GELLERT, CHRISTIAN FURCHTEGOTT (iris 1769), German poet, born at Hainichen, Saxony, on July 4, 1715, the son of a pastor, studied at Leipzig, became privatdocent there in 1745, and in 1751 extraordinary professor. He died at Leipzig on Dec. 13, 1769. Gellert's lovable personality endeared him to a wide circle of friends and readers. His best work is to be found in the admirable Fabeln and Erzahlungen (1746-48) for which he took La Fontaine as his model. His Geistliclie Oden and Lieder though in force and dignity they cannot compare with the older church hymns, were among the great religious poems of their time. Some of them were set to music by Beethoven. Gellert wrote a few comedies: Die Betsc/iwester Die kranke Frau (1748), Das Los in der Lotterie (1748) and Die zartlichen Schwestern (1748).
See Gellert's Sdmtliche Schriften (first edition, to vols., last edition, 1867) . Sdmtliche Fabeln and Erzahlungen have been repeatedly reprinted. A selection of Gellert's poetry (with an excellent introduction) will be found in F. Muncker, Die Bremer Beitrdge (Stuttgart, 1899) . A translation by J. A. Murke, Gellert's Fables and other Poems (1851). For a further account of Gellert's life and work see lives by J. A. Cramer (Leipzig, 1744), H. Doring (Greiz, and H. 0. Nietschmann (2nd ed., Halle, 1901) ; also Gellerts Tagebuch aus dem Jahre 1761 (and ed., Leipzig, 1863) and Gellerts Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius (Leipzig, 1823) .