KRÜDENER, BARBARA JULIANA von. – Political woman, religious preacher, and writer, born in Riga on 21 November 1764 and died at Karasubazar in Crimea on 24 December 1824. Having turned toward a mystical pietism in 1804, under the influence of the doctrine of the “Moravian brethren” and the writings of Zindendorf, she was subsequently drawn into the Swedenborgian current of J. H. Jung-Schilling, the pastor F. Fontaine, and the seer Maria Gottlieb Kummer, which made her a visionary; consequently, believing herself called to preach a new religion in Europe, she began by condemning, without exception, all the Christian confessions of the time.
Received at Heilbronn in 1815 by Emperor Alexander I, she succeeded in gaining great influence over him; hence the supposition that it was K. who induced the Tsar to conclude the “Holy Alliance” against Napoleon cannot seem entirely unfounded. Germany and Switzerland were the field of her prophetic preaching, but she was expelled from the latter in 1817; returning to Germany, she was again banished the following year and went to take refuge, as a guest of Prince Galitzin, in Crimea, where she died. Some poetic compositions are attributed to her, as well as an autobiographical novel (Valérie, 1803), of a Wertherian character, and a short work of exalted inspiration (Camp de vertus), published posthumously in 1841.