Dietmar von Aist

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Dietmar von Aist was a Minnesinger from a baronial family of Upper Austria, documented between 1140 and 1171, whose work is representative of the lyric poetry of the Danube region. A Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from c 1139 onwards in contemporary records from Salzburg, Regensburg and Vienna. The name Aist probably refers to the River Aist, which in Austria feeds into the Danube below the Enns. The family von Aist is evidenced in Austria from about 1125, where today the ruins of the ancestral castle stand on the River Aist. Whether the Freiherr (Baron) Dietmar von Aist mentioned in the records is really the same as the poet, is not completely certain on chronological grounds. It is definite however that a certain "Ditmarus de Agasta" mentioned in the records, who died in about 1171, was not the same as Dietmar von Aist. 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. 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 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

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