 He was born at Brüx, a small Protestant community in Bohemia, to a Saxon father and a Bohemian mother.In 1626 the family had to flee Bohemia, during the Thirty Years' War, after it had become Catholic; they settled in Freiberg, Saxony, where Andreas must have received his musical education.He probably did not study with composer Christoph Demantius, who was "Kantor" at Freiberg and the most significant musician in the city while Hammerschmidt was there; however he may have known him.