Sources - including at least one of Friedrich's own later poems - indicate that the librarian's son enjoyed a peaceful and happy childhood living at the castle.
He now became a candidate for ordination, and worked for a further three years, till 1797 as a volunteer teacher at his old school in Halberstadt,[1] where he subsequently took a paid teaching post.
In 1800, in a move that at least one openly incredulous commentator finds inexplicable, given his economic circumstances, he abandoned his teaching job and resolved to live by writing alone.
Elsewhere it is recorded that he was writing poems while still at secondary school, periodically gathering his output in a newssheet under the title "Unterhaltende Blätter" ("Entertaining Pages") which he circulated among his fellow pupils.
[2] Inspired by the death of a contemporary, it was printed in Halberstadt and entitled "Eine Blume auf das Grab des besten Jünglings" (loosely, "A Flower on the grave of the best young man").
[1] It was on the recommendation of Karl Spazier that Friedrich Raßmann moved to Münster, which in the context of the war had been under Prussian occupation since 1802.
[1] It is known from his correspondence that Friedrich Raßmann very frequently found himself short of money, especially during the war years: following the collapse of "Merkur" he was able to find work as a private tutor.
Unterhaltungsblatt für Deutsche" ("...entertainment pages for Germans") appeared in Coesfeld in 1816 and continued with a shortened name in 1817, but also met with little success.
[2] He suffered stomach pains: at least one source mentions acute hypochondria ("...Hypochondrie im höchsten Grad"), but references to his shortness of breath and reduced energy levels during the later 1820s would also be consistent with physical deterioration.
[1][2] In 1830 he almost "worked himself to death" while preoccupied with his characteristically ambitious and lengthy "Pantheon der Tonkünstler...", a biographical lexicon of all the many musical performers and composers in Germany and abroad worthy of inclusion.
[1] The more noteworthy writers among his correspondents include Count Otto von Loeben, Anton Matthias Sprickmann, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and Louise Brachmann.