Friedrich Rückert was born in Schweinfurt, Germany, on May 16, 1788. He studied at Wurzburg and Heidelberg Universities, and produced his first significant collection, German Poems, in 1814 under the pseudonym Freimund Raimar. He worked for the Stuttgart Morgenblatt (1816-1817), and for much of this period wrote Napoleon, a Political Comedy in Three Parts (1815-1818).
After spending a year in Rome (1818) he returned to Germany to live in Coburg for a time. Further collections soon appeared, including Eastern Roses (1822) and a six-volume set, Collected Poems (1834-1838). Meanwhile, he took a post at Erlangen University as professor of Oriental languages (1826). He was beginning to attract attention for some of his translations of poems, particularly for "Die Makamen des Hariri" (1826) and "Nal und Damajanti" (1828), the former of Arabic origin and the latter from India.
In 1841 he was appointed professor at Berlin University in Oriental languages. Rückert turned to drama around this time, producing four plays, including Saul and David (1843) and Christofero Columbo (1845), but left little impression. Rückert resigned his Berlin professorship and moved to Neuses, near Coburg. He remained active on the literary scene in his last years producing such works as the Danish-war inspired A Dozen Fight Songs for Schleswig-Holstein, in 1864. Rückert died at Neuses on January 31, 1866. His complete poetry was published in 12 volumes in 1868-1869.