Sophie von Kühn

Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn ( * March 17, 1782, † March 19, 1797 at Castle Green Willingen, Greußen ) was the fiancee Friedrich von Hardenberg ( Novalis ), who died at the age of 15 years and whose memory he in many of his works, in particular but in the hymns to the Night (1800), preserved.

Sophie was the stepdaughter of Captain Johann Rudolf Rock Thien and daughter Sophie Wilhelmine von Kühn. In Grüningen, today a district of Greußen, the twelve -year-old Sophie and 22 -year-old Novalis met on November 17, 1794 for the first time. Novalis told his brother Erasmus in a letter about the fact that a "quarter hour " had decided about his life. On March 17, 1795 her thirteenth birthday, there was already an unofficial engagement with Friedrich von Hardenberg.

In November 1795 Sophie became seriously ill but recovered again apparently. After three difficult operations (then without anesthesia) from May to July 1796 she but died on 19 March 1797. Obituary of her family to Sophie's death appeared in the Leipziger Zeitung on Saturday, March 25, 1797.

Sophie had two sisters ( Friederike Karoline & ) and two brothers ( George & Hans von Kühn). In addition, a step-sister from the first marriage of her father Johann Georg von Kühn, namely Wilhelmine von Kühn and four step-siblings from her mother's marriage with Johann Rudolph Rock Thien.