KRUDENER, BARBARA Baroness von (1764•1824). A novelist of the Ro mantic school and one of the most prominent apostles of Pietism during the early years of the nineteenth century-. She Was born at Riga. No vember 21, 1704. the (laughter of Privy Council or von Vietinghotr, one of the richest landown ers of Livonia. In 1783 she married Baron Burkhard von Kriidener, a widower of fifty and a rising diplomat. at this time attached to the Russian Embassy at. Paris. In 1784 the Baron became Ambassador to Venice and two years later was transferred to Copenhagen. The young wife devoted herself to her husband with an excess of tenderness which proceeded from her absence of love. Bad health and ennui sent her in 178!) to France, where she lived in Paris, Barges. and "Montpellier, surrounded by a little court of sentimental worshipers, chief among whom was Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, author of Paul and Virginia. In France. too. she fell in love with a young officer in the Hussars, and with two brief intervals lived apart from her husband, and in 1791 she returned to her hus band. confessed her guilt, and demanded her free dom. The honor of the name made this im possible, but except for a temporary reconcilia tion in 1793 and a subsequent spasmodic return to her marital duties. the two lived apart till the Baron's death in 1802. For the Baroness this was a period of gay frivolity passed in Ger many and Switzerland. In 1801 she met Ma dame de Staid at Coppet and in December ac companied her to Paris, where her wonderful powers of witchery sprang into full play. In 1803 she published l'alerie, a novel of feeling, based on the love episode with her husband's secretary. It was marked by charm of style and a delicacy of sentiment bordering on mysti cism. The author of Valerie took her place among the literary gods of Paris.
In 1304 she returned to Riga and there in the following year occurred her remarkable 'conver sion' to the teachings of the Moravians. She speedily began to preach the worth of unworldli ness, self-surrender to the will of God, and a re turn to the simplicity of Christ's teaching. At
Kunigsberg. in 1807, Queen Louise of Prussia fell under her influence. From K;Arigsberg she trav ersed Germany to Kars'rube, where she asso ciated much with Jung-Stilling (q.v.) and be came thoroughly steeped in pietism and a con vert to dreams of the millennium. For nearly eight years she continued her missionary work in Germany, till in May, 1315, at Heilbronn in Wiirttemberg, she met the Emperor Alexander of Russia, then in the full flush of his glory as leader of the victorious Allies against Napoleon. The Emperor fell immediately under her spell. He prayed and read the Scriptures with her and took her with him to Paris, where her house be came the centre of a pietistic movement as in tenso as it was short-lived. Her influence over Alexander continued unabated, and as the Em peror's 'conscience' she was instrumental in furthering the formation of the Holy Alliance (q.v.), though she was not its originator. as is frequently stated. With the Czar's departure for Russia her downfall began. She removed to Basel, where her preaching aroused the hos tility of the authorities and led to her expul sion. Followed by a mob of fanatics and beggars, she wandered through Northern Switzerland without finding a place of refuge, yet steadfastly pursuing her mission. In 1817 she set out for her home at Bosse. There she remained till 1820, when she went to Saint Petersburg. With Princess Anna Golitzyn she became the leader of a religious revival which spread rapidly among the polite classes and assumed such dimensions as to arouse the displeasure of the Czar, who in addition was angered by Madame Kriidener's in tercessions in behalf of the Greeks. who were then engaged in their struggle for independence against the Turks. She was compelled to kayo the capital and returned to ]posse: but a danger Oils disease brought on by her ascetic practices necessitated her departure for the Crimea, where she died, at Karasu-Bazar. on Christmas morn ing. 1824. Consult Ford, Life and Letters of Madame Krildener (London, 1893), which con tains a complete bibliography of the subject.