Introduction

Biography

Johann was the son of J. G. Schön­er, pas­tor at Rüg­heim.

He stu­died at the uni­ver­si­ties of Leip­zig and Er­lang­en.

In 1722, he be­came a tu­tor in the fa­mi­ly of Herr von Wink­ler at Nur­em­berg. By his in­flu­ence, he was ap­point­ed, in Sep­tem­ber 1773, as preach­er at St. Mar­ga­ret’s Cha­pel, in the Kai­ser­burg at Nur­em­berg. In 1773, he was ap­point­ed di­a­co­nus of St. Law­rence’s Church where, in 1809, he be­came the Stadt­pfar­rer (chief pas­tor).

Schöner was a po­pu­lar preach­er, and was es­pe­cial­ly suc­cess­ful with child­ren. He took a great in­ter­est in cir­cu­lat­ing the Bi­ble, and found­ed the Nur­em­berg Bi­ble So­cie­ty in 1805.

After 1799 Schön­er be­gan to suf­fer from ner­vous af­flict­ions. He re­tired in Oc­to­ber 1817.

Works

Schöner’s hymns a­ttained con­sid­er­a­ble po­pu­la­ri­ty, and a num­ber were print­ed sep­a­rate­ly, or in ma­ga­zines. The most im­port­ant of the col­lect­ed ed­it­ions were:

• Einige Lied­er zur Er­bau­ung (Nur­em­berg: 1777)
• Vermischte geist­liche Lied­er und Ge­dich­te (Nur­em­berg: 1790)
• Vollständige Samm­lung der geist­lich­en Lied­er und Ge­dich­te von Jo­hann Gott­fried Schön­er (Nur­em­berg: 1810)