Johann von Rist

Rist was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg) on 8 March 1607; the son of the Lutheran pastor of that place, Caspar Rist. He received his early training at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre in Bremen; he then studied theology at the university of Rinteln. Under the influence of Josua Stegman there, his interest in hymn writing began. On leaving Rinteln, he tutored the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, mathematics, and medicine. During his time at Rostock, the Thirty Years War almost emptied the university, and Rist himself lay there for several weeks, suffering from pestilence. In 1633, he became tutor in the house of Landschreiber Heinrich Sager at Heide, in Holstein. Two years later (1635) he was appointed pastor of the village of Wedel on the Elbe. In 1633 he married Elisabeth Stapel, sister of Franz Stapel, bailiff of nearby Pinneberg. They had five children, of whom two died early; Elisabeth died 1662. In 1664, he married Anna Hagedorn, born Badenhop, widow of his friend Phillipp Hagedorn. Rist died in Wedel on 31 August 1667.

Rist first made his name known to the literary world by a drama, Perseus (1634), which he wrote while at Heide, and in the next succeeding years he produced a number of dramatic works of which the allegory Das friedewünschende Teutschland (1647) and Das friedejauchzende Teutschland (1653) (new ed. of both by H. M. Schletterer, 1864) are the most interesting. Rist soon became the central figure in a school of minor poets. The emperor Ferdinand III crowned him laureate in 1644, ennobled him in 1653, and invested him with the dignity of a Count Palatine, an honor which enabled him to the crown, and to gain numerous poets for the Elbschwanenorden (Order of Elbe Swans), a literary and poetical society which he founded in 1660. He had already, in 1645, been admitted, under the name Daphnis aus Cimbrien, to the literary order of Pegnitz, and in 1647 he became, as Der Rüstige, a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("Fruitbearing Society").

Die alleredelste Belustigung (1666) Die alleredelste Erfindung (1667) Das alleredelste Leben (1663) Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (1663–1668) Das alleredelste Nass der gantzen Welt (1663) Das Friedewünschende Teuschland (1649) Sabbathische Seelenlust. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1651 Neue Musikalische Fest-Andachten: Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1655 Neue Musikalische Katechismus-Andachten. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern: 1656 Himmlische Lieder. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1641 Neue Musikalische Kreutz- Trost- Lob und DankSchule. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1659