In 1658 the poet of the Baroque period wrote to his patron, the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg: "Diese Kunst der Deutschen Reime / Lernet Preussen erst von mir" (It was only from me that Prussia learnt this art of German rhymes). Like his contemporary Martin Opitz, he saw himself as the founder of independent German poetry in times when many foreign troops were stationed in Germany and the nobility preferred to speak French. As a professor of poetry at the Königsberg University since 1639, he deliberately wrote in a traditional, folkloric manner. In addition to numerous occasional poems for baptisms, weddings and funerals, he wrote hymns that reminded people of human mortality.
In the "Kürbishütte" in Königsberg, founded in 1626 as a sociable association of poets and musicians, his songs and poems were also performed. "Ännchen of Tharau" – attributed to Simon Dach and translated into High German by Herder – praises the love of simple people in Christian images.
Illustration:
Simon Dach, according to a copperplate around 1830