Poliander (Graumann), Johann

POLIANDER (GRAUMANN), JOHANN. - Lutheran reformer, b. at Neustadt on the Main in 1487, d. at Königsberg in 1541. He studied at Leipzig and there became rector of the school of St. Thomas, and during the Leipzig disputation between Luther and Eck (1519) he was the latter's amanuensis. He attended the University of Wittenberg, where he adhered to Luther's ideas, which he cautiously spread as cathedral preacher at Würzburg in 1522-24.

Forced to abandon his office, after a brief stay at Nuremberg as chaplain of a monastery of Poor Clares, he was called by Duke Albert of Prussia to Königsberg. Prussia thus became the field of action of his intense activity as a reformer, which he carried out through preaching and teaching (commentaries on the Old and New Testaments), writing religious hymns that became popular in the Lutheran Church. Thus, together with others, the first collection of religious hymns published at Königsberg promoted both the new church order (visitations from 1531) and the reorganization of the schools (1530). Loyal to Luther, he fought sectarian tendencies, contributing decisively to suppressing in Prussia the followers of the mystic Schwenckfeld (v.).