Karl Jakob Früauf is the son of Johann Friedrich Früauf, leader of the Moravian (Brüdergemeine) community of Neudietendorf im Herzogtum, near Erfurt, in Saxe-Gotha (today part of Thüringen). Karl Jakob was born there on 25 September 1768.
He joined the Moravian congregation in Niesky on 8 June 1782. In 1794, he traveled to the Moravian colony of Sarepta , just south of the Volga German colonies. He returned to Germany where he served as a teacher in the Moravian community of Christianfeld in Schleswig from 1800-1801. He then moved to Barby where he married Friederike Elisabeth Krebs.
Früauf served as a pastor in the colonies of Dietel from 1801-1815 and Grimm from 1815-1819. On 30 May 1820, Superintendent Fessler removed him from the pastoral rolls for drunkenness. He moved to Norka where he died on 8 May 1839.
Pastor Früauf is the father of three pastors: Karl Friedrich Ludwig, Karl Wilhelm August, and Karl Heinrich Eduard who all served parishes outside the Volga German area. His remaining children remained in the Volga German colonies and their descendants settled in Norka and Dietel .
Amburger, Erik. Die Pastoren der evangelischen Kirchen Rußlands vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts bis 1937 (Erlangen: Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk Martin-Luther-Verlag, 1998): 319.
Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 136.