[1][2][3] Sigismund August Wolfgang Herder was born in Bückeburg, an economically diversified hill-town to the west of Hanover.

However, later during 1776, August's family relocated to Weimar after his father accepted a church appointment there, mediated through the intervention of his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as "Generalsuperintendent".

[3] August was the second son of the philosopher-poet Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) and his wife, born Maria Karoline Flachsland (1750-1809).

Born into an enlightenment milieu, his godparents included Goethe, the Lutheran philosopher Johann Georg Hamann and the journalist-poet Matthias Claudius.

He was then sent with his younger brother Wilhelm to spend a year during 1794/95 at Neuchâtel on the francophone western side of Switzerland, principally so that the boys might improve their mastery of the French language.

Among his student contemporaries Baron von Hardenberg (generally known in sources simply by his literary pseudonym as "Novalis") and Henrik Steffens became particularly well-trusted friends.

[1][3] The Longstanding Saxon Elector Frederick Augustus I became both the King of Saxony and the Duke of Warsaw in 1807, following political constitutional changes imposed by the emperor.

In 1809 the King-Duke mandated von Herder to organise the iron works at Panki (Upper Silesia) which, under the new arrangements, had become crown property.

During this period von Herder had the opportunity to undertake a succession of information gathering trips, visiting working mining installations in Styria, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, the southern part of what later became Belgium, France, the Rhineland and, closer to home, the Harz region.

[3][6] The Napoleonic Wars ended with the establishment new European order which involved a major expansion of Prussian power and territory.

That reflected a determination on the part of the victorious governments to create an effective military bulwark against the dangers of any further attempt by some future French emperor to take over in Europe.

The Kingdom of Saxony, though much diminished, was preserved, retaining Leipzig, Dresden and, importantly, the rich mining region in the south.

In addition to the economic imperatives, there was also a socio-political dimension to the Saxon state making its presence felt among the mining communities in the Erzgebirgisch region.

The Russian and Prussian armies, having inflicted a crushing defeat on Napoleon on Saxon territory, had shown little appetite for a rapid return to their northern and eastern homelands.

Probably his most ambitious project was one involving draining the mines in the entire Freiberg region with a shared underground channel, which aroused much interest from contemporary illuminati, including both Alexander von Humboldt and the mentor of his adolescence, Goethe.

As a trustee of the Freiberg Mining Academy he devoted time and energy to the university, resulting in improvements to the quality of research and more stringent admission criteria for students.

[3] In accordance with his last wishes, the body of the "friend to al the miners" was buried on the edge of the waste heap from the "Three Kings Mine" just outside Freiberg.