Not only German Minnesang but also religious songs, historical folksongs, Spruchdichtung and the Gesellschaftslied of the early modern age were the subject of the 12th Anglo-German colloquium that took place from 10 to 14 September 1991 at the FrauenwArth Benedictine convent in Chiemsee. The 22 articles in the present volume are an almost complete record of the papers delivered there. With a broad variety of approaches they address questions of tradition and typology, the relation between text and melody, and the history of the medieval German lied in terms of its motifs, its reception and its function in society.