A Tomb in Germany: The Grave of the Hardenberg Barons in Weissenfels

The article recounts a stop in Weissenfels, a town of fewer than 40,000 inhabitants reached by exiting the A9 autostrada shortly after the Leipzig South junction when driving from Berlin. The town offers a small baroque castle, a market square, and bars along the Saale river. The reason for the visit was the tomb of the barons of Hardenberg, located at the foot of a small, steep park that culminates in the town cemetery. The best-known member of the family was the young Georg Friedrich Philipp, who died there at the age of twenty-eight in 1801. He adopted the name Novalis, taken from the term for land ready for new cultivation, to shed the anonymity attached to his triple baptismal name. The text is a cultural essay by Davide Carnevali and Anita Romanello, published on 21 September 2026 by Doppiozero.