STOLBERG, FRIEDRICH LEOPOLD. – Poet, born at Bramstedt (Holstein) on 7 November 1750, died at Sondermühle near Osnabrück on 5 December 1819.
Together with his brother Christian (born in 1748), who shared his poetic passion, he studied at Halle and at Gottings, entering that circle of poets and intellectuals (Göttinger Hain) which was beginning to struggle against the arid rationalism of the Aufklärung, inspired by Klopstock and in the spirit of the Sturm und Drang. Having concluded his youthful poetic period with a journey together with Goethe (1776), he held political posts, which he left after his conversion to Catholicism (1800). He then devoted himself to historical and religious studies, contributing, like Sailer and Schlegel, though within more modest limits, to the Catholic renewal.
JOSEPH, his son, born on 12 August 1804 at Lutkenbeck near Münster, died on 5 April 1859 at Tournai, was an eminent representative of German Catholicism.
He entered the Society of Jesus in 1824, but, terrified by the responsibility of the priesthood, renounced ecclesiastical life in 1833. Having established himself among the leaders of the Catholic movement in northern Germany, in October 1849 he presided at Regensburg over the third General Assembly of German Catholics. On that occasion Döllinger proposed the foundation of the Society of S. Boniface
and S. was designated its president. For the success of the new association, S. immediately displayed intense activity. In the same winter of 1849–50 he visited the German bishops to obtain their cooperation, which they readily assured him. He also promoted the establishment of diocesan associations dependent on the central headquarters in Paderborn. He likewise lent his support to the popular missions of the Jesuits.