1772–1801

Introduction

Born: May 2, 1772, on his fa­ther’s es­tate of Ob­er-Wie­der­städ (near Eis­le­ben), Ger­ma­ny.

Died: March 25, 1801, at his par­ents’ home in Weiß­en­fels, Ger­ma­ny.

Buried: Al­ter Fried­hof, Weiß­en­fels, Ger­ma­ny.

Pseudonym: No­val­is (ap­par­ent­ly from the name of one of his fa­mi­ly’s es­tat­es).

portrait

Biography

Friedrich was the son of Bar­on Hein­rich Ul­rich Eras­mus von Har­den­berg, di­rect­or of the Sax­on Salt Works at Weiß­en­fels.

In the fall of 1790, he entered the Uni­ver­si­ty of Je­na, then went to Leip­zig, and fin­al­ly to Wit­ten­berg. Af­ter con­clud­ing his stu­dies, he went, at the end of 1794, to Tenn­städt (near Er­furt) to learn ad­min­is­tra­tion under Kreis­amt­mann Just. In the au­tumn of 1797, he en­tered the School of Mines at Frei­berg, Saxony, and in 1799 went to Ar­tern, at the foot of the Kyff­haus­er-Berg, to work at the Salt Works there.

Soon after, he be­gan to spit blood, and while vis­it­ing Dres­den, the news of the sud­den death of his young­er bro­ther brought on a hem­or­rhage which de­stroyed all hopes of a re­cov­ery. In Ja­nu­ary 1801, he was moved to his par­ents’ home in Weiß­enf­els, where he died two months lat­er.

Von Har­den­berg’s hymns rose from a time of deep sor­row up­on the death of his fi­an­cée, So­phie von Kühn, when his thoughts turned to the faith of his child­hood. His par­ents were Mo­ra­vi­ans, and his ear­ly edu­ca­tion came from a Mo­ra­vi­an pastor.

Works

Sources

Lyrics