HARDENBERG, Friedrichvon (1772-1801), German poet and philosopher, best known as Novalis, was born on his father’s estate in the county of Mansfeld, in Prussian Saxony, May 2, 1772. He was of a shy, retiring, and thoughtful disposition, and was deeply influenced by his parents, who were strict members of the sect of Moravian Brethren. After attending the gymnasium of Eisleben he went as a youth of eighteen to the university of Jena, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. There he was treated with great kindness by Schiller, of whom he was a warm admirer. He studied law in Leipsic and Wittenberg, and in 1794 settled for a time in Teunstädt in order to-perfect himself in the practical work of the legal profession. During his residence in Tennstädt he formed a passionate attachment to Sophie von Kühn, a beautiful but delicate girl of thirteen, and with her consent obtained a promise from her parents that when she reached womanhood she should become his wife. In 1795 he was made auditor at the salt-works of Weissenfels, where his father was director. Two years afterwards his betrothed died, and for some time he seemed to be broken-hearted and to have lost all interest in life. In a few months, however, he went to the academy of mines at Freiberg, where he studied with a view to a higher appointment in connexion with the salt-works; and in the midst of his studies he became engaged for a second time, and was again able to look forward to a happy and useful career. He returned to Weissenfels in 1799, and was associated as assessor with the directorate of the salt-works. As he was preparing for his marriage in the autumn of 1800 he was alarmed by the sudden appearance of blood from the lungs. The wedding was postponed, and although he believed ...to the end that his recovery was certain, the disease made rapid progress, and he died on the 25th of March 1801. He was of a tall, slight, and graceful figure, with light brown hair and hazel eyes, and a face expressive of a calm, gentle, and meditative spirit. After his death his writings were issued in two volumes by his friends Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel, and were rapidly recognized as important contributions to German literature. They are for the most part composed of fragments, of which the chief is Heinrich von Ofterdingen, an unfinished romance. Hardenberg is often spoken of as “the prophet of the Romantic school;” and the phrase sufficiently marks his leading peculiarities. He took no part in the literary warfare carried on by his friends, but he shared to the full their strongest sympathies. Like them he intensely disliked those “enlightened” writers of the 18th century who had claimed to say the last word about human life through mere logic; he was penetrated by the conviction that there are elements in the world which cannot be grasped by the understanding, and which must be felt rather than reasoned about. Although he was fond of science and history, he moved most freely in the borderland between religion, philosophy, and poetry; and his prose writings are full of sayings which, although not easily intelligible, are impressive and stimulating. His diction is often simple and unostentatious, but it is rendered difficult both by the abstruseness of his themes and the remoteness of his allusions. As a poet he lacked definiteness of conception; his lyrics, however, especially those of a religious nature, have a certain tender beauty which gives them high rank in the serious literature of Germany. They are marked by deep feeling and by sweetness and grace of expression. He himself regarded a series of Hymns to Night as his best achievement, but it is in Heinrich von Ofterdingen that the majority of his admirers find the fullest utterance of his mystic aspirations, his passion for spiritual beauty, and his idealist philosophy.
See his Schriften (5th ed., Berlin, 1837; vol. iii., 1846), and R. Haym, Die Romantische Schτιle (1870), and Friedrich von Hardenberg (1873).
HARDENBERG, KarlAugust (1750-1822), Prussian statesman,was bornât Esselroda in Hanover, May 31,1750. Having studied at Leipsic and Göttingen, he entered the Hanoverian civil service as chamber councillor (Kammerrath) in 1770, and afterwards spent some time in Wetzlar, Ratisbon, Vienna, and Berlin, and travelled in France, Holland, and England. He was made privy chamber councillor (Geheim-Kammerrath) and raised to the rank of count in 1778; but a private quarrel with the prince of Wales compelled him four years afterwards to give up his appointments in Hanover and seek a new career. In 1787 he received the office of president of the board of domains (Kammercollegium) in Brunswick; and he was entrusted with the duty of delivering to Frederick William II. of Prussia the will of Frederick the Great, who had deposited it with the duke of Brunswick. Frederick William II. was so impressed by Hardenberg’s appearance and character that in 1790 he recommended him as a minister to the margrave of Anspach and Baireuth. These principalities being united to Prussia in 1791, Hardenberg was appointed a Prussian cabinet minister, but continued to perform his duties as chief administrator of the new province. In the war with the French republic he acted as minister of war, and in- 1795 signed on behalf of Prussia the treaty of peace concluded at Basel. When Frederick William III. mounted the throne in 1797, Hardenberg was transferred from Anspach-Baireuth to Berlin, where he received high offices in the cabinet, being also soon afterwards nominated chief of the departments for Magdeburg and Halberstadt, for Westphalia, and for Neuchâtel. At this time the foreign policy of Prussia was determined by Haugwitz, who was on all occasions subservient to Napoleon. When in 1803 Prussian interests seemed to be threatened by the French occupation of Hanover, Haugwitz fell into disrepute, and in the following year his place at the head of the cabinet was taken by Hardenberg. The latter was anxious to maintain peace, but when in 1805 Napoleon’s troops marched through Anspach he strongly protested, and entered into a convention with Russia. The victory of the French at Austerlitz, however, made it difficult for Prussia to proceed to hostilities; and on the 15th December 1805 Haugwitz signed a convention with Napoleon, whereby in return for Hanover Prussia conceded Anspach, Cleves, and Neuchâtel to the French. Hardenberg then retired, and Haugwitz returned to power. The policy of Haugwitz was exceedingly unpopular, and led to the war in which his country was prostrated at the feet of Napoleon. After the battle of Jena Hardenberg undertook the office of foreign minister; but when the treaty of Tilsit was signed he withdrew and watched from a distance the vigorous and enlightened efforts of Stein to restore new life to the fallen and humiliated state. Stein being compelled to retire in 1810, Hardenberg was recognized as the only possible successor of the great minister; and he amply justified the confidence with which he was honoured. The circumstances of the time did not admit of his pursuing an independent foreign policy; but he steadily prepared for the inevitable struggle with France by carrying out Stein’s far-reaching schemes of social and political reorganization. The military system was completely reformed, serfdom was abolished, municipal institutions were fostered, the civil service was thrown open to all classes, and great attention was devoted to the educational needs of every section of the community. In the war of liberation Hardenberg was one of those who did most to stimulate the patriotic enthusiasm not only of the Prussians but of all Germans; and so important were his services that on the 3d June 1814, after he had signed the first treaty of Paris, he was raised to the rank of a Fürst or Prince. He accompanied the allied sovereigns to London, was one of the chief plenipotentiaries at the congress of Vienna, and took a leading part in the negotiations which led to the second treaty of Paris. After the restoration of peace he retained his place at the head of the Prussian cabinet, but his conduct of affairs was no longer marked by energy and foresight. He was accused of being too submissive to the papacy, and, although a man of liberal sentiments, he had not the courage to resist his royal master’s dislike of constitutional government. He died at Genoa, November 26, 1822.
Hardenberg wrote memoirs of the time between 1801 and the conclusion of the treaty of Tilsit, and entrusted them before his death to his friend Scholl, a councillor of state. They were sealed by Frederick William III. and placed in the state archives, with directions that they should not be published until after the lapse of fifty years. At the end of this time they were entrusted by Prince Bismarck to Leopold von Ranke, who issued them accompanied by a biography of the author (Denkwürdigkeiten des Staatskanzlers Fürsten von Hardenberg, 4 vols., 1877). See also Klose, Leben Karl August's, Fürsten von Hardenberg, 1851; and Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, 1879.
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