HISTORICAL SOURCES REVEAL NOTHING ABOUT Wernher der Gärtner, author of the short verse narrative Helmbrecht. It is therefore difficult to know exactly when and where he lived and what his social status may have been. Some biographical information can be reconstructed on the basis of his work. We know the name of the poet from the final lines of Helmbrecht, in which he asks his audience to include him in their prayers:

There are several unsuccessful attempts to understand what the name Gartenære may say about the poet. The possibilities extend from the derivation of a place name, to a family name and, finally, to a metaphoric expression of Wernher's profession (that is, one who toils in the “garden” of poetry). It is unlikely that Wernher was a cleric, because of a passage in Helmbrecht that suggests his life involved wandering: