Martin Gotthard Schneider (26 April 1930 – 3 February 2017) was a German theologian, church musician, Landeskantor (state cantor), songwriter, and academic teacher.

He is known for prize-winning songs of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied, such as "Danke" and "Ein Schiff, das sich Gemeinde nennt".

Born in Konstanz, Schneider studied Protestant theology and church music in Heidelberg, Tübingen and Basel.

[1] From 1958 he worked in Freiburg im Breisgau, first as a vicar at the Ludwigskirche, and from 1960 to 1970 as teacher of religion at the Kepler Gymnasium.

From 1970 to 1995, he held the position of church musician at the Ludwigskirche and the Pauluskirche, and from 1975 to 1995 the office of Landeskantor for Southern Baden.