Andreas Tscherning

Tscherning was born in Bunzlau (today Bolesławiec in Poland). He had to change school and universities frequently, due to the Thirty Years War. He attended high school in Görlitz and continued his studies from 1631 to 1635 in Breslau. From 1635 to 1636 he studied philology and philosophy at the University of Rostock. After this he earned his living as a private tutor in Wrocław, and was an associate of the poet-composer Matthäus Apelt. In 1641, he authored Centuria Proverbiorum Alis Imperatoris Muslemici distichis Latino-Germanicis expressa ab Andrea Tscherningio Cum Notis, the first German translation of Arabic poetry. He subsequently returned to Rostock, where he finished his studies with a master's exam and from 1644 was the successor of Peter Lauremberg as Professor of Poetry. He died in Rostock. He emerged as a poet, publishing volumes such as Deutscher Gedichte Frühling (Spring of German Poems, 1642), Vortrab des Sommers deutscher Gedichte (1655), and Unvorgreifliches Bedenken über etliche Mißbräuche in der deutschen Schreib- und Sprachkunst, insonderheit der edlen Poeterei (1659). Some of his poems were included in Protestant church hymnals, such as "Du sollst in allen Sachen mit Gott den Anfang machen". In 1642, still during the war, Tscherning published in Deutscher Gedichte Frühling a poem Liebet Friede (Love peace). Avoiding his own situation as well as a certain incident and political circumstances in general, the poem observes the rules by Opitz for a reformed poetry in format, rhyme and strictly German language. The meter and form correspond to a logical thread of thinking: the first of five stanzas requests the love of peace, in contrast to Hass und Streiten (Hate and battle), because of God's will as the ultimate reason. The second stanza points out that Christ gained peace by his death, which man should accept by loving peace. In contrast, stanzas 3 and 4 show how man destroys his own well-being by acts of fighting. The final stanza summarizes the arguments.