Ludwig Rhesa
Martin Ludwig Jedemin Rhesa was a consistorial councillor of the Evangelical Church in Prussia and a professor at the University of Königsberg in East Prussia.Biography
He was born as Ludwig Rheese in the village of Karwaiten on the Curonian Spit in the Kingdom of Prussia, to a Curonian family. While attending the Albertina in Königsberg he changed the spelling of his name to Rhesa.
He is remembered as the first publisher of the circa-1770 Lithuanian poem "The Seasons", along with German translation of Donaleitis' poems. It has since gone on to be translated into 16 more European languages.
Rhesa also researched the traditions of Baltic language folk song. He published the first collection of 85 such songs in 1825 under title Dainos oder Litthauische Volkslieder. Thus he is considered to be the founder of Lithuanian folklore research.
