Follen (Charles) is born in Germany.

The son of a judge, Charles Follen graduates from the University of Giessen and comes to Boston in 1825 to teach languages and literature at Harvard College (1825-35). He marries Eliza Lee Cabot in 1828. Credited with sparking the transcendental movement in the Boston area, Follen is dismissed by Harvard for his antislavery activities in 1835 and subsequently becomes a Unitarian minister. He dies in a fire on the steamer Lexington in Long Island Sound on January 13, 1840.