Writers discussed include Walther von der
Vogelweide, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gottfried Keller, Franz Kafka, and Sigfried Lenz, as well as 21st-century novelists Daniel Kehlmann and Christian Kracht.
Chapter 4, 'Italianization under Mussolini, 1923-1932,' focuses on the Italianization of the region under Mussolini, when Italian became the only official language, topographical names were changed, German surnames (as well as inscriptions on graves) were italianized, and 'ethnic' memory markers, such as the Walther von der
Vogelweide monument in Bozen/Bolzano, were removed.
Walther himself, the descendant of one of Germany's greatest medieval poets, Walther von der
Vogelweide, initially rejects the prize of admission to the Guild of the Mastersingers, but Hans Sachs' great peroration of faithfulness to German culture persuades him to accede - and with the hand of Eva at his side.
A local or regional connection runs through eight essays which are variously devoted to Konrad von Wurzburg, Walther von der
Vogelweide, and Hans Sachs, and to the image of Franconia in medieval German literature.
It was possibly at Klosterneuburg where Walter von der
Vogelweide (whose verses--a few being excerpted in the Carmina Burana--were manifestly influenced by both Heloise and Abelard) saw their lyrics on which he modeled his own.
Indeed many songs even by famous minnesingers (for example Under der linden by Walter von der
Vogelweide) simply give a new text to an original trouvere melody (this is known as a contrafactum).
The poems "that we shall examine here are of Dietmar von Eist, Heinrich voe Monmgen and Walther von der
Vogelweide.
In Wiener Neustadt there were many Jewish Walters--Walter Riegler, Walter Schischa, Walter Mandl; the historical Walter, the medieval troubadour Walter von der
Vogelweide, seemed innocent enough, the faults laid to him no greater than the occasional breaking of a damsel's heart.