Joachim Neander

Joachim Neander (* 1650 in Bremen, † May 31, 1680 ) was a German pastor and church hymn writer and composer. According to him, the Neanderthal was named.

Life

Neander comes from a pastor's family, which is a fashion at that time, following von Neumann renamed Neander ( Gräzisierung ). He is the first son of the second marriage of his father Johann Joachim Neander ( 1614-1666 ).

He studied Reformed theology in Bremen and worked as an educator among other things, in Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main. In 1670 he came under the influence of the revival preacher Theodore Undereyck who offered him a job as a tutor in a Frankfurt merchant family. Here Neander was acquainted with Philipp Jacob Spener, whose 1675 Pia Desideria published font should be the starting point of pietism.

1674 Neander was rector of the Latin school of the Reformed church and curate in Dusseldorf. He wrote lyrics and melodies to numerous hymns that were sung on separatist devotional gatherings. Because Neander often composed in an impressive canyon of the river in Düsseldorf Mettmann and church services held, the rock was named in his honor Neander cave and since the 19th century Neandertal. Since there also the first parts of the skeleton were discovered by Neanderthals, the name Joachim Neander's also about Neanderthal finds again.

After Neander had gotten in Dusseldorf difficulties with the church administration, he became in 1679 curate at the church of St. Martin in his hometown Bremen and dwelt in the Neander house, which stood east of the church and came from the 15th century. He composed the chorale Praise to the Lord, the King of Heaven. After less than a year working in his hometown Neander died on Whit Monday, 31 May 1680 aged 29 or 30 years at an unspecified illness (possibly of the plague ). His burial place is unknown today; it is not excluded that it is located at the St Martini Church.

Work

Neander is considered one of the most important Reformed hymn writer in Germany. His published in 1680 federal songs and thanksgiving psalms were groundbreaking for the Pietist hymnals of the Reformed and the Lutheran Church.

Even today German hymnals contain songs by Neander. Thus the Protestant hymnal contains six songs whose lyrics and / or melodies of Neander come, and by 2005 common German hymnal of the New Apostolic Church can be found four of Neander's songs.

Neander's most famous hymn is the gasketed 1679 and 1680 as part of the federal songs and psalms Danck - published song Praise to the Lord, the King of Heaven. The melody used today is, however, only assigned subsequently; it is not from Neander, but it is a secular song originally from the 17th century.

Remembrance

31 May in the Protestant calendar name.