Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer


Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer was a German jurist, poet, satirist and Protestant hymn writer. He worked as an advocate at the court of Wolfenbüttel. Johann Sebastian Bach used a stanza from his hymn "Gott fähret auf gen Himmel" to conclude his Ascension Oratorio. Another hymn, Jesu, meines Glaubens Zier, appears in the 1736 Schemelli Gesangbuch in a setting attributed to Bach.

Career

Sacer was born in Naumburg, the son of the town's mayor. He was first educated by private teachers and from 1649 at the Landesschule Pforta. From 1654 he studied at the University of Jena law and literature. In 1657 he accepted a position as Hofmeister in Berlin where he had contact to poets such as Paul Gerhardt, Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and Andreas Tscherning. Johann Rist made him a member of the literary association Elbschwanenorden under the name Hierophilo.
in Wolfenbüttel, residence of the court
From 1669 he worked as an advocate at the court of Wolfenbüttel, a post for which he had to complete his studies. He achieved the doctorate in September 1671 in Kiel. His last post was Fürstlicher Kammerkonsulent''. He died in Wolfenbüttel and is buried in the Marienkirche, Wolfenbüttel.

Work

Among Sacer's publications are:
Sacer's satirical writings, namely Reime dich, oder ich fresse dich, criticism of the work of his colleagues in poetry, are still read and often quoted.

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Sacer's hymn for Ascension in seven stanzas, "Gott fähret auf gen Himmel" was published in Geistliche, liebliche Lieder in Gotha in 1714, sung to the melody "Von Gott will ich nicht lassen". Later versions appear under the title "Der Herr fährt auf gen Himmel", for example the "Evangelisches Gesangbuch zum kirchlichen Gebrauche" of 1836, sometimes with six stanzas. Johann Sebastian Bach used the hymn's seventh stanza, "Wenn soll es doch geschehen", to conclude his Ascension Oratorio. Among Bach's hymn writers, Sacer was the only contemporary.

Literature