He studied philosophy with Fichte and Schelling. Schubert and he became close friends; they were arrested together at Senn’s by police hunting subversives, and he introduced Schubert to his friend von Platen’s homoerotic poetry. He used his house for Schubertiads — evenings where the composer and a small group of friends sang Schubert’s songs. Schubert and he broke off their friendship over Bruchmann’s attitude to his sister’s secret engagement, an event leading to a spiritual crisis and his eventual ordination as a priest. His poems remained unpublished, except for the five that Schubert set to music.