Beschreibung
Friedrich von Hardenberg genannt Novalis
A gleaning from the sources of the family archive
by Sophie von Hardenberg
with 32 contemporary illustrations, a complete index of persons, extensive biographical notes, and a detailed preface by Ulrich Taschow
326 pages, paperback, 5th edition 2015, series: avox ad fontes, ISBN: 978-3-936979-02-2
Friedrich von Hardenberg
at the age of 15An in many respects unusual, unique, touching, and yet completely forgotten biography of Friedrich von Hardenberg, perhaps the most influential Romantic writer. It was written anonymously by his niece and estate administrator Maria Sophie Bernardine Freiin von Hardenberg.
She was able, as hardly anyone else, to grasp the man whom posterity programmatically shortened to “Novalis” as a person very close to her, and for the first time also in his wholeness as a scientist, mining engineer, poet, mystic, and philosopher.
Sophie experienced the reception history of the nineteenth century as a direct contemporary witness and compared it over the years, with increasing astonishment, to the personal reports of her family, to conversations with Friedrich’s close confidants, and to the extensive handwritten traditions, letters, diaries, and notes that were available to her in a way they were not available to her contemporaries.
Friedrich von Hardenberg
at the age of 15
Erasmus von Hardenberg,
Friedrich’s favorite brother
From these sources emerges an intimate family history of the von Hardenbergs, one that draws an entirely different picture of her uncle from the image projected by the outside world.
Sophie von Kühn,
Friedrich’s first fiancée
Julie von Charpentier,
Friedrich’s second fiancée
At the same time, Sophie directs attention to a human being who himself regarded writing, to which posterity later reduced him, as only an insignificant secondary occupation, and thus to the true secret of his immense aftereffect.
August Coelestin Just,
Friedrich’s closest friend
Friedrich Schlegel,
Friedrich’s intellectual counterpart
Ludwig Tieck,
Friedrich’s last friend
Wilhelm von Charpentier,
teacher, friend, and father-in-law of Friedrich
Sophie von Hardenberg’s biography restores a more complete and more personal image of Friedrich von Hardenberg: not only the poet called Novalis, but also the son, brother, friend, scientist, mining engineer, and spiritual seeker whose life and work continued to radiate far beyond his short lifetime.
Schloss Oberwiederstedt, birthplace of Friedrich von Hardenberg.
The drawing is probably by Anna Margarethe von Hardenberg or by her daughter Maria Sophie Bernardine Freiin von Hardenberg.
