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).
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.