!!!Wernher der Gartenaere

Wernher der Gartenaere, second half of the 13th century, travelling 
poet from the Innviertel or from Lake Garda. Author of the first 
German "Dorfgeschichte" ("Meier Helmbrecht", 1250-1280, in 1,922 
verses) in the tradition of "Doerperlyrik" ("Doerper" = yokel), mainly 
represented by  Neidhart von Reuental. Helmbrecht, dissatisfied son of 
a peasant, leaves his parents' farm dressed as a nobleman with the 
hope of becoming a knight. He roams the country as the page of a 
robber baron until he is finally captured. As a consequence, his 
parents disown him and he is hanged by the farmers he previously 
robbed. The story was probably meant to serve as a warning to those 
wanting a more flexible Estate system, to discourage peasant's 
ambitions and as a criticism of the territorialisation policy of the 
Habsburgs.

\\
Edition: H. Brackert et al. (eds.), W. d. G., Helmbrecht, 
1978.

!Literature
U. Seelbach, Bibliographie zu W. d. G., 1981; G. 
Schindele, Helmbrecht, in: Literatur im Feudalismus, 1975.


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