Born in Hamburg as the son of a merchant, Schiebeler attended the school Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, after education by a private tutor who introduced him to novels. Schiebeler could read them in English, French, Italian and Spanish. He studied law without enthusiasm, from 1763 in Göttingen and from 1765 in Leipzig, graduating in 1768 with a dissertation "De modo poenarum". He was employed the same year by the Hamburger Dom. Schiebeler died of tuberculosis.
