Johann Crüger

Johann Crüger (1598–1662) was a German composer and hymn editor, born a Sorb innkeeper's son near Guben. After schooling and theological study at Wittenberg, he settled in Berlin in 1622, where for forty years he taught at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster and served as cantor of the Nikolaikirche.

During the Thirty Years' War he survived plague that claimed his wife and five children in 1636. From 1643 he set hymns by Paul Gerhardt, and in 1647 he published the Praxis pietatis melica, the most influential Lutheran hymnal of the century. His tunes include Nun danket alle Gott. He died in Berlin.