Born to a poor fam­i­ly, Falk had to leave school at age 10 to help his fa­ther, a wig­mak­er. He con­tin­ued to stu­dy at night, though, and did so well that the town coun­cil gave him a schol­ar­ship to the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Halle, where he st­udied class­ics and the­ol­o­gy. In 798, he mar­ried and set­tled down as a man of let­ters at Weimar, where he was wel­comed by Her­der, Goe­the, and Wie­land, and gained some rep­u­ta­tion as a writ­er of sa­tir­i­cal works. Dur­ing the Na­po­le­on­ic wars, af­ter the 1806 Bat­tle of Je­na, he found his true vo­ca­tion as a phil­an­thro­pist, first in the field hos­pi­tals, then in the care of des­ti­tute child­ren. With court preach­er Horn, he found­ed the So­ci­e­ty of Friends in Need, and shortl­y there­af­ter be­gan his cen­ter for poor child­ren in Wei­mar.

Sources

Hymns

1. O du fröh­liche, o du sel­ige, gnad­en­bring­ende Weih­nachts­zeit
   • Hail Thou Glorious, Thou Victorious
   • O Thou Joyful, O Thou Wonderful