Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer (11 July 1635 – 8 September 1699) was a German jurist, poet, satirist and Protestant hymn writer. He worked as an advocate at the court of

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest ...

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

used a stanza from his

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn ...

"" to conclude his ''

Ascension Oratorio Ascension or ascending may refer to: Religion * "Ascension", "Assumption", or "Translation", the belief in some religions that some individuals have ascended into Heaven without dying first * Ascension of Jesus * Feast of the Ascension (Ascen ...

''. Another hymn, '' Jesu, meines Glaubens Zier'', appears in the 1736 Schemelli Gesangbuch in a setting attributed to Bach.

Career

Sacer was born in

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 ...

, the son of the town's mayor. He was first educated by private teachers and from 1649 at the Landesschule Pforta. From 1654 he studied at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The ...

law and literature. In 1657 he accepted a position as '' Hofmeister'' in Berlin where he had contact to poets such as

Paul Gerhardt Paul Gerhardt (12 March 1607 – 27 May 1676) was a German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist. Biography Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. His father died in ...

Georg Philipp Harsdörffer Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1 November 1607 – 17 September 1658) was a Jurist, Baroque-period German poet and translator. Born in Nuremberg, he studied law at Altdorf and Strassburg. He studied at the University of Strassburg under profes ...

and

Andreas Tscherning Andreas Tscherning (18 November 1611 – 27 September 1659) was a German poet, hymn writer and literary theorist in the tradition of Martin Opitz. Career Tscherning was born in Bunzlau, now the Polish town of Bolesławiec. He had to change scho ...

Johann Rist Johann Rist (8 March 1607 – 31 August 1667) was a German poet and dramatist best known for his hymns, which inspired musical settings and have remained in hymnals. Life Rist was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg) on 8 Mar ...

made him a member of the literary association ''

Elbschwanenorden The ''Elbschwanenorden'' (Order of Elbe Swans) was a literary association of the Baroque, founded between 1656 and 1660, dissolved in 1667. It was initiated by the poet and Protestant minister Johann Rist in Wedel and is named after the situation of ...

'' under the name Hierophilo. Wolfenbuettel Schloss (2006)

From 1669 he worked as an advocate at the court of

, a post for which he had to complete his studies. He achieved the doctorate in September 1671 in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

. His last post was ''Fürstlicher Kammerkonsulent'' (Ducal chamber counselor). He died in Wolfenbüttel and is buried in the

Marienkirche, Wolfenbüttel The Marienkirche is a main church (''Hauptkirche'') in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany. The official name of the Lutheran church is ''Hauptkirche Beatae Mariae Virginis'' (Main church of the Blessed Virgin Mary). Short common names are ''Hau ...

Work

Among Sacer's publications are: * '. Stettin 1661 *
Reime dich, oder ich fresse dich
'. Northausen (recte: Jena) 1673 (Digitalisat) * (translation) Pierre Antoine Mascaron: '. Leipzig 1666 Sacer's

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

writings, namely ''Reime dich, oder ich fresse dich'', criticism of the work of his colleagues in poetry, are still read and often quoted.

""

Sacer's hymn for Ascension in seven stanzas, "" (God goes up to Heaven) was published in ' (Spiritual, lovely songs) in Gotha in 1714, sung to the melody "". Later versions appear under the title "", for example the "" (Protestant hymnal for church usage) of 1836, sometimes with six stanzas.

used the hymn's seventh stanza, "", to conclude his ''

''. Among Bach's hymn writers, Sacer was the only contemporary.

Literature

* * Wolfgang Kelsch: '. In: ''Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch''. 60, 1979, , pp. 85–97. * Leopold Pfeil: ''". Northausen 1673''. Winter, Heidelberg 1914 (Diss. Heidelberg 1914). *

Gerhard Dünnhaupt Gerhard Dünnhaupt, FRSC (born August 15, 1927 in Bernburg (Saale)) is a German bibliographer, literary historian, emeritus professor of the University of Michigan, an honorary life member of the Modern Language Association of America, Elected Fe ...

: "Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer (1635–1699)", in: ''Personalbibliographien zu den Drucken des Barock'', vol. 5. Stuttgart: Hiersemann 1991, pp. 3517–26.

Career

Work

""

Literature

References

External links