Reutterliedlin

Reutterliedlin ( Reiterliedchen ) are secular in the strict sense popular, regularly sung poetry of troopers in Luther's time. Collected, set to music and put into sometimes artistic movements, occasionally also written by composers such as Hans Gerle (approx. 1495–1570), Christian Egenolff (1502–1555) and above all Ludwig Senfl (around 1486–1542 / 43), whose title From only then we want to praise and a little girl went to the fountain as typical for the species.

The theme of Reutterliedlin is the turning point to which the brushwood are particularly subject. If it were at horsemen in medieval times to soldiers that a Ritter accompanied on the campaign, these soldiers become an occupational group led by a Rottmeisters guard the transport of goods of merchants.

Above all, the motif of the rejection of minnesota is taken over from the traditional minnesang . However, the one described in the song is not a noble woman, but a girl (→ Walther von der Vogelweide ), who does not live up to the code of honor of the class, a druselein who is neither barefoot nor in the pavement of the city Can walk wooden shoes ("slippers").

Since the security business was evidently very profitable, if the traveler not only occasionally but regularly to and fro between two stations, the social criticism is moderate despite all the sharpness of the diction. Taking sides with one's own group puts the analysis of possible class-struggle scenarios into perspective, both with regard to the status using the services of the riders as well as possible robbers and pillagers.

The transition of the Reutterliedlin to Kirchenlied , for Gassenhauer (Gassenhawerlin) and other rudiments of minnesong and Meistersang is fluid. Because of the many profession-specific technical terms, the equestrian song, in contrast to Martin Luther's Christmas carols ( Vom Himmel hoch, there I come from ), is not immediately understandable, because the vocabulary no longer corresponds to the lexically well-understood Middle High German , on the other hand, modern German cannot yet be spoken of can. In addition, it is teeming with ambiguities.

A dictionary from the Luther period could help.

literature

• Hans Joachim Moser: Gassenhawerlin and Reutterliedlin: zu Franckenfurt am Meyn - with Christian Egelnof 1535: facsimile edition of the oldest Frankfurt German songbook printing ..., Augsburg, Cologne; B. Filser, 1927 www.worldcat.org
• Albrecht Classen: German song books of the 15th and 16th centuries , Münster, New York, Munich, Berlin Waxmann 2001, limited preview