Johann von Rist

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Johann von Rist

Johann von Rist (1607-1667), German poet, 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, where he labored until his death on 31 August 1667. 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.

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, and honors were showered upon him from every side. 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").

It is, however, as a writer of church hymns that Rist is best known to fame. Among these several are still retained in the evangelical hymn book: e.g. 0 Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort and Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist. Collections of his poems appeared under the titles Musa Teutonica (1634) and Himmlische Lieder (1643).

[edit] 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

[edit] Links

Rist-Jahr 2007 German 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.