Simon Cach Biography | Poet

DACH, SIMON (1605-1659), German lyrical poet, was born at Memel in East Prussia on the 29th of July 1605. Although brought up in humble circumstances, he received a careful education in the classical schools of Königsberg, Wittenberg and Magdeburg, and entered the university of Königsberg in 1626 as a student of theology and philosophy. After taking his degree, he was appointed in 1633 Kollaborator (teacher) and in 1636 co-rector of the Domschule (cathedral school) in that city. In 1639 he received the chair of poetry at the university of Königsberg, which he occupied until his death on the 15th of April 1659. In Königsberg he entered into close relations with Heinrich Albert (1604-1651), Robert Roberthin (1600-1648) and Sibylla Schwarz (1621-1638), and with them formed the so-called Königsberger Dictergruppe. He sang the praises of the house of the electors of Brandenburg in a collection of poems entitled Kurbrandenburgische Rose, Adler, Löwe und Scepter (1661), and also produced many occasional poems, several of which became popular; the most famous of them is Anke von Tharaw öss, de my geföllt (rendered by Herder into modern German as Ännchen von Tharau), composed in 1637 in honour of the marriage of a friend. Among his hymns, many of which are of great beauty, are the following: Ich bin ja, Herr, in deiner Macht, Ich bin bei Gott in Gnaden durch Christi Blut und Tod, and O, wie selig seid ihr boch, ihr Frommen.