Charlotte Sophie Luise Wilhelmine von Ahlefeld (December 6, 1781 in Ottmannshausen (a part of Berlstedt

Berlstedt

Berlstedt is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Hottelstedt was incorporated by Berlstedt....

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

) – July 27, 1849 in Teplitz

Teplice

Teplice , Teplice-Šanov until 1948 is a town in the Czech Republic, the capital of the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is the state's second largest spa town ....

, Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 novelist.

Von Ahlefeld was born near Erfurt

Erfurt

Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...

 as Charlotte von Seebach, to a noble family of Hanover

Electorate of Hanover

The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...

. She began to write at a young age, with her first novel appearing in 1797, and attracted positive comments from Goethe. She married Johann Ritter von Ahlefeld, a landowner from Schleswig

Schleswig

Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...

, on May 21, 1798. They separated in 1807, but she continued to live in Schleswig until 1821, when she moved to Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 and befriended Charlotte von Stein

Charlotte von Stein

Charlotta Ernestina Bernadina von Stein was a lady-in-waiting at the court in Weimar and a close friend to both Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose work and life were strongly influenced by her.-Childhood:Charlotte′s parents were Hofmarschall Johann Wilhelm Christian von...

. In 1846 she went to the spa town

Spa town

A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...

 of Teplitz in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

due to declining health, and died there in 1849. She wrote some of her novels under the pen name Elise Selbig, and some poetry under the name Natalia.

Selected novels

• Liebe und Trennung (1797)
• Marie Müller (1799)
• Erna (1820)
• Felicitas (1826)