Born in Königsberg in der Neumark, Döbbelin studied aw at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, where he had to flee early without a degree because of involvement in a tumult, and joined the society of Friederike Caroline Neuber in 1750.
On 8 March 1784, there was also the Berlin premiere of Schiller's Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua, edited by Karl Martin Plümicke [de].
[3] As a theatre director, Döbbelin strove for a purified stage and knew how to attract the best forces such as Ferdinand Fleck, Joseph Anton Christ, Margarete Schick and others.
As an actor, he was especially liked in typical roles, but his main merit is seen in the assertion of the German drama at a time when almost exclusively works by French and Italian authors were performed in the original language.
[4] His first wife was Maximiliana Christiana Döbbelin (?-1759), Friederike von Alvensleben's second daughter (1739-1793), who played the female leading roles in his companies with great success.
In 1775, Friederike Caroline gave birth to a son August by her lover, the chamberlain Johann Friedrich von Alvensleben, whom she married after her divorce in September 1776.