Simon Dach

DACH, Simon. b. Memel, near Königsberg, 29 July 1605; d. Königsberg, 15 April 1659. He was educated at Königsberg, Wittenberg and Magdeburg. He returned to Königsberg in 1633 as a master at the cathedral school, becoming assistant rector there in 1636. He was appointed professor of poetry at Königsberg in 1639 through the influence of his friend Robert Roberthin (1600-1648), the Court Clerk of Königsberg. The sudden death of Roberthin made Dach’s poetry more religious than it had been previously, and in his later years he wrote some 150 hymns. Dach and Roberthin were members of the circle of poets and musicians, the ‘Königsberger Dichterkreis’, that included such figures as Heinrich...