Georg Michael Pfefferkorn › Texts

Pfefferkorn, Georg Michael, was born March 16, 1645, at Ifta, near Creuzburg on the Werra, where his father, G. M. Pfefferkorn (a native of Creuzburg, but never pastor there), had become pastor in 1619, held the living for 58 years, but finally retired and died at Creuzburg. After studying at the Universities of Jena (M.A. 1666) and Leipzig, Pfefferkorn was for a short time private tutor at Altenburg, and then in 1668, became master of the two highest forms in the Gymnasium at Altenburg. In 1673, he was appointed by Duke Ernst the Pious, of Gotha (who died March 26, 1675), as a tutor to his three sons. In 1676 Duke Friedrich I. appointed him pastor of Friemar, near Gotha, and in 1682 made him a member of the consistory and superintendent at Gräfen-Tonna, near Gotha. He died at Gräfen-Tonna, March 3, 1732 (Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxv. 619; manuscript from Pastor H. Henning, Superintendent at Creuzburg, &c).

Pfefferkorn's hymns appeared in the hymn-books of the period, and in his Poetisch-Philologische Fest-und Wochen-Lust darinnen allerhand Arten Deutscher Gedichte, &c, Altenburg, 1667 [Berlin Library], and the second enlarged edition, Altenburg, 1669 [Göttingen Library]. The most important hymn associated with his name is “Wer weiss wie nahe mir mein Ende". Another hymn ascribed to him is:

Was frag ich nach der Welt, Und allen ihren Schätzen. Renunciation of the World. According to J. Avenarius, in his Liedercatechismus, Leipzig, 1714, p. 56, this hymn was written in 1667, and sung from broadsheets at Altenburg. It is not however in his Gedichte, as above, either in 1667 or 1669. It is included, without his name, in the Stettinisches Vollständiges Gesang-Buch, Alten-Stettin, 1671, p. 415 ; and, with his name, in the Naumburg Gesang-Buch, 1715, ed. by J. M. Schamelius. In the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863, No. 695. It is founded on 1 John ii. 15-17, and is in 8 st. of 8 1., 1. 8 in each st. being, "Was frag ich nach der Welt."
The only translation is: “Can I this world esteem," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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The death record in the Gräfentonna parish book clearly shows 1731. Reference: ev. KiBu Gräfentonna +1731#4 ARCHION / Thüringen / Landeskirchenarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche Mitteldeutschland/Eisenach / Kirchenkreis Gotha / Gräfentonna / Taufen, Trauungen, Beerdigungen Teil II 1671-1757 / Folio 220, Scan 163

Pfefferkorn definitely did not write "Was frag ich nach der Welt, Und allen ihren Schätzen". (Note also the typo in your write-up: "allen", not "alien".) The text was written by Balthasar Kindermann, and published in his Das Buch der Redlichen (Cüstrin [Küstrin, Kostryzyn]: 1664), pp625-626. See the entry for "What is the world to me", LSB 730 in Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns Vol. I (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019) pp1029-1031. The 1664 publication of the poem can be found here: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10112257?page=645
I should point out that the book is sometimes dated to 1663, as in the LSB Companion to the Hymns.

Jim Eggert