GERHARD

See also:

• GERHARD TERSTEEGEN (1697–1769)

TERSTEEGEN (1697–1769)  , German religious writer, was born on the 25th of November 1697, at Mors, at that time the capital of a countship belonging to the house of Orange-Nassau (it fell to Prussia in 1702), which formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Catholic country . After being educated at the gymnasium of his native town, Tersteegen was for some years apprenticed to a merchant . He soon came under the influence of Wilhelm Hoffman, a pietistic revivalist, and devoted himself to writing and public speaking, with-drawing in 1728 from all secular pursuits and giving himself entirely to religious work . His writings include a collection of hymns (Das geistliche Blumengartlein, 1729; new edition, Stuttgart, 1868), a volume of Gebete, and another of Briefe, besides translations of the writings of the French mystics . He died at Muhlheim in Westphalia on the 3rd of April 1769 . See HYMNS, and the article by Eduard Simons in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, vol. xix . (ed . 1907) .