Maria Elisabeth Hörnberg was a member of the Moravian Church öHHand an autobiographical writer; her parents, who belonged to the Moravian Church in Gothenburg, emigrated to the centre of their religious community, the German town of Herrnhut, in 1751 and later to Niesky, where she grew up and worked for most of her life.
After being sent to a small Moravian Church community in Kleinwelke to work as a maid and housekeeper, she wrote her autobiography in 1785, employing the pious language typical of the Moravian Church.