Novalis

Lore & Background

Novalis was born into a minor branch of the Hardenberg family in Electoral Saxony, the second of eleven children in a strict Pietist household. He studied law at the Universities of Jena, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, befriending Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel. He conversed with Goethe, Friedrich Schelling, Jean Paul, and August Schlegel. After his studies, he served as a director of salt mines in Saxony and Thuringia, during which he wrote major works including Hymns to the Night.

Reader's Guide

Only a small sample of his philosophical and scientific writings appeared then. The depth of his knowledge in philosophy and natural science became more broadly appreciated with the extensive publication of his notebooks in the twentieth century. Novalis sought to integrate his knowledge with art, notably through the fragment form, which he used alongside Friedrich Schlegel in the journal Athenaeum. The fragment allowed him to synthesize poetry, philosophy, and science. His notebooks and fragments have subsequently established his intellectual role in the formation of Early German Romanticism.

Did You Know?

• Novalis was the second of eleven children in a strict Pietist household.
• He studied law at the University of Jena, the University of Leipzig, and the University of Wittenberg.
• His fiancée Sophie von Kühn died just after her 15th birthday.