O Durchbrecher aller Bande. G. Arnold. [Sanctification.] First published in his Göttliche Liebes-Funcken. Frankfurt am Main, 1698, No. 169, in 11 stanzas of 8 lines, entitled ”The Sigh of the Captive." Included in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch, Darmstadt, 1698, p. 498, in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704, and many later collections, as the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 326. Also in Ehmann's edition of Arnold's Geistlische Lieder, 1856, p. 81, and Knapp's edition, 1845, p. 202. It is Arnold's finest church hymn, and is a very characteristic expression of the Pietistic views regarding the conflict between the old and the new man. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii., 432-434, says of it:—
"In this hymn the poet powerfully expresses his inmost emotions under the many conflicts he had with his heart. . . It is a true daily hymn of supplication for earnest Christians who have taken the words of the Apostle 'Follow. . . .the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord' (Heb. xii. 14) as the rule and standard of their lives. Many such might often rather sigh it out than sing it."
Translations in common use:—
1. Thou who breakest every chain. A very good translation, omitting stanzas v., vi., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Series, 1858, p. 140 (Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 111, omitting the trs. of stanzas iii., viii.). Included in the Harrow School Hymn Book, 1866 ; Brown-Borthwick's Select Hymns, 1871, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871, &c. In Church Hymns the cento is: stanza i. is from i., 11. 1-4, and iv., 11. 1-4 of the German; ii. from iv., 11. 5-8, and vii., 11. 5-8; iii. from ix.; iv. from x., 11. 1-4, and xi. 5-8. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Arnold, Gottfried, son of Gottfried Arnold, sixth master of the Town School of Annaberg in the Saxon Harz, born at Annaberg Sept. 5, 1666. His life was varied and eventful, and although much of it had little to do with hymnody from an English point of view, yet his position in German Hymnology is such as to necessitate an extended notice, which, through pressure of space, must be (typographically) compressed.
After passing through the Town School and the Gymnasium at Gera, he matriculated in 1685 at the University of Wittenberg—where he found the strictest Lutheran orthodoxy in doctrine combined with the loosest of living. Preserved by his enthusiasm for study from the grosser vices of his fellows, turning to contemplate the lives of t… Go to person page >
Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used i… Go to person page >
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