Balthasar Kindermann

Balthasar Benjamin Kindermann (10 April 1636 – 12 February 1706) was a German poet, teacher and pastor.

Kindermann was born in Zittau, the son of a Schwertfeger, a smith who specialized in weapons. He attended the Gymnasium of his home town and was encouraged by Elias Weise. In 1654 he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg to study theology, but he also studied poetry and rhetoric with August Buchner. In 1657 he earned his master's degree in theology. One year later he was crowned as poeta laureatus by Johann Rist; he was made a member of Rist's , the "Order of Swans of the Elbe", an association interested in language, in 1660.