Dietmar von Aist (c. 1115 – c. 1171) was a Minnesinger from a

baronial Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

family in the

Duchy of Austria The Duchy of Austria (german: Herzogtum Österreich) was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the '' Privilegium Minus'', when the Margraviate of Austria (''Ostarrîchi'') was detached from Bavaria and eleva ...

, whose work is representative of the

lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

in the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

region.

Life

One Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from about 1139 onwards in contemporary records from

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The surname probably refers to the Aist River, a left tributary of the Danube below the confluence with the Enns. Since about 1125 the noble family von Aist is evidenced in the

Mühlviertel The Mühlviertel () is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and Innviertel. It is named after the three rivers ', ', and '. R ...

region (present-day

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

), where today the ruins of the ancestral seat stand on the Aist River. The Upper Austrian Aistersheim water castle was first mentioned in 1159 together with ''Freiherr'' (Baron) Dietmar von Aist, a ''

ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...

'' of the

Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...

ruler

Henry II of Austria Henry II (german: Heinrich; 1107 – 13 January 1177), called Jasomirgott, a member of the House of Babenberg,Lingelbach 1913, pp. 91–92. was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1140 to 1141, Duke of Bavaria (as ''Henry XI'') and Margrave of Austria ...

. If he is really identical with the poet is not completely certain on chronological grounds. A certain ''Ditmarus de Agasta'' mentioned in further records, who died childless about 1171, is possibly the same as Dietmar von Aist. Dietmar is also referred to in the 1220s poem ''

Diu Crône ''Diu Crône'' ( en, The Crown) is a Middle High German poem of about 30,000 lines treating of King Arthur and the Matter of Britain, dating from around the 1220s and attributed to the epic poet Heinrich von dem Türlin. Little is known of the ...

'' by Heinrich von dem Türlin.

Works

A whole series of songs is ascribed to Dietmar, but his authorship can be clearly decided in only a few cases. With those verses which can be attributed to him without any doubt, he belongs in the earliest period of the

Minnesang (; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who w ...

. Dietmar von Aist and his work represent the link between the uncourtly and the courtly forms. He was one of the first poets to use the refrain and the

Tagelied The Tagelied (''dawn song'') is a particular form of mediaeval German-language lyric, taken and adapted from the Provençal troubadour tradition (in which it was known as the alba) by the German Minnesinger. Often in three verses, it depicts the ...

form ''Wechsel''. The themes of his songs are mostly to do with the relationship of men to women (love, parting, partnership), in which connection it is worth noting that some of his poems are written from the female perspective and others from the male. The woman takes a decidedly strong position: for example, she is to be able to choose her own partner freely - cf the poem ''Ez stuont ein frouwe alleine'' - ''There stood a woman alone''
eLib Austria
full text in the original). The first surviving

is also by Dietmar: ''Slâfest du, friedel ziere?'' (''Are you asleep, dearest one?'').

Texts

* *

Secondary literature

* Joachim Bumke: ''Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im hohen Mittelalter'', München 1990, pp 85–86 * Hans Fromm (ed): ''Der deutsche Minnesang: Aufsätze zu seiner Erforschung'', Vol 1, Darmstadt 1961; Vol 2 ('' Wege der Forschung''; volume 608), Darmstadt 1985 * Rolf Grimminger: ''Poetik des frühen Minnesangs'', (= Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters; vol 27), München 1969 * Andreas Hensel: ''Vom frühen Minnesang zur Lyrik der Hohen Minne: Studien zum Liebesbegriff und zur literarischen Konzeption der Autoren Kürenberger, Dietmar von Aist, Meinloh von Sevelingen, Burggraf von Rietenburg, Friedrich von Hausen und Rudolf von Fenis'', Frankfurt am Main 1997 * Fritz Peter Knapp: ''Deutschsprachiges Schrifttum'', in: Anna M. Drabek (Redaktion), Österreich im Hochmittelalter (907 bis 1246), (= Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für die Geschichte Österreichs/Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Band 17), Wien 1991, pp 505–526 * * Alfred Romain: ''Die Lieder Dietmars von Eist'', in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 37 (1912), pp 349–431, 565 * Günther Schweikle: ''Minnesang'', (= Sammlung Metzler; vol 244), 2., corrected edition Stuttgart 1995 * Helmut Tervooren: ''Dietmar von Aist'', in: ''Verfasserlexikon'', vol 2, 2nd edition Berlin nd elsewhere1980, Spalte 95-98 * ''Codex Manesse. Die Miniaturen der Großen Heidelberger Liederhandschrift'', edited and explained by Ingo F. Walther, Frankfurt a.M 1989 * Herbert Zeman (Hg.): ''Literaturgeschichte Österreichs: von den Anfängen im Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart'', Graz 1996

External links

Codex Manesse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dietmar von Aist 12th-century Austrian poets Austrian male poets Minnesingers 1110s births 1170s deaths