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Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) Biography

Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) Image

NOVALIS, A name assumed by Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772-1801), a German author, a member of the early Romantic school, one of the most notable of mystic poets. He was born May 2, 1772, at Wiederstedt, in what is now Prussian Saxony. His parents had Moravian leanings, and this mystic religion permanently influenced him. He studied at Jena, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, and in 1794 went to Tennstädt to further his legal training. There he fell in love with a delicate 13-year-old girl, who died as his betrothed in 1797. He felt his loss deeply, but having gone to Freiberg to continue technical studies, became again betrothed. He returned to Weissenfels in 1799, but was obliged by serious lung trouble to postpone his marriage. Two years later he died (March 25, 1801). His writings were soon collected by the Sehlegels and issued in two volumes, several times reedited, with a third volume in 1846. A handy edition of his works was edited by Boelsche (4 vols., Leipzig, 1908). The standard edition by Minor (Jena, 1907) has four volumes. His works are mainly fragmentary. Noteworthy among them is an unfinished romance, Heinrich von Ofterdinngen, an apotheosis of the poet and poetry, in which occurs the symbol of Romanticism, the Blue Flower. Carlyle recommended its "perusal and reperusal." Difficult on account of its deep mysticism, it nevertheless contains charming passages and excellent poetry, interspersed with narrative. In Die Lehrlinge zu Sais the Disciples discover that the secret of nature is nothing else than the fulfilled longing of a loving heart. The Hymnen an die Nacht, famous also in their way, give deep-felt expression to his bereavement. His fragments deal largely, in aphoristic form and in the spirit of philosophical mysticism, with the problems of life and science. His religious lyrics have an emotional tenderness and a nebulous charm.

The rest of his work is all but forgotten. Consult: Hayrn, Friedrich von Hardenberg (2d ed., Gotha, 1883); id., Die romantische Schule (Berlin, 1870); Ernst Heilborn, Novalis der Romantiker (Berlin, 1901); Thomas Carlyle, "Novalis," in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (Edinburgh ed., New York, 1903); Ricarda Huch, Die Romantik (4th ed., Leipzig, 1911); Maurice Maeterlinck, "Novalis," in On Emerson, and Other Essays (New York, 1912).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 269-270.