Tannhäuser

Who is Tannhäuser?

Tannhäuser was a German Minnesänger and poet. Historically, his biography is obscure beyond the poetry, which dates between 1245 and 1265. Socially, he presumed familial lineage with the old nobles, the Lords of Thannhausen, residents in their castle at Tannhausen, near Ellwangen and Dinkelsbühl; moreover, the historical Tannhausen castle, is at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz.

Tannhäuser was an active courtier at the court of Frederick II of Austria, and the Codex Manesse depicts him clad in the Teutonic Order habit, suggesting he might have fought the Fifth Crusade. As literature, Tannhäuser’s poems parody the traditional genre, because he was a proponent of the leich style of poetry; however, the Bußlied is unusual, given the eroticism of the remaining Codex Manesse.