Friedrich Eickhoff
Friedrich Hermann Eickhoff , by mistake also Friedrich Heinrich Eickhoff (* 1807 in Soest , † 1886 in Gütersloh ) was a German teacher , organist and song arranger. He is known to this day for the songs Go out, my heart, and seek Freud and your little children, come , which he combines spiritual texts (by Paul Gerhardt and Christoph von Schmid ) with spring melodies by August Harder and Johann Abraham Peter Schulz created.
Eickhoff received his training at the teacher training college in Soest. In 1829 he came to Gütersloh as a teacher. There he taught at the evangelical girls' elementary school in Kirchstrasse ; later he became its rector . In this capacity he managed the move of the school to the new school building on Kökerstraße in 1859 and the amalgamation of the three Protestant elementary schools to form a community school in 1868. In 1879 he retired.
In addition to his educational work, Eickhoff was the organist of the Protestant community at the Apostle Church , where Johann Heinrich Volkening had come as pastor two years before him (until 1838). Volkening made Gütersloh a center of the Minden-Ravensberger Lutheran revival movement .
Eickhoff's endeavors to create popular Christian songs grew out of both his teaching profession and his organist service. By singing atmospheric lyrics to catchy melodies, the images and message of the gospel should be impressed on children and families.
In 1835 Carl Bertelsmann founded his publishing house on Kirchplatz in Gütersloh . One of the first sales successes was the Christian song collection Theomele [ gr. -lat. "Gotteslieder"], edited by Friedrich Eickhoff with the songs collected by him or created by combining them. Around this time Eickhoff married Bertelsmann's daughter Anna Friederike. The couple had four children, three of whom became teachers like Eickhoff.
Eickhoff's songs experienced their real breakthrough through Johann Heinrich Volkening's song book Kleine Missionsharfe . It was published by Bertelsmann in 1852 and had 82 editions with more than two million copies.
In 1873 Friedrich Eickhoff co-founded the historical association in Gütersloh, the forerunner of today's Gütersloh Heimatverein. In Gütersloh, on the 50th anniversary of Eickhoff's death in 1936, Eickhoffstrasse was given its name, although it was not named after Friedrich Hermann Eickhoff, but after his sons Prof. Hermann Eickhoff (1853–1934) and Prof. Paul Eickhoff (1850–1931). Both published numerous works on local history.
Web links
- Eickhoff's work as a teacher on www.stadtgeschichte-guetersloh.com
Individual evidence
- ^ The Christmas carol from Gütersloh newspaper article in "Die Glocke" from December 14, 2013
- ^ Matthias Borner: A Gütersloh song goes around the world. How the Christmas classic "Your little children are coming" became famous. In: GT-Info. Gütersloh's city magazine. December 2010 / January 2011, p. 36 (PDF; 15.4 MB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eickhoff, Friedrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Eickhoff, Friedrich Hermann (full name); Eickhoff, Friedrich Heinrich (wrong name form) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German teacher, organist, Christian song collector and editor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1807 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Soest |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1886 |
| Place of death | Gutersloh |