Born: June 1, 1618, Guben, Brandenburg, Germany.
Died: June 18, 1677, Guben, Brandenburg, Germany. In 1877, on the bicentennial of his death, a tablet to his memory was affixed to the outer wall of the Stadtkirche at Guben.
After his father’s death in 1620, Franck’s uncle by marriage, the town judge, Adam Tielckau, adopted him and sent him to schools in Guben, Cottbus, Stettin, and Thorn. On June 28, 1638, Franck enrolled at the University of Königsberg, the only German university left undisturbed by the Thirty Years’ War. Here his religious spirit, his love of nature, and his friendship with such men as Simon Dach and Heinrich Held, preserved him from sharing in the excesses of his fellow students. He returned to Guben at Easter, 1640, at his mother’s urgent request; she wished to have him near her in those times of war when Guben frequently suffered from the presence of both Swedish and Saxon troops.
After his return from Prague, May, 1645, Franck began practicing as a lawyer. In 1648, he became a burgess and councilor, a Burgermeister in 1661, and in 1671 was appointed the deputy from Guben to the Landtag (Diet) of Lower Lusatia.
Franck’s hymns appeared mostly in the works of his friends Weichman, Crüger, and Peter. They were collected in his Geistliches Sion (Guben, 1674).
Sources
Hymns
Translations