Nikolaus Herman

Nikolaus Herman (first name also Nicolaus or Niklas; 1500 – 3 May 1561) was a German Lutheran cantor and teacher, creating numerous Protestant hymns. Some of them are contained in hymnals in several languages.

Career

Herman was born in Altdorf. In 1518 he came as cantor and teacher at the Latin School of Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov, Bohemia). He was a supporter of the Reformation; a letter of Martin Luther to him is dated 6 November 1524. He collaborated with people such as Johannes Mathesius, who served there from 1532 as principal of the school, and from 1540 as a pastor. On 24 June 1557 Herman retired. He published his hymns, which he wrote primarily for teaching children, in 1560 under the title (The Sundays' Gospels through the year in songs written for the children and Christian fathers).

Hymns

Several of his hymns are part of present-day hymnals, such as the current German Protestant hymnal (EG) and the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob (GL).

He created text and melody for a few hymns:

"" (also: "allzugleich") (Praise God, you Christians all the same) (EG 27, GL 134): The hymn text was published in 1560, with a melody Herman had already published in 1554 (then as tune of "", Zahn No. 198). "" (EG 106, GL 225)

He wrote the text of: "" "" (part of EG 29) "" (EG 141) "" (EG 413) "" (EG 437, GL 667) "" (EG 467) "" (EG 498) "" (EG 522, stanzas 1–4, GL 658), a fifth stanza added by an anonymous writer, with a melody possibly by Herman, based on older melodies

Johann Sebastian Bach used stanzas from his hymns in several cantatas. In the cantata for Easter Sunday 1715, , Bach used the melody of "" instrumentally in movement 8, stanza 5 as the closing chorale, movement 9.