German religious writer, born on the 25th of November 1697, at Mörs, at that time the capital of a countship belonging to the house of Orange-Nassau (it fell to Prussia in 1702), which formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Catholic country. After being educated at the gymnasium of his native town, Tersteegen was for some years apprenticed to a merchant. He soon came under the influence of Wilhelm Hoffman, a pietistic revivalist, and devoted himself to writing and public speaking, withdrawing in 1728 from all secular pursuits and giving himself entirely to religious work. His writings include a collection of hymns (Das geistliche Blumengärtlein, 1729; new edition, Stuttgart, 1868), a volume of Gebete, and another of Briefe, besides translations of the writings of the French mystics. He died at Mühlheim in Westphalia on the 3rd of April 1769.
