Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Minnesinger \Min"ne*sing`er\, n. [G., fr. minne love + singen to
   sing.]
   A love-singer; specifically, one of a class of German poets
   and musicians who flourished from about the middle of the
   twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century. They were
   chiefly of noble birth, and made love and beauty the subjects
   of their verses.