Introduction

Biography

Ehrenfried was the son of a mill­er in Probst­hain.

He helped his fa­ther in the mill un­til he was 16 years old. He was then al­lowed to stu­dy at the La­tin school at Schweid­nitz (now Świd­ni­cam, Po­land), and the St. Eli­sa­beth school at Bres­lau (now Wro­cław, Po­land).

At East­er 1738, he en­tered the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leip­zig as a theo­lo­gy stu­dent. Up­on com­plet­ing his course in 1740, he be­came a pri­vate tu­tor.

In April 1742, he be­came pas­tor at Lom­nitz (now Łomnica, Po­land) and Erd­manns­dorf (now Mys­ła­ko­wi­ce, Po­land), where he stayed the rest of his life.

Leibich is one of the best Ger­man hymn-writ­ers of the middle of the 18th cen­tu­ry; Scrip­tur­al, heart­felt, and good in style, al­ways edi­fy­ing, if some­times too di­dac­tic.

He had be­gun hymn-wri­ting about 1749, and con­trib­ut­ed 8 hymns to the Hirsch­berg G. B., 1752.

A co­py of this book fell in­to the hands of C. F. Gell­ert dur­ing a vi­sit to Carls­bad [now Kar­lo­vy Vary, Czech­ia] in 1763, and through his en­cour­age­ment Leib­ich be­gan again to com­pose hymns.

He pub. his com­po­si­tions as (1) Geist­liche Lied­er und Od­en, &c., Hirsch­berg and Leip­zig, 1768, with 142 hymns (2) New ed. Lieg­nitz [now Leg­ni­ca, Po­land], 1773; with a se­cond part, en­ti­tled, Geist­liche Liede­r zur Erbau­ung, Lieg­nitz, 1774, with 74 hymns.

Quoted in Ju­li­an, p. 674