Georg Heinrich Ludwig Nicolovius (13 January 1767 - 2 November 1839) was a senior Prussian ministerial official [de] whose responsibilities primarily encompassed church and school affairs.

When he was only 11 Georg Heinrich was orphaned, after which, with his siblings (two brothers and two sisters), he was bought up by an unmarried great aunt called Johanna Catherina Reußner, who ensured that the boys were educated at the well regarded Collegium Fridericianum (secondary school).

[3] Around 1800 Nicolovius' friend, Stolberg, underwent a personal crisis which involved resigning his public offices, relocating to Münster and converting his large family (apart from one dissident daughter) to Roman Catholicism.

The Archbishopric of Lübeck [de] (of which Eutin formed a part) was undergoing a crisis of its own, involving secularisation of the state: Nicolovius was urged by the Grand Duke, who had become a personal friend, not to abandon his post.

However, just a few months later, at the end of August 1805, the king had him promoted to the East Prussian secular "consistory" with a mandate to overhaul he entire school system and related church matters.

In 1808 Nicolovius was given the rank of State Councillor (Staatsrat) and leadership of the Department for Culture and Public Education (Sektion für Kultus und öffentlichen Unterricht) within the Prussian Interior Ministry.

In 1817, with Napoleon defeated and many "normal" prewar borders restored, Nicolovius in effect retained his responsibilities within the newly launched Prussian Ministry of religious, educational and medical matters [de].