German writer, best-known for his work Über den Umgang mit Menschen (1788; “On Social Intercourse with People”), a practical guide to happiness and success, written in a pleasant and easy style.

Belonging to a bankrupt family of the landed aristocracy, Knigge studied law and held several minor official positions. As did many writers of his time, he took the didactic and sentimental English novel for his model. Die Reise nach Braunschweig (1792; “The Journey to Brunswick”), considered the best of his novels, is a romance critically portraying contemporary middle-class life.