Nostalgia and literary opus of John Christoph Biernatzki

The writer discusses negative and positive reactions to nostalgia. He illustrates the creative view with the literary work and religious thought of J. C. Biernatzky (1795-1840), a German poet, writer and pastor of Polish descent. As a third-generation immigrant he still felt a deep nostalgia for Poland, the homeland of his grandfather. He managed, however, to reach deep into his pain and find salvation in the realisation of the unifying essence of life.