Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr
| "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" | |
|---|---|
| Lutheran hymn | |
Print in Johann Spangenberg's Kirchengesenge Deudtsch, Magdeburg 1545
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| English | "Glory to God in the Highest" |
| Text | by Nikolaus Decius |
| Language | German |
| Based on | Gloria |
| Melody | by Decius |
| Published | 1531 |
"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" (Alone to God in the Highest be glory) is an early Lutheran hymn, with text and melody attributed to Nikolaus Decius. It was intended as a German version of the Gloria part of the Latin mass. Decius wrote three stanzas, probably in 1523, while a fourth was added by Joachim Slüter in 1525. It is included in most German hymnals. Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn to "All glory be to God on high".
Until the 18th century, the hymn "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr", similarly to "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" was printed in hymnals without mentioning an author. Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer presented in his historical Braunschweigische Kirchen-Historie a Latin report from 1600, which called Decius as the author of text and melody of both hymns. The creation of hymns by Decius is dated 1522/23, in the early Reformation, before Martin Luther's first hymns, published in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal. It makes the song one of the earliest hymns of the Reformation.
The song was first printed in Low German in Joachim Slüter's Geystlyke leder in in 1531, as "Aleyne God yn der Höge sy eere". The first print in High German appeared in a hymnal in Leipzig in 1539. It was distributed in German-speaking regions. The melody appeared with the text first in Johann Spangenberg's hymnal Kirchengesenge Deudtsch, published in Magdeburg in 1545, but it had appeared in a slightly different version a few years earlier in a Strasbourg hymnal.
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