Johann von Rist

Johann von Rist

Johann von Rist (1607-1667) was a German poet and dramatist best known for the hymns he wrote.

Life

He was born at Ottensen in Holstein (today Hamburg) on 8 March 1607; the son of the Lutheran pastor of that place, Caspar Rist. He received his early training at the Johanneum in Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre in Bremen; he then studied theology at the University of Rinteln. Under the influence of Josua Stegman there, his interest in hymn writing began. On leaving Rinteln, he tutored the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, mathematics, and medicine. During his time at Rostock, the Thirty Years War almost emptied the University, and Rist himself lay there for several weeks, suffering from pestilence.

In 1633 he became tutor in the house of Landschreiber Heinrich Sager at Heide, in Holstein. Two years later (1635) he was appointed pastor of the village of Wedel on the Elbe. The same year he married Elisabeth Stapel, sister of Franz Stapel, bailiff of nearby Pinneberg. They had 5 children, of whom 2 died early; Elisabeth died 1662. In 1664 he married Anna Hagedorn, born Badenhop, widow of his friend Phillipp Hagedorn. He died in Wedel on 31 August 1667

Work as a dramatist and poet

Rist first made his name known to the literary world by a drama, Perseus (1634), which he wrote while at Heide, and in the next succeeding years he produced a number of dramatic works of which the allegory Das friedewünschende Teutschland (1647) and Das friedejauchzende Teutschland (1653) (new ed. of both by H. M. Schletterer, 1864) are the most interesting. Rist soon became the central figure in a school of minor poets. The emperor Ferdinand III crowned him laureate in 1644, ennobled him in 1653, and invested him with the dignity of a Count Palatine, an honor which enabled him to crown, and to gain numerous poets for the Elbschwanen order ("Elbe Swan Order"), a literary and poetical society which he founded in 1660. He had already, in 1645, been admitted, under the name Daphnis aus Cimbrien, to the literary order of Pegnitz, and in 1647 he became, as Der Rüstige, a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("Fruitbearing Society").

Lutheranism
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Hymnody & Music A Mighty Fortress Is Our God Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands God's Word Is Our Great Heritage How Great Thou Art How Lovely Shines the Morning Star Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming In Thee alone, O Christ, my Lord O Lord, Look Down from Heaven Now Thank We All Our God O Sacred Head, Now Wounded Passion Hymns Passion music Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying Johann Sebastian Bach Dieterich Buxtehude Johann Crüger Paul Gerhardt Johann Heermann Felix Mendelssohn Johann Pachelbel Hallgrímur Pétursson Michael Praetorius Johann von Rist Johann Walter Catherine Winkworth
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Work as a hymn writer

It is, however, as a writer of church hymns that Rist is best known. Among these several are still retained in the evangelical hymn book: e.g. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort and Ermunt're dich, mein schwacher Geist. Collections of his poems appeared under the titles Musa Teutonica (1634) and Himmlische Lieder (1643).

Works

• Die alleredelste Belustigung (1666)
• Die alleredelste Erfindung (1667)
• Das alleredelste Leben (1663)
• Das alleredelste Nass der gantzen Welt (1663)
• Das Friedewünschende Teuschland (1649)
• Sabbathische Seelenlust. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1651
• Neue Musikalische Fest-Andachten: Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1655
• Neue Musikalische Katechismus-Andachten. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern: 1656
• Himmlische Lieder. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1641
• Neue Musikalische Kreutz- Trost- Lob und DankSchule. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1659

References

• Johann Rist (Hymn-Writer)

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

•  "Rist, Johann von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

External links

• (German) Rist-Jahr 2007 Homepage by the Municipality of Wedel with lots of information about the "Wedel Rist-Anniversary 2007", the man Johann Rist and his circle of friends, register of works, register of documents stored in the Rist-Archive of the Wedel Municipal Archive, pictures etc.