Johannes Christoph Andreas Zahn (1 August 1817 in Eschenbach/Pegnitz – 17 February 1895 in Neuendettelsau)[1] was a German theologian and musicologist best known for his opus Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, a critical anthology of almost 9,000 hymn melodies developed and used in German Lutheran churches.
After attending the Predigerseminar in Munich, he became a house teacher for the residence of Gustav Schulze, a prominent merchant.
[2] In 1847 he was named teacher and prefect of the Royal Schullehrer Seminar in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, and became its head in 1854.
Johannes Zahn dedicated himself particularly to the recovery and critical revision of melodies and hymns developed during and after the Reformation, which he started publishing in 1889, in Gütersloh.
Zahn also composed hymns, and is known for writing the original melody Dein König kommt in niedern Hüllen, which appears today as number 14 in the German Protestant hymnal.