After holding minor educational posts, he obtained in 1791, through the influence of Herder, the appointment of rector of the gymnasium at Weimar, where he entered into a circle of literary men, including Wieland, Schiller, and Goethe.
Himself a scholar and author, he was a notable patron of letters, and was the friend of Goethe, Schiller and Wieland.
Finding himself out of sympathy with monastic life, he fled in 1783 to North Germany, and settled in Weimar, where he became Wieland's collaborateur on the German Mercury, and eventually his son-in-law.