German poet who influenced later Romantic thought, sometimes called 'the prophet of Romanticism'. Novalis took his pseudonym from "de Novali", a name his family had formerly used. The central image of Novalis' visions, a blue flower, became later a symbol of longing among Romantics. The 'blue flower' is unattainable and is to remain unattainable. Romantics expressed a longing for home and a longing for what is far off; Schiller called the romantics 'exiles pining for a homeland'."The imagination places the world of the future either far above us, or far below, or in a relation of metempsychosis to ourselves. We dream of traveling through the universe - but is not the universe within ourselves? The depths of our spirit are unknown to us - the mysterious way leads inwards. Eternity with its worlds - the past and future - is in ourselves or nowhere. The external world is the world of shadows - it throws its shadow into the realm of light. At present this realm certainly seems to us so dark inside, lonely. shapeless. But how entirely different it will seem to us - when this gloom is past, and the body of shadows has moved away. We will experience greater enjoyment than ever, for our spirit has been deprived." (from 'Miscellaneous Observations', 1798)
Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenburg (Novalis) was born in Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony, into a family of Protestant Lower Saxon nobility. His father was the 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 for him doors to French rationalism and culture. He then went to Weissenfels, to 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 of the French Revolution spread through Germany and Novalis dreamt of a time when the "walls of Jericho" would tumble down. Goethe's book Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, which he read in 1795, influenced him deeply; he considered it the Bible for the "new age." In 1795-96 he studied the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. At the age of 21 he moved to Tennstädt and took up a job in the Civil Service.Der Jüngling bist du, der seit langer Zeit,
Auf unsern Gräbern steht in tiefen Sinnen;
Ein tröstlich Zeichen in den Dunkelheit -
Der höheren Menschheit freudiges Beginnen.
Was uns gesenkt in tiefe Traurigkeit,
Zieht uns mit süsser Sehnsucht nun von hinnen
Im Tode ward das ewge Leben kund,
Du bist der Tod und mächst uns erst gesund.
(from 'Hymnen an die Nacht', 1800)
In 1798 Novalis published a series of philosophical fragments, FRAGMENTEN. Novalis' only finished collection of poems, HYMNEN AN DIE NACHT (1800), was dedicated to his first great love Sophie von Kühn, who died in 1797. Novalis had met her in Weissenfels when she was barely 13-years old. Her death at the age of fifteen, was a deep shock to Novalis. In his sorrow he started to keep a diary, contemplated suicide, and wrote poems. "Ich habe zu Söphichen Religion, nich Liebe," he wrote. Novalis began to see everything in his life in relation to his lost love: "Meine Liebe ist zur Flamme geworden, die alles irdische nachgerade verzehrt. Zufrieden bin ich ganz; die Kraft, die über de Tod erhebt, habe ich ganz neu gewonnen."Eight months after her death, Novalis started to study mining at the Academy of Feiberg. There he became friends with Ludwig Tieck and other early Romantics. He was an assistant in the salt works in Weissenfels (1796-97 and 1799-1801) and was also associated in the late 1790s with Bergakademie. In 1798 he got engaged to Julie von Charpentier; he thought that she made Sophie's presence even more apparent. During his journey to Weimar he met Goethe, Herder, and Jean Paul, and in Jena the Schlegel brothers. At that time he was already seriously ill, but he worked on his writings with a new enthusiasm. Before he could marry Julie, Novalis died of tuberculosis on May 2, 1801 in Weissenfels. His two philosophical romances, HEINRICH VON OFTERDINGEN (1802, Henry Von Ofterdingen) and DIE LEHRLINGE ZU SAIS, were left incomplete. In Henry Von Ofterdingen a young medieval poet, Henry, seeks the mysterious Blue Flower. "It is not the treasures which have awakened such an inexpressible longing in me," Henry thinks. "There is no greed in my heart; but I yearn to get a glimpse of the blue flower." Between September 1798 and March 1799 he wrote fragments called 'Das Algemeine Brouillon'. They were part of his planned encyclopedia, in which he examined polarity in nature."The genuine poet," Novalis claimed, "is always a priest." Novalis defined romantic poetry as "the art of appearing strange in an attractive way, the art of making a subject remote and yet familiar and pleasant." Everything becomes romantic and poetic, if one removes it to a distance; everything can be romanticized, if one "gives a mysterious appearance to the ordinary, the dignity of the unknown to the familiar and an infinite significance to the finite." In the third part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen Novalis revealed his deep longing for public acceptance. The story tells of a humble young woodsman who secretly weds a princess. After a child is born to them they enter the king's presence, who receives them with joy.
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