Christoph Birkmann

Christoph Birkmann (10 January 1703 – 11 March 1771) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. A pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach, he has been identified as the author of the texts of several Bach cantatas.

Career Born in Nuremberg, Birkmann received some musical training. He spent a year at the University of Altdorf before studying theology and mathematics at the University of Leipzig from 1724 to 1727.

Birkmann was ordained in 1732 and became minister of St Egidien's Church in Nuremberg. He died there. However, according to research by Christine Blanken, published in the Bach-Jahrbuch in 2015, Birkmann was in all probability one of Bach's librettists, his texts including the well-known solo cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1727).