Gerhard Tersteegen

Who was Gerhard Tersteegen?

Gerhard Tersteegen, was a German Reformed religious writer, born at Moers, at that time the capital of a countship belonging to the house of Orange-Nassau, which formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Roman 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, withdrawing in 1728 from all secular pursuits and giving himself entirely to religious work.

He also had a great influence on radical Pietism.

His writings include a collection of hymns, a volume of Gebete, and another of Briefe, besides translations of the writings of the French mystics and of Julian of Norwich. He died in Mülheim, North Rhine-Westphalia.