Novalis

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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.

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The German poet and author Novalis (1772-1801) was the most important poet and imaginative writer of the early German romantic movement. Both his poetry and his prose writings express a mystical conviction in the symbolic meaning and unity of life.

Novalis, whose real name was Baron Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg, was born of an aristocratic family in Wiederstedt, Saxony, on May 2, 1772. While studying philosophy and law at the universities of Jena and Leipzig, he met the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the poet Friedrich von Schiller. He also became friends with Friedrich von Schlegel, later the chief theoretician of the romantic school. Novalis also studied at the University of Wittenberg and from 1794 to 1796 worked as an official in Tennstädt.

At Tennstädt, Novalis became engaged to 13-year-old Sophie von Kühn, who died in 1797. Her death affected him deeply, and in the same year he began his Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night), which were published in 1800. In these poems he recounted his experience of Sophie's death and his conversion to a kind of Christian mysticism in which he longed for his own death in order to be reunited with his beloved.

Despite his longings for death, however, Novalis continued his career. He turned to the study of mine engineering, married Julie von Charpentier in 1798 (while maintaining his mystical union with Sophie), and in 1799 became mine inspector in Weissenfels. He had advanced to supervisor by the time of his death.

During these years Novalis also developed his mystical view of the world. In the fragmentary novel Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (1798; The Novices at Sais) Novalis expressed his belief that the things of the natural world are symbols whose meanings can be discovered by poets. His most important novel, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, incomplete at his death, tells of the initiation of a young medieval poet into the mysteries of his calling. Heinrich undertakes a journey, receives poetic instruction, and falls in love. The dominant idea of the novel is the harmony and eternal significance of all life and nature. It also presents the image of the blaue Blume (blue flower), which later became the romantics' favorite symbol for any object of mystical aspiration.

Novalis's mystical attitudes also found expression in Geistliche Lieder (Religious Songs) and in the essay Die Christenheit oder Europa (1799; "Christendom or Europe"), which extols the unity of faith and society made possible by medieval Catholicism. Several of Novalis's writings were left unfinished at his death, of tuberculosis, at Weissenfels on March 25, 1801.

Further Reading

For English readers the best general work on Novalis is Frederick Hiebel, Novalis (1954; 2d rev. ed. 1959), which provides a detailed study of his life and spiritual development, as well as a careful analysis of each of his major works. For shorter general discussions see Ralph Tymms, German Romantic Literature (1955), and Michael Hamburger, Reason and Energy (1957). Oskar Walzel, German Romanticism, translated by Alma E. Lussky (1932), deals with Novalis's religious attitudes; and August Closs, Medusa's Mirror (1957), offers a detailed analysis of the Hymns to the Night.

Novalis (pseudonym of Friedrich von Hardenberg, 1772–1801), an important German romantic writer who pioneered a revolutionary new aesthetic for the literary fairy tale. Born on the family estate in Oberwiederstedt, Novalis was the eldest son in a family dominated by a strict father, who belonged to the pietistic Herrnhuter sect. Despite being drawn to philosophy and literature, Novalis studied law in deference to his father's expectation that he pursue an administrative career. After receiving his law degree from the University of Wittenberg in 1794, Novalis was apprenticed by his father to the district director of Thuringia so that he could pursue his administrative training. In the course of an official visit to a landowner's estate, Novalis met the 12‐year‐old Sophie von Kühn, with whom he fell in love. The two were secretly engaged, but she died in 1797. Sophie's death, coupled with the loss of his brother Erasmus less than one month later, devastated Novalis, who entered a period of mourning and deep introspection. He emerged from this life‐changing experience prepared not only to embrace the fullness of life, but also to overcome life's reverses through the creative power of the imagination.

Novalis immersed himself in the dynamic philosophical, scientific, and aesthetic currents of his time. He resumed his study of philosophy, especially the work of Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte; he pursued his scientific interests and prepared for a new career as a mining engineer by undertaking technical studies at the Freiberg Mining Academy; and he experimented with new forms of literary expression and interacted with writers such as Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, and Friedrich Schleiermacher, who were the vanguard of early romanticism in Germany.

Novalis, whose pen name means ‘preparer of new land’, experimented with a broad spectrum of genres, including aphorisms, essays, poetry, novels, and fairy tales. With the exception of some poetry and two collections of aphorisms, most of Novalis's writings were first published after he died at the age of 28. His contributions to the development of the fairy tale come from posthumously published notebook entries and from drafts of two fragmentary novels.

In his notebooks, Novalis began to articulate a theory of the fairy tale, which he considered the quintessential genre of romantic literature. In contrast to many writers of the 18th century, Novalis did not view the fairy tale as a children's genre with a morally didactic purpose. Nor did he value the fairy tale because it preserved the oral tradition of the folk. Instead, he conceived of a literary fairy tale that was written according to a radically new aesthetic for a highly literate audience. Novalis believed the fairy tale should not be characterized by simplicity and predictable order, but by chaos and ‘natural anarchy’, which would require new, more challenging modes of imaginative perception on the part of his readers. So the romantic fairy tale envisioned by Novalis was a progressive, not a regressive, genre. It was not meant to recapture the ancient spirit of the folk and merely restore the lost harmony of the simple past. Rather, it was to be the prophetic expression of the creative individual, whose imagination could synthesize the chaos and contradictions of the present and project a utopian future on a more complex, higher level. By engaging the imagination of its sophisticated readers, this romantic fairy tale would liberate them from the constraints of one‐dimensional rationality and allow them to envision a new world. So, in an era of revolutions, the utopian fairy tale that Novalis theorized was not only an epistemological and aesthetic innovation, but a social and political gesture as well.

The fairy tales that Novalis wrote are embedded in his two uncompleted novels. His philosophical novel Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (The Disciples of Sais, 1802) contains the story of ‘Hyazinth und Rosenblütchen’ (‘Hyacinth and Rosebloom’). This deceptively simple tale embodies Novalis's fairy‐tale theory of history as a triadic progression: a youth separated from his family and his beloved wanders in search of his lost past and re‐achieves his original state on a much higher level. This plot is repeated in Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802), a novel of education based on Heinrich's fairy‐tale journey towards ever higher levels of poetry and imagination. The novel includes three tales, each of which mirrors the larger narrative and elaborates the profound connections between Heinrich's own story and the fairy tale of history itself. The first tale, which is told to Heinrich by a group of merchants, alludes to the ancient Greek myth of Arion and depicts the triumph of art over narrow‐minded materialism. The next, also told by the merchants, is more elaborately constructed and adapts the myth of Atlantis to suggest the rebirth of a society ruled by the spirit of poetry. The last tale, known as ‘Klingsohrs Märchen’ (‘Klingsohr's Fairy Tale’) after the master poet who tells the story, is a narrative of extreme complexity. It draws eclectically on world mythologies, science, and philosophy in order to break traditional aesthetic boundaries and create a utopian vision through an act of imagination. In the end, all of Novalis's fairy tales proclaim the legitimacy of the imagination and its power to transcend restrictive realities and to create a new state ruled by love and imagination.

Novalis's multifaceted and very complex work has been often oversimplified and misunderstood. None the less, his innovative theories and sophisticated literary fairy tales prepared the way for writers such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Joseph von Eichendorff, Hermann Hesse, Maurice Maeterlinck, George MacDonald, Ursula Le Guin, and many others, who discovered in his work strategies for producing new forms of fantasy and fairy tale for the times in which they lived.

Bibliography

• Birrell, Gordon, The Boundless Present: Space and Time in the Literary Fairy Tales of Novalis and Tieck (1979).
• Calhoon, Kenneth S., Fatherland: Novalis, Freud, and the Discipline of Romance (1992).
• Mahoney, Dennis F., The Critical Fortunes of a Romantic Novel: Novalis's ‘Heinrich von Ofterdingen’ (1994).
• Neubauer, John, Novalis (1980).
• O'Brien, William Arctander, Novalis: Signs of Revolution (1995).

— Donald Haase

Novalis, the pseudonym and universally accepted designation of Friedrich, Freiherr von Hardenberg (Oberwiedstedt nr. Mansfeld, 1772-1801, Weißenfels), was formerly accented on the second syllable, but it has been established that the poet himself placed the stress on the first syllable. The young Hardenberg grew up in a strictly pietistic household and was educated by private tutors until, at 18, he was sent for a year to the grammar school at Eisleben. In 1790 he entered Jena University, where he made the acquaintance of Schiller, and was one of those students who helped to watch at Schiller's bedside during the latter's critical illness in 1791. From Jena he migrated to Leipzig University, where he studied with his brother and met the young Friedrich Schlegel. He completed his university career at Wittenberg in 1792, and in 1793 was sent to learn the technique of administration at Tennstedt. In 1794-5 he devoted his spare time to philosophical studies, especially of Fichte and Kant (see also Magischer Idealismus).

On a visit to Grüningen in November 1794 Novalis met the 12-year-old Sophie von Kühn, with whom he immediately fell deeply in love. They were betrothed four months later, and in the same year Sophie developed pulmonary tuberculosis. During her illness Novalis was working as an administrative assistant in the salt-mine offices at Weißenfels and in the stress of these months, which was augmented by the illness and death of his brother, he underwent a profound religious experience. The death of Sophie in March 1797 led to a crisis, a reckoning with death, which finds expression in the Hymnen an die Nacht (written 1799, published in Athenäum, 1800). In the same year (1797), he entered the school of mining at Freiberg, Saxony, at the same time continuing his philosophical reading and contributing Blütenstaub to the Athenäum in 1798. Towards the end of his stay he became engaged to Julie von Charpentier. He returned to mine management at Weißenfels in 1799, renewing contact with Friedrich Schlegel and making visits to Jena, where both Schlegels (see Schlegel, A. W. von) and Schelling were living. At this time he became a close friend of Ludwig Tieck. In the summer of 1800 symptoms of tuberculosis appeared and Novalis died after an illness of seven months.

In his last years (1799-1801) Novalis not only completed his Hymnen an die Nacht but also wrote the hymns of Geistliche Lieder, the historical essay Die Christenheit oder Europa, and the fragmentary novels Die Lehrlinge zu Sais and Heinrich von Ofterdingen, in the latter of which he created the Romantic symbol of the blue flower (die blaue Blume). Novalis, both by temperament and by creative gifts, was the truest poet of the first Romantic School (see Romantik), though the philosophical notes and fragments in his posthumous papers are greater in bulk than his creative writings.

Schriften (2 vols.), ed. F. Schlegel and L. Tieck, were published in 1802; Schriften, historisch-krititische Ausgabe (5 vols., vols. 1-3 third rev. edn., vol. 5 Materialen und Register), ed. P. Kluckhohn, R. Samuel, H.-J. Mähl, and G. Schulz, 1975-88; the 2nd rev. edn. by G. Schulz in 1981.

Pseudonym of the German Romantic poet and philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772-1801). In 1790 he entered the University of Jena, where he met Friedrich von Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel, completing his studies at Wittenberg in 1793. In 1798 Novalis published a series of philosophical fragment. Novalis’ only finished collection of poems, Hymnen an di nacht (1800), was dedicated to his first great love Sophie von Kühn, who died in 1797. Together with Fichte Novalis represents German idealism fused with Romanticism. In Die Christenheit, oder Europe (pub. 1826) Novalis proclaims ‘magical idealism’: the limitless power of imagination, generating a ‘magical knowledge’ that combines all the elements of senses and scientific principles invented by reason.

Novalis (Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg; 1772–1802), German poet, aphorist, theoretician, and student of the natural sciences. "Novalis" was the pseudonym of Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg, who helped formulate the program of Early German Romanticism and penned its most enduring literary works. He remains known in the English-speaking world for few works: Hymnen an die Nacht (1800; Hymns to the night), the unfinished novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802), and the mystical-political essay Die Christenheit oder Europa (1799; Christianity or Europe). International interest extends to his fragment collections Blütenstaub (1798; Pollen) and Glauben und Liebe oder Der König und die Königin (1798; Faith and love or the king and the queen), the prose Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (1798; The novices of Sais), the Geistliche Lieder (1799; Spiritual songs), and his wide-ranging notebooks.

A descendant of twelfth-century aristocracy, the baron (Freiherr) von Hardenberg was born into a Pietistic family of stable means. Groomed to follow his father in the administration of Saxony's saltworks, he studied at the universities of Jena (where Friedrich Schiller was his history professor) and Leipzig (where he met Friedrich Schlegel). After 1795 Hardenberg worked for the civil service near his home in Weissenfels and immediately fell in love with the young Sophie von Kühn. Her 1797 death left its mark on his writings, but their affair's importance has been exaggerated by biographers. In 1798–1799 Hardenberg studied natural science at the Freiberg Mining Academy, where he became engaged to Julie von Charpentier. Hardenberg returned to work vigorously in 1799 but soon weakened from tuberculosis (probably contracted from Sophie), which ended his life at twenty-nine.

The brief span of Hardenberg's life helps specify his literary and cultural significance. A member of the generation of the 1770s, he was among the first to experience the vigorous, distinctly German culture of classicism—one upon which to build and against which to rebel. The writings of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) provoked both emulation and rejection in Hardenberg's generation, which included his fellow Romantics Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) and the Schlegel brothers, August Wilhelm (1767–1845) and Friedrich (1772–1829), the philosophers Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling (1775–1854) and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). In youth they all greeted the French Revolution as opening a radically new era. However, Hardenberg's early death set him apart in that he never experienced the nationalistic and reactionary climate wrought in the German states by the Napoleonic Wars after 1800. Hardenberg's writings remain post-Revolutionary, driven by the present's urgency and the future's infinite malleability—two hallmarks of what German scholarship recognizes as Early (rather than Late) Romanticism.

Hardenberg's major writings begin with the Fichtestudien (Fichte studies) of 1795–1796, which seek to understand, expand, and criticize the post-Kantian philosopher. While agreeing that the "I" makes the known world, Hardenberg insists that this world is also a "You" interacting with the self in mediations such as language. Notes entitled "Poeticisms" and "Logological Fragments" explore this power of language and formulate central tenets of Romanticism. "Poesy is the basis of society," claims Hardenberg, "The world must be romanticized." This historically first use of the word "Romantic" in its modern sense proclaims a moral imperative to refashion society as an aesthetic construct.

Hardenberg appended the pseudonym "Novalis" to all four of his published writings but never used it otherwise. Taken from the ancestral estate von der Rode or de novali ('from the cleared land'), it announced Hardenberg's post-Revolutionary program and disguised his true identity. It was aptly chosen. In 1798 the aphoristic Pollen's approach to culture, religion, and politics as domains for Romantic transformation passed relatively unnoticed, but the strictly political Faith and Love annoyed the Prussian king, whose censor stopped its second installment in press. Even Hardenberg's friends were confused by this work, which remains controversial today. The following year they declined to publish Christianity or Europe, which invokes an idealized medieval age to call for a radical "reunification" of Europe's separate nations and disparate branches of knowledge.

Facing outside resistance and his own mortality, Hardenberg turned to religious writing. Some of his unorthodox Spiritual Songs were used in congregational songbooks, and his Hymns to the Night were an immediate sensation. Romantically mixing prose and verse, their mystical vision of death's overcoming (which drew on notes about Sophie) hid a subversive interpretation of Christianity as a mere stage toward Romantic religion, in which one chooses one's own mediator for an unrepresentable Absolute.

The Hymns' popularity was rivaled by that of the posthumous Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802), which Hardenberg called "my political novel." Quintessentially Romantic, this bildungsroman ('novel of education') fuses medieval legends with fairy tales, dreams, and visions. It contains "Klingsohr's Fairy Tale," an allegory of universal renewal with alchemical, scientific, and political allusions.

Hardenberg published scarcely eighty pages but quickly reached fame through the two-volume edition of his writings (Novalis Schriften) printed five times between 1802 and 1837.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Novalis. Henry von Ofterdingen. Translated by Palmer Hilty. New York, 1964. Reprinted, Prospect Heights, Ill., 1990.

——. Hymns to the Night. Translated by Dick Higgins. Kingston, N.Y., 1988.

——. Novalis Schriften. Edited by Paul Kluckhohn, Richard Samuel, Hans-Joachim Mähl, et al. Stuttgart, 1965–.

——. Philosophical Writings. Translated and edited by Margaret Mahony Stoljar. Albany, N.Y., 1977.

Secondary Sources

Neubauer, John. Novalis. Boston, 1980.

O'Brien, Wm. Arctander. Novalis: Signs of Revolution. Durham, N.C., and London, 1995.

—WM. ARCTANDER O'BRIEN

Quotes:

"We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming."

"My opinion, my conviction, gains immensely in strength and sureness the minute a second mind as adopted it."

"Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment."

"Only as far as a man is happily married to himself is he fit for married life and family life in general."

"The artist belongs to their work, not the work to the artist."

"Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life."

See more famous quotes by Novalis

For the radiosurgery system, see Novalis radiosurgery.

For the German rock band, see Novalis (band).

Novalis (Georg Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg)
Novalis (1799), portrait by Franz Gareis
Born	2 May 1772(1772-05-02) Oberwiederstedt, Electorate of Saxony, Germany
Died	25 March 1801 (aged 28) Weißenfels, Germany
Occupation	Prose writer, poet, mystic, philosopher, civil engineer
Nationality	German,
Influenced Hermann Hesse, George MacDonald, Walter Pater

Novalis (German pronunciation: [noˈvaːlɪs]) was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (May 2, 1772 – March 25, 1801), an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Writing 2.1 Poetry 2.2 Prose 2.3 Influence 3 Novalis in print 4 Historical-Critical Edition of Novalis's Works 5 Novalis in English 6 Notes 7 External links 8 Secondary literature

Biography

Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg was born in 1772 at Oberwiederstedt manor, in the Harz mountains (in present-day Saxony-Anhalt). The family seat was a manorial estate, not simply a stately home. Novalis descended from ancient, Low German nobility. Different lines of the family include such important, influential magistrates and ministry officials as the Prussian chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822). An oil painting and a christening cap commonly assigned to Novalis are his only possessions now extant. In the church in Wiederstedt, he was christened Georg Philipp Friedrich. He spent his childhood on the family estate and used it as the starting point for his travels into the Harz mountains.

Novalis’s father, the estate owner and salt-mine manager Heinrich Ulrich Erasmus Freiherr von Hardenberg (1738–1814), was a strictly pietistic man who had become a member of the Moravian (Herrnhuter) Church. His second marriage was to Auguste Bernhardine von Hardenberg, née Bölzig (1749–1818), who gave birth to eleven children: their second child was Georg Philipp Friedrich, who later named himself Novalis.

At first, Novalis was taught by private tutors. He attended the Lutheran grammar school in Eisleben, where he acquired skills in rhetoric and ancient literature, common parts of the education of this time. From his twelfth year, he was in the charge of his uncle Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Hardenberg at his stately home in Lucklum.

Novalis studied law from 1790 to 1794 at Jena, Leipzig, and Wittenberg. He passed his exams with distinction. During his studies, he attended Schiller’s lectures on history and befriended Schiller during his illness. Novalis also met Goethe, Herder, and Jean Paul and befriended Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, and the brothers Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel.

In October of 1794, Novalis worked as actuary for August Coelestin Just, who was not only his superior but also his friend and, later, his biographer. During this time, Novalis met the 12-year-old Sophie von Kühn (1782–1797). On March 15, 1795, when Sophie was 13 years old, the two became engaged to marry. The following January, Novalis was appointed auditor to the salt works at Weißenfels.

In the period 1795–1796, Novalis concerned himself with the scientific doctrine of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which greatly influenced his world view. He not only read Fichte’s philosophies but also developed Fichte's concepts further, transforming Fichte’s Nicht-Ich (German "not I") to a Du ("you"), an equal subject to the Ich ("I"). This was the starting point for Novalis's Liebesreligion ("religion of love").

The cruelly early death of Sophie in March, 1797, affected Novalis deeply. She was only 15 years old, and the two had not married yet. Novalis was in a state of mourning and suffering for a period of time after her death.

That same year, Novalis entered the Mining Academy of Freiberg in Saxony, a leading academy of science, to study geology under Professor Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750–1817), who befriended him. During Novalis's studies in Freiberg, he immersed himself in a wide range of studies, including mining, mathematics, chemistry, biology, history, and, not least, philosophy. It was here that he collected materials for his famous encyclopaedia project.

Novalis's first fragments were published in 1798 in the Athenäum, a magazine edited by the brothers Schlegel, who were also part of the early Romantic movement. Novalis’s first publication was entitled Blüthenstaub (Pollen) and saw the first appearance of his pseudonym, "Novalis". In July of 1799, he became acquainted with Ludwig Tieck, and that autumn he met other authors of so-called "Jena Romanticism".

Novalis became engaged for the second time in December of 1798. His fiancée was Julie von Charpentier (1776–1811), a daughter of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Toussaint von Charpentier, a professor in Freiberg.

From Pentecost 1799, Novalis again worked in the management of salt mines. That December, he became an assessor of the salt mines and a director. On the December 6, 1800, the twenty-eight-year-old Hardenberg was appointed "Supernumerar-Amtshauptmann" for the district of Thuringia, a position comparable to that of a present-day magistrate. But from August onward, Hardenberg suffered from tuberculosis, and on March 25, 1801, he died in Weißenfels. His body was buried in the old cemetery there.

Novalis lived long enough to see the publication only of Pollen, Faith and Love or the King and the Queen, and Hymns to the Night. His unfinished novels Heinrich von Ofterdingen and The Novices at Sais, his political speech Christendom or Europa, and numerous other notes and fragments were published posthumously by his friends Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel.

Writing

Novalis, who had great knowledge in science, law, philosophy, politics and political economy, started writing quite early. He left an astonishing abundance of notes on these fields of knowledge and his early work shows that he was very educated and well read. His later works are closely connected to his studies and his profession. Novalis collected everything that he had learned, reflected upon it and drew connections in the sense of an encyclopaedic overview on art, religion and science. These notes from the years 1798 and 1799 are called Das allgemeine Brouillon, and are now available in English under the title Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia.

Together with Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis developed the fragment as a literary form of art. The core of Hardenberg’s literary works is the quest for the connection of science and poetry, and the result was supposed to be a "progressive universal poesy” (fragment no. 116 of the Athenaum journal). Novalis was convinced that philosophy and the higher-ranking poetry have to be continually related to each other.

The fact that the romantic fragment is an appropriate form for a depiction of "progressive universal poesy”, can be seen especially from the success of this new genre in its later reception.

Novalis’ whole works are based upon an idea of education: "We are on a mission: we are called upon to educate the earth." It has to be made clear that everything is in a continual process. It is the same with humanity, which forever strives towards and tries to recreate a new Golden Age – a paradisical Age of harmony between man and nature that was assumed to have existed in earlier times. This Age was recounted by Plato, Plotinus, and Franz Hemsterhuis – the latter being an extremely important figure for the German Romantics.

This idea of a romantic universal poesy can be seen clearly in the romantic triad. This theoretical structure always shows its recipient that the described moment is exactly the moment (kairos) in which the future is decided. These frequently mentioned critical points correspond with the artist’s feeling for the present, which Novalis shares with many other contemporaries of his time. Thus a triadic structure can be found in most of his works. This means that there are three corresponding structural elements which are written differently concerning the content and the form.

Hardenberg’s intensive study of the works of Jakob Böhme, since 1800, had a clear influence on his own writing.

A mystical world view, a high standard of education, and the frequently perceptible pietistic influences are combined in Novalis' attempt to reach a new concept of Christianity, faith, and God. He forever endeavours to align these with his own view of transcendental philosophy, which acquired the mysterious name "Magical idealism". Magical idealism draws heavily from the critical or transcendental idealism of Kant and Fichte, and incorporates the artistic element central to Early German Romanticism. The subject must strive to conform the external, natural world to its own will and genius; hence the term "magical".^[1] David Krell calls magical idealism "thaumaturgic idealism."^[2] This view can even be discerned in more religious works such as the Spiritual Songs (published 1802), which soon became incorporated into Lutheran hymn-books.

Novalis influenced, among others, the novelist and theologian George MacDonald, who translated his Hymns to the Night in 1897. More recently, Novalis, as well as the Early Romantic (Frühromantik) movement as a whole, has been recognized as constituting a separate philosophical school, as opposed to simply a literary movement. Recognition of the distinctness of Fruhromantik philosophy is owed in large part, in the English speaking world at least, to the writer Frederick Beiser.

Poetry

In August 1800, eight months after completion, the revised edition of the Hymnen an die Nacht was published in the Athenaeum. They are often considered to be the climax of Novalis’ lyrical works and the most important poetry of the German early Romanticism.

The six hymns contain many elements which can be understood as autobiographical. Even though a lyrical "I", rather than Novalis himself, is the speaker, there are many relationships between the hymns and Hardenberg’s experiences from 1797 to 1800.

The topic is the romantic interpretation of life and death, the threshold of which is symbolised by the night. Life and death are – according to Novalis – developed into entwined concepts. So in the end, death is the romantic principle of life.

Influences from the literature of that time can be seen. The metaphors of the hymns are closely connected to the books Novalis had read at about the time of his writing of the hymns. These are prominently Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (in the translation by A.W. Schlegel, 1797) and Jean Paul’s Unsichtbare Loge (1793).

The Hymns to the Night display a universal religion with an intermediary. This concept is based on the idea that there is always a third party between a human and God. This intermediary can either be Jesus – as in Christian lore – or the dead beloved as in the hymns. These works consist of three times two hymns. These three components are each structured in this way: the first hymn shows, with the help of the Romantic triad, the development from an assumed happy life on earth through a painful era of alienation to salvation in the eternal night; the following hymn tells of the awakening from this vision and the longing for a return to it. With each pair of hymns, a higher level of experience and knowledge is shown.

Prose

The novel fragments Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (The Novices of Sais) reflect the idea of describing a universal world harmony with the help of poetry. The novel 'Heinrich von Ofterdingen' contains the "blue flower", a symbol that became an emblem for the whole of German Romanticism. Originally the novel was supposed to be an answer to Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, a work that Novalis had read with enthusiasm but later on judged as being highly unpoetical. He disliked the victory of the economical over the poetic.

The speech called Die Christenheit oder Europa was written in 1799, but was first published in 1826. It is a poetical, cultural-historical speech with a focus on a political utopia with regard to the Middle Ages. In this text Novalis tries to develop a new Europe which is based on a new poetical Christendom which shall lead to unity and freedom. He got the inspiration for this text from Schleiermacher’s Über die Religion (1799). The work was also a response to the French Enlightenment and Revolution, both of which Novalis saw as catastrophic and irreligious. It anticipated, then, the growing German and Romantic theme of anti-Enlightenment visions of European spirituality and order.

Influence

Walter Pater includes Novalis's quote, "Philosophirn ist delphlegmatisiren, vivificiren" (to philosophize is to throw off apathy, to become revived)^[3] in his conclusion to Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Novalis' poetry and writings were also an influence on Hermann Hesse.

Novalis was also a huge influence on Mihai Eminescu, on George MacDonald, and so indirectly on C. S. Lewis, the Inklings, and the whole modern fantasy genre. Borges refers often to Novalis in his work.

Novelist Penelope Fitzgerald's last work, "The Blue Flower," is an historical fiction about Novalis, his education, his philosophical and poetic development, and his romance with Sophie.

Novalis in print

Novalis' works were originally issued in two volumes by his friends Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel (2 vols. 1802; a third volume was added in 1846). Editions of Novalis' collected works have since been compiled by C. Meisner and Bruno Wille (1898), by E. Heilborn (3 vols., 1901), and by J. Minor (3 vols., 1907). Heinrich von Ofterdingen was published separately by J. Schmidt in 1876.

Novalis's Correspondence was edited by J. M. Raich in 1880. See R. Haym Die romantische Schule (Berlin, 1870); A. Schubart, Novalis' Leben, Dichten und Denken (1887); C. Busse, Novalis' Lyrik (1898); J. Bing, Friedrich von Hardenberg (Hamburg, 1899), E. Heilborn, Friedrich von Hardenberg (Berlin, 1901).

Historical-Critical Edition of Novalis's Works

The most comprehensive and reliable edition of Novalis's works in German is the so-called 'Historische-Kritische Ausgabe' (commonly abbreviated as HKA): Novalis Schriften, six volumes, edited by Richard Samuel, Hans-Joachim Mähl and Gerhard Schulz, Stuttgart, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1960–2006.

Novalis in English

Several of Novalis's notebooks and philosophical works have been recently translated into English.

• Novalis: Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia (Das Allgemeine Brouillon), trans. and ed. David W. Wood, State University of New York Press, 2007. First English translation of Novalis's unfinished project for a universal science, it contains his most developed thoughts on philosophy, the arts, religion, literature and poetry, and his theory of 'Magical Idealism'. The Appendix also contains substantial extracts from Novalis's Freiberg Natural Scientific Studies 1798/1799.

• The Birth of Novalis: Friedrich von Hardenberg's Journal of 1797, With Selected Letters and Documents, trans. and ed. Bruce Donehower, State University of New York Press, 2007.

• Novalis: Philosophical Writings, trans. and ed. Margaret Mahoney Stoljar, State University of New York Press, 1997. This volume contains several of Novalis' works, including Pollen or Miscellaneous Observations, one of the few complete works published in his lifetime (though it was altered for publication by Friedrich Schlegel); Logological Fragments I and II; Monologue, a long fragment on language; Faith and Love or The King and Queen, a collection of political fragments also published during his lifetime; On Goethe; extracts from Das allgemeine Broullion or General Draft; and his essay Christendom or Europe. Some of the translator's notes betray a lack of objectivity.

• Fichte Studies, trans. Jane Kneller, Cambridge University Press: 2003. This translation is part of the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy Series.

• Classic and Romantic German Aesthetics, ed. Jay Bernstein, Cambridge University Press, 2003. This book is in the same series, the Fichte-Studies and contains a very good selection of fragments, plus it includes Novalis' Dialogues. Also in this collection are fragments by Schlegel and Hölderlin.

• Henry von Ofterdingen, trans. Palmer Hilty, Waveland Press: 1990.

• The Novices of Sais, trans. by Ralph Manheim, Archipelago Books: 2005. This translation was originally published in 1949. This edition includes illustrations by Paul Klee. The Novices of Sais contains the fairy tale "Hyacinth and Rose Petal."

• Hymns to the Night, trans. by Dick Higgins, McPherson & Company: 1988. This modern translation includes the German text (with variants) en face.

Notes

1. ^ See David W. Wood's introduction to Novalis, Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia, Albany: SUNY, 2007.
2. ^ David Farrell Krell, Contagion, Indianapolis: Indiana State University, 1998.
3. ^ Barbara Laman, James Joyce and German Theory: "The Romantic School and All That", (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004), 37.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Novalis

• Novalis by Kristin Gjesdal (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Hymnen an die Nacht – German original in parallel with George MacDonald's translation.
• Novalis: Hymns to The Night – a translation of the work by George MacDonald
• Novalis Online – including a few (computer-generated) hybrid-English translations, and essays on and by Novalis. Seems to be defunct and unattended for a number of years.
• Oberwiederstedt Manor, birthplace of Novalis – formerly the International Novalis Society. The rest of the site is in German, but more pages are due to be translated soon
• Aquarium: Friedrich von Hardenberg im Internet – a highly useful multi-lingual web-site for information on Novalis. It provides updates and news in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, on the latest Novalis translations and reviews, along with general discussions, odd trivia and scholarly articles.
• A detailed review article on Novalis's importance to German culture, philosophy and science by Jeremy Adler – from The Times Literary Supplement, April 16, 2008.

Secondary literature

• The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Behler, Ernst. German Romantic Literary Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Beiser, Frederick. German Idealism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002
• Fitzgerald, Penelope. The Blue Flower. Mariner Books, 1997. A novelization of Novalis' early life.
• Bruce Haywood, Novalis, the veil of imagery; a study of the poetic works of Friedrich von Hardenberg, 1772-1801 's-Gravenhage, Mouton, 1959; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959.
• Krell, David Farrell. Contagion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
• Kuzniar, Alice. Delayed Endings. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1987
• Lacoue-Labarthe, Phillipe and Jean-Luc Nancy. The Literary Absolute. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. (Note: This book does not discuss Novalis exclusively, but discusses the Early Romantic movement as a whole.)
• Molnár, Geza von. Novalis' "Fichte Studies"
• O’Brien, Wm. Arctander, Novalis: Signs of Revolution. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. ISBN 082231519X
• Pfefferkorn, Kristin, Novalis: A Romantic's Theory of Language and Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
• "Character is fate"- quoted by Thomas Hardy in The Mayor of Casterbridge.

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Persondata
NAME	Novalis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German poet
DATE OF BIRTH	May 2, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oberwiederstedt, Electorate of Saxony, Germany
DATE OF DEATH	March 25, 1801
PLACE OF DEATH	Weißenfels, Germany

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