody is in D-Bsb ms.fol.25).
G. Roethe, ed.: Die Gedichte Reinmars von Zweter (Leipzig, 1887/R) [complete edn and biographical material]
P. Runge, ed.: Die Sangesweisen der Colmarer Handschrift und die Liederhandschrift Donaueschingen (Leipzig, 1896/R)
G. Münzer, ed.: Das Singebuch des Adam Puschman (Leipzig, 1906/R)
H. Rietsch, ed.: Gesänge von Frauenlob, Reinmar v. Zweter und Alexander, DTÖ, xli, Jg.xx/2 (1913/R)
R.J. Taylor, ed.: The Art of the Minnesinger (Cardiff, 1968)
G. Objartel: ‘Zwei wenig beachtete Fragmente Reinmars von Zweter und ein lateinisches Gegenstück seines Leichs’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, xc (1971), suppl., 217–31
E. Schumann: Stilwandel und Gestaltveränderung im Meistergesang (Kassel, 1972)
H. Brunner: ‘Reinmar von Zweter’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
G. Objartel: Der Meissner der Jenaer Liederhandschrift (Berlin, 1977), 59–60
H. Brunner and J. Rettelbach, eds.: Die Töne der Meistersinger (Göppingen, 1980)
F.H. Bäuml and R.H. Rouse: ‘Roll and Codex: a New Manuscript Fragment of Reinmar von Zweter’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, cv (1983), 192–231, 317–30
H. Tervooren: ‘Ein neuer Fund zu Reimar von Zweter: zugleich ein Beitrage zu einer md./nd. Literaturlandschaft’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, cii (1983), 377–99
H. Tervooren and T. Bein: ‘Ein neues Fragment zum Minnesang und zur Sprangspruchdichtung: Reinmar von Zweter, Kelin, Rumzlant und Unbekanntes’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, cvii (1988), 1–26
F. Schanze and B. Wachinger, eds.: Repertorium der Sangsprüche und Meisterlieder, v (Tübingen, 1990), 225–95
M.J. Schubert: ‘Die Form von Reinmars Leich’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, xli (1995), 85–141
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG/LORENZ WELKER