 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Johann Heermann | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1585-10-11)11 October 1585 |
| Died | 17 February 1647(1647-02-17) (aged 61) |
| Occupations |
|
Johann Heermann (11 October 1585 – 17 February 1647) was a Germanpoet andhymnodist. He is commemorated in theCalendar of Saints of theLutheran Church on 26 October withPhilipp Nicolai andPaul Gerhardt.
Heermann was born in Raudten (modern dayRudna) inSilesia, the fourth son of a middle-classProtestant family. None of his elder siblings had survived beyond childhood, so when the infant Heermann became very ill, his mother prayed that, if he survived, she would pay for him to study at university. He attended the local school in Raudten, and when his teacher Johannes Baumann left the school to become the localpastor in 1597, Heermann's parents took him toWohlau, where he lived and studied with Jakob Fuchs, a doctor andapothecary. At school in Wohlau, he was taught by Georg Gigas, son of Johann Gigas, composer of two popular hymns of the time. After a year he became ill yet again, and his parents brought him home. After recovering, he returned to school in Raudten. At the house of a teacher, Gregorius Fiebing, he began his first poetry at the age of seventeen.
In 1602, he moved toFraustadt, where he lived and worked with the theologianValerius Herberger, who employed him asamanuensis and tutor to his son Zacharias. Here, Heermann's skills as a poet were recognized and encouraged. Despite Herberger's influence, he stayed only a year in Fraustadt, moving on to study at theGymnasium Elisabethanum inBreslau, then to the Gymnasium inBrieg in Autumn 1604, where he had the opportunity to give speeches and recite his poetry.
He decided to go to university in 1607, but was persuaded by hispatron, Wenzel von Rothkirch, to stay with him, teaching his two sons and accompanying them on a trip around Europe. Heermann agreed, using his spare time to study in the ducal library and that of the universityrector. He was also able to publish small collections of speeches and poems, and came in contact with Matthäus Zuber, a talented poet who had also been madepoet laureate. Heermann, too, aspired to this, achieving laureation on 8 October 1608 in Brieg.
Over Easter 1609 he travelled viaLeipzig andJena toStrasbourg, where they matriculated at the university, attending theology lectures and meeting the professors ofrhetoric and law. The following year, he contracted an eye infection after publishing a book ofepigrams, and returned home on doctor's advice. He had a nightmare journey home, arriving even less healthy than when he left. Soon after his return, he was ordained and appointeddeacon to theLutheran congregation in Köben (modern-dayChobienia, Poland), where the incumbent pastor was old and in poor health. He began work onAscension Day 1611, and a few days later the pastor died, with Heermann taking on his duties on a temporary basis, despite having only been there for a week. He was put in permanent charge that same autumn, and also married Dorothea Feige, the daughter of the mayor of Raudten.
After a successful start to his career in Köben, the plague arrived in 1613, then in 1616 a fire swept through the town. In addition, Heermann's wife Dorothea died childless on 13 September 1617. He married again in 1618, this time to Anna Teichmann, daughter of a merchant; they had four children: Samuel, Euphrosina, Johann and Ephraim.
Heermann fell ill once again in 1623 and never really recovered, his nose and air passages having become infected. The effects of theThirty Years' War struck soon afterwards, and Köben was plundered byCatholictroops in 1632, 1633, 1634 and 1642, and Heermann lost his worldly possessions several times. In 1634, his illness prevented him from preaching altogether, and he no longer read out his sermons in church. On doctor's advice, he moved across the border to Poland, toLeszno, where he died on 17 February 1647.
Heermann started out writingLatinpoetry, with hisFlores ex Otfridi Evangeliorum vireto being published in 1609. The poems contained in this collection are Latin poems based on passages from theGospels, yet for each Latin poem, one or two lines of German poetry were added, showing that Heermann had an early desire to write poetry in German too. Later works also belonged to the tradition of versifying passages from the Gospels, such asAndächtiger Kirchenseuftzer (1616),Exercitium pietatis (1630) – a revised version ofFlores –Verbessertes Schliessglöcklein (1632) – a revised version of theKirchenseuftzer – andSontags- und Festevangelia (1636). Impetus for this process of revision came fromMartin Opitz'sBuch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624), which acted both as a defence of German poetry and a set of guidelines on how German poetry should be composed. Johann Heermann can be regarded as one of the first German poets to write according to the rules set out in Opitz'stract.
As well as poetry based on the Gospels, Heermann also wrote poetry influenced by works of devotional literature, especially those byValerius Herberger,Martin Moller andJohann Arndt. These works were often themselves influenced by earlier, pre-Reformation texts by theChurch Fathers, especiallyBernard of Clairvaux,Augustine andAnselm of Canterbury. Heermann's most influential work of devotional poetry wasDevoti musica cordis (1630), 'music for a devout heart', which combined hymns based on texts of theChurch Fathers and writers such as Moller with hymns Heermann himself had composed. In addition to works of poetry, he also published collections of sermons.
Johann Sebastian Bach based hischorale cantataWo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5 on Heermann's hymn with the same name.
