Novalis (1772 - 1801 / Germany)
Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenburg (wrote under the pen name of Novalis) was born in Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony, into a family of Protestant Lower Saxon nobility. His father was a director of a salt mine. At the age of ten Novalis was sent to a religious school but he did not adjust to its strict discipline. For some time Novalis lived with his uncle, grandseigneur, who opened him doors to French rationalism and culture. He then went to Weissenfels, where his father moved, and entered the Eisleben gymnasium. In 1790-91 he studied law at the University of Jena, where he met Friedrich von Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel. Novalis completed his studies at Wittenberg in 1793. The ideas ... more »
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I agree Jacqui, there is nothing more romantic than his novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen about the search for the Blue Flower, a symbol that became an emblem for the whole of German Romanticism. He died at an young age 28 years.
Novalis was the second major poetic influence in my biography. The first was Dylan Thomas (whose poetry I discovered when I was 12 yrs old) . I was almost 19 when I discovered 'Henry Von Ofterdingen' and 'Hymns to The Night'. I wonder that these works are not more well-loved by young people today.