Background
Gerhardt was born in 1607 into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg.
("Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs" from Paul Gerhardt. Ger...)
"Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs" from Paul Gerhardt. German hymn writer (1606-1676).
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Gerhardt was born in 1607 into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg.
His education appears to have been retarded by the troubles of the period, the Thirty Years' War having begun about the time he reached his twelfth year.
At the age of fifteen, he entered the Fürstenschule in Grimma. The school was known for its pious atmosphere and stern discipline. Paul graduated from there in 1627. In January 1628 he enrolled in the University of Wittenberg. There, two teachers in particular had an influence on him: Paul Röber and Jacob Martini.
In 1657 he accepted an invitation as "diaconus" to the Nicolaikirche of Berlin; but, in consequence of his uncompromising Lutheranism in refusing to accept the elector Frederick William's " syncretistic " edict of 1664, he was deprived in 1666.
Gerhardt is the greatest hymn-writer of Germany, if not indeed of Europe.
Many of his best-known hymns were originally published in various church hymn-books, as for example in that for Brandenburg, which appeared in 1658; others first saw the light in Johann Cruger's Geistliche Kirchenmelodien (1649) and Praxis pietatis melica (1656).
The first complete set of them is the Geistliche Andachten, published in 1666-1667 by Ebeling, music director in Berlin.
No hymn by Gerhardt of a later date than 1667 is known to exist. The life of Gerhardt has been written by Roth (1829), by Lang- becker (1841), by Schultz (1842), by Wildenhahn (1845) and by Bachmann (1863).
The best modem edition of the hymns, published by Wackernagel in 1843, has often been reprinted.
There is an English translation by Kelly (Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs, 1867).
Gerhardt is considered Germany's greatest hymn writer. Many of his best-known hymns were originally published in various church hymnbooks, as for example in that for Brandenburg, which appeared in 1658; others first saw the light in Johann Crüger's Geistliche Kirchenmelodien (1647) and Praxis pietatis melica.
("Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs" from Paul Gerhardt. Ger...)
Apart from Luther's own, his hymns are often held to be the finest of the Lutheran tradition.
He married Anna Maria Barthold in 1651.
