Wizlav Von Rügen

Wizlav, Fürst von Rügen (c.1268-1325), gave encouragement to German Minnesang at his court, which became for a time an outpost of German literary culture on the Baltic. Wizlav himself learned the art of composing from a strolling singer who settled in Stralsund. Of the prince's poetry some Minnelieder are preserved. They are written in an interesting mixture of ‘literary’ German from more southerly regions with his own Low German dialect