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Charlotte was born Charlotte von Seebach, in Ottmanshausen, Erfurt, as the daughter of
a regimental commander, and was educated privately by tutors and governesses.
She wrote her first poetry at the age of ten and her first novel at age sixteen in the year
of her marriage in Weimar to Johann Rudolf von Ahlefeld to whom she bore 3 sons. Another
novel appeared in the following year to lasting acclaim and some thirty books followed
in subsequent years many of which were published under pseudonyms. Charlotte parted from
her husband in 1807, however, and lived, thereafter, as an independent
writer.
She moved to Weimar in 1821 and established close friendships with Goethe, who was impressed
with her works, Charlotte von Stein, Sophie Mereau and Clemens Brentano.
Towards the end of her life, she withdrew to live alone in retirement, moving in 1846, for
reasons of health, to Bad Teplitz. Shortly afterwards, upon the death of her husband, in
1848, she inherited a substantial fortune; but she died, less than a year later, at
Teplitz.
She is buried in Prague.
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