Battle of Jena–Auerstedt
He was born in the village of Lanz in Brandenburg, Prussia. He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at the universities of Halle, Göttingen, and Greifswald. After the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806 he joined the Prussian army. In 1809, he went to Berlin, where he became a teacher at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster and at the Plamann School.