For all of my readers. . .

who were wondering about the statue in my profile, it is called "Jahrhundertschritt" by Wolfgang Mattheuer. More information can be found here. The link says the statues are in Leipzig and Bonn, but I encountered a version (unpainted) in a Schlosshof in Halle. Considering it is an example of GDR art, it is quite subversive. I guess it wasn't too hard to fool the censors. Those unschooled cretans!

More things I like

Dû bist mîn, ich bin dîn:
des solt dû gewis sîn;
dû bist beslozzen in mînem herzen,
verlorn ist daz slüzzelîn:
dû muost och immer darinne sîn.

(Unbekannte Dichterin)

As much as I enjoy modern German literature, there is something about the poetry, the stories, and just the pure language of Middle High German that affects me on a very fundamental level. The stories and poetry are both simpler and more complex. I would probably dismiss this same poem in modern english as the lame lyrics spewed by the music industry through pop-rock starlet-du-jour.

But the original, and most of the other texts from the time period feel completely different. I like the minimalism of MHG that is lacking in the modern dialects. There is a proximity to emotion and raw experience that exists in this poem, in Walter von der Vogelweide, Hartmann von Aue, and many many other medevial texts.

The sad thing is, as hard as it is for a 2oth-century germanist to find a good job, medevialists have it even tougher, and I am afraid that we will soon loose most of our experts in this field and the middle ages will not be taught to the degree that they once were. And that will be a shame. But at least you can still find it on YouTube