Suesskind von Trimberg
SUESSKIND VON TRIMBERG
SUESSKIND VON TRIMBERG (c. 1200–1250), German minstrel (Minnesaenger), identified as "Suesskind the Jew of Trimberg" and portrayed wearing a beard and a Jew's hat in the 14th-century Manesse Codex, which preserves six Middle High German lyrics ascribed to this otherwise unknown poet. In one of these lyrics, the Minnesaenger claims that since he has fallen out of grace with the lords, he will take up life in the manner of old Jews. These few lines, a variation of the conventional Armutsklage or minstrel's lament of his poverty, have given rise to much speculation about Suesskind's Jewishness and even about an alleged influence of biblical and rabbinical literature on his lyrics.
bibliography:
J. Kastein, Suesskind von Trimberg, oder die Tragoedie der Heimatlosigkeit (1934); Spanier, in: zgjd, 7 (1937), 138–55; Straus, in: jsos, 10 (1948), 19–30; C. von Kraus, Deutsche Liederdichter des 13. Jahrhunderts (1953); Prawer, in: ylbi, 8 (1963), 150–2; Germ Jud, 1 (1963), 384–7. add. bibliography: D. Gerhardt, Suesskind von Trimberg (1997); R.K. Weigand, in: M. Stone and G. Sharman (eds.), Jenseits der Grenzen (2000), 13–30; R. Bauschke, in: Juden in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters (2002), 61–86.