27 April] 1850 in Riga) was a Baltic German writer and activist[1] and an early Estophile and Lettophile.

Influenced by the ideas he found there, he published the book Die Letten ("Latvians", full title: Die Letten vorzüglich in Liefland am Ende des philosophischen Jahrhunderts, Ein Beytrag zur Völker- und Menschenkunde ("The Admirable Latvians of Livonia at the end of the Century of Philosophy, with an Addendum on Peoples and Anthropology")) in 1796, which described in the darkest terms the life of the Latvian peasantry and the atrocities of the Baltic German landowners and called upon the Imperial Russian government to intervene and ameliorate the lot of the Latvians.

The book gained considerable popularity in the German society and was translated into French, Danish and Russian.

He moved to Weimar, then in 1800 to Berlin, where he was the co-editor with August von Kotzebue of the weekly Der Freimutige (1803–1806).

He published the book My Ten Years in Germany (1818) and Images and Characters from My Life (two volumes, 1839–1840).