She was born in Leipzig. The daughter of a professor of medicine who died in December 1757, she received from her mother and half-brother, a professor of theology, a thorough education in philosophy, history, Latin, and Greek, and learned to play the piano and harp.
Today she is largely unknown, even in Germany. She began writing early, but her work did not appear until 1785, with The Story of Emma, Daughter of Charlemagne, which concerns the legend of Einhard"s elopement with the fictional Emma. lieutenant was widely imitated.
Nearly all her books were published anonymously, through the agency of her half-brother, and the scholarship they displayed prompted speculation as to their author
Several men were suspected, among them Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Müller. Against her will, in 1817 her identity was revealed in an article in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt.
Her next book, Rosalba (1817) bore her true name for the first time. She died in 1819 in Leipzig, where she had travelled for an eye operation.
Her historical novels were occasionally translated into French and English, and she herself also translated books from those languages.
In Ulrich Holzer or Walter von Montbarry she employs the technique of focusing attention on a fictional character, or a person of minor historical significance, and witnessing events through his eyes – a technique borrowed by Scott, who had read her work in translation. Her collection of folk-tales, Neuen Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1789–1793. Last ed 2001) predates that of the Brothers Grimm (1806), but it consists of Kunstmärchen, free adaptations of old stories, rather than faithful transcriptions.
They are comparable to those of Johann Karl August Musäus.
A monograph by Hilary Brown on Naubert"s study of and influence on English literature was published in 2005.
