Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

translated as
A mighty fortress is our God
A safe stronghold our God is still

I. Publication History

This hymn, one of the most famous hymns in all of Christendom, was composed by the great reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546). Luther composed the hymn some time in or before 1529, when it appeared at least three times that year, in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert (Wittenberg), which no longer exists, in a broadsheet printed in Augsburg, and in Jakob Dachser’s Form vnd Ordnung gaystlicher Gesang vnd Psalmen (Augsburg | Fig. 1). The hymn is sometimes believed to have been written around the time of the second Diet of Spayer, 20 April 1529.

In 1530, Luther’s colleague Johann Walter (1496–1570) included the melody in a manuscript draft of some of Luther’s hymns (Fig. 2). In 1871, this manuscript was in the possession of Otto Kade, who reproduced it in Der neuaufgefundene Luther-Codex vom Jahre 1530. It is now in the possession of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. The portion showing “Ein feste Burg” was also reproduced in Hymns Ancient & Modern Historical Edition (London, 1909), p. lxxi. This manuscript is the oldest surviving copy of Luther’s melody.

The hymn then appeared in Jobst Gutknecht’s Kirchen Gesenge (Nürnberg, 1531) and Joachim Slüter’s Geystlyke Leder (Rostock, 1531). Joseph Klug’s edition of 1529 was printed again in 1533, Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert (Wittenberg), with the melody and all four stanzas (Fig. 3), headed with the 46th Psalm and the first five words of the psalm in Latin. In a facsimile edition edited by Konrad Ameln, published by Bärenreiter in 1954, Ameln believed the 1533 edition had used the same plates as the 1529 edition (p. 27). Klug’s Wittenberg connection to Luther, his reuse of the 1529 plates, and his inclusion of the complete text and melody, arguably make this the most reliable early source for Luther’s hymn, functionally equivalent to the lost 1529 edition.

Fig. 3. Joseph Klug, Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert (Wittenberg, 1533).

Other printings during this time period exist, but the one most significant for the study of this hymn is the final printing in Luther’s lifetime, containing Luther’s last official version, in Valentin Babst’s Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig, 1545 | Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Valentin Babst, Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig, 1545).

II. Assessment

Text

Luther’s hymn is based on some elements of Psalm 46, but it is not a full paraphrase. In his Summaries of the Psalms, 1531–1533 (Summarien über die Psalmen), Luther offered this overview of the biblical text, some of which is reflected in his hymn:

The 46th Psalm is a psalm of thanks, sung by the people of Israel because of the mighty deeds of God. He had protected and saved the city of Jerusalem, in which was His dwelling, against all the rage and the fury of all the kings and the nations and preserved their peace against all warfare and weapons. And, in the manner of the Scriptures, the psalm calls the character of the city a little stream that shall not run dry, as opposed to the great rivers, seas, and oceans of the heathen—their great kingdoms, principalities, and domains—that shall dry up and disappear.

We, on the other hand, sing this psalm to praise God for being with us. He miraculously preserves His Word and Christendom against the gates of hell, against the rage of the devil, the rebellious spirits, the world, the flesh, sin, death. Our little spring of water is also a living fountain, while their puddles, pools, and ponds become foul, malodorous, and dry.[1]

Baptist scholar Esther R. Crookshank, who as a child learned this hymn in German from German-speaking parents, described the differences between Psalm 46 and Luther’s hymn:

As is evident from a comparison of this hymn text with Psalm 46, Luther chose not to paraphrase the whole of that Psalm. Instead, he focused on the flood scenes in the first three verses and the cosmic battle in the latter part of the Psalm, where Yahweh shows himself victorious over the rebellious nations of the earth.[2]

Similarly, Lutheran scholar Joseph Herl explained Luther’s approach:

Luther equates the kings and heathen who arrayed themselves against Israel with the spiritual enemies of the Christian. His hymn is not, therefore, simply a translation of the psalm into the vernacular, but an expansion of it into the New Testament, albeit to a greater extent than with his other hymns based on psalms, all of which were written several years before this one.[3]

Among possible New Testament allusions, see especially 1 Peter 5:8 (“Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” ESV). In the fourth stanza, the words take a male perspective (“Though they may take . . . our wives”), which has caused some modern translators to attempt a more generic rendering.

A description of the hymn by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) is often quoted from Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland (1835):

Jenes Lied, der Marseiller Hymne der Reformation, hat bis auf unsere Tage seine begeisternde Kraft bewahrt, und vielleicht zu ähnlichen Kämpfen gebrauchen wir nächstens die alten geharnischten Worte.

This hymn, the Marseillaise hymn of the Reformation, has preserved its potent spell even to our days, and we may yet soon use again in similar conflicts the old [armored] words.[4]

In this quote, Heine seems to have been alluding to the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise” (1792), thus referring to Luther’s hymn as the anthem of the Reformation. Other authors have referred to the hymn as the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation.” But in its earliest printing, it was labeled “Ein Trost Psalm,” meaning “A psalm of comfort.” Scholar Robin Leaver cautioned:

He [Luther] saw it as expressing the grounds on which Christians can take comfort and hope in times of trial and conflict, and not as a vehicle of belligerent and provocative Protestantism. . . . The key to the whole hymn is perhaps to be found in the final line of the last stanza, with its emphatic statement about the permanence of the kingdom of God. Toward the end of 1528 Luther was working on his catechetical exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, which would be published the following year within his Large Catechism. On the second petition, “Thy kingdom come,” he wrote:

What is the kingdom of God? Answer: Simply what we learned in the Creed, namely, that God sent his Son, Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil and to bring us to himself and rule as a king of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience. . . .

Thus, if “Ein feste Burg” is to be fully understood, it should be interpreted primarily from within Luther’s own understandings of theology, rather than from an attempt to link its creation to one of the many dramatic events in his struggle with the papacy.[5]

Tune

In viewing the early printings of the hymn, one important aspect to note is the style of the melody. The original shape had a dance-like, freely rhythmic quality. The earliest printings did not use barlines. The cut-time indicator in Figures 2–4 did not mean 2/2, it was an indicator of a measured, duple-feel tempo, being roughly twice as quick (or employing notes at double value) as music marked with a C, or it was sometimes used more generically as a standard sign for this type of mensural notation. All of the examples above are notated on a C-clef, with a flat sign indicating the B-flat of an F scale.

As the concepts of meter and bar groupings took greater hold in the world of musical composition, church musicians adapted this melody to follow suit, eventually settling on its more recognizable march-like style with even rhythms. This form of the melody was standardized by the time J.S. Bach (1685–1750) used it in his Cantata BWV 80 (see especially the chorale setting of movement 8). For a detailed description of the tune’s possible precursor influences and its subsequent rhythmic changes, see Robin Leaver’s essay in The Hymnal 1982 Companion (1994), vol. 3B, nos. 687–688, and Johannes Zahn (1891), no. 7377.

Translations into English

Luther’s hymn has been translated many times into English, the earliest being by Miles Coverdale in Goostly Psalmes and Spirituall Songes (ca. 1535). Many translations up to 1892 were detailed in John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (1892). For a literal, word-for-word translation into English and a corresponding analysis, see Esther R. Crookshank (2017). For additional translation concerns, see Joe Herl (2019).

III. Translation by Thomas Carlyle

In Great Britain, the prevailing translation for many generations has been “A safe stronghold our God is still,” by Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), first published in Fraser’s Magazine, vol. 2, no. 12 (Jan. 1831 | Fig. 6) with a corresponding essay. Carlyle was a writer and historian; at the time, he and his wife Jane Welsh were living in a rural estate called Craigenputtock in Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

Fig. 6. Fraser’s Magazine, vol. 2, no. 12 (Jan. 1831).

Regarding this hymn, Carlyle wrote:

The following, for example, jars upon our ears, yet is there something in it like the sound of Alpine avalanches, or the first murmur of earthquakes, in the very vastness of which dissonance a higher unison is revealed to us. Luther wrote this song in a time of blackest threatenings, which, however, could in no wise become a time of despair. In those tones, rugged, broken as they are, do we not recognize the accent of that summoned man (summoned not by Charles the Fifth, but by God Almighty also), who answered his friend’s warning not to enter Worms, in this wise: “Were there as many devils in Worms as there are roof-tiles, I would on;”—of him who, alone in that assemblage, before all emperors, and principalities, and powers, spoke forth these final and for ever memorable words: “It is neither safe nor prudent to do aught against conscience. Here stand I, I cannot otherwise. God assist me, Amen!”

James Mearns called this “the most faithful (st. iv excepted) and forcible of all the English versions.”[6] J.R. Watson’s assessment of Carlyle’s translation pointed mainly to the Englishman’s technique but in some ways failed to acknowledge how some of its characteristics reflect the original German:

By his inversions and suspensions, Carlyle produces a hymnic language (and a deliberately gender-exclusive text) that is highly artificial yet charged with energy: this combines with the martial imagery to produce a hymn that is strangely and unusually awkward and rough-edged, yet all the better for being so. The rhyme scheme, which disconcertingly changes from quatrains to couplets, with an unrhymed line hanging at the end (as in Bunyan’s “Who would true valour see,” another effectively rough hymn), is also responsible for this sense of deliberate ruggedness, which goes well with Christianity as a type of legendary heroism. Carlyle is seeing the spiritual life in terms of primitive conflict: his verse is a distorted, violent expression of this, combining heavy rhythmical beats with unexpected word order.[7]

IV. Translation by Frederick Hedge

In the United States, the predominant translation is by Frederick H. Hedge (1805–1890), “A mighty fortress is our God,” first printed in Hymns for the Church of Christ (Boston: Crosby, Nichols, and Co., 1853 | Fig. 5). At the time, Hedge was a minister serving a Congregational church in Providence, Rhode Island.

Fig. 5. Hymns for the Church of Christ (Boston: Crosby, Nichols, and Co., 1853).
   

Hedge’s translation has been much more popular in the United States than Carlyle’s. Even in situations in which editors have produced composite translations, they typically borrow Hedge’s iconic opening line. His work is generally faithful to Luther’s original. An interesting departure is at 2.8, where he appealed to God’s eternal nature (“From age to age the same”), whereas the German speaks of his sole authority, “There is no other God.” At 3.2, Hedge obscured the sense of being devoured, as in 1 Peter 5:8. At 3.5, “Price of Ill” or “Prince of Darkness” is an extra-biblical term, and as Esther Crookshank has explained, “When Jesus calls Satan ‘the prince of this world’ in John 14:30, he is describing a temporal, temporary situation; Satan will not be ruling anything in hell, he’ll be tormented there forever.”[8] At 4.5-6, Hedge avoided Luther’s list, opting for the simpler term “kindred” in place of children and wives, but in the process “honor” (“Ehre”) was lost.

V. Lutheran Composite Translations

Lutheran churches in the United States have traditionally used composite translations, curated and refined over more than a century and a half. The initial foundation for these was the translation by Thomas Carlyle. His version—extensively revised—was adopted into Hymns Selected and Original, Rev. Ed (1850), made for the Evangelical Lutheran Church, edited by a committee in which Lutheran minister and professor William M. Reynolds (1812–1876) was the chairperson.

In the first stanza, many of Carlyle’s lines were only mildly retouched, except 1.5-6, which are by the editors. Notice also the revised last line, “On earth is not his equal,” which predates the same line by Hedge.

In the second stanza, lines 1–4 and 7–8 are by Henry Mills (1786–1867), from Horae Germanicae (1845); lines 5–6 are apparently by the editors, and line 9 is altered from Carlyle.

In the third stanza, line 1 is by Mills, lines 2 and 4 from Carlyle, and line 3 by the editors. The remainder is altered from the translation by J.C. Jacobi (1670–1750), in Psalmodia Germanica (1722).

In the fourth stanza, the first four lines have no apparent precedent and are probably by the editors. Lines 5–6 are altered from Carlyle, and lines 7–8 are altered from Mills. The final line is similar to the version printed by the English Moravians (“And we shall have God’s kingdom”) in A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God (1754), no. 319.

This translation illustrates the problem of determining the proper meter for the text, especially in relation to lines 5–7 of every stanza. The older, original version of the tune carries five syllables per line, whereas isometric versions of the tune usually carry six. Carlyle used six syllables in his translation; here the editors have preferred five.

William M. Reynolds, in an article for the Evangelical Quarterly Review (1863), described the 1850 version he had helped to create:

It was on this version of Carlyle that the hymn was based, only such changes being made (in the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines especially) as were necessary to adapt it to the old melody, as well as to remove some expressions not regarded as suited to public worship. But this “patching of the old garment with a new piece” has not made a very smooth or homogenous version, although it approached nearer to the original form than any translation then known.[9]

In this article, he offered two possible improved versions, one for each choice of meter (Fig. 7).

Reynolds’ updated version includes some lines from Catherine Winkworth’s Lyra Germanica (1855), notably 2.5-8, a distinctive alteration of her 3.5-6, and a verbatim reuse of her 4.9. The 1863 text includes the distinctive line “Scowl fierce as he will” (3.6).

Another composite translation was printed in Hymns for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1865 | Fig. 8), with more changes, credited to Carlyle and Reynolds. In many cases, this version reverts to earlier attempts by Carlyle and by the 1850 committee, but keeping “Scowl fierce as he will.” The general editor of this hymnal was Frederic M. Bird (1838–1908).

When the hymnal was combined with the Lutheran book of liturgy, resulting in the Church Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations (1868 | Fig. 9), more alterations crept into the text, most notably the change of the opening line from Carlyle’s to Hedge’s.

A corresponding music edition, Church Book . . . with Music (1872) was compiled and edited by Harriet Reynolds Krauth [Spaeth] (1845–1925), organist of Saint Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West Philadelphia. For this edition, Krauth used an isometric version of the tune as it had appeared in The Chorale Book for England (1863), harmonized by William Sterndale Bennett (1816–1875), with only a few minor changes, such as the elimination of the syncopation at “bitter foe.” In her preface, Krauth expressed a need for Evangelical Lutherans to continue to encourage the proper singing of Lutheran tunes, given how those hymns and tunes were being sought after and edited by other traditions, “lest by our wilful negligence this rich heritage should pass irrecoverably into the hands of strangers.” Krauth later married Dr. Adolph Spaeth.

The 1868 version of the text had better longevity than the previous iterations, being repeated in several other collections over the next century, including in Missouri Synod hymnals as early as Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations (1884), and onward into The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), except Missouri Synod editors have generally preferred the rhythmic version of the tune (as in Choralbuch: Eine Sammlung der gangbarsten Choräle der evang.-lutherischen Kirche, 1886, for example).

The next significant attempt at textual revision was made by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship for the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978 | Fig. 10). The committee retained some lines from the older text while completely refashioning others.

The hymnal as a whole was pioneering in the way it aimed to reduce gendered language and archaisms. In this case, an obvious example is in the lines “If they take our house, / Goods, fame, child, or spouse.” The hymnal was also notable for including both versions of the tune, thus having to supply two variations of the same text to suit each meter. The 1978 revisions have been repeated in other collections.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
15 October 2018
rev. 22 October 2021

Footnotes:

1. Bruce A. Cameron, Psalms with Introductions by Martin Luther (St. Louis: Concordia, 1993). For the original German, see D. Martin Luthers Werke [LW], vol. 38, p. 35.

2. Esther R. Crookshank, “A Fresh Look at Martin Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress,’” SBTS Equip (2017).

3. Joe Herl, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (2019), p. 837.

4. Heinrich Heine’s sämtliche Werke, ed. Otto F. Lachmann, vol. 3 (Leipzig: Philipp Reclam Jr., 1887), p. 35: HathiTrust; translated by James Mearns (1892), p. 323.

5. Robin A. Leaver, “A mighty fortress is our God,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3B (1994), pp. 1276–1279.

6. James Mearns, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” ed. John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (1892), p. 324.

7. J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (Oxford: University Press, 1997), p. 410.

8. Esther R. Crookshank, “A Fresh Look at Martin Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress,’” SBTS Equip (2017).

9. William M. Reynolds, “Luther’s battle song of the Reformation,” Evangelical Quarterly Review (1863), p. 549.

Related Resources:

J.C. Jacobi, Psalmodia Germanica (London: J. Young, 1722): PDF

Henry Mills, Horae Germanicae (Auburn: H. & J.C. Ivison, 1845), pp. 122–123: Archive.org

William M. Reynolds, “Luther’s battle song of the Reformation,” Evangelical Quarterly Review, vol. 14, no. 56 (July 1863), pp. 537–558: HathiTrust

Philipp Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, vol. 3 (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1870), pp. 19–21: HathiTrust

Richard Lauxmann, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Geschichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, vol. 8 (Stuttgart: 1876), pp. 119–131: HathiTrust

Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vol. 4 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1891), no. 7377a-d: Archive.org

James Mearns, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 322–325: Google Books

Bernhard Pick, Dr. Martin Luther’s Hymn of the Reformation (Cleona, PA: G. Holzapfel, 1897): Archive.org

Louis Benson, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Studies of Familiar Hymns (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1903), pp. 155–168: Archive.org

W.G. Polack, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), pp. 192–194.

Jaroslav Vajda, “Translations of ‘Ein feste Burg,’” The Hymn, vol. 34, no. 3 (July 1983), pp. 134–140: HathiTrust

Markus Jenny, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Luthers Geistliche Lieder und Kirchengesänge (Cologne: Böhlau, 1985), pp. 100–101, 247–249.

J.R. Watson & Kenneth Trickett, “A safe stronghold our God is still,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing, 1988), pp. 375–376.

Fred L. Precht, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Lutheran Worship Hymnal Companion (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), pp. 316–318.

Robin A. Leaver, “A mighty fortress is our God,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3B (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), nos. 687–688.

Robin A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical Music (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), pp. 13–14, 61–62.

Calvin Seerveld, “Getting into Martin Luther’s Groove,” Reformed Worship (March 2010), pp. 20–21:
https://www.reformedworship.org/article/march-2010/getting-martin-luthers-groove

Paul Westermeyer, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 333–337.

Steve Perisho, “Here I fall (Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand on “‘A Mighty Fortress [Ein feste Burg]’ in Luther’s Hand”),” Liber Locorum Communium (23 Dec. 2014): http://liberlocorumcommunium.blogspot.com/2014/12/here-i-fall-roland-bainton-on-mighty.html

Esther R. Crookshank, “A Fresh Look at Martin Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress,’” SBTS Equip (2017):
http://equip.sbts.edu/article/fresh-look-martin-luthers-mighty-fortress/

Maurice Manning, “A Catholic love for a Protestant hymn,” Stars Shall Bend Their Voices: Poets’ Favorite Hymns & Spiritual Songs, ed. Jeffrey L. Johnson (Asheville, NC: Orison, 2018), pp. 113–119: Amazon

Joe Herl, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 836–843.

Leland Ryken, “A mighty fortress is our God,” 40 Favorite Hymns for the Christian Year (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2020), pp. 85–88.

David W. Music, “Martin Luther’s tune EIN’ FESTE BURG in English-language tunebooks and hymnals published in the United States before 1876,” The Hymn, vol. 71, no. 4 (Autumn 2020), pp. 24–33.

Related Links:

J.R. Watson, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/e/ein%E2%80%99-feste-burg-ist-unser-gott

J.R. Watson, “A mighty fortress is our God,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/a/a-mighty-fortress-is-our-god

J.R. Watson, “A safe stronghold our God is still,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/a/a-safe-stronghold-our-god-is-still

“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/ein_feste_burg_ist_unser_gott

“A mighty fortress is our God,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/a_mighty_fortress_is_our_god_a_bulwark

“A safe stronghold our God is still,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/a_safe_stronghold_our_god_is_still