Gottlob Wilhelm Burmann

Gottlob Wilhelm Burmann (originally Bormann) was born in Lauban, 18, May, 1737, the son of a schoolmaster. The family moved to Silesia during his childhood, where he was educated at Löwenberg (Lwówek Śląski) and Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra). His became so proficient in his studies that a teacher began referring to him as "Burmann" after the Dutch philologist Pieter Burman, which the young man adopted as his preferred surname. He studied law in Frankfurt (Oder) and eventually settled in Berlin where he became known as a writer, editor, collector of folk tales, and teacher in multiple disciplines, including music. He was rather eccentric, as evidenced by his 1788 publication Gedichte ohne den Buchstaben R, a set of poems that avoided any use of the letter "R". Burmann claimed to be experimenting with the possibility of eliminating the letter "R" from the German language. He died 5 January, 1805, in Berlin.

Though Burmann was primarily a secular author, several hymns are found in his children's collections, Kleine Lieder für kleine Mädchen (1773), Kleine Lieder für kleine Jünglinge (1777), and Geschenk für die Herzen der Kinder (1780).

--"Gottlob Wilhelm Burmann," Wikipedia (German). https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Wilhelm_Burmann