Son of Ste­phan Helm­bold, wool­en man­u­fac­tur­er at Mühl­haus­en, Lud­wig was ed­u­cat­ed at Leip­zig and Er­furt (BA 1550). Af­ter two year’s head­mas­ter­ship at St. Ma­ry’s School at Mühl­haus­en, he re­turned to Er­furt, and re­mained in the Un­i­ver­si­ty (MA 1554) as a lec­tur­er un­til his ap­point­ment in 1561 as con­rec­tor of the St. Au­gus­tine Gym­na­si­um at Erfurt. When the Un­i­ver­si­ty was re­con­sti­tut­ed in 1565, af­ter the plague of 1563-4, he was ap­point­ed dean of the Phil­o­so­phic­al Fa­cul­ty, and 1566, was crowned as a po­et by Em­per­or Max­i­mil­i­an II. How­ev­er, due to his Pro­test­ant­ism he had to re­sign in 1570. Re­turn­ing to Mühl­haus­en, he was ap­point­ed, in 1561, di­a­co­nus of St. Ma­ry’s Church, and in 1586, pas­tor of St. Bla­si­us’ Church and Su­per­in­tend­ent at Mühl­haus­en.

Sources

Hymns

1. Herr Gott, erhalt uns für und für
   • Lord, Help Us Ever to Retain
   • O God, May We E’er Pure Retain
2. Von Gott will ich nicht lass­en
   • From God Shall Naught Divide Me
   • From God the Lord My Savior
   • Ne’er Be My God Forsaken