The theologian and poet Erdmann Neumeister (1671–1756) is known today primarily for his church hymn texts. He was an opponent of pietism, and his cantata texts were set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann, among others.
Erdmann Neumeister studied theology and poetics in Leipzig, where he became a lecturer in poetry in 1695. In 1697 he took up a pastorate in Bibra and married Johanna Elisabeth Meister, a daughter of the ducal kitchen master Christoph Meister, in Weißenfels. In 1704 he was appointed court deacon at the Weißenfels residence, where he also came into contact with the local composer Johann Philipp Krieger. As early as 1706, however, he moved to Sorau (Żary). From 1715 until his death in 1756, he was the main pastor at the Jakobikirche in Hamburg.
