Erdmann Neumeister

Nonfiction Writer and Poet

• Born: May 12, 1671
• Birthplace: Uichteritz (near Weissenfels), Saxony, Germany
• Died: August 18, 1756
• Place of death: Hamburg, Germany

Biography

Hymn writer and theologian Erdmann Neumeister was born in Uichteritz, Saxony, Germany, in 1671, the fourth child of seven in the family of Johann Neumeister, an administrator of the Pöllintz estate who played organ at the church, and Maragarete (Stätlera) Neumeister. Because the family had little money and Neumeister had little interest in traditional learning, Neumeister’s early education was cursory. However, in 1685 he significantly advanced his education by enrolling at the state school in Pforta, where he was mentored by school principal Johann Gottlob Hartmann. After four years at Pforta, Neumeister began theology studies at the University of Leipzig, where he rejected Pietism, a religious movement within the German Lutheran Church.

One of Neumeister’s greatest influences was Johann Burckhard Mencke. Neumeister met the future court historiographer at Leipzig, and the new friend provided Neumeister with access to the expansive library of his father, Otto Mencke, founder and editor of the scholarly journal Acta Eruditorum. Johann Mencke and Neumeister both composed galant poetry of a clear, simple, and graceful style, and had some of their pieces published in Benjamin Neukirch’s German poetry anthology series Herrn von Hoffmannswaldau und anderer Deutschen auserlesene und bi�her ungedruckte Gedichte, the first volume of which Neumeister helped edit.

In 1695 Neumeister published De Poëtis Germanicis, a volume that listed and briefly depicted the seventeenth century German writers who adhered to the guidelines of literary theorist Martin Opitz. Neumeister, a devotee of lyric poetry, pointed out that he had intentionally excluded poets of occasional verse in favor of the writers he considered true poets. Similarly, though he covered German prose writers and literary theorists in the book, authors of comedy, tragedy, and history were not included unless their works contained qualifying verse. The book received attention and praise as well as numerous attacks and criticisms.

After completing his dissertation, Neumeister began lecturing at the University of Leipzig on the merits and methods of producing a new vein of German poetry. Neumeister wished to see German poetry move toward galant and French-like traditions of lighter verse and away from rigid and metaphoric baroque poetry. He also incorporated into his lectures instruction in opera and religious poetry. Fellow poet Christian Friedrich Hunold collected transcripts of the lectures as Die Allerneueste Art, zur Reinen und Galanten Poesie zu gelangen, published in 1707. Hunold did so without the consent of Neumeister, who, as an ordained Lutheran minister by this time, was embarrassed by the publication because of the erotic nature of some of the material included in his lectures.

In November, 1696, Neumeister married Johanna Elisabeth Meister and the next year, he took the position of associate pastor in Bibra, Thuringia, becoming pastor as well as adjunct superintendent in Eckartsberg one year later, while still keeping his ties to the academic and literary world. Neumeister dedicated one of his works to Duke Johann Georg of Saxe-Weissenfals, and this led to the poet’s becoming deacon at the Weissenfels court in 1704, before rising to court chaplain and religious instructor for the duke’s daughter. When the latter died, Neumeister went with the bereaved mother, the duke’s sister, and her new husband, Count Erdmann, to Sorau, Lower Luseatia. Neumeister subsequently became head chaplain at Count Erdmann’s court on January 1, 1706, although his tenure was not without controversy, since the count was a follower of Pietism. Neumeister used his post in attempts to counteract the Pietist movement until September, 1715, when he moved to Lower Saxony to become head pastor of Hamburg’s Jacobi Church, remaining there until his death in 1756. Neumeister’s wife died in 1740, but his thirteen surviving children and fifty grandchildren celebrated with him his fiftieth year in the clergy in 1747.

Among the hymn writer’s most famous theological tracts was Kurtzer Beweis, da� das itzige Vereinigungs-Wesen mit den sogenannten Reformirten oder Calvinisten. . . Dem ganzen Catechismo, schnurstracks zuwieder lauffe (1721), Neumeister’s written opposition to the unification of the Lutheran and Reformed Protestant churches. In addition to his many pamphlets, Neumeister produced 722 church hymns, many religious poems, and a 1753 catechism. Neumeister is known as the first German to bring the cantata into sacred music.