Countess Erdmuthe Dorothea von Reuss-Ebersdorf was born on 7 November 1700 in the village of Ebersdorf, in Thuringia.

In 1721, at the wedding of her brother, Henry XXIX, she met his friend Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

Erdmuthe, who had learned from her mother how to administer a county, took over the business of managing her husband's possessions in Berthelsdorf and the newly founded settlement of Herrnhut.

She toured several European countries together with her husband and during his eleven years of exile, she administered his assets and managed the Moravian Church.

Erdmuthe Dorothea wrote a number of hymns and initiated the annual publication Daily Watchwords.