Neumark was ed­u­cat­ed at the Gym­na­si­ums in Schleu­sing­en and Go­tha. He re­ceived his cer­tif­i­cate of di­mis­sion from the lat­ter in Sep­tem­ber 1641. He left Go­tha in the au­tumn of 1641, along with a num­ber of mer­chants go­ing to the Mi­chael­mas Fair at Leip­zig. He then joined a sim­i­lar par­ty go­ing from Leip­zig to Lü­beck, plan­ning to pro­ceed to Kö­nigs­berg and en­roll at the un­i­ver­si­ty there. Af­ter pass­ing through Mag­de­burg, they were at­tacked by ban­dits on the Gar­de­le­gen Heath, who robbed Neu­mark of all he had with him, ex­cept his pray­er book and a lit­tle mo­ney sewed up in his clothes. He re­turned to Mag­de­burg, but could not find a job there, nor in Lü­ne­burg, Win­sen, or Ham­burg, to which in suc­cession the friends he made passed him on. In the be­gin­ning of De­cem­ber he went to Kiel, where he found a friend in Ni­co­laus Beck­er, a fel­low Thu­rin­gi­an and then chief pas­tor at Kiel. Day af­ter day passed with­out an open­ing, till about the end of the month the tu­tor in the fam­i­ly of judge Ste­phan Hen­ning fell in­to dis­grace and fled from Kiel. On Beck­er’s re­com­mend­a­tion, Neu­mark got the job, and this sud­den end of his anx­i­e­ties was the oc­cas­ion of the writ­ing of his hymn Wer nur den lieb­en Gott lässt wal­ten.

Neumark passed the time hap­pi­ly in the Hen­ning home un­til he had saved enough to pro­ceed to Kö­nigs­berg, where he en­rolled June 21, 1643, as a law stu­dent. He re­mained five years, al­so stu­dy­ing po­e­try un­der Dach and main­tain­ing him­self as a fam­i­ly tu­tor. Dur­ing this time (in 1646) he again lost all his be­long­ings, this time by fire. In 1648 he left Kö­nigs­berg, was for a short time in War­saw, and spent 1649-50 at Thorn. He was then in Dan­zig, and Sep­tem­ber 1651 in Ham­burg. By the end of 1651 he had re­turned to Thu­rin­gi­a, and was no­ticed by Duke Wil­helm II of Sachse-Wei­mar, the pre­si­dent of the Fruit­bear­ing So­ci­e­ty, the prin­ci­pal Ger­man lit­er­ary or­gan­iz­a­tion in the 17th Cen­tu­ry. The Duke, ap­par­ent­ly in 1652, ap­point­ed Neu­mark as court po­et, lib­rar­i­an, and reg­is­trar of the ad­min­is­tra­tion at Wei­mar; and fin­al­ly sec­re­tary of the Du­cal Ar­chives. In Sep­tem­ber 1653 Neu­mark was ad­mit­ted as a mem­ber of the Fruit­bear­ing So­ci­ety, of which he be­came sec­re­tary in 1656. In 1679, Neu­mark al­so be­came a mem­ber of the Peg­nitz Or­der. In 1681, he went blind, but was per­mit­ted to keep his posts un­til he died. Neu­mark’s works in­clude:

• Fort­ge­pflantz­er Mu­sik­al­isch Po­et­isch­er Lust­wald, 1657
• Der Neu-Spross­ende Teutsche Palm­baum (Nürn­berg & Wei­mar, Ger­ma­ny: 1668)

Sources

Hymns

1. Wer nur den lieb­en Gott lässt walt­en
   • If You Will Only Let God Guide You

Music

1. Bremen
2. Neumark (alternate arrangement of Bremen)