Heermann was born in Raudten (modern day
Rudna) in
Silesia, the fourth son of a middle-class
Protestant family. None of his elder siblings had survived beyond childhood, so when the infant Heermann became very ill, his mother prayed that, if he survived, she would pay for him to study at university. He attended the local school in Raudten, and when his teacher Johannes Baumann left the school to become the local
pastor in 1597, Heermann's parents took him to
Wohlau, where he lived and studied with Jakob Fuchs, a doctor and
apothecary. At school in Wohlau, he was taught by Georg Gigas, son of Johann Gigas, composer of two popular hymns of the time. After a year he became ill yet again, and his parents brought him home. After recovering, he returned to school in Raudten. At the house of a teacher, Gregorius Fiebing, he began his first poetry at the age of seventeen. In 1602, he moved to
Fraustadt, where he lived and worked with the theologian
Valerius Herberger, who employed him as
amanuensis and tutor to his son Zacharias. Here, Heermann's skills as a poet were recognized and encouraged. Despite Herberger's influence, he stayed only a year in Fraustadt, moving on to study at the
Gymnasium Elisabethanum in
Breslau, then to the Gymnasium in
Brieg in Autumn 1604, where he had the opportunity to give speeches and recite his poetry. He decided to go to university in 1607, but was persuaded by his
patron, Wenzel von Rothkirch, to stay with him, teaching his two sons and accompanying them on a trip around Europe. Heermann agreed, using his spare time to study in the ducal library and that of the university
rector. He was also able to publish small collections of speeches and poems, and came in contact with Matthäus Zuber, a talented poet who had also been made
poet laureate. Heermann, too, aspired to this, achieving laureation on 8 October 1608 in Brieg. Over Easter 1609 he travelled via
Leipzig and
Jena to
Strasbourg, where they matriculated at the university, attending theology lectures and meeting the professors of
rhetoric and law. The following year, he contracted an eye infection after publishing a book of
epigrams, and returned home on doctor's advice. He had a nightmare journey home, arriving even less healthy than when he left. Soon after his return, he was ordained and appointed
deacon to the
Lutheran congregation in Köben (modern-day
Chobienia, Poland), where the incumbent pastor was old and in poor health. He began work on
Ascension Day 1611, and a few days later the pastor died, with Heermann taking on his duties on a temporary basis, despite having only been there for a week. He was put in permanent charge that same autumn, and also married Dorothea Feige, the daughter of the mayor of Raudten. After a successful start to his career in Köben, the plague arrived in 1613, then in 1616 a fire swept through the town. In addition, Heermann's wife Dorothea died childless on 13 September 1617. He married again in 1618, this time to Anna Teichmann, daughter of a merchant; they had four children: Samuel, Euphrosina, Johann and Ephraim. Heermann fell ill once again in 1623 and never really recovered, his nose and air passages having become infected. The effects of the
Thirty Years' War struck soon afterwards, and Köben was plundered by
Catholic troops in 1632, 1633, 1634 and 1642, and Heermann lost his worldly possessions several times. In 1634, his illness prevented him from preaching altogether, and he no longer read out his sermons in church. On doctor's advice, he moved across the border to Poland, to
Leszno, where he died on 17 February 1647. == Works ==