Neander, Joachim, was born at Bremen, in 1650, as the eldest child of the marriage of Johann Joachim Neander and Catharina Knipping, which took place on Sept. 18, 1649, the father being then master of the Third Form in the Paedagogium at Bremen. The family name was originally Neumann (Newman) or Niemann, but the grandfather of the poet had assumed the Greek form of the name, i.e. Neander. After passing through the Paedagogium he entered himself as a student at the Gymnasium illustre (Academic Gymnasium) of Bremen in Oct. 1666. German student life in the 17th century was anything but refined, and Neander seems to have been as riotous and as fond of questionable pleasures as most of his fellows. In July 1670, Theodore Under-Eyck came to Bremen as pastor of St. Martin's Church, with the reputation of a Pietist and holder of conventicles. Not long after Neander, with two like-minded comrades, went to service there one Sunday, in order to criticise and find matter of amusement. But the earnest words of Under-Eyck touched his heart; and this, with his subsequent conversations with Under-Eyck, proved the turning-point of his spiritual life. In the spring of 1671 he became tutor to five young men, mostly, if not all, sons of wealthy merchants at Frankfurt-am-Main, and accompanied them to the University of Heidelberg, where they seem to have remained till the autumn of 1673, and where Neander learned to know and love the beauties of Nature. The winter of 1673-74 he spent at Frankfurt with the friends of his pupils, and here he became acquainted with P. J. Spener (q.v.) and J. J. Schütz (q.v.) In the spring of 1674 he was appointed Rector of the Latin school at Düsseldorf (see further below). Finally, in 1679, he was invited to Bremen as unordained assistant to Under-Eyck at St. Martin's Church, and began his duties about the middle of July. The post was not inviting, and was regarded merely as a stepping stone to further preferment, the remuneration being a free house and 40 thalers a year, and the Sunday duty being a service with sermon at the extraordinary hour of 5 a.m. Had he lived, Under-Eyck would doubtless have done his best to get him appointed to St. Stephen's Church, the pastorate of which became vacant in Sept., 1680. But meantime Neander himself fell into a decline, and died at Bremen May 31, 1680 (Joachim Neander, sein Leben und seine Lieder. With a Portrait. By J. F. Iken, Bremen, 1880; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xxiii. 327, &c.)
1 Unser herrshcer, unser könig,
Unser aller höchstes gut,
Herrlich ist dein grosser name,
Weil er wunder-thaten thut;
Löblich, nah und auch von fernen,
Von der erd bis an die sternen.
2 Wenig sind zu diesen zeiten,
Welche dich von herzensgund
Lieben, suchen und begehren;
Aus der säugelingen mund
Has du deine macht ausbreiter.
3 Es ist leider1 zu bekagen,
Ja, wem bricht das herze nicht?
Wenn mann sieher so viel tausend
Fallen an dem hellen licht.
Ach wie sicher schläft der sünder,
Ist es nicht ein grosses wunder?
4 Unterdessen, Herr, mein herrscher,
Will ich treulich lieben dich:
Denn ich weiß, du treuer Vater,
Daß du herzlich liebest mich:
Zieh mich kräftig von der erden,
Daß mein herz mag himlisch werden.
5 Herr, dein nam ist hoch berühmer.
Und in aller welt bekant,
Wo die warmen sonnenstrahlen
Nur erleuchten eingi land,
Da ruft himmel, da ruft erde:
Hoch' gelobt: Jehova werde.
6 Herr, mein herrscher, a wie herrlich
ist dein name meiner seel!
drum ich auch für deinen augen
Singende mich dir befehl:
Gib daß deines kindes glieder
Sich du ganz ergeben wieder.