DACH, SIMON

born July 29, 1605, Memel, East Prussia [now in Lithuania] died April 15, 1659, Knigsberg [now Kaliningrad, Russia] Prussian poet who was best known as the leader of the 17th-century Knigsberg circle of middle-class poets, important in the early Baroque movement in literature, which reflects the stress and turmoil of the period of the Thirty Years' War. After earning his living for many years as a private tutor for wealthy families, he became a professor of poetry at the University of Knigsberg in 1639. His occasional poetry, which commemorated the births, deaths, and marriages of the Knigsberg bourgeoisie, is characterized by a sweet simplicity and musicality. He went beyond this conventional manner, however, in poems with elements from folk songs and in religious poetry; these verses can be seen to anticipate the hymns of Paul Gerhardt, generally considered the greatest of the German hymnists.