Novalis (nōvä`lĭs), pseud. of Friederich von Hardenberg (frē`drĭkh fən här`dənbĕrk), 1772–1801, German poet. He studied philosophy under Schiller, Schlegel, and Fichte and was especially influenced by Fichte. He later studied geology. Novalis was one of the great German romantics; his chief work was the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802), unfinished at the time of his early death from tuberculosis. It tells the story of a legendary minnesinger, whose wanderings and search for a "blue flower" became symbols of German romantic poetry. Novalis's grief at the death (1797) of his young love, Sophie von Kühn, found expression in a volume of beautiful and deeply religious lyrics, Hymns to the Night (1800; tr. 1889, 1948). Christendom or Europe (1826, tr. 1844) is an exposition of his Roman Catholicism.

Bibliography

See studies by B. Haywood (1959), J. Neubauer (1971), and J. Neuberger (1980).

Novalis

orig. Friedrich Leopold, Baron von Hardenberg

Novalis, detail of an engraving by Edouard Eichens, 1845

(credit: Courtesy of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany; photograph, Walter Steinkopf)

(born May 2, 1772, Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony—died March 25, 1801, Weissenfels, Saxony) German Romantic poet and theorist. Born into a noble family, he took his pseudonym from a former family name. He studied law and then mining and in 1799 became a mine inspector. His beautiful Hymns to the Night (1800) expresses his grief on the death of his young fiancée. In his last years before his own death from tuberculosis at age 28, he drafted a philosophical system based on idealism and produced his most significant poetic work. His mythical romance Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802) describes a young poet's mystical and romantic searchings.

Novalis

real name Friedrich von Hardenberg. 1772--1801, German romantic poet. His works include the mystical Hymnen an die Nacht (1797; published 1800) and Geistliche Lieder (1799)