The New International Encyclopædia/Knapp, Albert

KNAPP, knäp, Albert (1798-1864). A German poet, author of many of the best modern German hymns. He studied theology, and after holding various positions in the Protestant Church became in 1836 the principal clergyman in Stuttgart, where he remained until his death. As a poet Knapp worked chiefly in the religious field, and it was in great measure through his hymns that that long-neglected branch of poetry was brought to new life. Many of his hymns are to be found in the Christoterpe, a periodical edited by him from 1833 to 1853. His other works include Christliche Gedichte (1829), Gedichte, neueste Folge (1843), the Cycles, Hohenstaufen (1839), and Bilder der Vorwelt (1862). To hymnology Knapp contributed his Evangelischer Liederschatz für Kirche und Haus (1837), a valuable collection of Christian hymns of all ages, to which his Christenlieder (1841) forms a splendid supplement. Consult Gerok, Albert Knapp als schwäbischer Dichter (Stuttgart, 1879).