Dach, Simon
DACH, SIMON (1605-1659), German lyrical poet, was born at Memel in East Prussia on the 2gth of July 1605. Although brought up in humble circumstances, he received a careful education in the classical schools of Konigsberg, Wittenberg and Magdeburg, and entered the university of Konigsberg in 1626 as a student of theology and philosophy. After taking his degree, he was appointed in 1633 Kollaborator (teacher) and in 1636 co-rector of the Domschule (cathedral school) in that city. In 1639 he received the chair of poetry at the university of Konigsberg, which he occupied until his death on the isth of April 1659. In Konigsberg he entered into close relations with Heinrich Albert (1604-1651), Robert Roberthin (1600-1648) and Sibylla Schwarz (1621-1638), and with them formed the so-called Konigsberger Dictergruppe. He sang the praises of the house of the electors of Brandenburg in a collection of poems entitled Kurbrandenburgische Rose, Adler, Lowe und Scepter (1661), and also produced many occasional poems, several of which became popular; the most famous of them is Anke von Tharaw oss, de my gejollt (rendered by Herder into modern German as Annchen von Tharau), composed in 1637 in honour of the marriage of a friend. Among his hymns, many of which are of great beauty, are the following: Ich binja, Herr, in deiner Macht, Ich bin bei Gott in Gnaden durch Christi Blut und Tod, and O, tne selig seid ihr boch, ihr Frommen.
Editions of Dach's poems have been published by W. Miiller (1823), by H. Osterley (for the Stuttgart Literarischer Verein, 1876) ; also selections by the same editor (1876), and in Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur (1883). See especially the introductions to Osterley's editions; also H. Stiehler, Simon Dock, sein Leben und seine ausgewahlte Dichtungen (1896).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
