He received his early education at the gymnasium of his native town, of which his uncle was rector, and in 1617 attended the high school—"Schönaichianum"—at Beuthen an der Oder (Bytom Odrzański), where he made a special study of French, Dutch and Italian poetry.

In 1618 he entered the University of Frankfurt-on-Oder as a student of literae humaniores, and in the same year published his first essay, Aristarchus, sive De contemptu linguae Teutonicae,[1] which presented the German language as suitable for poetry.

[1] In 1624 Opitz was appointed councilor to Duke George Rudolf of Liegnitz (Legnica) and Brieg (Brzeg) in Silesia, and in 1625, as reward for a requiem poem composed on the death of Archduke Charles of Austria, was crowned poet laureate by Emperor Ferdinand II, who a few years later ennobled him under the title "von Boberfeld."

Although he would not today be considered a poetical genius, he may justly claim to have been the "father of German poetry" in respect at least of its form; his Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624) put an end to the hybridism that had until then prevailed, and established rules for the "purity" of language, style, verse and rhyme.

[1] In 1624 Opitz published a collected edition of his poetry under the title Acht Bücher deutscher Poematum (though, owing to a mistake on the part of the printer, there are only five books); his Dafne (1627), to which Heinrich Schütz composed the music, is the earliest German opera.