Johann Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner (17 October 1728 – 6 June 1783) was a German polymath, promoting the Enlightenment in Bavaria.

While working as a civil servant for the Bavarian court, he published a hymnal which contained a complete German High Mass and songs such as "Das Grab ist leer, der Held erwacht" (The grave is empty, the hero awoken) for which he is known.

[2][6] Unmarried, he died at age 54 on 6 June 1783,[1][2] in Munich and was buried at the cemetery of Unserer Lieben Frau Gottesaker zu St. Salvator.

The inscription read:He was a bourgeois writer, and active as a city-dweller; he stood out from his fellows by his rare boldness in business and his unsurpassed steadfastness in carrying out that to which he set his hand.

[2][7]Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner is still known for his German High Mass[8] and for his hymn which appears in the regional section of the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob for Austria (2013 edition) as GL 710.