Johann Franck

FRANCK, Johann. b. 1 June 1618; d. 18 June 1677. Born at Guben, Brandenburg, and educated at the University of Königsberg from 1638 to 1640, returning to Guben in 1640 because of the Thirty Years’ War. He became a lawyer, and burgomaster of Guben in 1661, and deputy for Guben in the Diet of Lusatia in 1671. His hymns appeared in the collections of others, and in his own Geistliches Sion (1674), containing 53 psalm versions (described in JJ as ‘of no great merit’, p. 386) and 57 hymns. The hymns include the two by which he is still known: ‘Jesu, meine Freude’* (EG 396) and ‘Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele’* (EG 218). JJ noted in Francke’s hymns ‘the longing for the inward and mystical union of...