 Basilius von Ramdohr was born on the family estate, the "Rittergut" Drübber (near Nienburg), which was their property between 1686 and 1839.He studied law and aesthetics at the University of Göttingen, before commencing a long and glamorous career as an art-critic and diplomat.He is remembered partly for his book "Venus Urania" (1798), an early work on the psychology of love and friendship (the book's name denotes "celestial love"), but mostly for the so-called "Ramdohr Affair" of 1809 ("Ramdohrstreit") concerning his attack on the painter Caspar David Friedrich.