Ulrich von Liechtenstein is the composer and author of numerous minne songs, writings on the theory of courtly love and a fictitious autobiography (as a servant of women). He is best known for his Frauendienst [a žLadiesa (TM) Servicea oe]. The compendium on Ulrich von Liechtenstein documents our present-day knowledge of the life, times and work of this interesting and important medieval author, and at the same time with its innovative research chapters provides impulses for the continuation of the discourse.

How people relate to time is one of the oldest questions of mankind. This book centers on life phases to show how the life cycle is structured, and it discusses how various theological and literary models denote and divide up the different phases of life. These life-phase models reflect congruent or contrasting overall concepts of time. Using examples from texts from the Ancient Near Eastern era up to the 20th century, the contributions in the book discuss how the different life phases were construed and what potential the respective life phases offer for a time-critical reflection."

Human ageing is always subject to cultural interpretation. The continuous process of maturing and decline thus only becomes recognisable and significant with the idea of life stages. Here, topoi such as those of the simple child or the wise grey head as habitual patterns of understanding and thought reveal the social and cultural knowledge of life stages in tradition and change. The papers in this volume examine sources from biblical tradition right through to the 21st century and enquire into the argumentative force of the topic, with which apparently fixed ways of thinking can vary and thus open new perspectives on life stages.

Didactic rhetoric is a fundamental feature of medieval literature. In this book Poetry and Didactics renowned Germanists study key German texts of the 12th to the 15th centuries to elucidate their didactic dimension and their rhetorical strategies. The book opens up a completely changed perspective on the functional relationships of medieval German literature and sketches a consistent general picture of the situation of literature in the Late Middle Ages.