German literature begins in the Carolingian period, first in Latin and then in Old High German. The most famous work in OHG is the Hildebrandslied, a short piece of Germanic alliterative heroic verse which is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Other important works are the Evangelienbuch (Gospel harmony) of Otfried von Weissenburg, the short but splendid Ludwigslied, and in the northern dialect of Old Saxon, a life of Christ in the style of a heroic epic known as the Heliand. The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, though the boundary to Early Middle High German (second half of the 11th century) is not clear-cut. The most impressive example of EMHG literature is the Annolied. Old High German is the earliest recorded form of the modern German language, and was spoken from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century. ... The Lay of Hildebrand (Das Hildebrandslied), is a unique example of Old German alliterative poetry, written about the year 800 on the first and last pages of a theological manuscript by two monks of the monastery of Fulda. ... The Heliand (IPA /ˈhɛl iənd/, /ˈhe liand/) is an epic poem in Old Saxon, written about 825. ...

Middle High German proper runs from the beginning of the 12th century, with the Kaiserchronik as one of its first monuments. It was about this time that Ava became the first woman to write poetry in German. In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year "golden age" of mediaeval German literature referred to as the mittelhochdeutsche Blütezeit (1170-1230). This was the period of the blossoming of MHG lyric poetry, particularly Minnesang (the German variety of the originally French tradition of courtly love). The "big name" here is Walther von der Vogelweide, but there are many others, and some of their melodies have survived. The same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances, the three key authors being Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von Strassburg. These are written in rhyming couplets, and again draw on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material. The third literary movement of these years was a new revamping of the heroic tradition, in works like the Nibelungenlied and Kudrun, in which the ancient Germanic oral tradition can still be discerned, but tamed and Christianized and adapted for the court. These high mediaeval heroic epics are written in rhymed strophes, not the alliterative verse of Germanic prehistory. Middle High German is an ancestor of the modern German language, and was spoken from 1050 to about 1500. ... leaf of a Kaiserchronik manuscript The Kaiserchronik (Der Keiser und der Kunige buoch, the book of emperors and kings) is a 12th century German epic poem. ... AVA or ava may stand for: // As an initialism Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (Singapore) Alexander Valley Association (USA) American Vaulting Association (USA) American Vigilante Association American Viticultural Area (USA) American Volkssport Association American Voyager Association (USA) Applied Vision Association (UK) Association of Voice Artistes (India) Association for Visual Arts... Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. ... Court of Love in Provence in the 14th Century (after a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). ... Portrait of Walther von der Vogelweide. ... Hartmann von Aue (c. ... Portrait of Wolfram from the Codex Manesse. ... Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the chief German poets of the middle ages. ... Chrétien de Troyes wrote in Champagne, France, during the last half of the twelfth century. ... King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Britain. ... The Nibelungenlied is an epic poem in Middle High German that takes Burgundian kings as its subject matter. ... Kudrun (sometimes known as Gudrun Lied), is a Middle High German epic, written probably in the early years of the 13th century, not long after the Nibelungenlied, the influence of which may be traced upon it. ...

From the later 13th century, we see the rise of urban literature, which becomes the dominant force from the mid-14th century onwards. The first important urban author was the Viennese chronicler Jans der Enikel. This urbanization and the introduction of printing in the 15th century are the main developments marking the very vague boundary between late mediaeval and early modern German literature. Various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Reformation (1517) being the last possible cut-off point. Jans der Enikel, i. ...

From the late 13th century, there is evidence of the beginnings of the Yiddish language, which in the early phase is a variety of Middle High German, not distinct enough even to be described as a dialect, but written in Hebrew characters. In its early phase, it is normally referred to as Judeo-German; from the 15th century it becomes Old Yiddish. Poems in this idiom such as the 14th-century Dukus Horant (the "Jewish Kudrun") or the 15th-century Bovo Bukh belong equally to the fields of Medieval German Studies and Jewish/Yiddish studies. Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Dukus Horant is a 14th-century narrative poem in Judeo-German (Proto-Yiddish). ... The Bovo-Bukh (Bovo book; a. ...

The most comprehensive guide to this literature currently available in English is the first three volumes of the Camden House History of German Literature, with a chapter in volume four on the transition to the modern period (various editors, Camden 2004-5). A good single-volume guide to the classical period is Francis Gentry's A Companion to Middle High German Literature to the Fourteenth Century, Brill 2002.

Other works of the Old High German period are:

• Das Georgslied

Other authors and works of the high Middle Ages include: Georgslied () ca. ...

• Herzog Ernst
• Heinrich von Freiberg
• Ulrich von Türheim
• Rudolf von Ems
• Konrad von Würzburg
• Heinrich Frauenlob
• Reinmar der Alte

Important writers of the transition period from late mediaeval to early modern German literature are: Herzog Ernst is a German epic from the early high Middle Ages (around 1180) and was first written down by an anonymous author from the Rhein region. ... Ulrich von Türheim A German writer from the Augsburg area writing during the first half of the thirteenth century. ... Portrait of Konrad von Würzburg from the Codex Manesse (folio 383r). ... Meister Heinrich Frauenlob of Meißen, was a Middle High German poet. ...

• Hans Folz
• Thüring von Ringoltingen
• Johannes von Tepl
• Sebastian Brant