Martin Opitz

Born on December 23, 1597, in Bunzlau, Silesia, Martin Opitz became one of the most influential German poets of the seventeenth century. He studied widely and absorbed literary models from other European traditions, then used them to push German poetry in a new direction.

He is best remembered for his writing on poetics, especially Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624), which set out clear ideas about language, meter, and style. That book helped establish standards for literary German and gave later poets a framework they could build on, which is why he is often described as a founding figure in German Baroque poetry.

Opitz also worked as a translator, scholar, and court poet, and he was ennobled as "von Boberfeld" in 1628. He died in Danzig on August 20, 1639, but his influence lasted well beyond his own era, shaping how German poetry was written and judged for generations.