The series in German medieval studies includes central topics of current research debates in medieval studies and provides a place for groundbreaking research in the field. The series is intended to give international researchers/research teams the opportunity to effectively present innovative surveys and discussions to the scientific community. The series sees itself as a 'young' research forum with a high standard of quality and is therefore also open to excellent degree theses, should they enhance the series.

Using the example of von Tepl's "Ackermann," much read between 1450 and 1520, the volume casts new light on the complexity of the processes involved in the progress from one literary epoch to the next. It reconstructs the history of the text and its transmission and also points up contexts and potential impact. The modernity of the work is discussed against the background of central discursive figures (death, the human condition, mourning). The volume also provides first editions of important texts: Lothar von Segni's "De miseria humanae conditionis" in German translation; Guilhelmus...