ABSTRACT
Hartmann von Aue (c.1160–after 1210/c.1220) was a minnesinger and one of the most influential authors in medieval Germany. His surviving works include a long poem Diu Klage (The Lament, c.1180), Arthurian romances Ereck (c.1180) and Iwein (c.1200), the tales Gregorius (c.1190) and Der arme Heinrich (Poor Henry, c.1195). Hartmann is the first person known to have written romances of chivalry in German after the model of French Chrétien de Troyes. His Ereck has been called a turning point, since it was the first romance of King Arthur and his knights in the German-speaking world. After Hartmann, texts of this kind were very popular for several hundred years.
Hartmann von Aue is an interesting author, whose verse and prose extend to various fields of literature from knightly romances, academic disputations, hagiography, minnesongs, crusader chansons, lamentations, and much else. In modern literature research he has been overshadowed by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strassbourg, and Walther von der Vogelweide, even though he was their model in his own time.
