Ludwig Helmbold

Ludwig Helmbold, also spelled Ludwig Heimbold, (21 January 1532 – 8 April 1598) was a poet of Lutheran hymns. He is probably best known for his hymn "Nun laßt uns Gott dem Herren", of which J. S. Bach used the fifth stanza for his cantata O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165; Bach also used his words in BWV 73, 79 and 186a.

Biography Helmbold was born in Mühlhausen. He became a professor of Philosophy at Erfurt University in 1554. In 1571 he was appointed a minister at the Marienkirche in Mühlhausen, later as Superintendent.

Helmbold was crowned poeta laureatus by Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1566 on the Reichstag at Augsburg. Some of these new texts traveled far and wide; for example one of the pieces in the 1576 volume, Ecce bonum licet, eventually found its way to Iceland and was sung there in Icelandic translation (Vera mátt góður) as late as the 1660s.

Other recognition In 1998, a street named Helmboldstraße, next to Bonatstraße, was named after him in Mühlhausen.