eHymns.org

Born: March 19, 1826 in Riga
Died: August 15 1901 in Võsu, Estonia

Julie was a Baltic German poet, known for the hymn "So nimm denn meine Hände" ("Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me"), with a melody by Friedrich Silcher. Earlier translations had been made by Herman Brueckner as "O take my hand, dear Father" and Elmer Leon Jorgenson as "Take Thou My Hand, and Lead Me".[4] The hymn has also been translated by Martha D. Lange, whose version appears in Great Songs of the Church Revised (1986).[5]

Hausmann was the daughter of a teacher. She worked for a while as a governess, but due to her ill health lived with and cared for her father, who had gone blind. After his death in 1864, she lived with her sisters in Germany, Southern France and St. Petersburg, Russia. She died during a summer vacation in Estonia.

A legend holds that Hausmann wrote her most famous poem "So nimm denn meine Hände" after journeying to see her fiancé at a mission and, on arriving, finding that he had just died. Various explorations of her biography have yet to confirm or deny the rumor. She never married.

Her poetry was published by others, including Gustav Knak without mentioning her name, at her request.