Johannes C. A. Zahn was the son of the Eschenbach teacher and cantor Johannes Zahn. Between 1832 and 1837 he attended the
Nuremberg high school, and studied afterwards in Berlin to obtain his degree in theology in 1841. After attending the Predigerseminar in
Munich, he became a house teacher for the residence of Gustav Schulze, a prominent merchant. In 1847 he was named teacher and prefect of the Royal Schullehrer Seminar in
Altdorf bei Nürnberg, and became its head in 1854. Johannes Zahn dedicated himself particularly to the recovery and critical revision of melodies and hymns developed during and after the
Reformation, which he started publishing in 1889, in
Gütersloh. The classification system he developed is still used by hymnologists worldwide, in the form
Zahn ###, where the number represents the location of the melody or hymn in Zahn's anthology. Zahn also contributed articles to journals like
Siona,
Hymnologie, and
Euterpe. Zahn also composed hymns, and is known for writing the original melody
Dein König kommt in niedern Hüllen, which appears today as number 14 in the
German Protestant hymnal. ==Works==