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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 096 461 714 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924096461714 
 
SOME GERMAN WOMEN 
 
 AND 
 
 THEIR SALONS 
 
. * 
 
 'S^i^iimki:iiM&?mm^i:i:MiimMS^:i 
 
 ^ahszl 
 
■ -^Biriif .■ V 
 
 SOME GERMAN WOMEN 
 AND THEIR SALONS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY HARGRAVE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
^.iLblO^^S' 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The women included in these sketches all 
 belong to the same period, that about the 
 year 1800, a generation or so on either side 
 of this date. 
 
 The close of the eighteenth and the beginnings, 
 of the nineteenth centuries mark a period of ) 
 Revolution for men and of Evolution for women.y 
 The ideas of the French Revolution, that time 
 of upheaval, of revaluing of values, of imperious 
 assertion of the rights of the individual, swept 
 over Europe hke a quickening wind and every- 
 where there was talk of Liberty, Equality, 
 Fraternity, realised (and perhaps only reahsable) 
 in that same order of precedence. At any 
 rate. Liberty came first and foremost. The 
 rights of the individual became imperious. 
 
 The minds of intellectual women were stirred, 
 
 they became more conscious of themselves, more 
 
 philosophic, more independent. They began, 
 
 really for the first time, to express themselves 
 
 vii 
 
Preface 
 
 intellectually. There was a clear, vital atmos- 
 phere in the dawn of the last century, before 
 reaction set in, before romance dwindled to 
 sickly sentiment, to the resigned, dead level 
 of the Holy Alliance on the Continent and 
 Victorianism in England. France produced a 
 writer of the calibre of Madame de Stael ; 
 England, a Mary Somerville, a Jane Austen; 
 and Germany, although the stronghold of the 
 domestic ideal, also had her brilliant intellectual 
 women who, outside their own country, have 
 perhaps not become as widely known as they 
 deserve. 
 
 The women of the salons were not royal, 
 aristocratic, or even artistic personages. Simple 
 burgerliche or middle - class, they emerged 
 brilliantly from its levels, absorbed current ideas, 
 enjoyed friendships with men of note, achieved 
 European celebrity. This at a period when 
 the German writer Gutzkow lamented : " It is 
 the misfortune of our time that the women 
 are so far behind the men," and "the relations 
 between men and women are a perfect cari- 
 cature." Thus the few women like Goethe's 
 Bettina and Rahel the Jewess stand out all the 
 more sharply from their sisters of the German 
 
 domesticated type. Friendships such as Rahel 
 
 viii 
 
Preface 
 
 had with the notable men of her day (she was 
 Bettina's senior by fifteen years) ; letters such 
 as she wrote to these friends, frank^, expressions 
 of her ideas and aspirations, were something 
 unheard of until then in Germany; she was,- 
 as it were, the first of her sex to speak out 
 plainly and declare her individuality. And 
 although she possessed no creative gifts, either 
 literary or artistic, yet the force of her person- 
 ality was such as to win for her the title of 
 the " Sibyl of the Nineteenth Century." 
 
 In the same way Bettina^von Arnim, who 
 influenced both by her personality and her 
 writings, was called a " Sibyl " (the " Sibyl of the 
 Romantic Movement "), a word which expresses 
 the intuitive divination of the spirit of the age 
 possessed by such women and their inspiring in- 
 tellectual influence upon the men of their day. 
 
 In Germany the noted women of this period 
 
 have for their centre the Romantic movement, 
 
 that wonderful tendency in art and literature 
 
 in which the German soul for the first time 
 
 realised itself. Women helped and influenced 
 
 this movement in no small degree. The 
 
 Romantic salons in Berlin were a very vital 
 
 influence, each one forming a nucleus of 
 
 attraction for leaders and adherents of the 
 
 ix 
 
Preface 
 
 movement and diffusing their ideas in ever- 
 widening circles. 
 
 Rahel_ Varnhagen, the "first great modern 
 woman" of her nation, belonged to Roman- 
 ticism in its earliest, purest phase — belonged 
 instinctively, not merely receptively. "You 
 are Romanticism, before ever the word was 
 invented," Gentz wrote to her. Intellectu- 
 ally she belonged to the movement in its 
 dawn, in its most beautiful period, when it 
 meant freedom from conventionality, a return to 
 nature, a free outlook, a free soul. Later, when 
 Romanticism degenerated into popular mysti- 
 cism, seeking glamour in material accessories, 
 Rahel's clear soul felt no longer in sympathy 
 with the movement and she turned to " Young 
 Germany." 
 ' Bettina von Armm, on the other hand, was 
 a genuine child of romance, by temperament 
 rather than intellect. She saw the world with 
 the true romantic vision through a veil of 
 glamour and wonder, from her childish days 
 when she would steal out to watch the passing 
 of the night, or climb a tower to be near the 
 stars. The Blue flower certainly bloomed for 
 Bettina. 
 
 HMmette. Her?, good soul, belonged to the 
 
Preface 
 
 Romantic movement because it came her way. 
 One feels that she would have belonged intelli- 
 gently and receptively to any movement in 
 which her lot chanced to fall, always with 
 moderation and elegance, an ornament to any 
 salon. The men who frequented hers chanced 
 to be leaders of the movement. 
 ^ As for Carolaie_Schlegel, she was " modern." 
 Her restlessness drove her from conventional 
 circles, she was romantic in her quest of 
 happiness — at any cost — away from the dead 
 levels of respectabUity. She naturally joined the 
 new forces, an inspired and inspiring element, 
 and found a resting-place in Jena, the "cradle 
 of Romanticism." 
 
 Charlotte Stieglitz really falls in the " Young 
 Germany" movement rather than with the 
 Romanticists. But her death came in point 
 of time so near that of Rahel and so near the 
 publication of Bettina's " Letters to a ChUd " — 
 that "last bright flame of Romanticism, the 
 sparkling fireworks with which it closes its 
 festival " ^ — that she may well be included with 
 their generation. Her tragic suicide has been 
 called romantic, but in truth it was more akin 
 to the spirit of ancient Greece, or rather — and 
 
 ' Robert Prutz. 
 
 xi 
 
Preface 
 
 equally alien to our civilisation — to the ruthless 
 self-immolation of a Japanese heroine. 
 
 Goethe's mother belongs to the eighteenth 
 century, but she hved well into the first decade 
 of the nineteenth. She had no salon, but her 
 house welcomed all the noted men and women 
 of the day who visited Frankfurt, and her stimu- 
 lating influence was felt by the younger genera- 
 tion, such as Clemens and Bettina Brentano. 
 
 And Queen Luise of Prussia must always 
 be sure of a place among noble women of that 
 or any period. We see in her an embodiment 
 of Germany's highest ideals of woman. She 
 was the Landesmutter. 
 
 xu 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ELISABETH GOETHE 
 THE JEWISH SALOXfS 
 HENRIETTE HERZ 
 
 E.AHEL VAB.NHAGEN, THE GERMAN SIBYL OF 
 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BETTINA VON ARNIM . 
 
 QUEEN LUISE .... 
 
 CAROLINE SCHLEGEL . 
 
 CHARLOTTE STIEGLITZ 
 
 1 
 
 51 
 59 
 
 95 
 155 
 205 
 
 247 
 
 277 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 EAHEL TiECK Frontispiece 
 
 After Bas-Relief ly FBrBDMCH TiBOK (1796) 
 
 ■ERAX! EATH GOETHE .... To foce page 2 
 
 HENRIETTE HERZ ,, 60 
 
 EAHEL VAENHAGEN .... ,, 96 
 
 GOETHE ON HIS DEATHBED ... „ 156 
 
 After a Brawitig by Friedrich Preller in the 
 original edition of Bettina's "Tagebuph" 
 
 QUEEN LUISE OF PRUSSIA ... ,, 206 
 
 After painting by Dahunq (1805) 
 
 CAROLINE SCHLEGEL . . . . „ 248 
 
 CHARLOTTE STIEGLITZ . . . . „ 278 
 
ELISABETH GOETHE 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 Goethe^ Elizabeth, Briefwechsel mit Bettina, 1837- 
 Heinemann, C, Goethe's Mutter, 1909. 
 Menzel, E., Frau Bat Goethe, 1908. 
 ReekSj Margaret, The Mother of Goethe, 1911. 
 
frau Rat Goszthg 
 
ELISABETH GOETHE 
 
 " Providence has often given me unexpected joys, and I have 
 confidence that many such are yet awaiting me." 
 
 " First learn to know all things, even to the farthest, deepest star ; 
 then only may'st thou say, ' It is impossible.' " — Frau Rath. 
 
 " Madame, je suis la mere de Goethe ! " 
 
 With these words, if we may accept the 
 familiar account of Bettina von Arnim, did 
 Frau Rath Goethe introduce herself to Madame 
 de Stael, when that lady visited Frankfurt in 
 the course of her travels through Germany — 
 those travels wherein she so fluttered the in- 
 tellectual dovecotes and discovered (seemingly 
 to her surprise) a "perfect mine of genius," 
 both in the salons of Berlin, and among the 
 literary coteries of the various small dukedoms 
 and principahties. 
 
 With naive pride the good Frau Rath put 
 forward her claim to recognition, awaiting in 
 all solemnity the deference due to her exalted 
 title. It was indeed the most fitting presenta- 
 
 3 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 tion of herself to the world. What greater 
 claim could she advance than this of having 
 given a Goethe to the German nation ? 
 
 Among those who knew her, however, Frau 
 Rath was accustomed to recognition, not only 
 for her great son's sake, but by reason of her 
 own unique personahty. A splendid poet's 
 mother she certainly was, but her successful 
 motherhood was naturally the outcome of her 
 own strong whole-hearted nature : stimulating, 
 inspiring, yet at the same time no less sym- 
 pathetic and capable of self effacement : an 
 ideal for wifehood and motherhood. 
 
 Her name has become a household word 
 in Germany ; her sa5dngs, her quaint and 
 lovable traits are treasured for their own sake 
 wherever her great son's name is honoured. 
 
 Frau Aja is a national possession. 
 
 Some years after Goethe's death the city of 
 Frankfurt paid homage to its illustrious son; 
 a statue was erected to his memory. After 
 the ceremony of unveiling was over, the laurel 
 wreath which had crowned the poet was laid, 
 a touching and fitting tribute, on the grave 
 of his mother. 
 
 We come into touch with Frau Rath chiefly 
 in her letters, only lately collected and given 
 
 4 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 to the world in something like connected form. 
 Until this was done the scattered pages, worn 
 and yellow with age, were not accessible to 
 the general public, among whom, nevertheless, 
 a kind of legend of Frau Aja was lovingly 
 treasured. This was in a large measure gleaned 
 from Bettina von Arnim's vivacious Letters and 
 Diary, material used by Goethe in his auto- 
 biographical Dichtung und Wahrheit. 
 
 Many of Frau Rath's letters were destroyed 
 or lost, especially a large number to her son. 
 And many to celebrated men and women have 
 only been preserved partially, in fragments. 
 Those which still exist are delightful in their 
 spontaneity and freshness, their characteristic 
 humour. They possess the flavour, the essence 
 of life which, Goethe said, make letters precious. 
 
 It is said that the mothers of men of genius 
 are often women with real but undevoloped 
 intellectual gifts, women whose talents have 
 not been exploited or exhausted, but have lain 
 dormant ready to bear fruit in the achieve- 
 ments of their children. Genius, indeed, like 
 the flowering aloe which matures slowly and 
 dies after bursting into flower, ripens and 
 perfects itself unperceived through generations, 
 only to realise itself in one unique life. 
 
 5 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Goethe acknowledges how much he owed his 
 mother in the oft-quoted hnes : 
 
 " Vom Vater hab' ich die Statur, 
 Des Lebens ernstes Fiihren ; 
 Vom Miitterchen die Frohnatur, 
 Die Lust zu' fabuliren." ^ 
 
 There is no doubt about the "Lust zu 
 fabuUren." Goethe's mother was a magical 
 story-teller, a perfect Scheherezade who wove 
 romances night after night, not for a cruel 
 Sultan but for a certain exacting little boy with 
 big dark eyes and a keen critical faculty. 
 
 " Write books ? " she said as an old lady. 
 " No, I can't do that, but as for relating what 
 others have written, in that I should like to 
 find my master ! " 
 
 Undeniably, with all her practical common- 
 sense, her keen and humorous wit, Frau Rath 
 had that something more, the imaginative mind, 
 which made her a weaver of fairy tales, a 
 dreamer of dreams — which gave her, in short, 
 the touch of idealism which by no means always 
 graces the capable housewife. 
 
 ' " From my father I have my stature. 
 My earnest aims in living ; 
 From little mother my joyous nature 
 And love of story-weaving.'' 
 
 6 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 Some of her sayings give us glimpses of a 
 beautiful soul. 
 
 " First know everything, even to the farthest, 
 deepest star ; then only may'st thou say, ' It 
 is impossible.' " 
 
 This is the keynote of her philosophy, her 
 cheerful confidence and faith in the Unseen, 
 and in that "farthest, deepest star" is there 
 not a touch worthy of the mother of a poet? 
 
 And this mother, daughter of a healthy, 
 sturdy race of prosperous B'drger or middle- 
 class people, bestowed on her son a fine physical 
 frame, sound to the core, befitting one who 
 was to be a real world-genius, not merely a 
 poet of moods, but one of those natures who 
 seem, physically and mentally, to belong to a 
 superior race of men, long-lived, touching life 
 at all points, supreme. 
 
 Katherina Elisabeth Textor was born in the 
 year 1731 in the fine old free-city Frankfurt- 
 on-the-Main. She was the eldest daughter of 
 the Schultheiss or Chief Magistrate, afterwards 
 Mayor of the city, a personage of civic import- 
 ance. The Textors were prosperous folk, highly 
 respected, living in the orderly fashion of solid 
 Burgerthum as they had apparently done for 
 generations. 
 
 7 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Her father was the typical old-world bourgeois, 
 a man of method and routine, a lover of comfort 
 and good cheer. His hobby was gardening and 
 his spare moments were spent in his big garden 
 by the city walls, clad in a curious garb of 
 dressing-gown, velvet cap and slippers, and the 
 fine gloves presented to him annually in some 
 civic function. Here in leisurely fashion (" like 
 Laertes the father of Odysseus," his grandson 
 declared) he cultivated his peaches, mulberries, 
 and vines ; his tulips, roses, and dahlias all in 
 their season. 
 
 The mother, married in her teens, was young 
 with her children, and let them romp and be 
 merry, provided they subsided into due decorum 
 when the father came home. 
 
 Four children were born after Elisabeth. As 
 a matter of course she was versed in all the 
 domestic duties of a good German maiden. In 
 later years she was noted as a capable Hausfrau, 
 but as a girl she had no great love for household 
 tasks. All her life she had a certain penchant 
 for dress, and as a girl she loved to put on her 
 prettiest frocks and sit in leisure like a " princess 
 to sew a fine seam " or read ; hence her sisters 
 nick-named her "Prinzessin Ehsabeth." Also 
 she was rather given to day-dreaming. 
 
 8 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 There was certainly a strong imaginative strain 
 in the Textor family. The good Schultheiss, for 
 instance, had great faith in his own dream 
 warnings. On one occasion he dreamed of his 
 election to the coveted post of Mayor on the 
 death of the then holder of the title. Elisabeth 
 was greatly impressed by this vision, and when 
 the post fell vacant through the death of its 
 occupier, with naive faith she donned her best 
 attire, and sat ready to receive the messengers 
 who, she felt sure, must come to announce her 
 father's election. 
 
 Her mother and sisters laughed, but Elisabeth's 
 faith remained unshaken and was justified, for 
 in due course a deputation of city fathers and 
 dignitaries arrived in state at the Textor house 
 to announce that the choice had fallen upon 
 her father. " Princess Elisabeth " was the only 
 one prepared to receive them, which she did 
 with becoming dignity, enjoying hugely the 
 rites and ceremonies proper on such occasions, 
 whilst the rest of the family, more or less en 
 deshabille, remained in the background. 
 
 Many years later she herself gave credence 
 to a mysterious dream-warning, and there is a 
 story of Goethe's vision of himself, meeting, as 
 he rode, his own semblance clothed in a certain 
 
 9 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 uniform. Some years afterwards the vision 
 was realised, for he found himself riding along 
 the same road clad in the garb of his vision, 
 which betokened a State appointment. 
 
 Such details, trivial in themselves, are not 
 without interest as showing the imaginative 
 strain on the mother's side. 
 
 A characteristic childish romance, founded on 
 nothing, seems in keeping with our dreamy 
 " Prinzessin." She was present in the historic 
 Kaisersaal at the crowning of the Emperor 
 Karl VII., a splendid ceremony worthy of the 
 rich old city, for centuries the seat, of the 
 Coronations. The handsome melancholy face 
 of the Emperor made a deep impression upon 
 Elisabeth ; she fancied his eyes had rested upon 
 her, and that his greeting had been for her, 
 and in his progress through the city on several 
 successive days she contrived to follow him, 
 imagining that he smiled at her and was 
 conscious of her presence. The httle girl 
 cherished a romantic dream in her heart. Karl 
 VII., in short, played the part of a romantic 
 Prince Charming in her quiet hfe. 
 
 And years after, when Frau Aja came to die, 
 an old wound on her knee which had been 
 bruised at the time of the coronation, made 
 
 10 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 itself felt again, and when the doctor ordered 
 oil, myrrh, and wine as a liniment, the old lady 
 smiled and said it was surely an omen of death, 
 and strangely it recalled the oil and wine used 
 in the Coronation ceremony of 1742. To her 
 dying day Frau Rath's heart was the haunt of 
 romance. 
 
 Elisabeth and her sisters probably went to a 
 parish school near their home to learn writing 
 and arithmetic (it had been considered an innova- 
 tion at the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 when girls were taught these accomplishments, 
 and in any case girls were not expected to learn 
 as much as boys). Knitting and needlework 
 were taught jn " sewing school," and EUsabeth 
 was clever with her needle. As an old lady she 
 enjoyed making pillow-lace, and in 1795 was 
 making lace for a great-grandchild. 
 
 " I wager a thousand to one I am the first 
 great-grandmother to make lace for her great- 
 grandchild, and, as you can see, not just any 
 sort of lace, but a very beautiful Brabant 
 pattern." 
 
 Of book-learning the Princess enjoyed very 
 little, but she was rather inclined to believe that 
 "mother wit," of which she possessed a full 
 measure, flourishes best in an atmosphere of 
 
 11 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 freedom from rules and bookish learning, and 
 she would uphold the "good old days" when 
 children were not wearied by too much study. 
 
 As she expressed it, " My nature has never 
 worn stays, it has grown and flourished as it 
 listed ; it was allowed to spread out its branches, 
 not cut and maimed like trees in dreary pleasure 
 gardens which are trimmed into shape. There- 
 fore I feel, perhaps more than thousands of my 
 sex, aU that is really good and noble." 
 
 A little clavier-playing was taught to daughters 
 of the upper middle-class, and Elisabeth profited 
 by this, though she was not high enough in the 
 social scale to be brought up in the French style, 
 and to learn foreign languages — privileges as 
 yet reserved for the nobihty and upper ten of 
 the bourgeoisie. 
 
 Frau Rath's letters do not tell us anything 
 about her young days. They only begin in 
 August 1774, when she was already in middle 
 age. In her youth, especially before marriage, 
 Elisabeth was no scribe, in fact, until her 
 husband set himself to improve her education, 
 her writing and spelling must have been of the 
 poorest. Even after his regime both were open 
 to criticism. Her spelling always remained 
 phonetic, but of course spelling was somewhat 
 
 12 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 variable in those days, so that her quaint 
 mistakes are not surprising, whilst her use of 
 the racy Frankfurt vernacular often imparts a 
 piquant flavour to her utterances. She was 
 always proud of being a Frankfurter Burger, 
 and in this independent old city idiosyncrasies 
 of every sort flourished and were regarded by 
 the good citizens with the peculiar pride 
 attached to one's own, whether family, race or 
 habitation. 
 
 Life was by no means dull or stagnant in 
 this busy centre of merchandise. The Frankfurt 
 Fair, twice a year, was always a stirring time, 
 a wonderful and important event, bringing men, 
 beasts, merchandise from all parts of the world, 
 a perfect motley, a raree show for old and young. 
 
 And travelling companies of real actors 
 brought the latest novelties in the dramatic 
 world, not omitting plays — tragedy and comedy 
 — from the French, translated or adapted into 
 German prose or stiff heroic verse. Is there not 
 a peculiar interest in noticing on the bills of the 
 Marionette Theatre of those days such dramas 
 as The Tragedy of the Arch- Wizard Doktor 
 Faustus with his merry servant Hanswurst ? 
 
 Elisabeth grew up into a fine girl with 
 handsome, regular features and beautiful dark 
 
 13 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 eyes. Mother, daughter, and grandson all 
 had those expressive eyes, full of fire which 
 remained undimmed by age. And so with 
 household tasks, small pleasures, gossip and chat 
 in neighbours' houses, and the rest, girlhood 
 passed fleetly until, in Frau Rath's own words : 
 
 "Before we knew where we were, paff, we 
 were grown-up and had husbands ! " 
 
 Girls were married young in those days. At 
 seventeen, pretty, light-hearted Elisabeth Textor 
 became the wife of Johann Kaspar Goethe, a 
 serious, worthy man of thirty-eight, belonging to 
 the same good Burger class as the Textors, 
 though slightly inferior to them in social position. 
 He had acquired the title of Rath or Councillor, 
 from which his bride took her name of Frau 
 Rathin (or Rath) by which she became after- 
 wards so familiarly known. 
 
 Johann Kaspar Goethe was an excellent man, 
 business-like, upright — in short, he possessed 
 most of the virtues of the sterner sort. He had 
 a pedantic turn of mind, was reserved, self- 
 centred, and his real kindness of heart was 
 hidden beneath a dry manner. Not a man to 
 captivate a young girl's fancy, but that was a 
 secondary consideration. He set himself at once 
 to complete his wife's education, notably in 
 
 14 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 writing and spelling, further by procuring for 
 her good lessons on the clavichord and singing. 
 
 Herr Goethe took his bride to his large old- 
 fashioned house in the Hirschgraben, the back 
 part of which was occupied by his mother. 
 We see her, a gentle, kindly figure, in her 
 fragile old age, dressed in white, flitting in 
 the background of the lives of her grand- 
 children. Here in the following year, 28th 
 August 1749, was born Elisabeth Goethe's 
 first child, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, destined 
 to become Germany's greatest poet. 
 
 " Elisabeth, he lives ! " was the announce- 
 ment made by the kind old mother-in-law, 
 when the child first gave signs of life, for 
 he came into the world more dead than 
 alive. At this " my mother-heart awoke," says 
 Ehsabeth Goethe, "and has hved ever since 
 to this very hour in constant enthusiasm. 
 Must I not be grateful to Providence when I 
 think how a life, then hanging on a breath of 
 air, is now firm in a thousand hearts, the only 
 Ufe to me ? " 
 
 A daughter, Cornelia, was born in the follow- 
 ing year, followed by two other children, both 
 of whom died young ; only Wolfgang and 
 Cornelia survived. 
 
 15 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Now began Elisabeth's real life, as a happy- 
 mother. She was young with her children, 
 played with them, adored them, and acted as 
 mediator often enough between them and the 
 undemonstrative father. 
 
 Characteristic is the well-known story of 
 how Goethe as a little boy amused himself 
 one Sunday morning by throwing first his toys 
 and then the household crockery out of the 
 window, enjoying the delightful sound of the 
 smash, and animated to fresh efforts by the 
 neighbours over the way, who took a malicious 
 pleasure in the proceedings. The mother came 
 home from church at the height of the fun, 
 and saw with dismay the store of dishes and 
 plates which she had lately bought, flying to 
 destruction, but she " could not help laugh- 
 ing," which shows exactly what sort of a 
 mother she was. Her darling enjoyed it so 
 much ! 
 
 " Children need love," was her chief maxim 
 of education. And when the severe father in- 
 sisted on the children going to bed in the 
 dark to cure them of being afraid of ghosts 
 and gobhns, the young mother coaxed them 
 with marzipan and cakes to overcome their 
 fears. 
 
 16 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 " I and my Wolfgang have always held to- 
 gether," she would say, "that is because we 
 were both young and not so many years 
 between us as between Wolfgang and his 
 father." 
 
 The father was a terrible pedagogue, a man 
 of maxims and principle ; he loved to teach, 
 but his lessons were times of weariness for 
 the children. Germany's future poet as a 
 little boy spent many winter evenings reading 
 aloud Power's Lives of the Popes, a dry 
 work over which the whole family, even the 
 father, yawned. But tedious as these volumes 
 were, they had to be read to the bitter end, 
 for Herr Goethe held that children must be 
 taught to finish anything once begun. There 
 were rebellious scenes sometimes, " catastrophes " 
 Goethe called them. 
 
 The mother's fairy stories told on winter 
 evenings by the stove were more entertaining 
 than the Lives of the Popes. Wolfgang, 
 on a little stool at his mother's feet, listened 
 spellbound. 
 
 " I never grew weary of relating, any more 
 than he did of listening : Air, Fire, Water, 
 Earth, I pictured as beautiful princesses, in- 
 vesting all that happens in the world of nature 
 
 17 B 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 with a meaning, in which I soon believed myself 
 more firmly than my audience. And when 
 we had imagined roads between the constella- 
 tions, and that we should some day inhabit 
 stars, and what great spirits we should meet 
 there above, then there was no one so eager 
 for the hour of narration with the children 
 as I was, nay, I was curious in the highest 
 degree about the further progress of our little 
 imaginative tales, and an invitation robbing 
 me of such an evening always annoyed me. 
 
 " There I sat, he nearly devouring me with 
 his great black eyes, and when the fate of my 
 heroine did not turn out exactly according to 
 his fancy, I saw how the passionate veins 
 swelled upon his forehead, whilst he choked 
 back his tears. He often interrupted before 
 I had come to the turning point in my 
 story : 
 
 " ' Mother, the princess won't marry the nasty 
 tailor, even if he does slay the giant, will she ? ' 
 If I put off the denouement untU next evening, 
 I might be sure that he had thought it all 
 out meantime, and thus, when my imagina- 
 tion was exhausted, his fancy would help me. 
 And when next evening, guiding the reins of 
 fate according to his desire, I would say : ' You 
 
 18 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 have guessed it, it happened just Uke that,' 
 he would become all fire and flame, and one 
 could hear his Uttle heart beat. ... To his 
 grandmother (who hved in the back part of 
 the house and whose pet he was) he always 
 confided his views as to how the story would 
 go on, and from her I learned how I should 
 continue my text according to his wishes — 
 there was a secret diplomatic correspondence 
 between us. Thus I had the satisfaction of 
 relating my fairy tales to the delight and 
 astonishment of my audience." 
 
 After the death of the grandmother (1754) 
 Herr Goethe carried out a long-cherished 
 wish and rebuilt his house, enlarging and im- 
 proving it until it took on its present form 
 in the Hirschgraben {the Goethe-Haus). 
 
 There were constant wars and rumours of 
 wars in those days ; at this particular time it 
 was the Seven Years' War which made a 
 ground-bassto life. No sooner was the house 
 rebuilt to the satisfaction of its owner, than 
 the French took Frankfurt and remained in 
 occupation for some time (1759-62). 
 
 The good old custom of quartering soldiers 
 in private houses was apt to fall heavily upon 
 citizens. The Goethe household received a 
 
 19 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 French officer, Count Thoranc, and some of 
 his suite. Things might have been worse, for 
 Count Thoranc was an exceptionally refined, 
 kind-hearted man, who tried to inconvenience 
 his unwilling host as little as possible. He 
 was very kind to the children, sending them 
 dainties from his own table, and Wolfgang, 
 the handsome, intelligent boy, was an especial 
 favourite. Wolfgang grew fond of this kind 
 friend, whose presence brought life and move- 
 ment to the quiet house; artists and men of 
 the world visited Count Thoranc, and the boy 
 felt instinctively drawn to this side of life, so 
 diffisrent from prosaic bourgeois circles. Inter- 
 course with this polished Frenchman was really 
 a boon to Wolfgang. 
 
 As for Frau Rath, with her usual common- 
 sense, she promptly took French lessons by 
 way of facilitating intercourse with her guests, 
 and she soon discovered many good points in 
 the "enemy." 
 
 Herr Rath Goethe, however, was not capable 
 of such wide sympathies. He scorned to unbend 
 to \he hereditary foe, remained persistently un- 
 gracious and hostile, and on one memorable 
 occasion, indeed, ran imminent danger of arrest 
 for wishing his guest to the Devil. 
 
 20 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 Frau Rath fortunately was popular among 
 the members of the Count's suite ; she begged 
 them to delay carrying out the order as long 
 as possible. The Count's interpreter, too, was 
 on her side and interceded, so that her offend- 
 ing husband was pardoned. 
 
 The young wife had other occasions for 
 practising her womanly role of peacemaker ; 
 billeting was not the only cause of friction. 
 Families were divided against themselves ; 
 friends suffered estrangement. Notably Herr 
 Rath Goethe, enthusiastic for Frederic the 
 Great, and his father-in-law Textor, on the 
 side of the Emperor, were given to arguments, 
 quarrels, almost it came to blows. All Frau 
 Rath's tact and good temper were needed to 
 keep the peace between husband and father. 
 
 Herr Goethe, narrow, obstinate, irritable, 
 certainly appears somewhat of a household 
 tyrant in spite of his excellent qualities. He 
 loved his children, yet could not win their 
 affection. His wife was young with them. " 1 
 and my Wolfgang were young together, we 
 have always held together." 
 
 Wolfgang was his mother's favourite. Cornelia 
 was a thoughtful, quiet child, whose shyness made 
 a barrier between herself and her parents ; her 
 
 21 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 best qualities of heart and mind remained un- 
 expressed. But, from childhood, she always 
 adored her clever, handsome brother, showered 
 all her affection upon him, and Wolfgang loved 
 and understood his too often misunderstood 
 sister. She was his confidante, the sharer of his 
 secrets and aspirations, and it was often Cornelia 
 who kept him to his task of vpriting when youth- 
 ful resolution flagged. (This was the case with 
 his early drama Grotz von Berlichingen.) 
 
 Poor Cornelia ! After Wolfgang left home 
 for the University (1765) the whole brunt of 
 her father's pedagogic leanings fell upon her. 
 Unfortunately for herself, she was a promising 
 pupil, and Herr Rath enjoyed superintending 
 her education. She had inherited her mother's 
 musical talent, and behold, the poor girl kept 
 several hours a day practising at the clavichord I 
 Cornelia bitterly resented these hours of drudgery, 
 and never forgave her father for "spoiling her 
 youth." Outwardly obedient, her girlish soul 
 was full of rebellion and hatred. She grew 
 taciturn and unloving, occasionally there were 
 scenes of bitterness. 
 
 With peculiar obtuseness her father used to 
 make her indite formal letters to her absent 
 brother, in which his own moral maxims seemed 
 
 22 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 to come from her pen. " I often smile," brother 
 Wolfgang maliciously wrote in a family letter, 
 "to see how a good simple girl utters thoughts 
 which can only come from a serious and 
 experienced man." 
 
 Thus a well-meaning father tormented and 
 estranged two noble young hearts. Their 
 attitude is painfully characterised by a passage 
 in one of the son's letters : 
 
 " Shall I be like him when I am old ? Shall 
 I no longer love what is beautiful and good? 
 Strangely enough, we imagine that the older 
 we grow, the more we are free from what is 
 wordly and petty. But one grows more and 
 more worldly and petty." 
 
 It was sad, too, that Comeha was too reserved 
 to win more of her mother's affection; their 
 natures were not really sympathetic. 
 
 After three years at the University of Leipzig, 
 Wolfgang returned home in 1768 to be nursed 
 by his mother through a serious illness, remain- 
 ing at home until the spring of 1770. 
 
 During this time, both mother and son came 
 under the influence of a family friend, Fraulein 
 von Klettenberg. She was the centre of a 
 religious sect (inclined to mysticism and quietism), 
 which included some of the most important 
 
 23 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 men and women of the city. Fraulein von 
 Klettenberg was a remarkable woman in her 
 way, a deeply religious nature, refined and 
 gentle. Frau Goethe was greatly attached to 
 her, and consulted her on all important occasions. 
 (Later, when Goethe enshrined her friend's 
 memory in Confessions of a Beautiful Soul, 
 she wrote to thank him.) In the languor of con- 
 valescence Wolfgang, too, came under her influ- 
 ence, and with the usual impulsive acquisitiveness 
 of his genius threw himself into the problems 
 of mysticism, studying all kinds of books on 
 this and kindred subjects, including alchemy 
 and chemistry. 
 
 HerrRath observed mistrustfully these interests 
 of his son, who somehow never developed into 
 the ideal son he dreamed of — Wolfgang worked 
 industriously enough, but Herr Rath preferred 
 law to poetry and dabblings in natural science. 
 The germ of Faust was growing in secret, 
 unsuspected and invisible — whilst the father 
 dreamed of a decorous lawyer to uphold the 
 name of Goethe, and wondered that the " curious 
 individual," the singuldre Mensch, his son, was 
 not more dazzled by the prospect. 
 
 But the mother never doubted, she had always 
 known that her Wolfgang was destined to great 
 things. 
 
 24 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 To this period belongs the well-known story 
 of Goethe skating on the river one bitter winter 
 when the Main was frozen over, a scene indelibly 
 printed on the mother's memory. She loved to 
 describe how she drove out to watch the skaters, 
 wrapped up in her warm fur-lined coat of red 
 velvet with a long train, and how Wolfgang 
 came up to her, his cheeks glowing and the 
 powder blown from his brown locks. Laughingly 
 he begged for the coat : 
 
 " ' Mother, you are not cold in the carriage, 
 lend me your cloak ! ' 
 
 " ' You surely don't want to wear it ? ' 
 
 " ' Of course I do.' 
 
 " So I take off my fine warm coat, he puts it 
 on, and, throwing the train over his arm, he 
 skates over the ice — a very child of the Gods. 
 Bettina, if you had only seem him ! There never 
 was anything more splendid. I clap my hands 
 for joy ! To the end of my life I shall still see 
 him as he skated in and out through the arches 
 of the bridge, the wind blowing the train out 
 behind him." 
 
 During the next five years Wolfgang came 
 and went, spending, on the whole, a good deal 
 of time at home. After passing his examina- 
 tions in law, following a period of study in 
 Strasburg, there was another joyous return home. 
 
 25 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 More halcyon days for the happy mother, when 
 her son, in all the pride of early manhood, 
 handsome as a young god, the favourite of men 
 and women alike, and with that faint aura of 
 genius glowing brighter, more unmistakable, day 
 by day, lived four wonderful years at home ! 
 
 And now (1773) Gbtz von Berlichingen was 
 making a sensation, and Werfher's Leiden (1774) 
 took Europe by storm. Young Goethe was 
 famous, recognised by his literary contem- 
 poraries, his acquaintance sought by high and 
 low. Aristocratic circles also began to interest 
 themselves in the handsome young poet, the 
 scion of a good burger family, who was such a 
 dashing boon companion, ready to enjoy life in 
 every phase and to flavour the cup with wit and 
 intellect. 
 
 Men of note came to the house in the Hirsch- 
 graben. Frau Rath was at the zenith of her 
 motherhood. Both parents loved to entertain 
 their son's friends royally, and Frau Rath was 
 extremely popular, not only for her excellent 
 dinners — her son's friends loved her handsome, 
 sunny presence, her wit, her kind heart. Was 
 ever a finer picture of mother and son in the 
 comfortable prosperous old home? 
 
 The familiar nickname "Frau Aja" is said to 
 
 26 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 date from this time. There is an old legend of 
 the Haimonskinder and their mother Frau Aja, 
 sister of Charlemagne and wife of Count Haimon, 
 one of whose sons in a quarrel killed the son of 
 Charlemagne and was outlawed with his brothers. 
 After many wanderings the longing to see their 
 mother grew strong within them, they ventured 
 home in disguise, and Frau Aja, the loving 
 mother, refreshed her children with wine and 
 food. 
 
 One day when Goethe and his friends, in 
 full Sturm und Drang, were inveighing against 
 kingdoms, governments, injustice, and tyranny, 
 their talk grew so revolutionary and bloodthirsty 
 that the mother became uneasy. To make a 
 diversion she brought out her best red wine, and 
 placed it before the young men, saying : " This 
 is the true tyrants' blood. Drink this as much 
 as you like, but don't bring murderous ideas into 
 my house." 
 
 From that day as " Frau Aja " she was lovingly 
 known among the band of gay young spirits, and 
 " Frau Aja " she remains to this day. 
 
 Presently came the turning point in Goethe's 
 life ; the call to Weimar, in the autumn of 1775, 
 when the young Duke of Weimar, Goethe's 
 friend, his companion in amusements and follies, 
 
 27 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 insisted on appointing him minister at his Court, 
 Not to Herr Rath's satisfaction ; he cared naught 
 for services with princes, had a sturdy bourgeois 
 distrust of Court favour. In vain he warned. 
 Even the unworldly Fraulein von Klettenberg 
 advised Wolfgang to take the path opening 
 before him. The die was cast, and after long 
 delays and uncertainties, Goethe turned back 
 from a journey begun to Italy, stepped into the 
 chaise sent for him by the Duke, and was borne 
 off to Weimar. 
 
 Henceforward Frau Aja only saw her darling 
 at intervals. As with all devoted mothers whose 
 children go into the world, so with her — her life 
 returned upon itself; she had to take up the 
 threads of existence and weave them, no longer 
 around the life of another but into a pattern for 
 herself 
 
 Cornelia had left home two years before, and her 
 early death prevented any rapprochement which 
 years and experience sometimes bring about 
 between parents and misunderstood children. 
 Cornelia never found happiness, never found 
 her right corner in the world, Her story must 
 be typical of many women who, like her, were 
 out of place in those days of women's subjection 
 and the domestic ideal ; she was an anachronism. 
 At a later date she might have found her 
 
 28 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 sphere. Goethe, who understood her better than 
 any one, says that he never could picture her 
 as a housewife, but rather in some position of 
 authority, "an abbess or a foundress of some 
 community of noble souls." Evidently the 
 problem of this sister led him to ponder on the 
 contradictions, limitations, sufferings in woman's 
 nature and destiny. One imagines that Cornelia 
 was in his mind when he wrote of Iphigenia 
 and her brother, and put into a woman's mouth 
 the sorrowful lines : 
 
 " Ich rechte mit den Gottern nicht ; allein 
 Der Frauen Zustand ist beklagenswerth. 
 Zu Haus' mid in dem Kriege herrscht der Mann. 
 Und in der Fremde weiss er sich zu helfen. 
 Ihn freuet der Besitz ; ihn kront der Sieg ! 
 Ein ehrenvoUer Tod ist ihm bereitet. 
 Wie eng- gebunden ist des Weibes Gltick ! 
 Schon einem rauhen Gatten zu gehorchen, 
 Ist Pflicht und Trost ; wie elend, wenn sie gar 
 Ein feindlich Schicksal in die Feme treibt ! " ^ 
 
 {Iphigenia avf Tawis.) 
 
 ^ " \ seek no quarrel with the gods, and yet 
 A woman's life is all too pitiful. 
 Man rules in war, at home he rules in peace. 
 Nor is he desolate on a foreign shore. 
 Possession makes him glad and victory crowns. 
 And even Death brings honour in its train. 
 What narrow bounds encompass woman's lot ! 
 Ev'n to obey a husband's rough behests 
 Is joy and duty. Wretched thrice is she 
 Whom hostile Fate drives far from friend and home." 
 
 29 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 She had grown up rather dehcate in health, 
 a plain girl longing passionately for beauty, 
 but unable to "make the best of herself." 
 
 In 1773 a suitor appeared and was accepted. 
 In November of that year she became the wife 
 of Georg Schloesser, a lawyer, a friend of her 
 brother's, who pronounced him "a man of ex- 
 cellent intentions but with a dry manner, which 
 might have repelled had he not possessed great 
 literary culture." One feels that Schloesser 
 fulfilled the ideals of Herr Rath, his father- 
 in-law. 
 
 Although he admired Cornelia, justifying his 
 love for her as " founded in virtue and reason," 
 the marriage was not a happy one. Cornelia 
 never became the capable, bustling housewife 
 who ought to have adorned Schloesser's home. 
 And whilst a bright intellectual circle would 
 have suited her, she was transplanted to a 
 country district in the Black Forest — no 
 neighbours within four miles. 
 
 She wrote gloomily of her lonely hours, when 
 her husband was away at his professional duties, 
 of her iU-health, of the dreadful season of winter, 
 which always tried her : " Here the beauties of 
 nature are our one delight, and when nature 
 sleeps everything else sleeps." 
 
 30 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 With only a small income, with the advent 
 of children and Cornelia's long illnesses (she was 
 in bed for two years after the birth of her first 
 child), it must have been a weary struggle to 
 make both ends meet. The worthy Schloesser 
 complained that his wife was not strong, 
 
 "Every wind, every drop of rain she feels, 
 even when indoors ; she is afraid of cellar and 
 kitchen." Poor Cornelia, conscious of her own 
 deficiences, pined away, and after four years 
 of married life she died, 1777, leaving two 
 girl children, one a baby. 
 
 Goethe felt his sister's loss deeply. His 
 diary chronicles : 
 
 "June 16, 1777. Letter about my sister's 
 death. Dark, broken day." 
 
 And he wrote to his mother of "the strong 
 root that held me to earth being torn up, so 
 that its branches must wither." 
 
 For Frau Aja began the trying period of 
 her husband's iUness, which soon assumed a 
 serious aspect and for several years absorbed all 
 her energies. 
 
 In the winter of 1776, Herr Rath was ill 
 and grew so nervous that the shutting of a 
 door startled him. 
 
 81 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 She says in a letter to Lavater : 
 
 " I had to be the messenger bearing the news 
 of his daughter's death ; he had loved her above 
 all (poor Cornelia!). Truly the years are coming, 
 of which it is said : I have no pleasure in them." 
 
 In 1780 he had several attacks of paralysis, 
 and sank into a helpless state in which he could 
 not feed himself and could only speak Avith 
 difficulty. From this he never recovered. 
 
 " Poor Herr Rath has gradually grown weaker 
 during the last year; especially in his mental 
 faculties, memory, reflective power, all gone. 
 He reaUy only vegetates like a plant. Providence 
 sees fit to lead me by all sorts of ways, for I 
 need not tell such a feeling soul as you how 
 much I suffer. Especially as I have no com- 
 pensation through my children — aU and every- 
 thing is far, far away from poor Frau Aja." 
 
 Frau Aja nursed him devotedly to the end 
 and on his death could only write : 
 
 " Well for him ! May God preserve any one 
 from such a life as his has been during the last 
 two years ! " 
 
 Evidently she had needed all her philosophy 
 during the time, that woman's philosophy of 
 little things which was her strength. 
 
 " I always do the most unpleasant things first, 
 32 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 holding with friend Wieland that, if you must 
 swallow the Devil, don't look at him long first 
 . . . and as soon as things are straight again 
 I defy any one to surpass me in good temper." ^ 
 
 " ] rejoice in life because the lamp still glows 
 — look for no thorns, treasure up small pleasures. 
 If the doors are low I stoop — if I can move the 
 stone out of the way, I move it — if it is too 
 heavy, I go round it. Thus I find each day 
 something that pleases me — and the corner-stone 
 is : I have faith in God, which makes my heart 
 joyful and my face bright." 
 
 And a little remedy for depression : " I shake 
 myself once or twice, sit down to my piano, and 
 the ideas become couleur de rose again." 
 
 The Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar, 
 mother of Goethe's reigning Duke, came to 
 visit Frau Aja in 1778, and the two mothers 
 became firm friends, as their correspondence 
 shows. The Duchess sometimes writes to her 
 as "Dear Mother," and frequently invites her 
 to visit Weimar. But at first it was impossible 
 on account of the ailing husband, and later the 
 difficulties of travelling made the journey too 
 formidable for an elderly lady. " If I could fly 
 through the air on Faust's cloak ! yes, but ..." 
 
 1 Letter of May 1801. 
 
 33 C 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 And so Weimar remained an unknown place of 
 delight. 
 
 Often the longing for her son grew painfully 
 strong, but Frau Aja only lets a word escape 
 her now and then. So many people came to 
 see her, but " Sohn Wolf kommt nieht," she says 
 pathetically. 
 
 Wieland made Frau Aja's acquaintance at 
 first through her son, but soon learnt to love 
 and esteem her for her own sake. " Goethe," 
 he wrote, "in spite of his idiosyncrasies, is 
 one of the best, noblest and most splendid 
 beings on God's earth. And who would not 
 wish to know the father and mother of such 
 a man?" 
 
 After corresponding with her for some time, 
 sending her his last works and begging for her 
 unconventional criticisms, he found Frau Rath's 
 letters so delightful that he decided : " I must 
 see Goethe's mother, nothing else will do," and 
 in December (1777) Wieland, Kranz, and Merck 
 all came on a visit to the hospitable house in 
 the Hirschgrabe, departing after a week of Frau 
 Aja's good cheer and company in a state of 
 enthusiasm for their hostess. Kranz wrote that 
 he wanted to proclaim it abroad : " Hear me, 
 every one ! I am writing to Frau Rath Goethe." 
 
 84 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 In such esteem was the poet's mother held by 
 these men. 
 
 Frau Aja equally enjoyed their visit. (" I 
 always loved to have great men and women 
 about me," she said.) 
 
 " We have learnt to know friend Wieland this 
 winter. Who can see him and not love him ? 
 I will not say what he deserves. He and Merck 
 stayed a week with us, and, oh ! what a dehghtful 
 time it was. You have no idea, for you always 
 have good folk about you, but as for us ... ! 
 I am always afraid of growing rusty." 
 
 And to Lavater in 1779 in the same strain : 
 
 " What suits me least in this workaday world 
 is that people can be so little to each other. 
 God's plans ordain that one should be in the 
 East, the other in the West, to be the salt of 
 the world and preserve it from going putrid." 
 
 She greatly admired Schiller and was delighted 
 at his friendship with her son, the works of both 
 will be immortal, she says, and especially com- 
 mends both poets for never replying to stupid 
 criticisms of their works. 
 
 Many visitors came to enjoy Frau Rath's 
 hospitality, and her fame was noised abroad. 
 Princes and princesses as well as poets felt at 
 home in her genial presence. She writes to her 
 
 35 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 son that she still served her good red wine, the 
 "tyrants' blood," to her guests, that Frau Aja 
 still " ajated " {ajatete), but with moderation. 
 
 Letters from Weimar were events. How 
 much more the occasional visits of her idol (such 
 as those in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797), when mother 
 and son renewed their familiar affectionate ways, 
 and Goethe realised always anew what a wonder- 
 fully fresh and vital nature was hers and wished 
 they could live together always ! 
 
 And now in the autumn of her life, Frau Aja, 
 free but lonely, ordered the days and gathered 
 in them what joys she might. She received or 
 paid visits in the afternoon, and dressed for the 
 theatre, where from her box her well-known face 
 beamed upon the performers. With pardonable 
 vanity, as the mother of the great dramatic poet, 
 she felt that she had a certain right to criticise, 
 and sometimes conveyed her opinions to the 
 actors in audible conversation. Her applause, 
 when she was pleased, was loud and hearty. 
 Bettina, in fact, declares that her first acquaint- 
 ance with Frau Aja dated from the theatre, 
 when she, Bettina, remarked audibly that " Frau 
 Rath might well clap, when she had such fine 
 arms to show," at which Frau Rath called her 
 a "pert girl," but without displeasure. 
 
 36 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 A letter to the theatre-manager Grossmann 
 shows her sound judgment : 
 
 " The favourable reception of Hamlet (by the 
 Frankfurters) almost made me respect our public 
 . . . but it meant nothing, absolutely nothing. 
 With a few exceptions they reason like horses. 
 Only a few days ago I met a lady of the great 
 world — so called — who thought Hamlet was only 
 a farce. Oh ! goodness ! goodness I Hamlet a 
 farce ! ! I almost fainted on the spot. Some one 
 else remarked, * the devil take him, if he could 
 not write such a stupid thing himself,' this was a 
 stout, lusty wine merchant. There is such a cry 
 just now about the enhghtened times in this our 
 century, etc., yet (excepting with a few, the real 
 salt of the earth), these gentlemen and ladies 
 seem so inane, so empty, vapid, everything is 
 pitiful, so poor, so out of place, so stunted, that 
 they are unable to digest a piece of meat. Pap, 
 frozen stuff, bonbons, such are their food. Indeed, 
 they ruin their digestions more and more." 
 
 The sun of her life was in Weimar, and nothing 
 delighted her so much as letters describing the 
 doings of her adored one. Her gratitude to 
 any one who would take the trouble to send 
 her news of her Wolfgang is pathetic. 
 
 Thusnelda von Gockel, the witty maid-of- 
 37 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 honour, was one of Frau Rath's best corre- 
 spondents. She described, for instance, the first 
 performance of Iphigenie auf Tauris on Easter 
 Tuesday, 1779, in which Goethe himself played 
 Orestes, and Prince Constantine Pylades, an 
 artistic festival recalling the courts of renaissance 
 princes : 
 
 "Doctor Goethe played his Orestes splendidly. 
 His costume, like that of Pylades, was Greek, 
 and never in my life have I seen him look so 
 handsome. The whole drama, in fact, was 
 acted so weU that King and Queen would have 
 liked to say, 'Dear lion, roar again.'" 
 
 Frau Rath is promised a copy of the drama 
 as soon as possible. In return for Thusnelda's 
 many entertaining letters, Frau Rath sent her 
 a silhouette of herself in a locket with some 
 rhyming verse. (This was at Christmas 1781.) 
 The verses expressed Frau Aja's trust in her 
 own lucky star, therefore the lines are charac- 
 teristic, if not poetical. 
 
 " Doch ist Frau Aja auserkorn, 
 In einem guten Zeichen geborn ; 
 Kennt brave Leut, dess ist sie froh 
 Und singt in dulcijubilo."^ 
 
 ^ " Frau Aja chosen by a sign 
 
 Was born beneath a star benign ; 
 Right glad is she good folk to know 
 And sings in dulci jubilo." 
 
 88 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 Fraulein Thusnelda is greatly delighted with 
 the portrait of the "dearest, best heart's mother," 
 and the " unspeakably delightful letter." 
 
 On the death of the Emperor, Joseph II., in 
 1780, Frankfurt was plunged into mourning. 
 On the coronation of his successor in the 
 following year the town was crowded : 
 
 " The Quartierherren have not yet visited me 
 — so I dare not go outside the door — and sit in 
 the BastiUe, as it were, during this splendid 
 weather, for if they found me absent they would 
 perhaps occupy the whole house (the gentlemen 
 are cursedly prompt in taking possession), and 
 once the rooms are marked, I shouldn't advise 
 any one else to make use of them." (Letter 
 to her son, 1781.) 
 
 Ultimately the two little girl princesses of 
 Mecklenburg Strelitz (one of whom was the 
 future Queen Luise), their brother Prince George, 
 and the governess were quartered in the Goethe 
 house, where they became firm friends with 
 Frau Aja. 
 
 " In my house instead of stiff Court etiquette, 
 they had perfect freedom, they danced, sang, 
 and jumped the whole day long — every day at 
 noon they came to my little table armed with 
 three forks — tried everything — it tasted delicious. 
 After dinner the present queen played the 
 
 39 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 pianoforte, and the Prince and I waltzed. Then 
 
 I had to tell them about former coronations, 
 
 also fairy tales, etc. All this made such an 
 
 impression on their young minds, that they 
 
 never forgot it, no matter in what other 
 
 splendid doings." Queen Luise, in fact, never 
 
 forgot Frau Rath, and visited her in after 
 
 years when she came to Frankfurt, on one 
 
 memorable occasion presenting her with a gold 
 
 necklace (19th June 1803). "Dear God, what 
 
 am impression that makes on folk ! " said the 
 
 old lady referring to the visit, "it made a 
 
 halo round my head, which became me very 
 
 well." 
 
 In the winter of 1792 war again broke in upon 
 
 the peaceful routine of Ufe, war with the old 
 
 enemy, France. 
 
 Again Frau Rath had the discomfort of having 
 soldiers quartered upon her, an officer and two 
 common soldiers, Hessians. "They are good 
 folk," she wrote to her son, "but (between our- 
 selves) very poor — I have to feed them," and 
 with her usual philosophy, " The catering is 
 very troublesome, but as every one has to do 
 it, there is nothing more to be said." 
 
 In spite of discomfort and expense, Frau Aja 
 took a certain pleasure in feeding up these poor 
 
 40 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 fellows, who were half starved on their meagre 
 ration of bread, and eagerly devoured her good 
 food. She relates with satisfaction how she gave 
 them a joint of roast pork, and what a " kingly 
 pleasure " it was to see them eat it. In addition 
 one of the officers quartered with her was ill of 
 a gun-shot wound, and a surgeon had to be 
 taken in as well as other attendants. Her 
 provision of wood fell low — a serious matter, 
 as good fires had to be kept up for the sick 
 man — " summa sumtnarum (one of her favourite 
 expressions) it is a heavy burden." 
 
 For two winters Frau Rath had to put up 
 with the billeting, her house was full excepting 
 one room for herself, which had to do duty 
 both as bed and sitting-room, and she finds 
 the constant tobacco smoke rather a trial. 
 
 " If only these Menschen-kinder would not 
 smoke tobacco all day long ! " she sighs. " My 
 room might be a guard room ! " 
 
 To avoid further billeting and the worry of a 
 too large house, Frau Aja was at last persuaded 
 by her son to remove to a smaller dwelhng. 
 And with her usual good fortune she found 
 the exact one which fulfilled all her ideals. 
 These she had confided at some length in a 
 letter, and lo ! incredibly she discovered almost 
 
 41 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 the exact reahsation of the conditions and 
 advantages she had dreamed of. 
 
 It was a house called the Goldener Brunnen in 
 the Rossmarkt, overlooking the Zeil, Frankfurt's 
 principal street. "No such view, no such 
 position in the whole town — a nice weU-hghted 
 kitchen, a large dining-room, a good wood- 
 place, summa summamm, exactly my ideal ! " 
 And to this she came, leaving the old house 
 with its rooms full of memories, its possibilities 
 of billeting, selling off all superfluous furniture, 
 and delighted to find two Prussian soldiers who 
 carried her possessions carefully to the new 
 house. 
 
 Here Frau Rath lived peacefully her remain- 
 ing years, watching the affairs of the town jfrom 
 her window, enjoying the splendid sunshine and 
 the view of the Katherine-thurm. The view 
 becomes of increasing importance, for Frau Aja 
 is getting older and finds going up and down 
 stairs more of a trial than it used to be. 
 
 She writes to her son that she is so busy 
 and the view so charming, she has no time 
 for letters. 
 
 " If you were not Wolfgang you would have 
 had to wait." 
 
 In July 1796 more wars and alarms. This 
 42 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 time the French bombarded the town. On 
 12th July poor Frau Aja was awakened at 
 2 A.M. by the guns, had her valuables carried 
 into a safe in the cellar, and although in previous 
 times she had " never let one grey hair grow 
 on account of the war," this time the horrors 
 came so near, she heard of so many friends 
 who were wounded and killed — "a foot or a 
 hand torn off" — that at last even brave Frau 
 Rath resolved to go, but not far, " only just to 
 escape the bombardment." Some friends drove 
 her to Offenbach. 
 
 "I am not one of the nervous souls, but 
 this terrible night, which I spent peacefully 
 with Mamma La Roche, might have cost me 
 either my hfe or my health in Frankfurt." 
 A few days later she returned to her home, 
 thankful to find that nothing had been plundered, 
 and that fires which had broken out had been 
 put out by the French, who, she ungrudgingly 
 admits, now seemed not enemies but " saviours 
 and protectors of our property and our homes." 
 
 And presently she is settled again, reading 
 Voltaire's History of the World, and playing 
 her piano " until I might be heard at head- 
 quarters, and thus good, and less good, days 
 pass over." 
 
 43 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Such was Frau Aja in her sixty-seventh year. 
 
 For home distractions Frau Aja had her 
 clavier playing, reading, making Brahant lace, 
 and chess, her four hohby horses — she calls these, 
 and does not know which she loves most, and 
 often cannot make up her mind which particular 
 hobby horse she will " let galop." 
 
 On Saturday afternoons she had a krdnzchen 
 or circle of young girls, who came to eat Frau 
 Rath's good cakes and enjoy her society. She 
 would read to them, play games, give them 
 the latest gossip from Weimar with extracts 
 from her son's letters, or show them the latest 
 presents she had received from the Duchess 
 Amalia, The greatest joy was when the old 
 lady could be persuaded to tell them a story 
 — not merely a story taken from some poem 
 or drama, but one of "her very own." 
 
 " At first," says one of these privileged 
 maidens, "she was rather discursive, possibly 
 the number of listeners made her a little nervous, 
 but before long all the dramatis personce in 
 their fantastic habiliments, were dancing merrily 
 in their own odd way upon the stage of her 
 memory." 
 
 Clemens Brentano, the romantic writer, brother 
 of Bettina, made Frau Aja's acquaintance as a 
 
 44 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 boy. The dreaming desultory lad, misunder- 
 stood by his father, the dry man of business, 
 was in the position of the round peg which is 
 being forced into the square hole. He had 
 made an old coffee barrel into a knightly castle 
 called Baduz, to the amusement of the family, 
 but Frau Aja comforted him. " Take no notice 
 of them — Baduz is your own, although it is on 
 no map. No one can take it from you . . . 
 your kingdom is in the clouds and not on 
 this earth, and whenever it touches earth, tears 
 fall like rain. May you have a beautiful 
 rainbow ! " 
 
 As practical help Frau Aja persuaded the 
 father to send him to Bonn University. Clemens 
 married, first, the poetess Sophie Mereau, but 
 after her death eloped with a Fraulein Busmann 
 in the summer of 1807 — an unhappy affair, 
 which caused a scandal in Frankfurt. But the 
 benevolent Frau Rath ascribes " all these mad 
 doings to the extraordinary heat ; sixty persons 
 went out of their minds in Rome, of course it is 
 not so bad with us, but then the difference 
 between Rome and Frankfurt ! " 
 
 Later Clemens remembered Frau Aja. In 
 1838 he wrote sadly : 
 
 " The children of this age turn their backs on 
 45 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 me, so does imagination, and Frau Rath, God 
 bless her, can no longer comfort me, as she did 
 long ago." 
 
 How wise and loving is her attitude towards 
 her son's relations with Christiane Vulpius. 
 Goethe had told his mother of the liaison when 
 he visited her in 1792, and she wrote affectionate, 
 motherly letters to the unknown before the 
 marriage, and when in 1806 the union was 
 legalised, she wrote to the couple : — 
 
 " 21th October IZm. 
 
 " I Avish you all happiness, blessings and 
 prosperity in your new condition of life. You 
 have acted after the wish of my heart. God 
 preserve you both ! You have my blessing in 
 fullest measure." 
 
 To Christiane Vulpius. 
 
 " September 1800. 
 
 " Your good letter came at the right time, for 
 the men of Freedom (the French) were threaten- 
 ing to take our money again, which by no means 
 put us in good humour — scarcely four weeks ago 
 they extorted 300,000 guldens from our town. 
 Just then came good news of you all, and I was 
 glad and thought — money here, money there, if 
 only my dear ones in Weimar keep well and 
 
 46 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 happy, I can sleep in peace. And so I did, even 
 in all that hullabaloo." 
 
 She was a generous grandmother, fond of 
 sending presents and letters, but when Goethe 
 thought of giving his boy a toy guillotine, a 
 gruesome product of that period, she wrote 
 (23rd December 1793) that she will do anything 
 to please him, "but to buy such an infamous 
 murder machine, at no price will I do it. The 
 inventors should away to the pillory, if I were in 
 authority and the toy should be pubhcly burnt 
 by the hangman. What ! to allow children to 
 play with such a dreadful thing — to put murder 
 and shedding of blood into their hands for a 
 pastime — no, that will never do ! " 
 
 Frau von Stein, the friend of Goethe's youth, 
 was on good terms with Frau Aja, visiting her 
 in 1789, and her son Fritz as a lad of thirteen 
 had a royal time in the old house, when, Goethe 
 said, "he really learnt what freedom was, and 
 my mother taught him the philosophy of the 
 merry life." 
 
 To Fritz von Stein. 
 
 " 9th September 1784. 
 
 " I am particularly glad that you already know 
 good from evil. So far, good. Bravo, dear 
 son! That is the only way to become noble, 
 
 47 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 great and useful to mankind : a man who does 
 not know his faults or does not wish to know 
 them will end by becoming unbearable, vain and 
 full of pretensions, intolerant — no one will put 
 up with him, even if he be the greatest genius. 
 I know striking examples of this. But we must 
 also know the good that is in us, that is just as 
 necessary, just as useful. A man who does not 
 know his worth — or his strength, and has no 
 belief in himself — is just a simpleton, who can- 
 not walk properly but goes for ever in leading 
 strings and remains a child — for ever and ever." 
 
 The relation between mother and son was 
 always loving. Goethe's illnesses were carefully 
 kept from her until they were over lest she 
 should be made anxious. She on her side made 
 light of her disappointment when a proposed 
 visit fell through, or when he refused the offer 
 of a post in Frankfurt. The two understood 
 each other. Both had an antipathy to news of 
 illness, misfortune, or death, to anything which 
 disturbed the harmony of existence. They pre- 
 ferred to look on the bright side of things. 
 
 Frau Aja writes to her son: — 
 
 "31«< December 1802. 
 
 " I never could bear to be consoled. Very few 
 people are able to put themselves in the place 
 
 48 
 
Elisabeth Goethe 
 
 of the sorrowful, and so they make unpleasant 
 comforters. Expect no consolation from me — 
 but thanksgiving to God who has kept you well." 
 
 The affectionate intercourse with Bettina von 
 Arnim was a pleasant thing in Frau Aja's very 
 last years (1806-8). "A woman of my age and 
 an ardent young girl who is content to stay by 
 me, asks nothing better, this is worthy of thanks. 
 I have wiitten this to Weimar .... he (Goethe) 
 says it is a comfort to him to know you are with 
 me." But her healthy common-sense restrains 
 Bettina's exaggerated raptures about Goethe. 
 
 " Girl, you are quite mad. What are you 
 thinking of? Who, pray, is your sweetheart 
 who is to think of you by moonlight ? Do you 
 suppose he has nothing better to do? I tell 
 you again — everything must be done in order, 
 and write decent letters, with something to read 
 in them. Stupid nonsense writing to Weimar ; 
 write what happens to you, one thing after 
 another in its proper order. First who is there 
 and how you like every one, and what they all 
 wore, and if the sun is shining or if it rains — 
 this is important too." 
 
 She outlived the good Duchess Amalia, who 
 died in the spring of 1807. 
 
 In the following year Frau Aja herself died 
 49 D 
 
Some German Women and their' Salons 
 
 (13th September 1808). She had written in 
 the previous winter that "the grandmother is 
 quite allegro this winter, but keeps herself 
 wrapped up in cotton-wool as in a bandbox, 
 because of the north wind, her deadly enemy. 
 She has not been to the play all this winter, 
 but has visited her good friends all the more, 
 wrapped, however, from head to foot in fur." 
 She would not allow herself to murmur against 
 the evils of old age. 
 
 " Shame on you, old Ratin ! You have had 
 enough good days in the world, and Wolfgang 
 as well, now, when the bad ones come, you 
 must put up with them and not puU a cross 
 face ! Do you always want to walk on roses 
 when you are over the limit — over seventy 
 
 Her last letter dates from July of the follow- 
 ing summer — a short note to her daughter- 
 in-law, which breaks off suddenly, complaining 
 of the heat. 
 
 With her usual cheerful philosophy Frau 
 Aja met Death, the inevitable. When some 
 friends, not knowing of her illness, sent her 
 an invitation to dinner, she replied with a flash 
 of her old spirit that Frau Rath could not 
 come, she was busy dying. 
 
 50 
 
THE JEWISH SALONS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
THE JEWISH SALONS 
 
 The most remarkable fact about the romantic 
 salons in Berlin is that they were created by 
 Jewesses, a fact which can only be understood 
 by considering the position of their race at 
 that time. 
 
 The attitude of Germans towards Jews was 
 still incredibly hostile and unjust. Even the 
 law made a distinction between Jews and 
 Christians. Under one edict (confirmed as 
 late as 1802) they were classed with thieves 
 and murderers ; they were restricted to their 
 own quarters of the great cities, exposed to 
 rough treatment if they ventured beyond 
 their limits. Thus the philosopher, Moses 
 Mendelssohn (grandfather of the musician), 
 and his children were actually pelted with 
 stones one day when walking outside the 
 Jewish quarters. 
 
 The Jews, on their side, naturally hated their 
 persecutors. Shut in upon themselves, they 
 
 53 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 became more and more narrow, intolerant, 
 fanatic. To such a point was this carried that 
 a Jewish boy was solemnly excommunicated 
 because he had carried a German book for a 
 Christian from one street to another. 
 
 But the same Moses Mendelssohn who had 
 been stoned in the street arose, like his name- 
 sake of old, to help his people. He roused 
 them to a consciousness of their position, and 
 inspired them to fight against it. The Jews, 
 he said, had been "too long content to pray 
 and suffer, not to act." Under his influence 
 Jewish children were taught to speak German, 
 instead of a kind of " Yiddish," and thus the 
 wide domain of German literature and culture 
 opened before them. The spirit of scepticism 
 under Frederic the Great, the strong winds 
 of intellectual freedom which swept over 
 Europe towards the close of the eighteenth 
 century, helped to sweep away the prejudice 
 of Gentile against Jew, and by the close of 
 that century the Jews themselves, as well as 
 their position, were greatly improved. Yet 
 Rahel Levin, who had absorbed European 
 thought and culture from the foremost minds 
 of her time, Rahel the Goethe-worshipper, 
 whose whole life was a passionate struggle for 
 
 54 
 
The Jewish Salons 
 
 freedom of every kind, was somewhat of an 
 alien among her own people. She suffered 
 doubly, out of sympathy with the narrow 
 fanatical spirit of her Jewish surroundings, 
 humihated and despised if she ventured be- 
 yond them. Nearly all her life she suffered 
 from the mere fact of being a Jewess ; she 
 herself considered her birth the source of 
 her greatest unhappiness. Speaking of the 
 numerous good gifts which fell to her share 
 in hfe, she says bitterly : " But Fate added, 
 ' Be a Jewess,' and now my whole hfe is a 
 wound." In the simplicity of this " Be a 
 Jewess " is concentrated centuries of misery, 
 centuries during which her race had learnt 
 the dumb, patient suffering of a beast of 
 burden. To Rahel the word " Jew " is 
 synonymous with woe. 
 
 This very ostracism, however, brought with 
 it compensation to the Jew. Excluded from 
 ordinary German society, from social inter- 
 course in any wide sense, the Jew concentrated 
 his affection and his riches upon his home. He 
 adorned his house with costly furniture and 
 works of art, with pictures and statues by the 
 best artists (sometimes the gift of princes 
 whom he had helped financially) ; his tables 
 
 55 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 were covered with the daintiest linen, served 
 with the choicest foods and wines. The Jews 
 lived in a luxury and refinement unknown to 
 the proud but poor Gentile aristocracy. Jewish 
 women enjoyed leisure and opportunity for 
 culture in a measure undreamed of by their 
 German contemporaries. Henriette Herz de- 
 scribes how Jewish women lived whilst their 
 men-folk were busy in shop and counting 
 house, how they formed circles for reading, 
 for languages, for philosophy. They read 
 Racine and Voltaire in French, Shakespeare 
 in English, they learnt Italian in order to read 
 Dante in his own tongue. Such women with 
 their quick Oriental minds, cultured and refined, 
 were the modern women of their day, certainly 
 the most charming and accomplished. Their 
 drawing-rooms attracted the more hberal men 
 of note, who rose above the prejudices of the 
 day — artists, musicians, travellers from foreign 
 lands, the intellectual among the young aristo- 
 crats. Actors and singers, at that time excluded 
 from " good society " in Germany, were welcomed 
 in these Jewish houses. One met all manner of 
 interesting people, young poets, old philosophers, 
 an enterprising princeling or so, men of science, 
 in an atmosphere of cultured Bohemia, presided 
 
 56 
 
The Jewish Salons 
 
 over by charming and accomplished women of 
 the world. Small wonder that the more intel- 
 lectual Germans were attracted, for such pleasant 
 freedom of intercourse was unknown in their 
 own circles. There one was bored by stiff 
 etiquette and general dulness (Schloss Lange- 
 weile "Castle Ennui," the aristocratic circles 
 were nicknamed), and the women had lost the 
 art of frank, unaffected intercourse with men, 
 whilst the Court was so often plunged into 
 mourning that some one dubbed the Courtiers 
 Pleureusenmenschen. 
 
 Thus Jewish women created the salon in 
 Berhn, and exercised an important influence on 
 intellectual life and thought. "The most 
 important centres of Romanticism in Berlin 
 were the brilliant Jewish salons, presided over 
 by women of genius such as Henriette Herz 
 and Rahel Levin. These salons, which found a 
 common bond in their unequivocal worship of 
 Goethe, were the focuses of German literature 
 at the beginning of the century."^ 
 
 The first in point of time was that of 
 Henriette Herz. 
 
 ' J. M. Robertson, A History of German Literature. 
 
 57 
 
 V^ 
 
I 
 
 HENRIETTE HERZ 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Herz, Henriette, Ihr Leben und ihre Erinnerungen, 1850. 
 Dilthey, W., Das Leben Schleiermachers, 1870. 
 Borne, L., Briefwechsel des jungen Borne, 1905. 
 Herz, H., Schleiermacher und seine lAeben, 1910. 
 Borne, L., Berliner Brief e, 1905. 
 
tl(2nri!2tt(2 tigrz 
 
HENRIETTE HERZ 
 
 "The only thing which comforts and strengthens me is the 
 doing good, caring for, watching over others." — R. Varnhagen. 
 
 Heneiette Heez has been styled the Madame 
 Recamier of Beriin, and there are certainly many 
 points of resemblance between the two famous 
 leaders of salons. 
 
 Both owed their celebrity, in the first 
 instance, to their beauty ; both were women 
 of sympathetic rather than original intellect; 
 they appealed by womanly charm rather than 
 brilliance of wit, and both were women of high 
 personal character, who, in loveless marriages, 
 contrived to keep the respect and friendship 
 of their admirers. 
 
 Madame Recamier's friendship with Chateau- 
 briand was paralleled by Henriette's with 
 Schleiermacher, who, during the years of his 
 best literary activity, used to go every day to 
 talk over his work with his " most sympathetic 
 affinity." 
 
 Henriette Herz was not a writer herself (we 
 61 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 may except two novels, both destroyed un- 
 pubhshed), but a biography, compiled from 
 her own sayings and writings, has been given 
 to the world by her friend Julius Furst. 
 
 It gives an interesting picture of hfe in Old 
 Berhn, especially among the Jewish circles to 
 which she by birth belonged. To her vivid 
 descriptions we owe much of our knowledge 
 of these circles at the moment when the Jews 
 began to emerge from their century-old exclusive, 
 excluded life, and to make their intellectual 
 influence felt in Germany. 
 
 Henriette was born 5th September 1764, the 
 eldest daughter of a Portuguese Jew, Dr 
 Benjamin de Lemas, at that time the best 
 Jewish doctor in Berlin. He was a well-known 
 figure in the streets of the city, of handsome 
 presence, always exquisitely dressed in fine 
 cloth, silk, or velvet, with silk stockings and 
 spotless hnen (for he held that a physician 
 should present himself pleasingly to his patients), 
 at night preceded by a servant bearing a lantern 
 through Berhn's badly lighted streets. At home 
 he was an honoured and beloved personage. 
 Henriette especially adored her father, and loved 
 to remember his beautiful voice, his perfect 
 German. He was an excellent linguist, and 
 
 62 
 
Henriette . Herz 
 
 never spoke the "Yiddish" dialect prevalent in 
 Jewish circles. Moreover, although he remained 
 orthodox, he was too enhghtened to be fanatic. 
 The mother was severe and irritable with the 
 children (of whom there were seven), but she 
 worshipped her husband as the rest of the 
 household did, in fact the beautiful relationship 
 between her parents was never forgotten by 
 Henriette. Jewish family life was seen under 
 its best aspect here. 
 
 Henriette was a high spirited, vivacious child, 
 mentally and physically precocious, often in 
 conflict with her mother. But a word from 
 that adored father was sufficient to subdue her 
 wildest spirits, and if, for some childish fault, 
 he refused her his customary blessing on the 
 Sabbath, she would throw herself at his feet 
 weeping and cling to his knees until he relented. 
 
 Even as a child Henriette's loveliness was 
 extraordinary and brought her into notice. At 
 the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, for instance, 
 which the orthodox Jews celebrated by building 
 arbours and living out of doors, the Princess 
 Am^lie, sister of Frederic the Great, came as 
 a curious onlooker, and little Henriette was 
 presented to her as " the beautiful Jewish child." 
 When she went to school the officers would 
 
 63 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 way-lay her with compliments, until her parents 
 took her from school and completed her educa- 
 tion at home. That education consisted of 
 arithmetic, geography, French, Hebrew ; she 
 began when quite a child to translate the Old 
 Testament " with commentaries," from Hebrew 
 to German. Music had to be discontinued for 
 economical reasons, although at the age of nine 
 she played the piano well enough to assist in 
 a charity concert, making quite a sensation, as, 
 she rather disparagingly said later, " only by my 
 beauty." 
 
 She relates how, as a child of nine, being 
 already tall for her years, she was invited to 
 take part in amateur theatricals. The rehearsals 
 even were a welcome change from the monotony 
 of home life, and her vanity was flattered by 
 being allowed to act with "grown-ups." She 
 was to take the part of a country girl in a 
 fascinating costume — "A white silk petticoat 
 with rose - coloured ribbons and rose - coloured 
 bodice, a great amount of silver gauze, and a 
 white silk hat with China flowers." 
 
 Everything was ready for the performance, 
 when a sudden blow fell — to the consternation 
 of the young people. The Elders forbade the 
 performance. These Elders, the richest and 
 
 64 
 
Henriette Merz 
 
 most important members of the Jewish com- 
 munity, were the supreme authority; against 
 their word there was no appeal. 
 
 In this extremity the high-spirited Henriette 
 took a mighty resolve, of which she told no one, 
 not even her parents. On the following Sabbath 
 a pretty little girl appeared alone before the 
 railed space wherein the Patriarchs sat in solemn 
 conclave. She begged them to reconsider their 
 decision. In vain. "At this," says Henriette, 
 " my pride was hurt and raising my voice, I 
 told them it was not seemly for such old, grave 
 men to interfere with children's amusements ! " 
 Whether the Elders were struck by this argu- 
 ment or charmed by the boldness of the pretty 
 child, does not appear, but they gave way, and 
 the play was performed, in fact with such 
 success that two other performances followed. 
 Henriette's beauty, her acting, her singing, all 
 created quite a furore, and she confesses she was 
 in a fair way to be spoilt, had not her parents 
 wisely decided she should take no part in 
 dramatic performances for some time to come. 
 
 But there was some compensation in frequent 
 visits to the theatre, for, like all good " Berliners " 
 of that day, Henriette and her parents adored 
 the drama. Vividly she describes their visits to 
 
 65 E 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 the Opera, sitting in their parterre-loge, with the 
 soldiers (commanded to attend opera by Frederic 
 the Great) filhng the whole of the stalls and 
 pit. When the celebrated prima donna La 
 Mara sang, these rough warriors would stand 
 motionless, "holding their breath; a tense silence 
 reigned throughout the building. And when 
 the great singer ceased, a deep breath was drawn 
 by the whole crowded audience." 
 
 As a girl she read everjrthing that came to 
 hand, including the sentimental novels at that 
 time in vogue — by no means the best food for 
 an imaginative young temperament ; frequent 
 were her journeys to a convenient lending- 
 library near home. 
 
 But the period of her girlhood was unusually 
 short, even in those days of early marriages. 
 When only fifteen she became the wife of 
 Dr Marcus Herz, a friend of her father's and, 
 of course, much older than herself, a man already 
 famous as a doctor and scientist. Her betrothal 
 took place eighteen months before, and was 
 conducted quite on the ancient patriarchal hnes, 
 the father disposing absolutely of his daughter's 
 hand. Henriette, a mere child, was not con- 
 sulted in the matter until on the very day of 
 the betrothal, when her father casually enquired 
 
 m 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 at dinner : " My child, whom would you rather 
 marry, a rabbi or a doctor ? " " Any one you 
 choose for me," was Henriette's dutiful reply ; 
 then, remembering her beloved father's pro- 
 fession, she added politely that, on the whole, 
 she would prefer a doctor. 
 
 That same evening the betrothal was cele- 
 brated with due rites and ceremonies. Henriette, 
 dressed in her best finery (an apple-green and 
 white striped silk, a black hat with feathers), 
 remained alone in an inner room, for, according 
 to Jewish etiquette, the bride must not appear 
 until the notary's deed was signed. As she 
 waited, with beating heart and heightened colour, 
 she caught sight of her own reflection in a mirror, 
 and for the first time realised that she was 
 "really very beautiful, not merely pretty." At 
 last the Brdutigam appeared, kissed her hand, 
 and led her to the assembled company. She 
 knew Dr Herz, very slightly, as her father's 
 friend, and had met him sometimes on her 
 errands to the library to exchange those senti- 
 mental novels, certainly never dreaming of him 
 as a possible lover. He was little, ugly, and, to 
 her thinking, old, being seventeen years older 
 than herself. A contrast indeed to the romantic 
 heroes of the Empfindsamkeit period ! In spite 
 
 67 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 of these drawbacks she looked forward to 
 betrothal as a rather delightful period of 
 privileges ; such, for instance, as walking out 
 on h&c fiance's arm, an increase of pocket-money 
 (her modest allowance being two groschen per 
 month), the sharing of certain little dainties 
 especially prepared for her father at table. 
 Above all, there would be the dignity of having 
 a hairdresser to do her hair ! 
 
 But none of these childish dreams were 
 realised, the only privilege accorded to the 
 little Braut being that when Dr Herz came 
 every evening to play cards she was allowed to 
 sit by his side and look on, an entertainment 
 which, as she says, bored her to death, whilst 
 he added to her vexation by calling her the 
 "child," and treating her as one throughout 
 the period of their engagement. 
 
 Such was the manner of Henriette's wooing. 
 Nor was the wedding day itself (1st December 
 1779) a festive occasion for this little Jewish 
 bride. She was miserable at leaving home, 
 above all at leaving her father, and shed floods 
 of tears as she begged him to forgive any wrong 
 doing of which she might have been guilty. 
 He, too, wept as he gave her his blessing. 
 The snow was falling as she stood beneath a 
 
 68 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 baldachin in the courtyard (according to the 
 Jewish rite), dressed in white satin embroidered 
 with roses, whilst Herz's grand friends crowded 
 round, staring curiously at the bride of whose 
 beauty they had heard so much. "All was 
 wintry," she says, " within and without." And 
 on the following morning, as she sat alone, 
 she thought of the dear ones at home. " Every 
 moment, I hoped would bring one of them. 
 At last I heard footsteps on the stairs, a man's 
 footsteps. It must be my father ! The door 
 opens. A long cherished wish is fulfilled at 
 the wrong time, alas ! It is the hairdresser." 
 
 But in spite of this inauspicious commence- 
 ment, the marriage turned out well. Looking 
 back many years later, on the anniversary of 
 her wedding day (1st December 1817), fourteen 
 years after her husband's death, Henriette was 
 able to write that she had not been unhappy. 
 " My marriage I can call a happy relationship, 
 though not really a happy marriage. Marriage 
 was not the central point of my husband's exist- 
 ence and ours was not blessed by children .... 
 but I can say my husband was as happy 
 through me as he possibly could be made happy 
 by any woman." 
 
 Dr Herz, already in the foremost rank of 
 69 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Berlin's physicians, had many hterary and 
 scientific friends, and loved to entertain them 
 in his own home. Perhaps he had recognised 
 possibilities in his young bride, at any rate he 
 educated and trained her as a hostess. Her 
 great beauty, her gifts of intelligence and charm 
 proved an irresistible attraction, and their house 
 soon became the rendezvous of all the clever 
 men and women of the day. Henriette easily 
 became the leader of the most important salon 
 in Berlin. 
 
 Unlike Rahel Varnhagen, Henriette Herz re- 
 mained in Jewish surroundings. Her husband 
 brought his friends to her, and she was spared 
 the conflicting elements which spoilt so many 
 years of Rahel's life after she had outgrown 
 the traditions of her own race and yet found 
 no firm footing outside it. 
 
 Henriette was unquestionably the greatest 
 beauty of her day, and was recognised as such 
 in Berlin. She was painted as Hebe by the 
 artist Dorothea Therbusch, another portrait by 
 Graf shows her soon after her marriage in all 
 her young lovehness as a bride. Even in her 
 fifty -fourth year, during her stay in Rome, she 
 sat to four painters on one day, her features 
 having still kept their exquisite and fascinating 
 
 70 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 lines. Taller than most women of her day — 
 a distinction which she shared with Queen 
 Luise — she had a perfect figure, rounded yet 
 slender, which she kept until late in life. Her 
 almost Greek profile, with the classic line of 
 nose and brow, gained for her the name of 
 the Tragic Muse. Her mouth and teeth were 
 perfect, her eyes and hair dark. She fascinated 
 every one, and many were the men who loved 
 her. Laroche, one of the handsomest men of 
 his time (son of Sophie Laroche and uncle 
 of Bettina von Arnim), was for more than 
 fifty years her devoted friend and admirer. 
 Alexander von Humboldt and his brother 
 Wilhelm both worshipped at her shrine ; the 
 great Mirabeau, when visiting Berlin, was 
 enthralled by the beautiful Jewess. Schleier- 
 macher's friendship with Henriette lasted for 
 some forty years ; unbroken by his marriage, 
 it continued until his death in 1834. More 
 dramatic, though less deep, was the hopeless 
 passion of the youthful Ludwig Borne, after- 
 wards known as a brilliant journalistic writer. 
 This young Jew (originally Ludwig Baruch) 
 was studying medicine under Dr Herz, in whose 
 house he lived. He had grown up in a 
 gloomy orthodox family in the Judengasse of 
 
 71 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Frankfurt, and the change to the briUiant social 
 and intellectual life of Berlin seems to have 
 dazzled the young student. More than all, 
 he was fascinated by his beautiful hostess, 
 although she was quite twenty years older than 
 he. Realising the hopelessness of his passion, 
 he twice tried to commit suicide, and had to 
 be sent away to Halle, where, under the wise 
 counsels of Schleiermacher, he recovered and 
 distinguished himself among the ultra-patriotic 
 and democratic students. 
 
 The first attempt at anything like a hterary 
 circle in Berlin had been in the house of Moses 
 Mendelssohn, but want of means restricted 
 hospitality in this case, and the first house really 
 thrown open for the sake of intellectual inter- 
 course, the first real salon in Berlin, was that 
 of the Herzens. 
 
 There was quite a galaxy of talent and genius 
 at this period. One is struck by the famous 
 names in every province of art and thought. 
 Most of them were young, still seeking a 
 rallying-point, a centre of inspiration, still in 
 the unrest and promise of spring. A meeting 
 place was an essential, the congenial salon a 
 heaven - sent boon. At the moment of their 
 concentration into a movement the German 
 
 72 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 Romanticists found this boon in the BerUn 
 salons presided over by the enthusiastic in- 
 spiring women, the "Sibyls" of the Romantic 
 movement. 
 
 Among the habitues at Henriette's receptions 
 were Schadow the sculptor, Fichte, Gentz, the two 
 Humboldts, Tieck, Jean Paul Richter, Friedrich 
 Schlegel, Engel, Moritz, Rahel and Varnhagen 
 von Ense, Schleiermacher. Moses Mendelssohn 
 was her fatherly friend, and his daughter, Dorothea 
 Veit, met in her salon Friedrich Schlegel, whose 
 wife she afterwards became. 
 
 The episode of Friedrich and Dorothea caused 
 great excitement in Romantic circles. Dorothea, 
 the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, had grown 
 up in much the same surroundings as Henriette, 
 and, like her, was given in marriage by her 
 father, without having any choice in the matter. 
 She was one of the most intellectual of these 
 Jewish women, a strong, energetic personality, 
 rather masculine in appearance, her only claim 
 to beauty being her fine dark eyes. With her 
 husband, the banker Veit, Dorothea had little in 
 common, and when the brilliant, erratic Friedrich 
 Schlegel dawned upon her horizon, she fell in 
 love with him. For his sake she left her husband, 
 although realising that a marriage with Schlegel 
 
 73 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 was highly improbable. Henriette, as the friend 
 of both husband and wife, acted as mediator, 
 and largely under her influence Veit consented 
 to a divorce, provided Dorothea with money, and 
 let her keep the two sons of their marriage. 
 Friedrieh Schlegel was not equally generous, 
 but after some hesitation he married Dorothea, 
 and his novel, Ludnde, was a reflection of this 
 affair, glorifying en Romanticiste the freedom of 
 the affections and shocking the public, although 
 Schleiermacher persisted in pronouncing favour- 
 ably upon it. Dorothea herself had more hterary 
 talent than Schlegel, her novel Florinde (un- 
 finished) ranks among the best specimens of 
 romantic writing, but she idealised Friedrieh and 
 spoke of herself as a mere " craftsman " of the 
 pen, content to earn a little money for herself 
 and her idol. 
 
 Schleiermacher, when he first made Henriette's 
 acquaintance (about 1794) was a shy, awkward, 
 slightly deformed young man; she recognised the 
 intellectual possibilities beneath this unpromising 
 exterior, and her sympathetic influence did much 
 to develop him. She was one of the very few 
 who sympathised with his enthusiasm for his 
 vocation as a minister of rehgion, which most 
 of the sceptical Berlin circle failed to under- 
 
 74 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 stand. Their friendship grew rapidly. At first 
 the young Prediger (he was appointed pastor 
 at the Charite Hospital), came to the usual 
 receptions in the evening, soon he was welcomed 
 among a more intimate circle of friends, who 
 called in the late afternoon before the tea-hour 
 to discuss any new topic of interest, such, for 
 instance, as Jean Paul's Hesperus (1795), or a 
 new poem by Goethe. It is significant of 
 the influence of these women (devoted Goethe 
 worshippers) that Schleiermacher, on a first 
 reading of Willielm Meister, only praised its 
 perfect prose, but on reading the work again 
 with Henriette, discovered many other beauties'. 
 
 The Herzens lived in the new Friedrichstrasse, 
 Schleiermacher at some distance, and, as in 
 those days Berlin was practically unhghted and 
 unpaved, the friends presented him with a little 
 lantern which he could hang on his buttonhole, 
 to light him on his way on dark nights. 
 
 In Henriette's house Schleiermacher made 
 friends with Friedrich Schlegel, above mentioned, 
 the brilliant young writer, who, a few years later, 
 edited the Athenceum (1798-1800), the organ of 
 Romanticism, to which Schleiermacher, who re- 
 presented religion in the Romantic movement, 
 contributed his Creed of Noble Women. 
 
 75 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Schleiermacher's utterances about women are 
 particularly interesting because they reflect the 
 high ideals of intercourse in those circles, and 
 the attitude taken by women Romanticists. 
 
 " I believe in eternal humanity, which was, 
 before it took upon itself the veil of Masculine 
 and^ Feminine. 
 
 "I believe that 1 do not live to obey or to 
 amuse myself, but to be and to become. And 
 I believe in the power of the WiU and of 
 Education to bring me back to the Eternal, to 
 deliver me from the fetters of mis-education, 
 and to free me from the limits of sex." 
 
 And a new commandment : — 
 
 "Thou shalt not bear false witness for men, 
 thou shalt not gloss over their barbarity with 
 words or deeds." 
 
 Borne said of Schleiermacher that he " taught 
 Christianity as Socrates would have taught it, 
 had Socrates been a Christian." 
 
 If Henriette helped to develop the social 
 and intellectual qualities of the young philo- 
 sophic theologian, Schleiermacher's influence on 
 Henriette was equally strong. He found a 
 spoilt beauty frittering away her energies for 
 lack of a definite aim, drifting towards moral 
 stagnation. He taught her to concentrate 
 
 76 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 those energies, and inspired her with his own 
 inexorable ideas of duty. Between these two, 
 outwardly so different, there certainly existed 
 an unusual sympathy, based on affinities of heart 
 and mind, and although Schleiermacher had 
 many other women friends, he always declared 
 that Henriette was his "nearest related sub- 
 stance, no other affinity could ever come 
 between them." 
 
 Schleiermacher to Henriette Herz. 
 
 " You know Schiller's little moral-arithmetical 
 maxim about beautiful souls and numbers ? But 
 you even doubt your own capabilities and there 
 you are very wrong. Have you not as much 
 individuality as other people? Have you not 
 formed your own very individual style of life? 
 Are not many qualities united in you in a 
 peculiar measure, which one sees in others only 
 separate or at least in a very modified form? 
 Shall I enumerate all these? Your sense of 
 duty, your love, your receptiveness, your social 
 gifts, and so on ? Your imitative faculty, from 
 which are derived both your talent for languages 
 and your knowledge of mankind, your practical 
 talents, which never find full scope ? Ah ! How 
 shall I further stimulate your laziness ? For 
 
 77 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 lazy you are, if only in this one point of 
 self-knowledge. " 
 
 Perhaps such unusual Platonic affection was 
 rendered possible by the fact that the beautiful 
 Henriette was somewhat cold and passionless 
 — Schleiermacher naively says that he found . 
 her so towards himself. Certainly Henriette, 
 accustomed to admiration and love from the 
 handsomest, most brilliant men of her day, saw 
 in the good " Schleier " (" I call him that to 
 shorten his tiresome name," she wrote) a splendid 
 friend, but in the outer semblance of an " odd, 
 awkward httle man." At any rate they both 
 laughed whole - heartedy at a caricature which 
 appeared of the two walking out together — she 
 Juno - like, stately, carrying Schleiermacher on 
 the stick of her parasol. 
 
 On hearing through Friedrich Schlegel of some 
 foolish gossip Schleiermacher wrote to his sister : 
 
 " That was really too much. Let ordinary 
 people beheve of ordinary people that a man 
 and a woman cannot be friends, without being 
 passionately in love with each other, that is all 
 very well, but of us two ! To me it seemed so 
 extraordinary that I really could not discuss it at 
 all, but just curtly gave Schlegel my word that 
 it was not so and never would be." 
 
 78 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 Henriette seems to have really loved a certain 
 Count Alexander von Dohna, who was devoted 
 to her and remained unmarried for her sake, 
 though she refused to marry him after her 
 husband's death, because his family were bitterly 
 opposed to the idea of marriage with a Jewess. 
 Not the only occasion, this, on which a certain 
 proud generosity stood in the way of her advance- 
 ment and happiness. 
 
 There is no doubt that Henriette suffered 
 from her husband's cold, reserved nature. She 
 was loving, if not passionate, and on one occasion 
 was humiliated almost to tears when Prince 
 Louis Ferdinand presented her to the Duchess 
 of Courland vdth the tactless remark, "Look 
 well at this woman — she has never been loved 
 as she deserves," and she herself says, " however 
 kind my husband was, however lovingly he cared 
 for the education of my mind, he never knew 
 love such as I bore in my heart and considered 
 any expression of it childish." 
 
 One of her letters throws a side-light, amusing 
 enough, upon her husband's scientific attitude 
 of mind. He was reading one of Goethe's poems 
 {Der Fischer), and joined the circle of friends. 
 " Kiihl bis ins Herz hinan," he cried, " will some- 
 one kindly explain what on earth he means." 
 " But who wants to understand a poem in that 
 
 79 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 way?" said Moritz, pointing to his forehead. 
 Herz stared at him in astonishment. It was 
 only natural that a brilliant, high-spirited girl, 
 bound to an unresponsive nature like that of 
 Dr Herz, should throw herself into the pleasures 
 of society, the delights of conquest and homage, 
 for a time. But after a few years the illusion 
 and glamour were over, and by thirty years of 
 age she is described as being extraordinarily clear, 
 calm, self-possessed, with wonderful insight and 
 understanding of men and things. She was 
 never excitable and pushing, like some Jewesses 
 who became " emancipated " at this time, but 
 always dignified and full of repose. Of course 
 Henriette had her failings and her detractors. 
 Rahel Varnhagen thought her a poseuse. 
 
 " Madame Herz was always dressed for state 
 occasions, and never even knew that one might 
 undress or what it felt like." ^ 
 
 Those were the days of Reading Circles and 
 
 ^ A really malicious acrostic was ascribed to Ludwig Robert, 
 Rahel's brother : 
 
 " Junonische Riesin, 
 Egyptische Markisin, 
 Tren, doch nicht liebend, 
 Tugend veriibend, 
 Entziiokt mit Gewalt. 
 Heiter und herzlos 
 Eitel und sohmerzlos 
 Ruhig und Kalt 
 Zu Jung f iir so alt. " 
 
 The initial letters give Jette Herz, Jette being the diminutive of 
 Henriette. 
 
 80 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 Intellectual Teas (tea was immensely the fashion 
 in Berlin). There was unlimited enthusiasm for 
 high thought and culture. A chosen few, 
 inspired by Henriette, formed a Tugendhund^ 
 with the aim of " moral development and the 
 attainment of happiness by self-devotion," a 
 process naturally accompanied by much senti- 
 mental introspection and vapid out-pourings, but 
 on the whole stimulating. 
 
 Henriette relates how the Lesezirkel would 
 meet at each others' houses, actors, actresses, 
 authors, even statesmen. Dr Herz would read 
 science to them, Fischer performed experiments ; 
 dramatic works were read aloud, each person 
 taking a role (Shakespeare, Racine, Cervantes, 
 as weU as Goethe and Schiller). Nor were 
 original poems and essays excluded. These 
 seances were often poorly lighted by a few tallow 
 candles, and after the reading came a frugal meal, 
 " but all were content." At the Mendelssohns, 
 the earliest " circle " of aU, she relates, the almonds 
 and raisins {de rigueur at these evening enter- 
 tainments of plain living and high thinking) 
 were carefully counted, so many to each guest. 
 
 An important one was at the house of a 
 certain Hofrath Bauer, about 1785, to which, 
 
 * Not to be confounded with the political society of that name. 
 
 81 F 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 among other distinguished men, came the 
 brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
 charming young men of sixteen and eighteen 
 years of age. The younger members rather 
 inclined towards dancing after supper (not so 
 Frau Bauer, "who never could get enough 
 reading"), and on one occasion Alexander von 
 Humboldt taught Henriette the new Menuet d, 
 la Beine, in spite of Frau Bauer's disapproval 
 of such frivolity. 
 
 Henriette attracted to her circle not only the 
 clever men but also the clever women of her 
 time, and started a sort of club which many 
 women joined, for the purpose of exchanging 
 ideas by correspondence. Some members never 
 met, others only late in life, but they enjoyed 
 a stimulating exchange of thought and ideas. 
 One can imagine how precious such an outlet 
 must have been in those days when books and 
 newspapers were scarce, and opportunities of 
 intellectual intercourse were confined to a few 
 privileged circles. 
 
 Again, at a later period, Henriette observed 
 how many girls of good family were too poor 
 to afford a proper education, and to supply this 
 need she started classes in languages and other 
 subjects, teaching and training the pupils herself. 
 
 82 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 She afterwards found posts as governesses for 
 many of them, and " the young ladies of Madame 
 Herz " were in great request. 
 
 Her charitable interests were many, for she 
 was essentially a woman of generous impulses. 
 In her old age her great regret was " people 
 never made enough use of me, as long as I 
 was able to be of use." 
 
 But these happy days came to an abrupt 
 end. Henriette's father had died a few years 
 after her marriage and Dr Herz left her a 
 widow in 1803, with only a small pension, for 
 he had spent his money lavishly, much of it, 
 indeed, in their joint love of hospitality. Society 
 had become a necessity of her life, and, finding 
 it impossible to entertain on small means, she 
 accepted an engagement to teach English to 
 the daughter of the Duchess of Courland, which 
 gave her the entree to the Duchess's receptions. 
 In this house one met every one worth know- 
 ing in the way of birth or intellect and, as 
 the Duchess introduced a democratic mingling 
 of ranks, it was "possible for the widow of a 
 Jewish doctor to sit at the same table with 
 royal Princes and Princesses." Here Henriette 
 met Schiller, Madame de Stael, and August 
 Schlegel, renewed her acquaintance with the 
 
 83 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 brilliant Prince Ferdinand (nephew of Frederic 
 the Great), who admired the beautiful widow 
 too much for his peace of mind. It is a 
 coincidence that his brother, Prince Augustus, 
 fell in love with Madame Recamier and wished 
 to marry her. 
 
 But soon all social intercourse was suspended, 
 for the terrible war, long threatened, was 
 declared at last (1806). Henriette records a 
 certain autumnal Sunday afternoon, the day 
 before the King and Queen — the beloved Queen 
 Louise — were to leave the capital and join the 
 army. According to custom the mihtary band 
 played before the palace in Charlottenburg, and 
 the King and Queen appeared on the terrace. 
 Henriette felt that the handsome, noble couple 
 stood at a turning point in their career, which 
 was indeed the case, felt she must "see them 
 once more in undisturbed splendour." " Adieu, 
 Madame Herz," said Queen Luise in her 
 beautiful, musical voice, as she caught sight of 
 Henriette, although not knowing her personally. 
 " She seemed so cheerful, as if she did not 
 realise the significance of that moment ! " 
 
 Not long after this Schleiermacher, too, was 
 suffering from the fortunes of war. Writing 
 to a friend from Halle (November 1806) he 
 
 84 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 describes his unpleasant experiences : " The 
 pillage was, of course, dreadful, though not so 
 bad as one imagines such events. Directly after 
 the fight many troopers forced their way, through 
 the carelessness of the people downstairs, into 
 the house and up to us. StefFens and Gass 
 were with me, we all three had to give up our 
 watches, Gass also his silver money (StefFens 
 had none left), on me they only found a few 
 thalers, but they took all my shirts but five, 
 and all the silver spoons but two. We were 
 almost in danger during the fight. Steffens 
 came that morning to summon us to his house 
 if we wanted to see fighting, and in fact we 
 saw the attack on the bridge very well from 
 thence. But when I saw the Prussian guns 
 silenced and the position being lost, I persuaded 
 Steffens to come to my house because his place 
 was too much exposed. We hurried as fast as 
 possible ; but I had not reached our house with 
 Hanna before shooting began in the town behind 
 us, and Steffens was nearly caught with the child 
 in his arms in the crowd of retiring Prussians 
 and advancing French." 
 
 Thus all our dramatis personce are caught 
 and whirled hither and thither in the whirlpool 
 of hostilities. 
 
 85 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 At this time Henriette was helping her bhnd 
 mother and an unmarried sister from her own 
 slender resources ; but very soon, in the general- 
 upheaval of social conditions, her widow's pension 
 was no longer paid, and she found herself almost 
 penniless. She was offered the post of governess 
 to the King's eldest daughter, Princess Charlotte, 
 on condition of becoming a Christian, but 
 although she had herself long outgrown Jewish 
 traditions, she refused to take the step, knowing 
 it would distress her mother too deeply. Thus 
 she lost the chance of a position which would 
 have relieved her of many difficulties, but not 
 until her mother's death, in 1817, would she 
 formally renounce the Jewish faith. 
 
 At last (in the spring of 1808) she found 
 refuge during these troubled times on the Island 
 of Riigen in the family of an old friend, whose 
 children she taught. Frau von Kathen was a 
 woman of charming character and intellectual 
 tastes, and there was a delightful atmosphere 
 of kindliness in the household, but Riigen was 
 of course isolated from the great world which 
 Henriette loved so dearly. 
 
 Schleiermacher, however, found his lasting 
 affinity here in Riigen in the person of 
 Henriette von Willich, the young widow of 
 
 86 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 a Pastor Willich, formerly one of his friends. 
 He came over, and the marriage took place 
 nearly at the close of Henriette's sojourn 
 with the Von Kathens (1809). The union 
 was a very happy one, although Schleiermacher 
 was twenty years older than his bride. At 
 the end of 1809 Henriette left the island. 
 With other distinguished women she helped 
 to nurse the wounded soldiers during the war, 
 a task which brought all her best qualities 
 into play, her generosity, self-sacrifice, splendid 
 organising gifts. 
 
 In 1815 occurred the death of her favourite 
 sister, an artist, and in 1817 that of her mother, 
 after which Henriette formally entered the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 With the close of the war came improved 
 conditions, and the payment of her- pension 
 was resumed. She was now able to trav,el, 
 and spent nearly two years in Italy, finding 
 a second home among the German colony of 
 artists and literary folk in Rome. Among old 
 friends, such as the Von Humboldts, Dprothea 
 Schlegel and her son Philip Veit, were new 
 ones : Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, Niebuhr, Canova 
 Riickert, Chamisso. In spite of modest means 
 she was able to hold a little circle. 
 
 87 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Her Memoirs chat amusingly of the artist 
 fraternity. German artists and litterateurs 
 caused a sensation in Rome by wearing their 
 " so called German dress," still more by their 
 long, untidy hair, " an adornment every one 
 considered indispensable whether it suited him 
 or not." Notably in respect to hair, the big 
 broad-shouldered Riickert achieved the im- 
 possible ; in the outskirts of Rome he was the 
 terror not only of children, but of grown-up 
 people. She relates a story of a Roman lady, 
 her nurse, and children, running away in terror 
 on a lonely road before the apparition of 
 Riickert, whom they took to be the wizard 
 " Simone Magoa." This is pecuharly amusing 
 when one recalls Riickert's dainty lyrics. 
 Chamisso was another poet who cultivated 
 artistic carelessness to an extraordinary extent. 
 
 The Enghsh, too, attracted attention. The 
 women, she says, dressed " peculiarly " whilst 
 the men affected a "strange tourist garb," 
 which, to the eyes of foreigners, was then un- 
 familiar, as EngUshmen had at that time been 
 practically excluded from the continent for 
 some years. Their isolation had confirmed 
 them in certain English prejudices and habits, 
 and they sometimes appeared awkward and 
 
 88 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 rude in refusing to fall in with the customs of 
 the country. " This made them very unpopular, 
 and a target for Roman mockery." 
 
 Such was the foreign colony in Rome in the 
 first decades of the last century. 
 
 In Vienna she had stayed with Friedrich 
 and Dorothea Schlegel before this, helping to 
 nurse the sick and wounded. The romance of 
 former years, she noted, had faded into prose. 
 Friedrich, grown stout and self-indulgent, sat eat- 
 ing oranges and drinking Alicante on a certain 
 evening, whilst his wife shivered in an attack 
 of ague. Poor Dorothea, a true Romantic, 
 was always destined to disappointment. 
 
 Her first husband had not satisfied her in- 
 tellectually, but he was kind and generous. In 
 Friedrich Schlegel she found brilliant intellect, 
 but an appalling selfishness and want of depth. 
 
 " At a later period," Henriette records, " she 
 lived in Frankfurt with her son, the painter 
 Philip Veit. At her wish I destroyed our 
 long and interesting correspondence, and have 
 only kept her last letter, written two months 
 before her death. She was tired and longed 
 for a better world, but in spite of this longing 
 and the hardships of age, she bore her life 
 with patience and cheerfulness. A cold spring 
 
 89 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 made her suffer. ' But,' she wrote in this 
 letter, 'one must put up with it as the plants 
 and flowers do, which do their duty, and go 
 on with their business of blooming as if it 
 were the greatest pleasure,' And in another 
 place, in reference to something I had written 
 in a moment of discontent : ' All that we 
 children of earth used to call the Poetry of 
 Life is far, far away I 1 could say with you 
 that I have had enough of it. But all the 
 same I will not say it, and I implore you not 
 to say it again. Be brave I that is, do not rebel, 
 but resign yourself bravely and cheerfully. Do 
 not let world-weariness become a ruling senti- 
 ment, but bear constantly in mind that this poor 
 Ufe is not given to us as a possession, nor for 
 our own arbitrary disposal, nor for pleasurable 
 use ; each day is a jewel of grace, a capital which 
 you must neither bury nor throw away.' " 
 
 The journey home with Frau von Humboldt 
 and others led through Stuttgart, where a 
 meeting with Jean Paul Richter, " grown fat 
 and bourgeois" took place, to Frankfurt, where 
 they found Louis Borne, now a " celebrated 
 man," and cured of his mad passion. 
 
 In 1819 Henriette settled again in Berlin 
 and lived peacefully, though diminuendo as to 
 
 90 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 fortunes and conditions, to a great age. Her 
 last years were a complete contrast to the 
 brilliant period of her youth, but she found 
 some compensation in charitable works and 
 study. As the years passed, the circle of 
 friends grew smaller, and, like all who live to 
 be very old — like Madame Recamier also in 
 this — IJenriette Herz knew the bitterness of 
 outliving her best friends. The irony of life was 
 never more apparent than in the letters of Borne, 
 Cruel contrast between the love-sick youth : 
 
 " I cannot go away when I am with her. My 
 feet are as if rooted to the spot when I stand 
 near her. ... I cannot grasp it, this unhoped, 
 splendid happiness. She allows me to continue 
 sunning myself in her eyes." 
 
 And his visit to Berlin some twenty-six years 
 later. 
 
 " 29th April 1828. 
 
 " I have just come home from old Madame 
 Herz, having taken leave of her ; she gave me 
 her cheek to kiss. When I left her twenty- 
 five years ago, my tears flowing, unable to 
 speak a single word from emotion, I was 
 seventeen years of age, she in her summer 
 time. I loved her, but then I only ventured 
 
 91 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 to kiss her hand. And now. . . . II vaut 
 mieux jamais que tard." 
 
 " 18<A February 1828. 
 
 "The Herz is now sixty-four years old, but 
 one still perceives the traces of her former 
 beauty. I saw her in her prime. A Juno ! 
 that word was then on every one's Ups. She 
 lives in constant activity^ and employs each 
 quarter of an hour as if it were a day. . . . 
 From nine to twelve o'clock every morning 
 she teaches the children of poor, formerly well- 
 to - do, parents, teaches living languages, and 
 gratis. This she has done since 1813." 
 
 "When I called to-day. ... I found three 
 young men dining with her, she sitting serving 
 them. I should have liked to paint her, she 
 seemed so lovable. i^Every Wednesday it seems, 
 she has four poor students to dinner^ This is 
 really very splendid, for she is not at all well 
 off. But that is the least part of it ; you 
 should see her attentiv;e kind way of serving 
 them : the dainty appointments, the abundance 
 of food, there was enough for ten, and the 
 unrestrained appetite of the young men. One 
 sees nothing of that sort in Frankfurt, certainly 
 not done in that way. Madame Herz wore a 
 
 92 
 
Henriette Herz 
 
 white satin dress and a white Turkish turban 
 on her head and looked fifteen years younger 
 than she is." 
 
 In another letter he takes up the cudgels 
 for Madame Herz, because people laugh at her 
 somewhat youthful way of dressing. " Old age 
 is an evil, I think, and if one shuts one's eyes 
 and refuses to see an evil, which one is obliged to 
 feel, is that so blameworthy ? No on^ tells her 
 to her face that she is old, and if she herself can 
 contrive to forget it, does that hurt anybody ? " 
 
 With failing health she found her means 
 sadly insufficient until, although she tried 
 bravely to conceal the fact of her poverty from 
 the world, it became only too apparent. At 
 last her friend, Alexander von Humboldt, 
 personally begged the King for some increase 
 to her slender pension. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 
 responded generously and promptly by doubhng 
 her pension, and sending her the same evening 
 fifty louis d'or from his private purse, saying 
 it was both a duty, and a pleasure to assist 
 one, who, "as long as her strength permitted, 
 had done so much for the pubhc welfare." He 
 further showed his respect by paying a visit 
 to Madame Herz, recalling that as a boy he 
 had been taken to her house by his tutor, and 
 
 93 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 had seen his first chemical experiments per- 
 formed there by her husband. 
 
 Only a few months after this visit Henriette 
 died, 22nd October 1847, at the age of eighty- 
 three. 
 
 Fortunately her declining years were soothed 
 by the affectionate care of her nieces and a 
 young girl, the daughter of the Pastor Wolff 
 who had baptized her into the Christian faith. 
 During her last iUness, which only lasted a 
 fortnight, she was brave and cheerful, touchingly 
 afraid of giving trouble to those about her. 
 
 A fine and generous trait, although it 
 deprives the world of much interesting gossip, 
 was her destroyal of most of her correspon- 
 dence, including letters — and many love-letters 
 — from some of the cleverest men in Europe. 
 She had seen the pain caused to her own friends 
 by the indiscriminate publication of similar 
 letters, and resolved there should be none in 
 her case. Thus she destroyed nearly all her 
 correspondence with Schleiermacher, from 1800 
 to 1815, continuing after his marriage, and the 
 diary of Ludwig Borne with its ardent confes- 
 sion of love for her. 
 
 Henriette was not a woman to make capital 
 of her love letters. 
 
 94 
 
II 
 
 RAHEL VARNHAGEN 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 Berdrow, O., Rahel Varnhagen, 1900. 
 
 Jennings, K. Vaughan, Eahel, her Life and Letters, 1876. 
 
 Varnhagen von Ense, Rahel, ein Buck des Audenkens, 1833. 
 
 Brandes, Georg, Bahel, Bettina, und Charlotte Stieglitz, 1896. 
 
 Graf, Emma, Rahel Varnhagen und die Romantik, 1897. 
 
 Assing, L., Ans Rahels Herzensleben, 1877. 
 
 Key, Ellen, Rahel Varnhagen, 1907. 
 
■Rahgl 
 
RAHEL VARNHAGEN 
 
 THE GERMAN SIBYI, OF THE NINETEENTH 
 CENTURY 
 
 " He (the blockhead) tumbled out on me his definition of genius : 
 the trivial old distinction of intellect and heart ; as if there ever 
 was, or could be, a great intellect with a mean heart ! " — Rabel. 
 
 A BRIGHT particular star in Henriette's circle 
 of women friends, one destined to outshine 
 them all — "the first great and modern woman 
 in Germany " in the words of Georg Brandes — 
 was Rahel Levin, better known to the world 
 by her married name, Rahel Varnhagen. 
 
 " She was about six years younger than I 
 and most of my friends," wrote Henriette Herz, 
 "but the warmth of her own nature, combined 
 with suffering, ripened her early. I knew her 
 from her childhood, and know how soon she 
 raised those high expectations which were ful- 
 filled later." 
 
 Rahel was born on Whitsunday, 1771, the 
 first surviving child of the Jewish jeweller and 
 
 97 G 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 banker, Marcus Levin.^ Another daughter and 
 three sons were born after Rahel. She was an 
 extremely dehcate child, hovering between life 
 and death during the first months of babyhood, 
 and remaining all her life ultra - sensitive to 
 weather and atmosphere. " In the story of 
 my life climate must be mentioned," she used 
 to say. 
 
 Her father, himself a brilliant conversationalist 
 and wit, who loved to gather people around 
 him, was a Jew of the old type, and ruled his 
 family despotically. The household trembled 
 before his fits of ungovernable rage. A portrait 
 in the Berlin National Gallery depicts him with 
 a cane in his hand, a round, keen, energetic face. 
 One of his whims was that no birthdays should 
 be kept in his family, the dates therefore were 
 not even recorded, and Rahel did not know her 
 own, save that she came into the world on 
 Whitsunday of a certain year. 
 
 In one of her letters, written late in life, she 
 excuses herself for forgetting the date of a 
 birthday : " Forgive a person who never was 
 allowed to have a birthday. ... we never even 
 knew the date of ours. Even now I do not 
 know mine, nor my parents', nor that of my 
 
 1 The family name was afterwards changed to Robert. 
 98 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 brothers and sisters — no one's except Goethe's 
 and our king's." 
 
 The father was proud of his daughter's clever- 
 ness and witty sayings, and wished to train her 
 in the superficial brilliance he admired, but 
 Rahel had the courage to rebel in this and in 
 other matters. Hence, conflict and bitterness. 
 
 She suffered intensely, as a sensitive child 
 would, under her father's regime. Writing to 
 her brother Marcus, when she was but sixteen, 
 she says : " If our mother were to die, death 
 would certainly be the best thing for us. I, 
 at least, should prefer it." 
 
 She describes her lonely hours spent in a 
 room at the top of the house, which she was 
 allowed to use as her own sanctum : " My attic, 
 where I lived, loved, suffered, rebelled. Learnt 
 to know Goethe ! Grew up with, adored him 
 unspeakably." 
 
 It was a wonderful period in which to grow 
 up, a period pulsing with new ideas and aspira- 
 tions. In France the Revolution and its train 
 of writers, thinkers. In Germany, Lessing 
 uttered his great parable of religious toler- 
 ance — Nathan der Weise ; Herder, Kant, 
 Fichte, all taught and proclaimed Freedom, 
 the unloosening of mental fetters; Goethe and 
 
 99 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Schiller were raising German poetry to un- 
 dreamed of heights. Above all, Goethe em- 
 bodied the revolt of Nature against convention. 
 Goethe was too great to be fully understood 
 and appreciated by his own generation. A 
 few intuitive minds realised his significance, the 
 majority only became of the same opinion after 
 he was established beyond dispute, after he 
 had become a household word — that is, in 
 another generation. It is true that Goethe at 
 this time was in a brilliant position at Weimar, 
 but many persons saw in him besides the 
 successful courtier and man of the world, 
 merely "one of" the poets of the day. His 
 dramas were seriously compared with those 
 of Kotzebue, and frequently the comparison 
 was in favour of that mediocre genius. One 
 of the most striking things about Rahel is the 
 sureness of her attitude in regard to Goethe. 
 She was a whole-hearted worshipper from the 
 first. Her recognition of the poet was so 
 entirely the prompting of her own nature ; even 
 as a mere girl she grasped and comprehended 
 the significance of a genius as yet unknown 
 to the majority, as yet only understood by the 
 few. Quite alone, a mere girl, studying in 
 her Dachshibe, her nature responded intuitively 
 
 100 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 to the master soul, and she declared him boldly 
 to be beyond compare the highest, greatest, 
 only poet. 
 
 " A new volume of Goethe," she says, " was 
 a festival to me, a beautiful, beloved, honoured 
 guest, who opened for me new gates of life, of 
 unknown, bright life. My Poet." 
 
 Through all her life this attitude remained 
 unchanged. She followed Goethe at a distance, 
 an enthusiastic worshipper, communicating her 
 enthusiasm to her friends (love of Goethe 
 became a cult in her circle), but never forcing 
 herself upon the great man's notice. She had 
 a curious shyness on this point, taking a certain 
 pride in her reserve, keeping as she said, " a 
 pure shrine " for the poet in her heart, unknown 
 'and unrecognised, perhaps in contempt of the 
 women who worshipped the great Olympian's 
 very human personality and flung themselves 
 at his feet. Some passages in her husband's 
 correspondence throw an interesting light on 
 this. It was when Rahel was no longer young 
 that Varnhagen sent Goethe some of her notes 
 on his poems, without revealing her identity. 
 The poet was surprised and delighted with their 
 insight, and said it must be a very wonderful 
 nature which understood him so thoroughly. 
 
 101 
 
Some German Women- and their Salons 
 
 Yet even then Rahel would not allow him to 
 be told who had written the notes. Goethe's 
 remarks, on his side, are interesting. He 
 criticises his unknown correspondents, with great 
 insight caUing Varnhagen the "receiver," Rahel 
 the "giver," not in the least suspecting their 
 identity. 
 
 When Rahel was twenty-three she was sent 
 to Toeplitz to drink the waters, and here she 
 met Goethe and charmed him by her sympathy 
 and esprit. " A beautiful soul," he calls her, 
 " harmonious — the more one knows her, the 
 more one is attracted and lovingly held ! A 
 girl of rare understanding, who really thinks 
 and feels — where can one find such another ? 
 Oh ! we were constantly together, very friendly 
 and intimate with each other. One admires 
 her great originality — and even her originality 
 is lovable." High praise, from the great 
 knower of men ! As for the little Jewess, she 
 said simply : " I worship him," yet she made 
 no attempt afterwards to force a continuance 
 of the sympathetic friendship which must have 
 meant so much to her. Her " beautiful soul," 
 lonely and self-possessed, was capable of such 
 reserve. 
 
 After the delightful days at Toeplitz she did 
 102 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 not meet Goethe again until some twenty years 
 later, when the unkind fates granted a short, 
 disappointing interview — an interview which 
 had even a ludicrous side. 
 
 In the intervening years Rahel had known 
 vicissitudes, had loved more than once, and had 
 married late in life after a long engagement. 
 She was in fact forty-three at the time of her 
 marriage with Varnhagen von Ense, and not 
 until three years later did the eventful meet- 
 ing take place. It was in August 1815 that 
 Goethe came to Frankfurt and, hearing of the 
 whereabouts of his sympathetic friend of former 
 years, honoured her with a visit. At a quarter 
 past nine in the morning the great man un- 
 expectedly arrived. Rahel was not yet dressed. 
 Should she receive him en negligi or keep him 
 waiting? Unfortunately she did the first. 
 Hastily throwing herself into a black wadded 
 dressing-gowri, " sacrificing myself so as not 
 to keep him waiting five minutes," she rushed 
 to receive her distinguished visitor. But the 
 feeling of " unloveliness " made her shy and 
 awkward, Goethe was polite and unbending, 
 the visit was short and constrained. The black 
 wadded dressing-gown cast a gloom over it all, 
 and one can only sigh for the ruined interview 
 
 103 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 which sUpped away for ever in the shadow of 
 that unlovely garment. 
 
 As for Rahel, she wrote to her husband that 
 " after he had gone, I dressed myself very care- 
 fully, as if to make up for it, to mend the 
 matter! A pretty white dress with a high 
 collar, a lace cap, lace kerchief, the Moscow 
 shawl. ..." This was, fortunately, not Rahel's 
 last interview with the Goethe whom she adored. 
 
 After her father's death (when she was about 
 nineteen) Rahel breathed a freer atmosphere, 
 she grew stronger and happier, although house- 
 hold authority was now vested in her brothers, 
 who held entire control of money matters. The 
 mother's spirit had been crushed by the tyranny 
 of her husband, and she sank into a peevish, 
 narrow old age, becoming somewhat of a miser 
 too, and spoiling her children's lives by petty 
 ideas of saving money. Rahel had not much 
 in common with her family, they did not under- 
 stand her, and had little sympathy with her aims, 
 with the exception of her youngest "heart's 
 brother" Ludwig, an author, who introduced 
 her to his literary friends. 
 
 At twenty-five the Demoiselle Levin was a 
 personage in Berlin, received even in " high " 
 society, although a bourgeoise and a Jewess, 
 
 104 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 whilst her own receptions were by far the most 
 interesting in the city. From her thirtieth year 
 to her death Rahel was not only the centre 
 of intellectual life in BerUn, but one of the 
 intellectual centres in Germany as a whole. 
 
 It is wonderful how a girl like Rahel, without 
 particular beauty or riches, contrived to have 
 and to hold a circle of friends like hers. It 
 was characteristic of her that she attracted 
 and sympathised with persons of such widely 
 different types. Royal princes, artists, learned 
 men, men of the world, poets, many women 
 from different spheres of hfe, all came to her 
 receptions, her "company of the attic" she 
 called them. Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, 
 nephew of Frederic the Great, was at this time 
 one of her real intimate friends. He was a 
 young man about her own age, of uncommon 
 personal beauty and intellect, a dashing soldier 
 to boot, and he confided in Rahel as his dearest 
 friend, as a sister, she, in return, treating him 
 with the greatest frankness and sincerity, advising 
 or blaming him, sympathising with his love- 
 affairs, as she says, "not in the least as if he 
 were a prince." In fact, she made it a con- 
 dition of their intercourse that she should treat 
 him exactly as an equal. Prince Ferdinand 
 
 105 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 thoroughly appreciated this sincerity and might 
 often be seen riding up to the old house in 
 the Jagerstrasse to hear "harsh truths of the 
 attic {Dachstnbewahrheiten)" from his " dear httle 
 friend." 
 
 Count Brinckmann, a young Swedish poet 
 (later known as a poet and diplomatist), was 
 studying at this time in Berlin. To the end of 
 his life he acknowledged the immense influence 
 of Rahel upon his mental development. She 
 taught him the importance of moral courage, of 
 independence of thought ; how " no enthusiasm 
 should come to us from outside, but must glow 
 from within us. . . . Everything depends on 
 thinking for one's self." " The highest morality 
 can only come through the highest freedom." 
 The embodiment of this idea, which he had 
 sought in vain, he says, in philosophers and 
 religious persons, he found in the "attic" of 
 this rare original thinker. 
 
 Enthusiastic and fired with noble inspiration 
 herself, this Jewish girl struck sparks from every 
 one. " Thou winged one," Jean Paul Richter 
 calls her, and "the only humorous woman he 
 ever met." Schleiermacher, who had such high 
 ideals of women, knew Rahel intimately, and 
 expressed one secret of her influence thus : 
 
 106 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 " Rahel offers the unusual phenomenon of a, 
 human being who is always concentrated, always 
 possesses herself wholly." She herself aimed at 
 what she caUed Unity in life, feeling how much 
 the young minds of her day suffered from being 
 torn asunder by conflicting aims. (" The dis- 
 jointed moderns, the sick Europeans," she says.) 
 " I am at one with myself, and consider myself 
 a good, beautiful gift. The first great inmost 
 need has been granted me, that of human exist- 
 ence. I recognise this and am glad." And 
 further, with deep insight : " I have never 
 regretted anything which I did gladly; only, 
 and always, what I did reluctantly." 
 
 She had a fine contempt for people who lived 
 for what she called the " Is-it-proper morality " 
 (es - schickt - sich - Moral), and she waged war 
 especially against pedantry and affectation in 
 every form. " I kill priggishness within a thirty 
 mile radius," she said once laughingly. 
 
 An ardent disciple of Fichte, Rahel was one 
 of the keenest Individualists who have ever 
 lived. Instinctively she chose for her intellectual 
 guides the two great master minds of her time. 
 Fichte and Goethe, she said, were " Germany's 
 two eyes." And no one absorbed Fichte's 
 philosophy of the realisation of the Ego more 
 
 107 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 passionately than this Jewish girl, because it 
 touched a kindred note in her own souL This 
 philosophy, indeed, coloured all the ideas of that 
 generation, and lay at the root of the Romantic 
 movement. We can trace its influence, in ever- 
 widening circles, from Emerson to the school- 
 mistress heroines of our own Charlotte Bronte, 
 who are proud of being themselves, portionless 
 and plain, yet fitting soul-mates for their heroes. 
 
 " I thank God that I am Rahel and no one 
 else," said Rahel ; " Ich bin eine Person," was 
 her proudest boast. Fichte was the mental 
 centre of her salon at this period. 
 
 She did not classify people into clever and 
 stupid, good and bad, but into those with a self, 
 an Ego, and those without one. And it was her 
 opinion, expressed in her brusque careless way 
 that " Every one would really be original if 
 people did not collect undigested ideas in their 
 heads and give them out again undigested." 
 
 Her love of the natural and original in every 
 form was the key to the diversity of her friend- 
 ships, which included the most widely different 
 types of character, some of whom society did 
 not approve. 
 
 It was quite an honour and an event for 
 strangers in Berlin to be presented to the 
 
 108 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 " Demoiselle Levin," and more than one has 
 recorded the fact in his memoirs, struck with 
 admiration for his wonderful hostess, her charm 
 of manner, her wit, and her real kindness of heart. 
 To the pen of a French nobleman we 
 owe a graphic description of one of Rahel's 
 "evenings" in 1801. Armed with an introduc- 
 tion from Diderot's daughter, he was presented 
 by Brinckmann. The two young men were 
 ushered upstairs to a large room facing the 
 street, simply, almost barely furnished, without 
 superfluous knick-knacks, its windows draped 
 with white muslin curtains. Flowering plants 
 were there, and the grand pianoforte stood in- 
 vitingly open with Beethoven's latest sonata upon 
 it. (Rahel was a passionate lover of music, 
 and could play a little herself.) Some books 
 were scattered about, the Musen - Almanack 
 for instance, Tieck's drama Genoveva, some 
 poems, among them a few in manuscript by 
 
 Ludwig Robert, Rahel's brother. Count S 
 
 describes his hostess as " neither taU nor 
 beautiful, but refined and delicately formed, 
 with a pleasing expression to which a look 
 of suffering — she had, in fact, only recently 
 recovered from an illness — added a pathetic 
 charm, but her clear, fresh complexion, dark 
 
 109 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 and expressive eyes gave unmistakable proof 
 of a vigorous nature. From those eyes a look 
 fell upon me which seemed to pierce my soul. 
 I should not have cared to meet it with a 
 bad conscience. Not that I seemed to interest 
 her especially, the look was merely a passing 
 question, needing no definite answer." Friedrich 
 Schlegel was there, talking to Ludwig Robert, 
 whilst Rahel sat upon the sofa with the beauti- 
 ful Countess Einsiedel. Madame Unzelmann, 
 a noted actress, rushed in, having an evening 
 to spare. Rahel's sister-in-law and other ladies 
 of her family appeared, one of them presiding 
 over the tea-table. These ladies were not in 
 the least intellectual or socially brilliant, but 
 Rahel treated them with the greatest deference, 
 . and did her best to "draw them out." All kinds 
 of things were discussed, "the boldest ideas, 
 the deepest thoughts, the cleverest witticisms, 
 the most capricious fancies, all strung together 
 by careless chit-chat. All were animated and 
 at their ease, all seemed equally ready to listen 
 or to talk. But the most remarkable was 
 Demoiselle Levin herself With what grace 
 and ease she roused, brightened and inspired 
 every one about her I Impossible to withstand 
 her cheerfulness ! And her conversation ! I 
 
 110 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 heard from her some really inspired utterances, 
 wonderful sayings often in a few words only, 
 like lightning flashes, which went to one's heart. 
 About Goethe she spoke with an admiration 
 which I have never heard equalled." New 
 arrivals filled the room, among them Gentz, 
 the writer and diplomatist, the most extra- 
 ordinary combination of boldness and shjoiess. 
 With timid uncertainty he examined seats and 
 faces. " He appeared to consider me, a stranger, 
 unimportant ; others he recognised as friends, 
 but the sight of Friedrich Schlegel filled him 
 with horror, and he took a seat as far distant 
 as possible. Comfortably and safely ensconced 
 between Madame Unzelmann and his patron, 
 Schack, he began a conversation with them 
 which soon became general. He had dined with 
 the Minister Haugwitz, with ambassadors and 
 generals, who brought all the latest news from 
 Paris and London. But Madame Unzelmann 
 protested against politics, and demanded only 
 such information as she could be interested 
 in. 'Certainly, my angel,' said Gentz quickly, 
 'we did not talk so much of politics as of 
 Parisian manners, pleasures, and wickedness, of 
 love affairs, theatres, restaurants — all delightful 
 subjects, are they not?'" 
 
 Ill 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 And, warming to his subject, in spite of the 
 scowls of his enemy, Friedrich Schlegel, Gentz 
 drifted into an eloquent discourse on love, for 
 he was a brilliant conversationalist, who held 
 every one entranced, once his timidity was 
 overcome. He was interrupted by the arrival 
 of Prince Louis Ferdinand, on which all the 
 company rose for an instant only and then 
 resumed their seats and conversation as before. 
 The Prince sat down by Mademoiselle Levin, 
 and immediately began to talk to her. He 
 seemed preoccupied, nervous, his handsome face 
 was clouded. He spoke angrily of Napoleon, 
 who was undermining freedom in Europe ; 
 bitterly of the weakness of the Prussian Court. 
 
 Count S was lost in admiration of his 
 
 magnificent figure and bearing ; " a heroic figure 
 which gives one an idea of a higher race of 
 mankind." 
 
 His manners were charming, kindly, natural ; 
 he was perfectly at his ease and made others so. 
 
 When the Prince took his leave it was mid- 
 night, and the company broke up. But on the 
 stairs he met his brother-in-law. Prince Radziwill, 
 who brought him back again. Brinckmann and 
 his friend were walking up and down the street 
 in the soft night air, when they heard the strains 
 
 112 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 of music from the open windows of the room they 
 had just left. Prince Ferdinand was playing, 
 improvising, as he sometimes did when in the 
 mood. Rahel and Prince Radziwill were stand- 
 ing by the window listening, and the two friends 
 remained below for some time listening too. 
 
 On another occasion the French visitor called 
 in the morning to see Ludwig Robert, and was 
 taken upstairs by an " odd-looking old servant " 
 who had kept darting in among the fine company 
 on the previous evening. 
 
 Rahel appeared and, excusing her brother's 
 absence, begged the Count to wait in her room 
 for him. This was her sanctum, where she 
 received her more intimate friends, the room 
 with sloping roof and simple furniture, from 
 which her friends had nicknamed her the " Sybil 
 of the Attic." They were in the midst of an 
 interesting conversation when Gentz rushed in, 
 exclaiming excitedly that he could bear no more 
 — he was " worn out with writing all night, and 
 those confounded creditors since five o'clock ! 
 They persecute me wherever I go, hunt me to 
 death. No rest for me anywhere. Let me sleep 
 here in peace, at all events for half an hour ! " 
 
 And Gentz, who seemed utterly distracted 
 and worn out, threw himself on the sofa without 
 
 113 H 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 taking the shghtest notice of the visitor, and 
 closed his eyes "with every appearance of 
 being able to obtain the rest he desired." 
 Mademoiselle Levin smiled and led the way 
 to another room. 
 
 These surroundings of the Sibyl sound some- 
 what Bohemian. In them she developed and 
 attracted all ranks. The Frenchman adds that 
 on leaving Berlin he felt convinced that he 
 would never meet a woman equal to Rahel in 
 this world and " this my belief has been justified." 
 
 Her meeting with Madame de Stael, when 
 that lady was travelling in Germany (1803), 
 deserves to be remembered. Brinckmann had 
 spoken of Rahel with enthusiasm as a genius. 
 " Ah ! you compare her with me ? " said Madame 
 de Stael, amused. " That is not bad ! Has she 
 written anything?" "No, nor do I believe 
 she ever will ; but I wish she could inspire 
 twenty authors with her genius, some of them 
 would be the better for it." Madame de Stael 
 naturally wished to make the acquaintance of 
 this "marvel," and they met at an evening 
 reception, crowded with princes, learned men, 
 court ladies, poets. Disregarding these, the 
 two ladies sat on a sofa and talked together 
 earnestly for no less than an hour and a half, 
 
 114 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 Madame de Stael then said : " She is wonderful ! 
 Germany is really a mine of genius, as I have 
 remarked during this journey of mine ! " And 
 to Rahel herself she said : " If I stayed here, I 
 should envy your superiority ! " To which the 
 clever little Jewess replied by a neat compliment, 
 capable of disarming any and every form of 
 feminine jealousy. Her own estimate of the 
 great Frenchwoman shows her remarkable 
 insight into character, one of her strongest 
 points. " She has intellect enough, but her soul 
 never listens. It is never still within her. She 
 never seems to meditate alone, but always to be 
 talking about it to others ; those early salons 
 have done her harm. . . . Everything about her 
 is a rebours, as when one strokes blades of grass 
 upwards, nothing sweet or gentle. Among so 
 many gifts it is a pity that one is lacking, the 
 one which could make her harmonious ; the gift 
 of a quiet, simple soul-atmosphere." 
 
 Rahel herself could always listen, it was one 
 of the secrets of her successful conversations, if 
 one may be pardoned an Irishism. Speaking of 
 some one she said : " His mind, his soul, and his 
 heart never hold converse together. The only 
 amusing intercourse ! " 
 
 The above extracts give an idea of Rahel's 
 115 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 way of writing, of her style of expressing herself 
 'both in speaking and writing. Above all things 
 she was natural, clear-headed, and simple in a 
 most affected and unnatural period. She tried 
 to write and speak exactly as she felt, without 
 pedantry (for of this she had the greatest horror) 
 V— in short, as clearly and simply as possible. 
 " I don't wish to write speeches but conversa- 
 tions, as they are carried on by living poeple," by 
 which she meant to write down ideas and moods 
 just as they came, letting the style form itself. 
 
 The Jews, it is said, have given esprit to the 
 Germans, it is one of their fairy gifts, and Rahel 
 was the first brilliant incarnation of this esprit, 
 which culminated in Heine. Countless witti- 
 cisms and epigrams from her lips became national 
 property and exercised the widest influence upon 
 the life and art of her day. She touched things 
 with such a light but sure hand 1 And she was 
 always in front, in the van of progress, always 
 echoing the Goethian " Light, more light I " 
 whether in her youth with the Romanticists or 
 in her mature years with young Germany. 
 How could people go on discussing things which 
 "we" left off discussing ten years ago? she 
 wondered. " How very few people have ideas ! " 
 
 Varnhagen von Ense, whom she married after 
 116 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 a friendship of several years, describes her at 
 their first meeting as small but well-formed, 
 with tiny hands and feet, dark eyes and hair, 
 and a beautiful voice, soft yet full and clear. 
 She had rather a sad expression at that time. 
 " The most wonderful way of talking I had ever 
 heard, naive and witty, keen yet loving, true 
 and warm-hearted." 
 
 In spite of the recognition of her exceptional 
 personality, Rahel was not allowed to forget 
 her origin. It was brought home to her by 
 a bitter experience. Among the Germans who 
 frequented the house was a handsome young 
 nobleman. Count Karl von Finckenstein, who 
 fell in love with this daughter of the despised 
 race. (This was in 1796, when Rahel was 
 twenty-four.) Rahel loved him in return and 
 they became engaged. But his family (a mother 
 and sisters) strongly disapproved of the match, 
 wishing him to marry in his own rank and 
 people. The affair dragged on for four years ; 
 the young man himself was too weak to take 
 a decided course. He even told Rahel how 
 difficult it was for him to choose between her 
 and his family, and she set him free. Thus 
 her engagement and its breaking were wounds 
 to heart and pride alike. 
 
 117 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 A severe illness followed, and on her recovery 
 a friend, Countess von Schlabrendorff, took her 
 to Paris by way of distracting her thoughts. 
 This visit (1800), cut all too short by her 
 mother's parsimony, was a revelation to Rahel. 
 She delighted in the grace and lightness of 
 French conversation, regretting the Germans 
 knew nothing of this art — that their language 
 was not yet moulded by social intercourse. 
 
 Her own influence was destined to make itself 
 felt in this respect of the moulding of the German 
 language both conversationally and in writing. 
 
 Writing, much later (1831), to Victor Hugo, 
 she expressed the same thought. 
 
 "L'Allemagne est un pays qui n'a point de 
 centre, point de Paris qui timbre les gloires ; 
 mais sur tous les points de cette AUemagne il se 
 trouve des ames ouvertes aux beautes de tous les 
 genres, qui epient ce qui m^rite I'admiration, 
 sans toutefois posseder la grace qui rend un 
 culte agreable aux dieux." 
 
 But, although not blind to the faults of her 
 nation, she was intensely patriotic, and enjoyed 
 telling Parisians that she was just "a Jewess 
 from Berlin." 
 
 Rahel's second love-aiFair proved equally un- 
 happy. It was a couple of years later (1802), 
 
 118 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 when she fell in love with a handsome young 
 Spaniard, named D'Urquijo, Secretary to the 
 Spanish ambassador, a man with charming 
 manners and the frank boyish expansiveness 
 of the Southerner, qualities which always 
 attracted Rahel. The difference in nationality, 
 however, which at first attracted, in the end 
 created misunderstandings. D'Urquijo was 
 madly jealous, and could not bear to see her 
 so universally beloved and admired ; he had 
 little sympathy with her intellectual interests. 
 He tormented poor Rahel with humiliating 
 scenes of jealousy and reproaches, until, at last, 
 in spite of her passionate love for him, she 
 broke off" this second engagement at the cost 
 of no little suffering to herself. Many years 
 later she looked back on these things in the 
 calm light of middle-age. " I coloured, 1 
 loved shadows cast by my own fire," she 
 wrote — "the weak unmanly Finckenstein, 
 the suspicious savage Urquijo, these childish 
 innocent murderers." One of her deepest and 
 saddest sayings dates from this period : " People 
 not only do not understand each other, but 
 they do not all love in the same hour." 
 
 But now, although dark days were still in 
 store, a new friend came into Rahel's life, 
 
 119 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 one whose coming was to bring lasting happi- 
 ness. This was Varnhagen von Ense, whose 
 wife she ultimately became. Their friendship 
 before marriage lasted six years, a period of 
 vicissitudes and uncertainties, but in the end 
 the union was an entirely happy one. 
 
 Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, born 
 1785 (fourteen years Rahel's junior), was the 
 son of a Diisseldorf doctor of good family. 
 After his father's death he found himself, a 
 mere lad, compelled to earn the money 
 necessary to complete his studies, and when 
 he first met Rahel he was tutor in a Jewish 
 family in Berlin. 
 
 Varnhagen was fascinated from the first. 
 Carefully he records in his Memoirs their first 
 meeting in a friend's house ; another time at 
 Fichte's lectures, which Rahel attended with 
 her brother Ludwig ; ^ again on a snowy March 
 day in " Under den Linden " when their friend- 
 ship really began. 
 
 ' These lectures of Fichte's (1807 - 8) were his celebrated 
 " Addresses to the German Nation " in which he tried to awaken 
 national pride and patriotism, at this time sunk to their lowest 
 ebb. No little courage was needed for such a task, for the French 
 were quartered in Berlin (1806 - 8), and the drams of their 
 soldiers marching past often interrupted the lecturer's discourse. 
 Ludwig Robert and Rahel were among Fichte's friends and 
 enthusiastic supporters. 
 
 120 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 About this time Rahel went to live in a 
 small house in Charlottenburg, her mother, 
 who had grown morbidly peculiar, having 
 practically turned her out of the family home. 
 In spite of rebuffs she used to visit the old 
 lady every day, and eventually returned home 
 to nurse her during an illness of some months. 
 Finally the mother died in her daughter's arms, 
 softened by her affection and care, and Rahel 
 was happy in the complete reconciliation of 
 those last days. Rahel was a true daughter 
 of her race in the strength of her affection for 
 her family, " fibre love " as she called it. She 
 was always ready to help, nurse, or otherwise 
 devote herself to them, and they seem to have 
 taken it all as a matter of course, without 
 having the least appreciation of her character 
 and intellect. Her sister Rose, whom she 
 loved dearly, had married early ; the two 
 elder brothers were hard business men, but 
 in Ludwig she found perfect sympathy of 
 character and intellectual tastes. 
 
 During the summer Varnhagen used to visit 
 her every afternoon in Charlottenburg, driving 
 or walking out, as soon as his work was over 
 for the day. As they sat in the cool porch 
 of her little house or walked in the shady 
 
 121 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 paths of the village, or on the banks of the 
 Spree, by moonhght or starhght, their friend- 
 ship grew until it became the chief thing in 
 Rahel's life. Varnhagen was now only twenty- 
 four, but this made no difference in their 
 relation, although both felt that he must make 
 a position for himself before they could think of 
 a union. Rahel was certainly the guiding, form- 
 ing influence in this case, Varnhagen was weaker 
 both in character and intellect, but he understood 
 and loved Rahel as no one else had ever done. 
 
 But across their lives, as across the whole 
 of that generation, stalked the dread spectre 
 of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia's struggle 
 with the arch-enemy. War brought the usual 
 upheaval of social conditions, banks stopped 
 payment, famiUes were dispersed, friends 
 scattered. Rahel's income shrank until it 
 barely covered the necessities of life and she, 
 who had grown up in luxury, found poverty 
 a hard thing, especially with delicate health. 
 
 With the outbreak of war, Varnhagen joined 
 the Austrian army as a volunteer, was wounded, 
 taken prisoner, then sent to Paris. Rahel lived 
 through dreary years alone and poor, " sitting 
 alone in the Morgue, of my heart," as she 
 expressed it. 
 
 122 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 " Since I have no more hope for the beauty 
 of life, and have lost or had to give up all 
 that was dearest to me, I no longer feel so 
 keenly unhappy, and I can look upon beautiful 
 objects in Nature w^ith real understanding. . . . 
 My birth shut me out of the world, happiness 
 would not let me in. I hold for ever fast to 
 the strength of my own heart, and the teaching 
 of my soul." 
 
 It seemed as if the terrible war would never 
 end, Rahel longed intensely for peace. 
 
 " Dear, beautiful, misunderstood peace ! As 
 beautiful as youth, innocence, health, which 
 one only realises when one has lost it. Unhoped 
 for miracle ! " 
 
 Part of this time Rahel spent in Austria with 
 various friends. Both in Berlin and Prague 
 she organised a band of women to nurse the 
 wounded soldiers, and found her greatest 
 comfort in alleviating their sufferings. 
 
 " The only thing which comforts and 
 strengthens me is the doing good, caring for, 
 watching over others." (1831.) 
 
 Patriotic German women did splendid service 
 at this time, and Jewish women were especially 
 generous both with gifts and personal help. 
 Henriette Herz joined with Rahel, as we have 
 
 123 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 seen. Fichte and his wife both died of hospital 
 fever contracted in nursing (1814). Rahel 
 showed herself a capable organiser, collecting 
 money, directing — once when she was ill in 
 bed, she had the bureau transferred to her 
 bedside — and she had a gift for talking to the 
 soldiers, cheering and inspiring them ; she was 
 quite a mother. 
 
 Rahel had indeed a genius for friendship. It 
 was exemplified at this time in a thoroughly 
 characteristic manner by her relationship to 
 Alexander von der Marwitz. This young man 
 (born 1787) is an interesting reflection of the 
 troublous times in which his lot was cast. Of 
 good family, handsome, intellectual, endowed 
 with every quality of heart and mind, he could 
 find no sphere of congenial work and sank into 
 despair. He was like a Prince without a 
 kingdom, and was drifting into a Hamlet-hke 
 brooding when Rahel's sympathy and courage 
 saved him from suicide and inspired him with 
 new life. 
 
 Some of her most characteristic letters are 
 written to von Marwitz : 
 
 " I worry myself to death about you, thinking 
 what is best for you. What can any one with 
 a soul like yours do ? You cannot escape your 
 
 V2i 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 epoch. Every one is bound to his epoch. Ours 
 is that of consciousness, mirroring itself dizzy, 
 reflecting itself to infinity. Heroic natures, men 
 of action, gifted with understanding and imagina- 
 tion, must perish of inactivity, must evaporate in 
 such a time. If any one can save the world or 
 his own country I advise him to do it, even if it 
 were you I ... Is it possible, is it any good ? 
 This brooding about help and the times, these 
 ambitious projects are the worst of all. Life, 
 love, study, work, marriage — if it chances to 
 come our way — the making every trifle right and 
 vital, this is living and no one can prevent our 
 doing these. . . . You must do anything rather 
 than live miserably. Go, and if you perish 
 (the worst ! ) you know that I shall think : ' he 
 could not live miserably.'" 
 
 The conclusion of her whole philosophy was, 
 as she told him, " It does not matter what our 
 fate is, so long as we gain wisdom. Develop- 
 ment is our fate." 
 
 Thus she supported, convinced, inspired, until 
 he bravely took his part, fighting with Varnhagen 
 in the Austrian army. He was killed in the 
 battle of Montmirail, 1813. 
 
 One of her most beautiful letters was written 
 on the death of another friend, Heinrich von 
 
 125 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Kleist, the poet, who shot himself in despair at 
 the failure of all his attempts to make even a 
 bare living in this period of national distress. 
 
 " You know how I think of suicide : as you 
 do. It is not well that men, wretched men, 
 should have to suffer to the very dregs. We 
 must hope in Divine love. Could that be made 
 to cease by a mere pistol-shot? I am glad 
 that my noble friend — for with bitter tears I 
 claim him as a friend — would not suffer an 
 indignity ; he has suffered enough, and not 
 one of those who perhaps will blame him would 
 have given him ten thalers, would have sacrificed 
 nights to him, or have had patience with him, 
 if he had let them see his misery — would never 
 have left off calculating whether he had a right, 
 or whether he really had not a right to a cup 
 of coffee. . . . He is and remains a Courage." 
 
 At last the war and its horrors came to an 
 end, and on 27th September 1814 Rahel and 
 Varnhagan were married. She had been formally 
 baptized into the Christian faith by Pastor 
 Stegemann, who received her "with as much 
 respect as if it were Spinoza who presented 
 himself for baptism." The names Antonie 
 Friederike were added to that of Rahel. 
 
 Varnhagen had proved himself a worthy 
 126 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 soldier and was also known for his literary 
 work. He was now a member of the diplomatic 
 corps, sent to Vienna, afterwards made Charg^ 
 d'Affaires at Carlsruhe, which they both found 
 a duU and uninspiring place. 
 
 In 1819 they settled again in Berlin, hence- 
 forth their permanent home. It was a new 
 Berlin, with many gaps in the circle of friends 
 and a new spirit in society. Gone was the 
 wonderful glow of the Romantic period, gone 
 the enthusiasm of the Freedom Wars. There 
 was no enthusiasm now, only stagnation. In 
 the words of Borne, after the effort of the war 
 was over, "people returned to the making of 
 dumplings." Varnhagen devoted himself to 
 literary work, chiefly biographical portraits and 
 memoirs. 
 
 He was a brilliant talker and their salon 
 became of the first importance, a meeting-place 
 for social stars of every kind. Rahel called it 
 " her old company of the attic, continued and 
 enlarged." 
 
 To this later salon came, among many 
 others, Hegel and his disciples, Alexander von 
 Humboldt, the poet Heine, De la Motte 
 Fouqud, the Mendelssohn family, Chamisso the 
 poet, the Von Arnims. Heine dedicated the 
 
 127 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Lyrical Intermezzo in his Buck der Lieder to 
 Rahel in her fiftieth year. He called her " the 
 most spirituelle woman in the Universe," and 
 his acquaintance with her the beginning of a 
 new period of life. He would not mind, he 
 said, wearing a dog-collar with the inscription : 
 " I belong to Frau Varnhagen." Rahel, on 
 her side, delighted in the young poet, though 
 she was by no means blind to defects in 
 his character, his vanity, want of depth and 
 sincerity, and her frankness in telling him 
 so sometimes caused a coolness between them. 
 " Heine must become real" {Heine muss wesent- 
 lich •werden), she used to say. 
 
 Rahel's intercourse with Bettina and her 
 brother, Clemens Brentano, was not altogether 
 smooth at first. They displayed some of the 
 old German prejudice against the Jews, also 
 there was an element of jealousy, for Bettina 
 had her salon, too, and her devoted adherents. 
 Finally, however, the two " Sibyls " understood 
 each other and became intimate friends. 
 Bettina, Goethe's " Child love," now the 
 worthy mother of seven, appreciated Madame 
 Varnhagen's deUghtful ways with children, 
 unreasonably demanding of a governess that 
 she should be " exactly like Madame Varnhagen 
 
 128 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 with the children." One of Rahel's most 
 delightful traits was this love of children. 
 Childless herself, she adored her nephews and 
 nieces, inventing wonderful games to amuse 
 them. One of her letters, written about two 
 years before her death, speaks of the " children 
 to dinner for a birthday party, and Dore (the 
 old servant) sitting at table, too, because she 
 has been Ul. Voila mes fHes ! " 
 
 A typical evening at the Varnhagen's salmi 
 has been described by a visitor about 1830. 
 
 The guests came and went, some looked in on 
 their way to other entertainments ; there were 
 no invitations, but every one was welcome. 
 
 The conversation touched upon aU possible 
 topics ; politics, literature, music, arguments as 
 to Rossini and the Italian School versus the 
 German — a burning question of the day. 
 Henriette Sonntag was criticised for singing 
 music of too light a style for her great gifts. 
 Rahel defended her as a child of the times, 
 from which she said the great and sublime had 
 departed, it was now the day of the restrained 
 and graceful. A celebrated cantatrice sang songs 
 by Beethoven and Schubert, an especial delight 
 to Rahel. Alexander von Humboldt (the star 
 of Rahel's later salon, as Fichte had been of her 
 
 129 I 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 first) looked in on his way from Court, and 
 stayed long enough to give a witty description 
 of the various forms of piety which he had met 
 on his travels, classifying them as a botanist 
 does his plants. Then the talk drifted back to 
 politics and the absorbing question of France : 
 would she finally decide for a Republic or a 
 Monarchy ? Rahel declared France must inevit- 
 ably become a republic, sooner or later. Every 
 Frenchman, she said, has republicanism in his 
 blood, and, no matter how many attempts may 
 fail, a republic France wiU be at last. "AU 
 obstacles are but as dust in the path" of great 
 destined world-events like that, she said with 
 enthusiasm, looking like an inspired prophetess, 
 with flashing eyes and animated bearing. Every 
 one was impressed, though no one thought her 
 prophecy likely to be fulfilled. 
 
 Presently Bettina von Arnim entered, and 
 Rahel subsided into the quiet hostess, content 
 to hsten delightedly, throwing in a word now 
 and then as was her wont, for Bettina was a 
 brilhant talker, and every one listened fascinated 
 to her witty, sparkling flow of words. 
 
 Such a salon was neither a "crush" nor a 
 "function," but a meeting-place for recreation 
 and interest. Men and women then cared 
 
 130 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 passionately for ideas and met together to 
 discuss them, as an end in itself. 
 
 As a rule Rahel made no long speeches, she 
 threw in a remark here and there, something 
 witty or inspiring, like a lightning flash. She 
 never wanted to monopolise the conversation, 
 but could always guide and correct it. If 
 argument waxed too hot she would divert it 
 by a witticism or happy saying into peaceful 
 channels. " I don't want to make long speeches," 
 she said, and " I don't want to shine, but to 
 see light." 
 
 Bettina von Arnim declared Rahel was at her 
 best tete-a-tite. 
 
 "Frau V. Arnim was with us," relates 
 Rahel's Diary (13th March 1826), "and spoke 
 finely about many things. She said : ' Before 
 falling asleep it is possible to direct the spirit, 
 and as it were send it along certain paths ; ' she 
 had often tried it and had found it affirmed by 
 Plato. Then I reminded Varnhagen of what 
 I always said : In real deep sleep the soul goes 
 home, to gather strength ; otherwise it could not 
 endure. This is a wise provision, the soul bathes 
 in God's sea. Frau v. Arnim complained that 
 so many human talents and energies are never 
 utilised, never become deeds; one feels this 
 
 131 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 plainly, often bitterly. After she had gone, 
 Varnhagen repeated that and added : ' That is 
 the ease with all talented people. Yes and even 
 with those of apparently least talent. How 
 much hes dormant in each one ! ' ' Yes,' said 
 I, ' it must be so ; it is like oU in the lamp, if 
 it were not there the light would go out ; but 
 there must be more oil there than the hght 
 needs ; the last drop of light must be borne by 
 the others. . . . Ah ! everything is right, only 
 we do not understand it ! ' " 
 
 In these happy years Rahel was reconciled 
 with fate, which at first had seemed against her. 
 She was even reconciled to her Jewish origin, 
 and shortly before her death spoke of herself 
 as " the fugitive from Egypt," led by destiny to 
 the love of husband and friends. "What was 
 so long the greatest shame, the bitterest sorrow 
 and suffering to me, my Jewish birth, now I 
 would not change it at any price." The last 
 four years of her life were spoilt by illness and 
 bodily suffering, which she bore with marvellous 
 courage and cheerfulness. Always delicate, she 
 now suffered among other ills from a distressing 
 form of asthma, and the attacks became more 
 severe and frequent. More and more confined 
 to the house, she was deprived of any amuse- 
 
 132 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 ment such as the theatre, which she keenly 
 enjoyed, and of much social intercourse. The 
 sudden death of her beloved brother Robert, 
 followed by that of his wife, was a heavy 
 blow. This was in the year preceding her 
 own death, as was also the death of Goethe, 
 which she felt deeply. Her life was despaired 
 of in the winter of 1832, but she rallied towards 
 spring, when Bettina von Arnim persuaded her 
 to try a new system of treatment under a 
 homoeopathic doctor who was visiting Berlin. 
 This treatment necessitated leaving off various 
 medicines which alleviated the attacks, but 
 she persevered in spite of increased suffering. 
 Finally, in March 1833, a terrible attack came 
 on one night, no remedies were at hand, and 
 she expired in the arms of the faithful old 
 servant Dore. 
 
 Her husband survived her until 1858. He 
 felt her loss keenly. Writing some years after 
 her death he said she was ever and always 
 " the youngest and freshest creature in my life. 
 She had all the warmth and brillance of a being 
 who has just come from God's hands. I know 
 nothing resembling her. Talent and capabilities 
 others may possess the same and more, but 
 personality, no one. ... It is easier for a 
 
 133 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Goethe, a Spinoza, a Plato, to manifest them- 
 selves again than a Rahel." 
 
 This may sound exaggerated praise, yet a 
 more recent and less prejudiced critic has pro- 
 nounced Rahel "the feminine counterpart of 
 Goethe." 
 
 It was fitting that Varnhagen, as a labour 
 of love, should collect her letters and sayings 
 and give them to the world. Rahel, ein Buck 
 des Andenkens fm~ ihre Freunde was published 
 a year after her death. 
 
 Many of her aphorisms and sayings had been 
 published during her hfe-time by Fouqu^ in his 
 weekly paper, Berliner Blatter fur deutsche 
 Frauen. Not that Rahel had written them 
 with a view to publication. It chanced that 
 Fouque, being one day short of " copy," rushed 
 to Varnhagen and- begged for something which 
 he could insert. Rahel was ill, and Varnhagen, 
 searching among her correspondence, found some 
 aphorisms and notes, which Fouqud published 
 immediately under the heading " Denkbldtter 
 einer Berlinerin." 
 
 With her keen feeling for literary style, Rahel 
 always lamented her own shortcomings, and 
 wrote to Fouqu^ in admiration of " your words, 
 like well - drilled soldiers in smart uniform, 
 
 184 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 whilst mine are like a crowd of peasants with 
 clubs." And she told Jean Paul, "You and 
 I cannot write." 
 
 Rahel's letters are numerous and lengthy. 
 It was the fashion in her day to write letters, 
 but hers are not written in the careful, flow- 
 ing style of the then literary lady. She was 
 not an authoress, had neither creative power 
 nor literary style. Her letters are living, 
 because they were thrown off carelessly, grave 
 or gay, witty or passionate, according to her 
 mood. She did not aim at style in the con- 
 ventional sense. " I want to write just as I 
 talk," she says. " I throw off explosions." 
 Nearly all her brilliant sayings are in these 
 letters, thrown off "as one talks." By these 
 we know her. And her nervous, epigrammatic, 
 impressionist utterance is really modern, just 
 as her ideas were modern. 
 
 In an amusing and characteristic letter (dated 
 1823) she chats about the future : " air — 
 balloons, telegraph, railways, thought - per- 
 spective (with which we shall see thoughts 
 through people's heads), weather - makers and 
 quite new festivities unknown to us are yet 
 to come. We shall not think of dying any 
 more, that is an accident and must be got 
 
 135 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 rid of before anything else. But suddenly 
 adieu ! " 
 
 As a matter of fact she exercised a strong 
 influence on German hterary style by her own 
 peculiar way of writing. Regretting that the 
 German language, unlike the French, was not 
 yet moulded conversationally, that it had not 
 yet realised itself and its possibilities, she 
 tried to make it live and sparkle, both in speak- 
 ing and .writing. She certainly struck sparks 
 from it, made it less heavy, less pedantic, 
 though this influence only made itself felt after 
 her death and the publication of her letters. 
 
 And she had poetic feeling which expresses 
 itself sometimes in quite beautiful passages, 
 short and fleeting as her other utterances, 
 but with a charm which is very evident in 
 the original. Nietzsche wrought the German 
 language into beautiful prose, here and there 
 Rahel too puts a beautiful thought poetically. 
 " Pure, dehcate, and holy as the budding leaf 
 within the almond is our truest inmost wish." 
 After Goethe's death she wrote simply (1832) : 
 
 " Softer than rains in May are children's 
 kisses, the perfume of roses, nightingales' songs, 
 the warbling of larks. . . . Goethe hears them 
 no more. A great witness is lacking." 
 
 136 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 Rahel's youth fell in the period of the Romantic 
 movement, to which she belonged heart and 
 soul. She lived to see that movement giving 
 place to Jung Deutschland with its strong 
 realistic tendencies, and she inspired the youth 
 of that period as she had inspired those of 
 her own. But there is no contradiction in 
 this. Rahel's romanticism was that of Goethe, 
 the early, healthy romanticism which was the 
 rebellion of nature against convention and 
 classicism. With its later developments she 
 was less in sympathy. Clearness of vision was 
 Rahel's great characteristic, mentally she was 
 more akin to the Latin than to the Teutonic 
 race. The choice of subjects of the later 
 romantic writers, who sought glamour in the 
 Past or the Supernatural, did not appeal to her. 
 She did not care, for instance, for Weber's 
 romantic operas, and, although she received an 
 overwhelming impression from reading the 
 Nibelungen legend, she preferred the Greek 
 gods to the northern "gods of mist and fog." 
 Nothing interested her so much as human 
 beings and real life. Hence her sympathy 
 with YoungjGermany and realism. The move- 
 ment was more political and social than creative 
 in literature ; " Young Germany " left imagina- 
 
 137 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 tion and dreams to the Romanticists. Rahel 
 reahsed the importance of the present, " the 
 beloved, honoured Now," and the significance 
 of the period in which she hved. " I am glad 
 to live now," she wrote in later years, " because 
 the world really is progressing, because ideas, 
 dreams are becoming alive, because industries, 
 inventions, associations, realise these dreams. . . . 
 The Present is the Future, and the world is 
 moving. [Sie geht, die welt.)" 
 
 After the Napoleonic wars new problems 
 confronted the minds of men. Rahel could 
 sympathise with the Saint Simonists and Com- 
 munists, although her essentially individualist 
 soul refused to go far on CoUectivist lines. 
 This was a personal feeling, and persisted in 
 spite of her very real sympathy with the 
 people. " I love the working classes," she said, 
 " because they are the most and the poorest," 
 and she wonders whether the highest develop- 
 ment of the best people is worth the suffering 
 and misery which produce the "century -old 
 manure," necessary for that development of 
 the few. She saw the limits of nationality. 
 "There will come a time when national pride 
 will be ranked with self-love, and other forms 
 of vanity and war and fighting." Yet in her 
 
 138 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 heart she was something of a Nietzschian or 
 rather an anticipator of Nietzsche. She thanked 
 God that she was born "noble," in the Greek 
 sense " aristocratic," a personahty, that she was 
 her whole life through "Rahel and no one 
 else." Courage was for her the highest virtue, 
 cowardice and lying the lowest vices. Quite 
 Nietzschian is her daring : " Virtue is much 
 worse than a passion. The latter may be over- 
 come, but I should like to see the man who 
 could ever make himself free from the former, 
 if she had once enslaved him. He may cease 
 to be a saint, but he will certainly never be a 
 free devil, only a bad and timid one." 
 
 Of a great man she said : 
 
 " He is so far ahead in his ideas, that there 
 can no longer be any question whether he is 
 good or not good ; that lies far beneath him." 
 " Innocence is beautiful : Virtue is a plaster, a 
 scar, an operation." " People are aU good, but 
 they are not worth an5i;hing." 
 
 Speaking of too great yielding to others as a 
 fault, she says " something of the eagle nature " 
 is necessary in life, though she has it not. 
 
 Rahel's ideas on love and marriage were con- 
 siderably in advance of the conventional, both 
 of her day and ours. 
 
 139 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 " I see that human beings are so degraded 
 that they have to make their declaration dJ amour 
 before a priest and before the law. They know 
 themselves ! " 
 
 "It is hard that in Europe men and women 
 belong to two different classes : one moral, the 
 other not. This can only be kept up by dis- 
 simulation. And this was chivalry ! These few 
 words are most true ; they contain much misery 
 and much wickedness. Some one should write 
 a book about this." 
 
 European evils she sums up as "the Negro 
 traffic, war, marriage ; and they are surprised 
 and try to mend matters ! " She wrote burning 
 words of the mother and her rights. "All 
 mothers should be held in honour and innocent 
 —like Mary." 
 
 There were women writers in her day (Caroline 
 Schlegel, Dorothea Tieck), who wrote under 
 men's names. Rahel blamed them for this 
 affected modesty, " old-Frankish coquetry" she 
 called it. " Poor fear ! A book might be good, 
 even if a mouse wrote it. If Mrs Fichte had 
 written Fichte's works, would they be any the 
 worse for that ? " The " old Frankish coquetry," 
 under which she classed all affectations, prudery, 
 dissimulations in intercourse between men and 
 
 140 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 women, was Rahel's Mte noire. Equality ,of 
 the sexes was her ideal, but she saw that the 
 women of her time needed intellectual training 
 before that could be realised. She suggested a 
 University education long before such an idea 
 was dreamed of, and she felt that women had 
 a right to work as citizens and that social 
 economy was, above aU, a suitable sphere for 
 their activity. She had organised a band of 
 women nurses during the Freedom Wars, and 
 became convinced of their capabilities. 
 
 Women should institute a Board of Poor- 
 helpers [Arrmndirektorium) she thought, antici- 
 pating the fine organisations of German women 
 at the present day. 
 
 When some one considered that a literary 
 woman had missed her true vocation, Rahel 
 exclaimed : " Granted ! So many women miss 
 their true vocation that the few who miss it by 
 writing may well slip in among the rest. There 
 is no need to pity them more than those others 
 who have but little pity bestowed on them." 
 
 The great characteristic of her personal inter- 
 course was that she was natural, gave herself 
 simply and frankly as she was, and others 
 found themselves doing the same, consciously 
 or unconsciously. This gift of being natural, 
 
 141 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 one of the rarest, but also the first and most 
 necessary for the hostess of a salon, was one 
 secret of Rahel's charm: the other was a 
 perfect genius of insight and sympathy. About 
 this Bettina said one of her clever things: 
 "Rahel could still taste the salt where others 
 only despised the ashes of a burnt life." This 
 made her sympathies so wide, the rank and 
 even the reputation of her friends was a matter 
 of indifference to her, as long as they were 
 interesting personalities. Hence her enemies 
 blamed the somewhat Bohemian character of 
 her receptions. 
 
 Varnhagen himself did not always approve 
 her choice of friends. There was the beautiful 
 PauUne Wiesel for instance, who knew no law 
 save her own wayward impulses, and, as some- 
 one said, had really the soul of a Greek 
 courtesan ; for a time she bestowed her affec- 
 tions on Prince Ferdinand: the lovely blonde 
 Bohemian Countess Josefine Pachte, equally 
 " Greek," who left her husband and a brilliant 
 position for the sake of a lover. What Rahel 
 really admired in these women was that they 
 dared to be themselves. On the other hand she 
 condemned Henriette Herzen's aesthetic flirta- 
 tions as " a cold simulacre of love," nor would 
 
 142 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 she join the Tugendhund, because she disliked 
 its atmosphere of sentimental introspection. 
 
 Quite characteristic was her attitude to her 
 old friend Gentz, the brilliant writer, politician, 
 and viveur, who, with many faults, always kept 
 a certain naive childlike heart. In his old age 
 he fell in love with Fanny Elsler, a beautiful 
 young dancer, and Rahel, he said, was the only 
 one to whom he dared confess the reality of his 
 love. Others laughed this " old man's infatua- 
 tion" to scorn, but Rahel saw deep enough to 
 understand, and congratulated him upon still 
 being capable of real and lasting affections. 
 "Good hearts," she wrote, "can always be in 
 love, always want to be." As for Gentz, he 
 was so delighted with Rahel's letters that, he 
 would copy them (so badly written were they) 
 in order to read them in comfort. 
 
 Rahel adored music, the drama, the dance. 
 A town without a theatre she compared to "a 
 person with closed eyes ; a place without a 
 current of air, without movement." She felt 
 all forms of art instinctively, as only an original 
 nature feels them, and her criticisms penetrated 
 in a flash to the heart of things. Hence her 
 judgment on plays and acting was keenly 
 sought after, although she expressed herself in 
 
 143 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 a dilettante, untrained fashion, as, for instance, 
 when filled with enthusiastic admiration for a 
 Neapolitan dancer, she wrote : " He describes 
 conditions and relationships, instead of reciting 
 difficult steps and spelling with his feet." An 
 actor she blamed for " sending out a few single 
 words in the middle, before, or from a phrase, 
 like lost sentries, giving them no means of 
 support, such as accent or tone to connect 
 them." And on every stage in Germany she 
 complains there is one like him to annoy 
 her ! 
 
 In the same way, though not a writer herself, 
 she could give in a letter to Vamhagen un- 
 consciously the best possible rules for writing : 
 
 "When you write, let yourself go. Don't 
 think of any friend, of any model, not even of the 
 greatest masters except to avoid them. Picture 
 yourself, all that you see and as you see it. 
 This only is what you, I, the world, respect 
 and adore in Goethe, Shakespeare, Cervantes, 
 and in all great men, they picture themselves." 
 
 Music she loved passionately, and in her last 
 years of failing health the artistic singing of a 
 sister-in-law was her greatest enjoyment. 
 
 During a stay in Toeplitz she had made 
 the acquaintance of Beethoven, whom she 
 
 144 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 encountered one day, like herself, on a solitary 
 ramble. Beethoven was struck by the expres- 
 sion of her face and procured an introduction. 
 Evidently he found the lonely rambler sym- 
 pathetic, for he played and improvised for her 
 unasked, an especial mark of favour. 
 
 It is interesting to know the attitude of a 
 mind like Rahel's towards the Unseen. Her 
 profession of Christianity was really more a 
 confession of sympathy with national and social 
 ideals than with religious dogma. She sub- 
 scribed to no dogma, holding that no belief is 
 of value unless it be the result of personal con- 
 viction. Each soul must find its own revelation, 
 determine its own relation to the Unknown. 
 " What is man but a question ! He is here 
 for that, for asking honest, bold questions, and 
 humbly waiting for answers. Not asking boldly 
 enough and giving one's self-flattering answers, 
 that is the deep source of all error." This belief 
 In a revelation personal to each soul inclined 
 her towards mysticism, and in her late years 
 she was fond of the writings of Saint Martin, 
 a French mystic, and those of Angelus Silesius, 
 a seventeenth - century German mystic, whom 
 Friedrich Schlegel had re-discovered.^ 
 
 1 Saint Martin (1743-1804). Angelus Silesius (1624-77). 
 145 K 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 " We are only a drop of consciousness ! And 
 I will so gladly return to the sea!" was her 
 conclusion. 
 
 Heinrich Heine came in 1821 to study in 
 Berhn, a young man of twenty-two, " sent 
 down" from the University of Gottingen for 
 a duel. Rahel and her circle were congenial 
 friends. 
 
 Rahel says, "as he was subtle and peculiar 
 I often understood him and he me, when others 
 failed to do so, that won him, and he took me 
 as Protectress." 
 
 And Heine in the well - known passage 
 acknowledges how well Rahel understood him. 
 
 " When I read her letter it was as if I arose 
 in my sleep dreamily and stood before the 
 mirror, conversing with myself. I need not 
 write to Frau von Varnhagen, she knows all 
 I could tell her, knows what I am feehng, 
 thinking." His very handwriting is growing 
 like hers, naturally so, for their thoughts are 
 as like as one star to another, " especially those 
 stars which are millions of miles away from 
 this planet of ours." 
 
 It is a pity that Rahel's letters to Heine, 
 those letters which he says. " ruin my eyes and 
 refresh my heart," have been destroyed. He 
 
 146 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 cannot think of her without sadness, the dear 
 friend, rich in love and never-failing sympathy, 
 who had often been anxious about him in the 
 period of his youthful extravagance, when (he 
 says) the flame of truth gave out more heat 
 than light. 
 
 "It is quite natural," he wrote (17th June 
 1823) to Varnhagen, " that I should be thinking 
 most of the day of you and your wife, and I 
 always remember how much kindness and love 
 both of you have shown me and how you 
 cheered, strengthened, and smoothed me, a 
 morose, sick man, helping me with deed and 
 word, and refreshing me with macaroni and 
 mental food. I have found so little real kind- 
 ness in my life and have been so often deceived, 
 have only experienced real human treatment 
 from you and your large-hearted wife." So it 
 is not wonderful that he calls the house, No. 20. 
 Frauzosischestrasse, his " Fatherland," or that he 
 dates a new period of life from his acquaint- 
 ance with the "dear, good little woman with 
 the great soul 1 " ^ 
 
 He wrote, on the publication of Varnhagen's 
 Memoirs of Rahel : " It was a noble deed of 
 August Varnhagen, when, putting aside all 
 
 1 Otto Berdrow, Rakel Varnhagen, 
 
 147 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 petty considerations, he published those letters 
 in which Rahel manifests her whole personality. 
 This book came out at the right time to influ- 
 ence, strengthen and console." 
 
 Rahel admired Heine's poems greatly, criticis- 
 ing them in her usual outspoken manner. His 
 gift of style delighted her. Fredrich Schlegel, 
 she said, had that gift too — " a sieve in the ear 
 which lets nothing bad pass-through." 
 
 As regards Rahel's personal magnetism, the 
 description of the poet Grillparzer is significant. 
 At the time of their meeting Rahel was some 
 fifty-six years of age. It was late one evening. 
 Grillparzer, who was visiting Berlin, was tired 
 out with sight-seeing when Varnhagen insisted 
 on taking him home and introducing him to 
 Rahel, "that Rahel," says Grillparzer, "who 
 was afterwards celebrated, but of whom I knew 
 nothing at that time. I hg,d been going about 
 all day and felt dead tired, so was heartily glad 
 when they told us at the door, the Frau 
 Legationsrdthin was not at home. However, 
 as we went down the steps, the lady met us, 
 and I resigned myself to my fate. But as 
 soon as this woman — elderly, perhaps, never 
 pretty, elf-like, not to say witch-like, in appear- 
 ance — as soon as she began to speak I was 
 
 148 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 bewitched. My fatigue vanished, or rather it 
 gave way to ecstasy. She talked and talked 
 until nearly midnight, and I don't remember 
 whether they turned me out or whether I went 
 of my own accord. I never heard any one talk 
 so well or in such an interesting manner." To 
 a friend he declared she was the only woman 
 he would ever have cared to marry. 
 
 Enterprising interviewers are fond of pubUsh- 
 ing portraits of their subjects at difierent periods 
 of hfe from infancy to old age. We can trace 
 Rahel's soul-development in her sayings, those 
 " explosions " crystallised into Uttle chips of 
 philosophy. 
 
 In the saddest period of her youth she clung 
 to courage.,, " I hold for ever fast to the 
 strength of my own heart and the teaching of 
 my soul." " Justice for others ; courage for 
 ourselves," was her favourite motto through 
 life. Later she recognised that her fate was 
 the common fate of all, "we faU like blossoms 
 blown by the great unknown wind," and, that 
 hardest lesson, " careless fate never requires of 
 us what we were really capable of doing." 
 
 Then came the resignation of middle-age, and 
 she discovers : " What makes us really so very 
 unhappy is that we cannot make up our minds 
 
 149 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 not to be happy. But once we have been 
 driven to this point, old age suddenly comes 
 upon us : we no longer trouble ourselves about 
 the infinite, but take our share of life and hve, 
 as the saying is, for the moment. Tears, 
 splendour, and rage are over; we become stiff, 
 kindly disposed, and wrinkled. Old age comes 
 suddenly and not by degrees (as we fancy) like 
 all true knowledge." 
 
 The real aim of life dawned upon her, 
 expressed in a letter to her friend, Alexander 
 von Marwitz, To him she wrote : "It does 
 not matter what our fate is, so long as we 
 gain wisdom. Development is our fate." Finally, 
 her practical ideal : " To see, to love, to under- 
 stand, not to wish for anything, to be simply 
 resigned, to revere the great Being; not to 
 be for ever improving, inventing and hammer- 
 ing, to be merry and to grow better." 
 
 Sayings of Rahel 
 
 " Justice for others ; courage for ourselves." 
 
 " All our dreams and our bitterest sufferings 
 centre in possession, yet the only thing we 
 can ever really possess is the capacity for 
 enjojmnent." 
 
 150 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 " I envy no one anjrthing, excepting those 
 things which no one has." 
 
 " We are really what we wish to be, and 
 not what we are." 
 
 " I have lost . . . yet I would not be of those 
 who never stake on the game." 
 
 " Those who suffer, have the most." 
 
 " Every man is, and is meant to be, an 
 Original, not a manufactured article." 
 
 " One thing is just in this world : faces all 
 grow like their souls." 
 
 "We see ourselves as concave, others see 
 us as convex." 
 
 " For me, the difference between human 
 beings lies in their manner of asking questions ; 
 they all answer in the same way." 
 
 " Freedom can never be anything but the 
 being able to follow one's inmost nature 
 slavishly." 
 
 " I have never regretted anything which I 
 did gladly, only and always what I did 
 reluctantly." 
 
 " Good things exist long before they are 
 famous, and their fame exists long after they 
 are no more." 
 
 151 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 " We never make new experiences ; it is always 
 new people who make the old experiences." 
 
 " Good hearts can always be in love, always 
 want to be. Only they find so few worthy 
 objects, hence all the love troubles." 
 
 " Always to love the same thing or something 
 else, that is to be constant in loving. To love 
 nothing is to be inconstant (to love)." 
 
 " Our heart is quite in the dark, quite alone, 
 and all alone it knows best. Only when we 
 look into it do we find knowledge ; for the 
 dazzling lights of the big world do not penetrate. 
 It lives within us as a standard of another world, 
 as a Yes or No : nothing more." 
 
 " If one listens to the conversations of passers- 
 by in the street, one seldom hears anything 
 but complaints or boasts. All men really aspire 
 to a more worthy and dignified existence ; if 
 they do so sincerely, they complain ; if falsely, 
 they boast." 
 
 Rahel's soul, the essence of her individuality, 
 is contained for us in sayings hke the foregoing, 
 aphoristic, detached fragments from the mass 
 of letters and correspondence which form her 
 only " literary remains." 
 
 These letters, which only very few students 
 152 
 
Rahel Varnhagen 
 
 care to wade through nowadays, are full of 
 such fragments of insight, philosophical, sad, 
 or witty, according to her mood, a propos of 
 any and ever5rthing, thrown off, as she says, 
 " carelessly, as one talks," " explosions, with 
 here and there a jewel." These are Rahel, 
 though they lack the charm of personality and 
 manner — only realisable by contemporaries — 
 which went so far to make her famous. 
 
 158 
 
BETTINA VON ARNIM 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 BrentanOj Bettina. Tagebuch, 1835. 
 
 „ ,, Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, 1835. 
 
 „ „ Edited J. Frankel, Briejfwechsel mit einem 
 
 Kinde, 1906. 
 „ „ Edited Dr P. Ernest, Die O'anderode, 1904. 
 
 ,, „ Bies'Buch gehort dem Konig, 1843. 
 
(Hos2th(2 (on his ©(zathbszd) 
 
BETTINA VON ARNIM 
 
 " Would I could sit at his door, a poor beggar child, and take a 
 piece of bread from his hand — and he would read in my eyes what 
 spirit dwells in me. Then he would draw me to him, and wrap me 
 in his cloak to warm me. Surely he would not bid me depart, but 
 would let me stay on and on in his house. . . . And the years 
 would pass, and life would pass, whilst in his face the whole world 
 would be mirrored for me, 1 should have no need of other learning." 
 
 What student of German literature has not 
 enjoyed the delightful episode of Bettina, the 
 " Child," in Goethe's life ? Her impetuous 
 entrance into the poet's friendship, her enthusi- 
 astic worship of Beethoven, her own flashes 
 of poetry and inspiration make her story a 
 fascinating human document. Unconventional 
 and Bohemian as any modern cosmopolitan 
 young art-student, she was in her girlhood the 
 familiar friend of two of the greatest men of 
 genius who have ever lived. Her famous book 
 was one of those fresh, original expressions 
 which startle every one into interest. It was 
 the self-revelation of a girl eager to live and 
 understand, full of the glamour of youth, a 
 diary as fascinating as Marie Bashkirtseff's, 
 
 157 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 but finer work, for it was literature. Bettina 
 was fully as brilliant and vivid a personality 
 as the celebrated Russian, but her book is 
 free from the constant self-analysis, the ob- 
 session of the I, above all it is without the 
 modern neurotic taint. Her nature was warm- 
 blooded, healthy ; her " singing flames " are 
 love. In giving herself to the world as she 
 did in her writings, in daring to be herself 
 regardless of <!onvention, she revealed the soul 
 of a genial and highly gifted woman, making 
 her sex richer by a strong and original 
 personality. 
 
 At the time when Rahel Levin was solacing 
 an unhappy girlhood with books in her " attic," 
 Anna Elizabeth Brentano, Goethe's Bettina, 
 was born 4th April 1785 in Frankfurt-on-the- 
 Main — Goethe's birthplace — the old free town 
 full of merchandise, traditions, and self-import- 
 ance, surrounded by fruitful plains, yet not too 
 far from the Rhine and its romance. 
 
 Her father was a wealthy merchant of Italian 
 origin. On her mother's side were literary 
 traditions. Her grandmother, Sophie La Roche, 
 born in the same year as Goethe's mother, was 
 a well-known authoress in the sentimental vein 
 then in vogue. Her novel, Geschichte des 
 
 158 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 Frduleins von Sternheim, was, in fact, a good 
 specimen of Empfindsamkeit. An unhappy 
 youthful attachment to the poet Wieland still 
 shed a glow of romantic interest in later life, and 
 a literary circle consoled her in some measure 
 for a not particularly happy marriage with 
 Hojfrat La Roche. A true daughter of that 
 period of Sensibility, she was somewhat of a 
 poseuse. On meeting Wieland after many 
 years, they both wept, the spectators of the 
 scene were also moved to tears. But this 
 extreme sensibiUty did not prevent her from 
 marrying her daughters to men whom they did 
 not love, to the astonishment and indignation 
 of honest, downright Frau Rath Goethe, who 
 could not understand " a woman Uke La Roche, 
 who is determined to make her daughters un- 
 happy, and yet writes Sternheims and women's 
 letters — in a word, my head is in a whirl. If I 
 understand anything of all this, may I become 
 an oyster ! " 
 
 Goethe frequented the house of Madame La 
 Roche in his youth, enjoying her motherly 
 friendship, eminently attracted by her beautiful 
 daughter, Maximiliane. In fact, in the dark 
 eyes of " dear Max " he drowned the remem- 
 brance of a former passion. 
 
 159 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 With cool self-analysis he wrote : " Soon the 
 eldest daughter especially attracted me. It is a 
 pleasant sensation when a new passion begins 
 to move within us before the old one has quite 
 died out. Thus one loves to see with the 
 setting sun the moon rising in the opposite 
 quarter, rejoicing in the double brilliance of 
 both heaven's lights." 
 
 But "dear Max" was married at seventeen 
 by that inexorable sentimentalist, her mother, 
 to Peter Brentano, the Milanese merchant, a 
 widower of forty with five children, a man 
 described as "vain and stupid." From her 
 mother's intellectual circles she was transplanted 
 to the gloomy house of merchandise, redolent 
 of oU and cheese. Goethe visited the young 
 stepmother sometimes, they made music together 
 (Max played the piano, Goethe the 'cello) until 
 Brentano grew jealous, and, after an angry scene, 
 Goethe thought it best to avoid meeting her 
 again. This renunciation, he said, was "worth 
 more than the assiduity of the most ardent 
 lover." Echoes of this episode resound in 
 JVerther's Leiden, the beautiful dark eyes of 
 Lotte are surely those of " Max," although the 
 story was inspired from other sources. 
 
 Maximiliane's marriage was in these circum- 
 160 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 stances not a happy one. Of her numerous 
 children Clemens and Bettina were the only 
 remarkable ones ; both were poetic natures, 
 dreamy and imaginative, yet humorous, fascin- 
 ating and interesting creatures from their earliest 
 childhood. 
 
 The beginning of Bettina's adoration of Goethe 
 lay in this episode of her mother's youth, which 
 came to her knowledge when she was herself 
 scarcely more than a child. Some of Goethe's 
 letters to her mother revealed the story, and 
 these treasures have been found carefully copied 
 in her own girlish handwriting. 
 
 When Bettina was only five years old her 
 mother died, and she grew up partly under the 
 care of her grandmother and partly in a convent 
 school at Fritzlar near Cassel. Here she learnt 
 various accomplishments, was clever at needle- 
 work, painting, modelling, had a decided gift 
 for music (studying the guitar and composition), 
 but was impatient of anything like systematic 
 study. 
 
 She enjoyed an unusual amount of liberty, 
 loved to watch insects, plants, animals, to bury 
 her face in the grass, to feel at one with nature, 
 and was particularly fond of climbing trees. 
 Once she climbed an old tower and drew the 
 
 161 L 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 ladder up after her, so as to be really alone. 
 In such fastnesses she would sit for hours dream- 
 mg the dreams of a clever child, half poet, half 
 woman. " The abyss of dry, mouldering history 
 beneath me, the unattainable heaven of stars 
 above, and at night thoughts which make my 
 brain reel." 
 
 In Bettina's Diary and Letters are charming 
 pictures of her childish days in the convent, 
 how she helped Mere Celatrice tend the bees, 
 or Sister Monica in gardening operations. 
 Sister Monica lived to a great age, and one day 
 Bettina found the old nun lying dead among 
 her flowers. " I took the plants from her stiff 
 hands, and set them in the freshly turned earth, 
 watering them with the last jug of water which 
 she had carried from the Madlenen fountain, 
 the good sister Monica ! How beautiful those 
 carnations grew, deep red and big ! Later, when 
 he who knows and loves me compared me to a 
 dark red carnation, I thought of the flowers I 
 had taken from the dead hand of age and 
 planted, and wondered if death would haply 
 surprise me, too, planting flowers ; death the 
 triumphant herald of life ! " The romantic 
 glamour was about her even then. As a little 
 child of eight she used to steal out of the 
 
 I6g 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 dormitory, past the rows of sleepers, out in the 
 deep still night, to the fountain in the midst of 
 flower-beds " where each flower, each bud, in the 
 illusive twilight expresses a dream face. There 
 1 stood watching the jet of water blown hither 
 and thither by the wind, whilst moonbeams 
 weave through the restless waters, and the 
 lightning writes silver hieroglyphics in them." 
 Once she stayed out through a thunderstorm, 
 clinging close to a flowering hme-tree for pro- 
 tection, whilst the nuns arose and went into 
 the church to pray. The httle girl beneath the 
 tree watched the lights and the white figures 
 moving past the windows, heard the singing 
 and the tolling of the bell to avert the lightning. 
 Never had a voung girl a more delightful and 
 interesting youth. As a change from nature- 
 worship came visits to relatives in Frankfurt 
 and to her grandmother, whose house Grillen- 
 hutte was the meeting - place for all sorts of 
 interesting people. About this time many 
 French refugees were to be met here, whilst 
 in Frankfurt Bettina's brother Clemens, the 
 budding poet, gathered round him another circle 
 of young ardent souls. Bettina was never 
 among " common - place " people, she was all 
 her Ufe in a world of the elite, in mind and 
 \ 163 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 character. Even in these circles the young 
 girl Bettina was considered a wonder, every 
 one admired her originality, wit, and cleverness. 
 Her brother Clemens adored her, and even the 
 serious Schleiermacher was heard to say : " God 
 must have been in a happy mood when he made 
 Bettina." But she was no mere Sckongeist 
 dabbling in art and literature. She knew the 
 worth of these things, and knew how far more 
 precious are the things of the heart. 
 
 " Piano - playing, Aria - singing, foreign lan- 
 guages, history, science — all make a character 
 worthy of respect. But, ah I I always seek 
 beneath all these, something that I could love ! " 
 
 Bettina's Ufe unfolds itself like a romance : a 
 happy youth, a happy marriage, happy mother- 
 hood, her literary work appreciated, her fascinat- 
 ing personality adored — such was Bettina's page 
 of life. 
 
 Among other tasks she had been chosen as 
 a girl acolyte, a post of honour. It was her 
 duty to clean the chalice in which the con- 
 secrated wafers were kept, to wash the chalice 
 napkins. "Many a hot afternoon have I sat 
 under the arch of the vestry door ... to the 
 left in the corner of the cloisters stood the 
 bee-house beneath tall yew trees, to the right 
 
 164 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 the little bee-garden, planted with fragrant herbs 
 and pinks. . . . From thence I could see into 
 the distance ; the distance that raises such 
 strange feelings in the child-soul . . . awakens 
 that first dim foreboding of a veiled future." 
 
 In the convent there were no mirrors, and 
 for four years Bettina never saw her own 
 reflection. But in her thirteenth year she one 
 day beheld two nuns and her grandmother 
 coming to meet her, the whole group in the 
 looking-glass. " 1 recognised them all except- 
 ing one, the girl with sparkhng eyes, glowing 
 cheeks, with soft dark curly hair; I did not 
 know her, but my heart leapt towards her, 
 such a face I have loved in my dreams, in her 
 glance is something which moves me to tears, 
 I must follow this being, must swear fealty 
 and belief to her; when she weeps, I will 
 softly mourn, when she is joyful, I will serve 
 her silently. I beckon to her — see, she rises 
 and comes to meet me, we smile at each other, 
 and I no longer doubt, it is my picture which 
 I see in the mirror. 
 
 " Ah ! yes. ... I have no other friend ex- 
 cept myself, I have often wept with, not for 
 myself, I have laughed with myself, and that 
 was still sadder, for no one else shared our mirth. 
 
 165 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 If any one had told me that each one seeks 
 in love only himself, and that the greatest 
 happiness is to find one's self in that love, I 
 should not have understood it." 
 
 Thus Bettina grew up in a freedom which 
 gave full scope to all the promptings of a 
 poetical and an imaginative nature. One 
 cannot indeed imagine her cribbed, cabined, or 
 confined, she was always following her own 
 impulses, listening to the promptings of her 
 own "demon," in whom she firmly beheved. 
 Many were her daring escapades, only revealed 
 later by her diary, as when she stole out at 
 night to the haunted churchyard, fearful but 
 irresistibly drawn ; or, again, by night to the 
 river in thaw after a severe winter, springing 
 from one ice floe to another, always alone and 
 enjoying her solitude. Her real education was 
 nature's. 
 
 She had a passionate love for animals, her 
 diary is full of anecdotes about them, humorous 
 or poetical. Her friendship with a nightingale, 
 for instance : 
 
 " She came down from one branch to another, 
 nearer and nearer, clung to the lowest bough 
 to see me. I turned towards her gently so 
 as not to startle her, our eyes met and we 
 
 166 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 gazed at each other steadily. ... On the 
 following day the nightingale came again, so 
 did I, for I had felt she would come. I had 
 brought my guitar to play to her. It was by 
 the poplar grove, opposite the hedge of wild 
 roses . . . there she perched, craning her little 
 neck, and watched me playing with the sand. 
 Nightingales are inquisitive, they say ; it is 
 a proverb with us : ' as inquisitive as a 
 nightingale,' but why should she be curious 
 about us human beings, who have apparently 
 no relations with her? ... It was sultry, but 
 soon the wind began to blow, massing an army 
 of clouds above us. The rose-hedge rose and 
 sank with the wind, but the bird perched firmly ; 
 the more the storm raged, the louder her song, 
 her whole life streamed exultant from her tiny 
 throat ; neither falUng rain nor loud rustling 
 trees stopped her, nor did the thunder frighten 
 and overwhelm her." Such rhapsodies, such 
 ecstasies were Bettina's daily food. Early she 
 discovered, " If you are alone, you are with 
 your Genius." 
 
 Bettina writes from a little place on the 
 Rhine, an idylUc picture of life in those days. 
 
 " In the evening we saunter along the banks 
 of the Rhine, and then encamp in the timber 
 
 167 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 yard. I read Homer aloud ; the peasants draw 
 near and listen, the moon rises between the 
 hills. ... In the distance lies the dark ship, 
 where a fire burns . . . the spitz dog on the 
 deck barks from time to time. When we close 
 the book, a regular political discussion ensues: 
 the gods themselves pass for neither more nor 
 less than statesmen and opinions are defended 
 as warmly as if it had all taken place yesterday, 
 and many things might stiU be changed. . . . 
 If I had not read Homer to the peasants I 
 should not have known the poem, their questions 
 and remarks have made me understand it. 
 When we return home we go one after another 
 to bed. Then 1 sit down to the piano and 
 melodies come to me, to which I sing before 
 Heaven, the songs I love best. . . . 
 
 " On Saturday my brothers were here and 
 stayed tiU Monday, during which time we 
 passed the nights on the Rhine, George with 
 his flute, to which we sang. Thus we passed 
 from village to village, till the breaking day 
 drove us home. . . . 
 
 " On the way home I made the acquaintance 
 of the little goose-girl, who beamed at me from 
 under her long eyelashes. The other children 
 made fun of her, and said every one laughed 
 
 168 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 because her lashes were so long. She stood 
 there shyly, and at last began to weep. I 
 comforted her and said : ' God gave you those 
 long eyelashes because he meant you to look 
 after the beautiful white geese, and because 
 you have to stay in the open meadow.' The 
 geese thronged round the weeping child, hissing 
 at me and the laughing children. If I could 
 only paint, what a picture that would be ! " 
 
 Her young life was fed by every kind of 
 mental nourishment, aU the thoughts and move- 
 ments of her time were reflected in her sur- 
 roundings, and she absorbed greedily all that 
 came. Her letters are kaleidoscopic pictures 
 of intellectual interests. 
 
 "At grandmamma's in the evening the 
 emigrh discuss all kinds of politics and try to 
 turn the big world-pumpkin over from all sides, 
 they consider it rotten. I stand among the 
 disputants as under a dripping- well ; Protestant, 
 philosopher, encyclopaedist, illumin6, democrat. 
 Jacobin, terrorist, homme de sang, all rain down 
 on me." 
 
 Little did these world-reformers suspect what 
 a shrewd critic was in their midst in the 
 person of this slim girl with her dark southern 
 eyes and her black curls, by turns passionate, 
 
 169 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 exaltee, witty, or full of roguish pranks as a 
 schoolboy. 
 
 Some of Bettina's girlish enthusiasms sound 
 strangely familiar to us of a century later. She 
 was a vegetarian, talked much about the world- 
 soul, and was deeply interested in her grand- 
 mother's theory that our "own soul comes 
 from a spirit-seed in another life, this seed is 
 what has ripened during a hfe-time." Her 
 friend, Karoline von Giinderode, the poetess, 
 writing to Bettina, says a mutual acquaintance 
 had enquired after her. " I could not tell him 
 that you are a founder of religions, and have 
 taken the whole human race on your shoulders, 
 and intend them to hve on air and without 
 culture ; that you wiU eat no cooked food but 
 live on raw turnips and onions." This same 
 Karoline von Giinderode, the object of Bettina's 
 first girhsh adoration, wrote, under the name 
 of " Tian," poems in somewhat Ossianic strain. 
 She committed suicide in consequence of an 
 unhappy love-affair with the scientist Creuzer 
 when she was only twenty-six (1806), and her 
 tragic death came as the first great shock in 
 Bettina's life. Many years later she enshrined 
 her friend's memory in a book, Di&^.GAmd&md^ 
 a charming series of letters between two enthusi- 
 
 170 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 astic, highly-gifted girls, with all the magic of 
 the spring outlook on life. Bettina, the younger, 
 is all Schwdrmerei, she pours out her adventures, 
 her thoughts, her dreams, her friend, older and 
 more restrained, playfully advising or com- 
 menting. Bettina, in absence, longs to be back 
 with her dear Gunderode. " We wiU have our 
 beds close together and talk aU night long, 
 whilst the wind rattles in the tumble -down 
 roof, and the mice come to drink the oil in 
 our lamps, and we two philosophers, interrupted 
 charmingly by these intermezzi, speculate big, 
 deep things, enough to make the old world 
 creak on its rusty hinges." 
 
 Or Bettina climbs a tree opposite her friend's 
 window to read aloud to her, climbing one 
 branch higher at every chapter. 
 
 As one reads this book, lately re-edited,^ its 
 charm and freshness strikes one as immortal ; 
 spring-time, youth, poetry, romance still breathe 
 from its pages, as they did from those small 
 cramped pages of its first edition seventy years 
 ago. 
 
 A hundred years have passed since Bettina 
 was young, but this book lives in the eternal 
 spring of the world. 
 
 1 Dr Paul Ernstj Die Giinderode, 1904. 
 
 171 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Of Bettina's relatives her brother Clemens 
 was the most sympathetic. These two, the 
 artist-natures of their family, resembled each 
 other in temperament and character. Both were 
 dreamy, ardent, impulsive, desultory. Clemens 
 deplored this last characteristic in his wonderful 
 sister. He was afraid lest she should be led astray 
 by her brilliant, facile gifts. "Can't you turn 
 to some one thing with all your five senses and 
 grasp that wholly ? You often say clever things 
 and jump to conclusions which philosophers have 
 not yet found. Write something I " 
 
 But Bettina's time for writing had not yet 
 come, she was first to live, and Clemens might 
 have followed his own advice with great 
 advantage to himself. In the end Bettina was 
 more successful both in Ufe and writings than 
 her brother. In her marriage she certainly 
 found anchorage, whilst Clemens, after losing 
 his wife (the intellectual Sophie Mereau), drifted 
 into eccentricities, estranged his friends by 
 peculiar moods, sarcasms, impertinences, and, 
 finally embracing Roman Catholicism, devoted 
 his last years to chronicling the visions of a 
 hysteric nun. 
 
 In 1801 Bettina returned to Frankfurt, 
 living partly with relatives and partly in the 
 
 172 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 Kronstettenstift, a residence for ladies. The 
 old city was undergoing vicissitudes in this 
 time of unrest. In 1806 Napoleon came and 
 was pleased to change it from a Free Republic 
 to a Kingdom with a Prince {Furst-Primas), to 
 the no small disgust of the sturdy burghers. 
 Frau Goethe comments that Bonaparte "broke 
 down the walls of Frankfurt instead of entering 
 our hearts, and Madam Bonaparte rehearses 
 receptions with empty chairs and stools, whilst 
 Mr Bonaparte studies a book on etiquette." 
 
 It was when Bettina was suffering her first 
 great sorrow — the loss of her friend Karoline 
 von Giinderode — that she sought out Goethe's 
 mother, the famous " Frau Rath," in her 
 cheerful, healthy old age (she was seventy-five), 
 living on the Rossmarkt and extremely proud 
 of her great son, then "throning in Weimar 
 on Olympian heights." 
 
 The old lady loved the dark-eyed impetuous 
 girl, so different from the ordinary maidens 
 of her acquaintance, and a warm friendship 
 began, which was the delight of her remaining 
 years. She loved Bettina's pranks, adven- 
 tures, enthusiasms, laughed with her, scolded 
 her, as occasion required. They laughed often, 
 for both ladies possessed the gift of humour, 
 
 173 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 and Frau Rath's heart was young to the end. 
 "Enjoy yourself and be merry, for he who 
 laughs cannot commit a mortal sin" was her 
 advice to the absent Bettina, and Bettina always 
 enjoyed herself. 
 
 There are some pretty touches in the friend- 
 ship between these two women, one on the 
 threshold of hfe, the other soon to leave it. 
 
 " I was at a concert on Friday," writes Frau 
 Rath, " where the violoncello was played aijd I 
 thought of thee, for its tones sounded exactly 
 like thy brown eyes. Adieu, lassie, thou art in 
 every way missed by thy Frau Rath." 
 
 And Bettina writes that the maid is to dust 
 her stool, and no one else is to be allowed to 
 sit upon it. 
 
 Bettina's loving records of Frau Rath's sayings 
 and doings, recorded for Goethe, have preserved 
 much interesting material, not only about this 
 wonderful mother but also about the childish 
 and youthful days of the poet himself Many 
 things Goethe had forgotten were recalled to 
 his memory by Bettina's notes and used in 
 his autobiographical Hichtung und Wahrheit. 
 " Quaint extracts from house-chronicles gathered 
 by a young friend of our family, garnered in her 
 loving heart and finally committed to memory," 
 
 174 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 said Goethe. Shortly before his death he was 
 going over this material with a view to using it 
 as Aristeia der Mutter. 
 
 Of course the great link between the two was 
 Goethe. Bettina came full of romantic adora- 
 tion for the poet whom she had never seen, but 
 who had once loved her mother. Greedily she 
 listened to Frau Rath's stories of his wonderful 
 boyhood, youth, love affairs. She was never 
 weary, and the proud mother was never weary 
 of pouring her rich store of remembrances into 
 such sympathetic ears. 
 
 Then came the great event of Bettina's youth, 
 the visit to Goethe. She was but twenty -three, 
 and the poet was already fifty - eight. In her 
 letters to Frau Rath she describes the journey 
 across Germany with her sister and brother-in- 
 law, a vivid picture of travelling in that period, 
 its discomforts and dangers. 
 
 Her brother-in-law decided, to her great 
 delight, that she was to travel in male attire. 
 In a joyous letter she announces the fact : 
 
 " 20<A March 1807. 
 
 " Now guess what the tailor is making for me. 
 An Adrian? No! A Paduasoy? A bodice? No! 
 A hoop petticoat ? No ! A mantilla ? No ! A 
 pair of pockets ? No ! A dress with a train ? No ! 
 
 175 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 A pair of trousers ? Yes ! Hurrah ! (other times 
 are coming now) and a waistcoat, and a coat too. 
 "To-morrow everything is to be tried on, 
 and it is sure to fit — for I have ordered every- 
 thing to be large and comfortable — then I throw 
 myself into a chaise and journey day and night 
 post haste, through all the armies — friends and 
 enemies alike — all fortresses opening before me, 
 and so on to BerUn, where some business must 
 be transacted which does not concern me. Then 
 quickly back without a stop to Weimar. O 
 Frau Rath, what will it be like there? My 
 heart beats fast, although I must travel till 
 the end of April before I get there. ..." 
 
 It is in winter, and when they lose their way 
 in the snow Bettina climbs a tree to reconnoitre. 
 They arrive at Magdeburg one evening after the 
 fortress-gates have been closed and are refused 
 admission, so must spend the night in their 
 carriage — Bettina on the box, wrapped in a 
 cloak. " In the morning I awoke covered with 
 snow looking like a snow-man, but quite warm 
 and happy. Cold strikes sparks out of me. . . . 
 
 " Towards midnight we heard whistling in the 
 wood. My brother-in-law handed me a pistol 
 from the carriage, and asked if I had courage 
 
 176 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 enough to fire, if the rogues came. I said ' Yes.' 
 ' Do not fire too soon,' said he. Lulu inside 
 was very much afraid ; but 1, under the open 
 sky with loaded pistol, buckled sword, countless 
 twinkling stars above me, the sparkling trees 
 throwing giant shadows across the moonKt road 
 — all made me feel brave on my high seat." 
 
 When they arrive in Weimar worn out with 
 fatigue, Bettina is too excited to eat, but rushes 
 off to visit Goethe, first getting an introduction 
 from Wieland the poet. 
 
 " I had never seen Wieland. I behaved as 
 if I were an old acquaintance ; he tried to 
 remember and said, ' Yes, you certainly are a 
 dear familiar angel, but I cannot remember 
 when and where I have met you.' 
 
 " I made him give me a note for your son. 
 This I took away with me and kept for a 
 remembrance. I am copying it for you : 
 ' Bettina Brentano, Maximiliane's daughter, 
 Sophia La Roche's grand - daughter wishes to 
 see you, dear brother, and pretends she is afraid 
 of you, and that a little note fi.-om me will be a 
 talisman to give her courage. Although I am 
 pretty certain she is poking fun at me, I have 
 to do what she wishes, and I shall be surprised 
 if it is not the same with you.' " 
 
 177 M 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 With true romantic glamour she describes the 
 calm, still house of Goethe — her impressions. 
 " He took me into his room and placed me on 
 the sofa opposite. We were both dumb ; at last 
 he broke silence : ' You have no doubt read in 
 the papers of the death of the Duchess Amalia 
 a few days ago ? ' ' Ah ! ' said I, ' I don't 
 read the papers.' ' Indeed ! I thought you were 
 interested in everything in Weimar.' 'No, 
 nothing interests me except you, and I am far 
 too impatient to turn over the pages of news- 
 papers.' 'You are a dear child.' A long 
 pause. I, glued to the sofa, very frightened. 
 You know I cannot possibly sit there so properly. 
 I said suddenly, ' I can't stay here on the sofa,' 
 and jumped up. ' Well,' said he, ' sit where 
 you like.' I rushed and threw myself into his 
 arms, he drew me to his heart. It was quite, 
 quite still. I lost count of things. I had not 
 slept for so long ; for years I had longed for 
 him, I fell asleep on his breast, and when I 
 awoke a new life began." 
 
 This is Bettina's version of the famous inter- 
 view. The correspondence began and was con- 
 tinued during the next four years, but she only 
 visited Goethe a few times. This first meeting 
 was in April 1807. Some remarks of Bettina's 
 
 178 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 about Goethe's wife, four years later, caused a 
 serious estrangement, and the correspondence 
 ceased after April 1811. 
 
 Bettina's friendship with Beethoven is in- 
 teresting. 
 
 On a spring day in 1810 Bettina, once more 
 on her travels, found herself in Vienna, and set 
 out alone in her usual unconventional style to 
 visit the genius who, in his own realm, was as 
 great as her adored poet. 
 
 In a letter to Goethe she says : " Beethoven 
 has three dwelling-places, one in the country, 
 one in tovni, and one on the city walls. Here 
 I found him, on the third floor." 
 
 She was rather nervous, for people told her 
 that Beethoven was not fond of visitors, and 
 was becoming very misanthropical. He was 
 seated at his piano, and Bettina entered un- 
 announced, but on hearing her name he was 
 very affable ; indeed he seems to have been 
 unusually gracious from the first to the fascinat- 
 ing Bettina. He played over and sang one 
 of his songs on Goethe's words : Kennst Du 
 das Land, with a great deal of expression and 
 seemed pleased with her hearty and cheerful 
 approval. "For," he said (a saying which 
 deserves to be recorded), "most people are 
 
 179 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 moved to tears by anything good. Not so 
 with artist natures. Artists are fiery, they do 
 not weep." He then sang her another song : 
 Trocknet nicht, Thrdnen der ewigen Liebe, and 
 afterwards was so gracious as to accompany 
 her home. On the way Beethoven talked about 
 art, talked very loudly, and kept stopping when- 
 ever anything interested him particularly, so 
 that people in the street turned to look at 
 them. He even entered the house with her, 
 and, undeterred by the big company at " Dine," 
 he stayed on, and afterwards, without being 
 requested, sat down to the piano and played 
 to them. After this Bettina constituted herself 
 Beethoven's friend. " He comes to see me 
 every day or I go to him. I neglect society, 
 picture galleries, theatres, even the tower of 
 St Stephen." And all their conversations — that 
 is, Beethoven's (for one of Bettina's charms was 
 that she was such a beguiling listener) — all 
 Beethoven's remarks were carefully chronicled 
 for the idol of her heart, Goethe. Humbly she 
 wrote : " It was always our plan to discuss 
 music, but since I have met Beethoven I feel 
 that I do not know enough about it." 
 
 Goethe was glad of her letters, which, as he 
 says, give him an idea of Beethoven the man, 
 
 180 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 and paint a great and noble character in his 
 work and aspirations. He speaks of Beethoven 
 as "one who has his own Demon, and what 
 he utters, an ordinary person must respect. 
 Give him my heartiest greetings, and tell him 
 I would do anything in order to make his 
 personal acquaintance." 
 
 Goethe himself was no musician, and he 
 acknowledges it and says further : " It would 
 be sacrilege, even for those who know more 
 than I do, to attempt to teach Beethoven, for 
 his genius illumines and often enlightens him 
 in a flash, whilst we sit in darkness, scarcely 
 knowing from which side day may dawn." 
 On hearing this, Beethoven, who had the 
 greatest admiration for Goethe as a poet, ex- 
 claimed : " If any one can explain music to 
 him, it is I." Regretfully he recalled an 
 occasion at Karlsbad when he might have 
 made Goethe's acquaintance, but had been 
 too timid to do so. Goethe, on his side, 
 wants some of Beethoven's settings of his 
 (Goethe's) words, " but they must be written 
 out clearly and legibly." Bettina sent them, 
 and also two of her own compositions which 
 Beethoven had seen and praised. He had 
 even said she might have achieved a good 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 deal in music if she had devoted herself to 
 the art. But she had replied that her art 
 was only "laughing and sighing in a small 
 way, but no one can beat me at that." At 
 any rate, with the quick and loving intuition 
 which was her real genius, Bettina grasped and 
 comprehended something of the mighty spirit 
 of Beethoven. 
 
 " If I could understand him as I feel him, 
 I should know aU," she writes. And " one 
 might prophesy that such a spirit will return 
 again in full perfection as a Ruler of the 
 world." There was much insight in her girlish 
 Schwdrmerei, although Goethe writes with laugh- 
 ing indulgence of her " explosions about music, 
 these excited ideas of your little head." In 
 her enthusiasm Bettina no doubt touched up 
 Beethoven's sayings considerably, she had a 
 gift for literary expression which the grim old 
 master certainly lacked, and it is more than 
 probable that she embelhshed his remarks. Yet 
 it is quite conceivable that he did unbend and 
 talk unrestrainedly to such a sympathetic listener, 
 and that her version of the substance, if not the 
 form, of his remarks is correct. " Tell Goethe," 
 is one of his messages, according to Bettina, 
 "tell him to hear my symphonies, and he will 
 
 182 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 confess I am right in saying that music is the 
 only and spiritual entrance into a higher world 
 of knowledge which embraces man, but which 
 man himself cannot fully grasp. Few under- 
 stand music, for, as thousands marry for love 
 and yet love is never revealed to them, so 
 thousands are intimate with music and yet 
 music never reveals herself to them." Once 
 the old master broke off suddenly in one of 
 his monologues, saying drolly he must interrupt 
 the flow of his wisdom or he would be late 
 for a rehearsal. And he took Bettina with 
 him. She sat alone in a box in the big, dark 
 hall and enjoyed herself hugely, indulging in 
 rhapsodies and Schwdrmerei, as was her wont. 
 From her dark corner she watched Beethoven 
 conducting, saw " this enormous Spirit direct- 
 ing his army. O Goethe ! No Emperor and 
 no King has such full consciousness of his 
 power. ..." Many an enthusiastic girl has 
 had such thoughts, but Bettina, in her familiar 
 intercourse with two of the greatest minds who 
 have ever lived, had a unique opportunity. 
 
 Next day, she says, she showed Beethoven 
 her written report of his utterances, a report 
 destined, of course, for Goethe. " Did I say 
 all that ? WeU I must have been oflF my head 
 
 183 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 a little ! " said Beethoven, laughing. But he 
 read it, corrected passages here and there with 
 a pencil, and, on the whole — according to 
 Bettina — was satisfied. 
 
 Although Goethe could not understand 
 Beethoven's music, Beethoven on his side, 
 thoroughly appreciated Goethe's poetry. There 
 is something touching in his attitude of humble 
 reverence to the poet, his anxiety to know him 
 and talk to him of his beloved art. Would he 
 understand me ? he asked wistfully. Loneliness 
 weighed him down, the loneliness of genius ; 
 it was not easy for such a mind to find one 
 who could understand him. " I have no friend," 
 he said, " I have to live alone ; but I know that 
 God is nearer to me than to others in my art." 
 And he confessed that he could not help 
 despising a world "which never guesses that 
 music is a higher revelation than all wisdom 
 and philosophy." 
 
 It was all the sadder that when Goethe and 
 Beethoven did meet — it was in Teplitz, in 
 August 1812 — the result should have been so 
 disappointing. Two of the greatest minds of 
 their epoch, indeed of any epoch, they met 
 and failed to understand each other. To 
 Goethe, at any rate, the polished courtier and 
 
 184 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 man of the world, the somewhat rough manners 
 of Beethoven, were distasteful. 
 
 Bettina was not able to enjoy Beethoven's 
 society long ; all too soon she left Vienna with 
 her relatives, but she corresponded with him 
 by letter. In one of her own letters to a 
 friend she says how " only a short time ago 
 I was still in the big city of Vienna . . . every 
 day brought new joys, and every pleasure was 
 a source of interest. High above all towered 
 Beethoven, the great arch-spirit who led us 
 into the invisible world, raising us high above 
 our own limited self to communion with the 
 Universal Spirit. What a pity that he is not 
 here in this solitude, so that I might in listening 
 to his words forget the ceaseless chirping of the 
 grasshopper, which keeps on reminding me that 
 there is nothing to interrupt my loneliness save 
 her solitary song." 
 
 " Vienna^ 11th August 1810. 
 
 " Dearest Bettina. — I say it is not possible 
 to have a more beautiful spring than the one we 
 have had. I feel thus because in it I have made 
 your acquaintance. You have no doubt seen 
 for yourself that in society I am like a fish out 
 of water, which turns over and over and cannot 
 get away until some well-meaning Galatea puts 
 
 185 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 it back again into the mighty sea. Yes, dearest 
 Bettina, I was right up on dry land when you fell 
 upon me unawares at a moment when 1 was a 
 prey to melancholy, which actually vanished at 
 sight of you. I saw at once that you came from 
 some other world rather than this absurd one. . . . 
 " My ears are unhappily a dividing wall 
 through which I can have no friendly com- 
 munication with the outer world. I am sending 
 you now, written with my own hand, Kennst 
 du das Land, as a remembrance of that hour 
 when I met you. I am also sending that other 
 song which I have composed since saying 
 ' Good-bye ' to you, dear dearest heart : 
 
 " ' Herz, mein Herz, was soil das geben, 
 Was bedranget dich so sehr, 
 Welch ein fremdes, neues Leben, 
 Ich erkenne dich nicht mehr.' ^ 
 
 " Yes, dearest friend, answer me soon, write 
 me how it is with you since my heart has 
 become such a rebel. Write to your faithful 
 friend, Beethoven." 
 
 It was a friend of Clemens, one of his circle 
 of Romanticists, who fell in love with Bettina 
 and became her husband. Ludwig Joachim, 
 usually known as Achim von Arnim (born 
 
 ' From Goethe's lAed, Neue Liebe, neues Leben. 
 186 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 26th June 1781, four years her senior), was a 
 tall handsome man "with all knightly virtues, 
 generous, fiery, mild, brave, faithful in friend- 
 ship," not unlike Fouqu^ in his admiration 
 for mediaeval chivalry. With Clemens Brentano 
 he collected the folk - songs of Germany, a 
 volume of which appeared under the title Des 
 Kiiaben Wunderhorn, and also took part in 
 the New - Romantic organ Zeitung fur Ein- 
 siedler, in which they were joined by Ludwig 
 Tieck, Uhland, Holderlin, the Grimm brothers, 
 Kerner, and Gorres. Bettina contributed to 
 this occasionally, and to her Von Arnim dedi- 
 cated his Wintertag. The two fell speedUy 
 in love, but, in characteristic romantic fashion, 
 Bettina insisted on a secret marriage. No 
 one knew the date of their wedding (11th 
 March 1811), save the old Pastor who married 
 them in his study with his wife as witness. 
 " We only made it knovsoi several days later," 
 Bettina wrote to Goethe, "and nobody would 
 believe us, and now our day's work is as foUows : 
 I study music the whole morning, and Arnim 
 does his work. Towards evening we work in 
 a little garden behind our little house, which 
 stands in a large garden, and, well ! Philemon 
 and Baucis could not live more quietly." 
 
 187 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 In April, on their wedding journey, they 
 visited Weimar, but unfortunately on this 
 occasion Bettina was guilty of the rude speech 
 to Goethe's wife which caused an estrangement 
 between the poet and herself. The breach was 
 not healed until 1824, when she ventured to 
 write to him once more. In 1826 she visited him 
 again, and he considered her greatly improved. 
 She had learnt, he told her, to treat people 
 politely, which she had never done before ! 
 And in 1832 the last link in the chain of 
 relations between Goethe and Bettina's family 
 was forged when her eldest son, Freimund, 
 visited the old poet a few days before his death 
 and was kindly received. 
 
 Thus Goethe during a period of fifty years 
 had been the friend of four generations. 
 
 Meantime Bettina and her husband spent 
 happy years on the Arnim family estate at 
 Wiepersdorf in den Marken. Their seven 
 children (five boys and two girls) were all 
 healthy, happy creatures, "the keynote of 
 their home life was joyousness." Von Arnim 
 continued his literary work, which ranks him 
 among the best Romantic writers. His JLand- 
 hmisleben, by the way, contains a charming 
 description of their home. Bettina's spare time 
 
 188 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 was spent in music and painting. She had 
 decided gifts for both arts ; one of her friends 
 in later life was Joachim the violinist, who 
 used a theme composed by her in a Concerto. 
 Her children enjoyed nearly as much freedom 
 as she had done herself; it is not surprising 
 to hear that they were great climbers and that 
 their father found them in birches and fir-trees 
 when the hour for lessons came round. 
 
 The winters were spent in Berlin, and here 
 Bettina became friends with Rahel — a beautiful 
 friendship this of the two " Sibyls." Bettina 
 always declared that Rahel was at her very 
 best tete - a - tete. She admitted frankly how 
 much she gained from Rahel. " Intercourse 
 with you," she wrote, " has made me study 
 more deeply the stiU unformed instincts and 
 qualities of my nature." Rahel was, in fact, 
 more intellectual than Bettina, she had clearer 
 insight into men and things, although Bettina 
 had more temperament, imagination, and creative 
 power. Her impulsive affection, her joyous 
 outlook on life charmed Rahel as they did 
 every one else. " The most original woman of 
 my acquaintance," she pronounced Bettina, but 
 added : " Her spirit possesses her, she does not 
 possess her spirit." 
 
 189 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Even after marriage and motherhood Bettina 
 was addicted to Schwdrmerei, almost as much as 
 in her girlhood. In Berlin she discovered more 
 than one fit object of adoration. Schleiermacher 
 she judged, "if not the greatest, certainly 
 the best man who ever lived." And Count 
 H. von Piickler-Muskau, the world traveller, 
 was another hero dangerous to Bettina's peace 
 of mind. In both cases there were wives 
 unfavourable to Schwdrmerei. The Humboldt 
 brothers, those "two Olympians," were also 
 her friends, and Schinkel, the architect, was 
 always interested in the designs and sketches 
 which occupied her unceasingly. 
 
 Bettina's own salon was naturally frequented 
 by much the same circle as Rahel's, animated 
 by the same Goethe cult, which she continued 
 after Rahel's death. Later, with more decided 
 political and socialistic leanings than Rahel, 
 Bettina threw herself into the modern Jung 
 Deutschland movement. 
 
 Her husband's sudden death in 1831 was a 
 terrible blow, for she had loved him devotedly ; 
 the Varnhagens were her greatest consolers and 
 supporters in this time of trial. 
 
 The loss of Goethe followed in the following 
 year. In 1833 Rahel died and in her turn 
 
 190 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 Bettina had to find words of comfort for the 
 bereaved husband. 
 
 Now began a diflferent phase of existence for 
 Bettina. Thus far her life had been that of 
 the fascinating woman of the world — the 
 literary world — with sufficient originality to 
 make her a personage. During her husband's 
 liftetime she had not written for publication, 
 but now, at the age of forty-eight, she suddenly 
 leapt into fame as an authoress. On Goethe's 
 death her youthful letters were returned, and 
 it occurred to Bettina to publish this corre- 
 spondence with the poet, with certain editings. 
 In vain friends and relatives tried to dissuade 
 her: she had no literary experience, was too 
 old to begin, the letters were too personal, 
 they feared indiscretions. In spite of all warn- 
 ings Bettina persisted. In 1833 the world 
 was startled by the publication of Goethe's 
 Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde. 
 
 She coloured the correspondence rather highly, 
 made the friendship appear a serious and 
 passionate aiFair (which it had not been), and 
 produced a glowing romantic work. Every 
 one read the book, fascinated by its poetry 
 and romance. Alexander von Humboldt, for 
 instance, always took a copy with him on his 
 
 191 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 travels. Written in no particular form, neither 
 diary, letters, story, nor reminiscences, but a 
 touch of aU these, it was a wonderful success. 
 Apparently jotted^own carelessly, those pages 
 were really the work of a skiHuTartist ; Bettina 
 was a careful writer, who spared no pains. She 
 worked slowly, touched up, brought the ex- 
 perience of years to turn the sentences of her 
 girlhood's dreams, but she secured the magical 
 effect of freshness. 
 
 After the first storm of success came doubts, 
 denials of authenticity, discussions, over which 
 critics and learned professors wagged their heads 
 for half a century. In the reaction Bettina was 
 unwarrantably condemned, and it was not until 
 1879, when Loper pubUshed the original letters 
 of Goethe to Bettina and her grandmother, 
 Sophie La Roche, that the pendulum again 
 swung round and the world recognised that the 
 correspondence reaUy had existed, and that the 
 book after all was justified by facts. 
 
 When a book enthrals, fascinates, as does this 
 of Bettina's — even now, when Romanticism is 
 long since dead and her atmosphere, her milieu 
 are dead with it — when even now the breath of 
 spring-time and youth breathes in the work, it 
 seems futile to enquire whether it be strictly 
 
 192 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 accurate in detail ! It is a poem, a picture, an 
 impression. One recollects Turner's reply to a 
 lady who complained that she had never seen 
 one of his sunsets : " Ah, madam, don't you 
 wish you could?" 
 
 The exact proportions of truth and fiction, 
 Bettina's good faith, her glowing imagination, 
 vanity — who shall determine ? No doubt she 
 exaggerated certain episodes, skilfully shaded 
 others, substituted the familiar Du (which 
 occurs only in one letter) for the formal Sie, 
 complacently attributed to herself poems meant 
 for others. Still there remains a fascinating 
 story of a young girl's adoration of a genius. 
 Many other women adored Goethe ; Bettina 
 alone knew how to express her adoration in 
 fine literary form. Her " singing flames " had 
 atmosphere, poetry. " Enthusiastic adoration 
 alone could not have raised so fine a monument 
 to Goethe's genius ; Bettina herself was a poet." 
 
 Besides, the letters, although embellished, 
 really did exist ; Goethe really had valued his 
 correspondence with his youthful admirer, as 
 his replies to her epistles testify. He begs her 
 to continue writing to him, her letters, he says, 
 contain so much that is delightful and refreshing, 
 " from your rich heart-life." This was Bettina's 
 
 193 N 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 literary method : the truth, reaUty — viewed 
 through highly-coloured romantic sentiment. If 
 well done it is interesting. Bettina's books vciere 
 interesting. 
 
 One need not then discuss the exact authen- 
 ticity of Bettina's letters or of her glowing 
 accounts of her intercourse with Goethe. They 
 were a groundwork of truth frankly embroidered. 
 The one real touchstone for literature of this 
 sort is whether it interests or not. Bettina 
 certainly interested her readers, and if she 
 " touched up " her experiences, she touched them 
 up with the pencil of an artist. 
 
 Goethe characterises her letters with his usual 
 insight. In them he says, " She daintily turns 
 over pages of a whole book of pictures ; one 
 sees the treasures as they fly past before one has 
 time to master the contents." But she should 
 have more method and arrangement in her ideas. 
 " Your thoughts, like precious pearls, not all 
 evenly shaped, are strung loosely together on a 
 thread which easily breaks ; when it does, they 
 are dispersed into all corners and many are lost." 
 
 He speaks of her letters as a refreshing spring 
 of youth, a breath of enthusiasm reminding him 
 of his own spring-time. 
 
 " Your letters " (Bettina's version gives the 
 194 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 familiar "thy" instead of "you") — "Your 
 letters . . . remind me of the time when I was 
 perhaps as foolish as you, but certainly happier 
 and better than now." 
 
 This utterance seems sufficient to characterise 
 his attitude to the adoring Bettina. 
 
 It is evident that Bettina made some impres- 
 sion on Goethe, although his letters to her are 
 simply calm and benevolent. The naive homage 
 of an enthusiastic girl pleased him. He had 
 grown isolated of late ; few were the friends who 
 really understood him or his works ; he had long 
 outlived his time of storm and passion, and was 
 considered coldly egotistical, often unjustly so. 
 
 " Die Flut der Leidenschaft, sic stiirmt vergebens 
 Ans unbezwungene, feste Land, 
 Sie wirft poetische Perlen an den Strand 
 Und das ist schon Gewinn des Leb6ne." ^ 
 
 Goethe's laconic note to Bettina on her 
 marriage is certainly a death-blow to supposi- 
 tions of romance. 
 
 " 12th November 1810. 
 
 " Here the duets I At this moment I am 
 only calm and collected enough to say : continue 
 
 1 " The waves of passion dash in vain 
 Against the firm, unconquered shore. 
 The pearls of poetry they fling. 
 Life's prize, to poets evermore." 
 195 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 to be kind and sweet. Let me soon hear of a 
 christening. Adieu." 
 
 As a sample of his letters : 
 
 " WbimaBj \st August 1807. 
 
 " Your hasty pages, dearest Bettina, came just 
 at the right moment to alleviate somewhat the 
 sorrow caused by your disappearance. Enclosed 
 I give you some of them back (poems enclosed) ; 
 you see how one tries to avenge one's self on 
 time which robs us of our dearest, and to im- 
 mortalise beautiful moments. May these lines 
 reflect the value of what you are to the poet. 
 
 " If your vagabond life should continue longer, 
 do not forget to give me news of all ; I like to 
 follow where your demonic spirit leads. 
 
 " I enclose these hues in a letter to my 
 mother, she will send them to you at a favour- 
 able moment, as I do not know your exact 
 address. Farewell, and keep your promises. 
 
 Goethe." 
 
 Or, 
 
 "You are very kind, dear Bettina, to send 
 another bright letter to your silent friend, and 
 give him news of your condition and of the 
 places in which you are wandering. I under- 
 
 196 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 stand how you feel, and my powers of imagina- 
 tion follow you pleasurably, on the mountain 
 heights as well as into the narrow courtyards of 
 castle and cloister. Think of me as well as of 
 the lizards. A letter of thanks from my wife 
 has already gone to you. Your unexpected gift 
 gave incredible pleasure — each thing has been 
 admired singly and is highly prized. I must 
 thank you for the many letters which you have 
 written me and which surprised me in the 
 solitude of Karlsbad. I found them entertain- 
 ing and absorbing. Your explanations about 
 music interested me." 
 
 Bettina was not only schwdrmerisch, she 
 could write humorously, and amused Goethe 
 by thumbnail sketches of various celebrities — 
 the philosopher Jacobi, for instance, a friend 
 of the poet : 
 
 "His two sisters palisade him round about, 
 it is provoking to be kept away from him by 
 empty excuses. He is patient even to weak- 
 ness and has no will of his own to oppose to 
 two beings as capricious and domineering as 
 Semiramis. This regiment of women pursues 
 him even to the President's Chair in the 
 Academy. They wake him, they dress him, 
 
 197 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 they button his waistcoat, give him his medicine, 
 and if he wishes to go out, it is too raw, if he 
 wants to stay at home he must take exercise. 
 If he goes to the Academy, the nimbus must 
 be pohshed so as to shine properly ; they put 
 on a cambric shirt with clean jabot and cuffs 
 and a fur coat lined with beautiful sable — the 
 foot -warmer must precede him. When he 
 returns from the sitting he must sleep a httle — 
 not if he wishes to. So it goes on in continued 
 contradiction until evening, when they can pull 
 his night-cap over his ears and conduct him 
 to bed. . . . Lotte and Lene forbid Jacobi to 
 think, as it is injurious, and he trusts them 
 more than his own genius — if his genius gives 
 him an apple he asks them to see if it has a 
 worm in it." 
 
 Encouraged by the success of her first book i 
 Bettina now, on similar lines, published her 
 correspondence with Karohne von Giinderode 
 {Hie Giinderode) (1840), dedicating this book 
 in a poetical preface to the University students, 
 "to you wandering, seeking ones . . . who 
 spring up like golden flowers on well-trodden 
 
 ' John G. Robertson, A History of German Literature. He 
 pronounces the Briefwechsel " one of the most beautiful books of 
 the whole German ' Romantik ' and an excellent illustration of the 
 unsophisticated Romantic temperament" 
 
 198 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 fields . . . treading the paths of enthusiasm 
 from generation to generation." 
 
 A similar book (1844), Bettina's Fruhling- 
 shranz (" Bettina's Spring Garland") enshrined 
 the memory of her brother Clemens in his 
 youth, although the figure of the authoress 
 herself dominates its pages. 
 
 Bettina had always sympathised keenly with 
 the poor and unfortunate. In 1831 she fear- 
 lessly nursed the sick during the cholera 
 epidemic (at which time Rahel, it must be 
 confessed, was in a panic of fear), and after- 
 wards she continued to visit among the poor 
 regularly, especially in the worst quarters of 
 the city. Generous to a fault, she was always 
 ready to help, and often wearied her friends, 
 especially those in high places, by her constant 
 appeals on behalf of objects worthy and un- 
 worthy. She began to feel the urgent need 
 for reform, social and political. 
 
 Up to this time Bettina had been welcome 
 at Court — she was, in fact, on terms of personal 
 friendship with Friedrich Wilhelm IV. — but as 
 her socialistic leanings became more apparent, 
 she found herself more coldly received, until 
 her book of 1843, Dies Buck gehort dem Konig 
 ("This Book belongs to the Bong"), gave direct 
 
 199 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 offence. Written in a rambling conversational 
 form, purporting to come from the lips of 
 Frau Rath Goethe, it was an appeal to the 
 King to alleviate the misery of the Berlin 
 working - classes, demanding "freedom" in a 
 somewhat vague and naive manner. Freedom 
 was its keynote. This book was the end of 
 her friendship with the King. A second part, 
 published in 1852 and entitled Gesprache 
 mit Ddmonen. Des Konigs-huchs zweites Sand 
 ("Conversations with Demons. The Second 
 Volume of the King's Book") was suppressed. 
 Written in the same spirit, it advocated the 
 emancipation of the Jews, the uplifting of the 
 masses, confidence and brotherly love between 
 King and people, the suppression of war and 
 a Republic of the Spirit. Naturally it was 
 scarcely pleasing to a monarch to find himself 
 represented as the " Sleeping King " whom the 
 " Spirit of Islam " lectured on statecraft, or to 
 be told that his ministers are asses. This was 
 the last of Bettina's books. 
 
 One more collection of letters, the JBriefwechsel 
 zwischenllius Pamphilius und die Ambrosia (1848), 
 had marked another Schwdrmerei in Bettina's 
 later life, this time for the young poet Nathusius. 
 A propos of this (not so good in style, by 
 
 200 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 the way, as her earlier works) Bettina told 
 Varnhagen that she saw no "reason why one 
 should cease to love even vdth wrinkles on 
 one's brow." But to a younger generation the 
 childlike impulsive manner and other girlish 
 affectations, which seemed inseparable from 
 Bettina, sat ill on the odd-looking little woman 
 of advancing years. 
 
 Her two daughters were happily married, 
 one to Count Oriola, .the other to Hermann 
 Grimm, son of Wilhelm, the old friend of her 
 youth and of Clemens. 
 
 Bettina's last years (she lived entirely in 
 Berlin after her husband's death) were occupied 
 with the idea of a national monument to 
 Goethe. She made countless sketches for an 
 allegorical group, one of which was finally 
 carried out by the sculptor Steinhauser. This 
 was bought by the Duke of Weimar, and is 
 now in the Weimar Museum. It represents 
 Goethe in Greek dress as Jupiter, holding a 
 wreath in one hand and in the other a lyre, on 
 the strings of which a child-genius is playing. 
 The original sketch, designed and modelled by 
 Bettina, is preserved in Berlin. 
 
 The Briefwechsel was, in fact, written partly to 
 glorify Goethe and partly to obtain money for 
 
 201 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 this monument, a sketch of which was printed 
 with the book.^ 
 
 Even in the poet's lifetime she had designed 
 a monument and sent it to him. This too was 
 in Greek style, and represented Bettina herself 
 as a dainty Moenad, with Mignon, whom she so 
 greatly resembled. Goethe was rather amused, 
 and pronounced Frau von Arnim's sketch " the 
 oddest thing in the world, one cannot help 
 admiring it somewhat and smiling at it some- 
 what. If the dainty little favourite of the 
 impassive old idol were made respectable by a 
 few rags to cover its nakedness, and if the stiff, 
 dry figure would deign to show pleasure in the 
 dainty creature's grace, the idea might inspire 
 a pretty little model. But it may stay as it is ; 
 it makes one think even so." 
 
 To the end Bettina was busy with this idea 
 of glorifying Goethe, working at the plaster 
 model in her house even when she was almost 
 too weak to stand. Fate smiled on her to the 
 end. After a slight iUness she passed away 
 peacefully in her sleep during the night of 
 
 ' To this end Bettina insisted on translating her book into English, 
 again against the advice of friends and in spite of her limited 
 knowledge of the language. Her indomitable will prevailed, and she 
 produced a readable translation (grotesque in parts) published in 
 1838. 
 
 202 
 
Bettina von Arnim 
 
 19th February 1859. Her body lay near the 
 model of the Goethe monument in her house 
 until it was taken to the family burying-place 
 in Wiepersdorf. 
 
 A fitting epitaph is contained in Varnhagen's 
 words on Bettina — " She may have been some- 
 times small in small things, but certainly she 
 was always great in great things." 
 
 In her girlish enthusiasm she had written to 
 Goethe : " You are good to me as to a chUd 
 who brings grass and wildflowers, thinking it 
 has gathered a choice nosegay. . . . These poor 
 flowers would fade by evening ; you hold them 
 in the fire of your immortality and give them 
 back to me." 
 
 Goethe really has conferred something hke 
 immortality on Bettina. She sits at the poet's 
 feet. 
 
 208 
 
QUEEN LUISE 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 Voss, 8. W. C. (Grafin). Neun u. sechzig Jahre am pretutitchm 
 Safe, 1876. 
 
 Bailleu, P. Konigin Imise. Ein Lebmsbild 1908. 
 
 Knaake, G. Leben u. Wirken der Konigin Luise, 1909. 
 
 Hudson, Elizabeth H. Life and Times of Louiia, Queen ofPrutiia, 
 1874. 
 
Qufzgn Luisg (1805) 
 
QUEEN LUISE 
 
 " Wer liebt, der lebt und uur der lebt der liebt, das ist mein 
 Wahlspruch, mit dem ich lebe und sterbe." ^ — Queen Luise. 
 
 Whilst the women of the Romantic Salons 
 were inspiring their men-folk, nursing the sick 
 and wounded, tossed hither and thither by the 
 fortunes of war, they had a contemporary who, 
 in her exalted position by the side of the 
 monarch, received the fuU brunt of the storm. 
 She, the representative of the women of her 
 nation, suffered perhaps even more than they ; 
 the humiliation of Prussia seemed concentrated 
 in the humiliation of its queen. 
 
 In her the sufferings of that time of a nation's 
 deepest woe, its most valiant courage, its purest 
 aspirations, all find an embodiment, a symbol. 
 The snowy marble at Charlottenburg enshrines 
 not only the beloved Queen Luise, but the 
 memory of a period : war, sufferings, sacrifices, 
 endurance, victory. 
 
 1 " He who loves, lives — and only he ; that is my motto, with it 
 I live and die." 
 
 207 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Her life presents itself in two acts or parts — 
 one in sunshine, one in shadow ; in the first she 
 appears as the glad princess in a fairy tale, in 
 the second as a suffering woman bereft of her 
 kingdom, yet strong in love and inner peace. 
 The chronicles of the war, its battle, campaigns, 
 the intrigues, the diplomacy of statesmen must 
 be sought in the history of the period, too long 
 and too complicated for a brief sketch. Against 
 that lurid background of European war stands 
 the figure of the heroic queen, noble, innocent, 
 adorable. 
 
 Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalia was born 
 10th March 1776 in Hanover, daughter of 
 Duke Karl Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and 
 Princess Friederike Karohne Luise of Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, the sixth child of their family of ten. 
 
 The mother died when Luise was a child of 
 six and after two years the Duke married his 
 wife's sister, who also passed away after a brief 
 period of marriage (1785). After this the children 
 were placed under the care of their maternal 
 grandmother, the Landgrafin of Hesse - Darm- 
 stadt, and were brought up simply enough, chiefly 
 in or near Darmstadt. 
 
 Two elder sisters having married early, the 
 Princesses Luise and Friederike, with only a 
 
 208 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 year between them, grew up together, their 
 education being chiefly in the hands of a 
 governess, Mademoiselle de GeUeu (daughter 
 of a Neuchatel pastor), whom all her life Luise 
 remembered with affection. 
 
 The Princess was not fond of study. Her 
 exercise books (preserved as precious relics for 
 a century) are untidy, full of faults and correc- 
 tions, also of her own efforts in caricature. She 
 was a joyous, high-spirited creature, too restless 
 to sit long over books — the nickname Fraulein 
 Husch (Mademoiselle I'Etourdie), bestowed on 
 her in the family circle, scarcely characterises a 
 student. 
 
 The education of the Princesses would not 
 be considered thorough nowadays : the chief 
 thing to be acquired was French, at that time 
 par excellence the language of courts ; some 
 English, music, dancing were the requisite 
 accomplishments, and in the last-named both 
 sisters excelled. It was a quiet idyUic life, 
 not overburdened with etiquette, and with 
 kindly, homely sympathies. They visited the 
 cottages of the poor with their governess, and 
 Luise began her charities early, giving royally 
 on one occasion not only aU her own pocket- 
 money, but also some borrowed from a servant, 
 
 209 o 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 to a poor woman whom she met on the road. 
 On hearing of this the wise grandmother 
 immediately increased her allowance, but for- 
 bade any future borrowing. 
 
 The Princesses further widened their mental 
 horizon by accompanying their grandmother in 
 various journeys through Germany and Holland. 
 At the Coronation of Leopold II., for instance, 
 in Frankfurt-on-the-Main (1790), the two sisters, 
 their brother George, and the governess lodged in 
 the Goethe house with Frau Rath. Here they 
 enjoyed (tradition says) the famous opportunity, 
 rare in royal circles, of pumping water in the 
 courtyard in spite of the protestations of the 
 governess. Not for the world would Frau Rath 
 have deprived them of such an innocent amuse- 
 ment, and she boasted that she had locked the 
 protesting governess in her room until they were 
 tired of the novelty. 
 
 On a later visit to Frankfurt the two Princesses, 
 grown meantime into beautiful girls, met their 
 future husbands (1793). 
 
 It was the beginning of Germany's struggle 
 with France, and the King of Prussia, Friedrich 
 Wilhelm II., took up his quarters in Frankfurt. 
 He had brought his two sons (the Crown Prince 
 and Prince Louis) with him, not, it would seem, 
 
 210 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 without hope of a possible bride for one of them. 
 When the Landgrafin presented her grand- 
 daughters, the King was enchanted with the 
 two " angels," and invited them to supper after 
 the play. Diplomacy was unnecessary. With 
 the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm it was 
 a case of love at first sight. Luise was just 
 seventeen, beautiful and charming ; the Prince 
 was five years older, handsome, chivalrous ; both 
 these royal children were kindly, simple natures, 
 sincere, unaffected, absolutely unspoilt. 
 
 " I will have her or no one else in the world I " 
 the Crown Prince declared, after the first meet- 
 ing. As it sometimes happens after such pro- 
 pitious meetings in royal circles, there were no 
 obstacles, and in a very short time the betrothal 
 was celebrated (24th April 1793) in Darmstadt — 
 a double betrothal, for Prince Louis, the Crown 
 Prince's brother, became affianced to Princess 
 Friederike, less beautiful than Luise, but 
 equally attractive in manner and conversation. 
 
 In a naive letter ^ Princess Luise announced 
 the event to her sister Therese (Princess of 
 Thurn and Taxis) — a letter written in her 
 
 ^ Paul Bailleu. (Aus der Brautzeit der Konigin Luise, Hohen- 
 zollern Jahrbuch I., 1897) — '^The Prince is extremely good and 
 sincere, he uses no unnecessary flow of words, but is wonderfully 
 true/' etc. 
 
 211 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 characteristic French- German, which reads so 
 quaintly : — 
 
 " Le Prince est extremement bon und gerade, 
 kein unnothiger Schwarm von Worten begleitet 
 seine Rede, sondern er ist erstaunend wahr. Enfin 
 il ne reste plus rien a desirer, car le prince me 
 plait, qu'il me trouve bonne, je puis le croire, 
 car il ne m'a jamais flattee encore . . . Adieu 
 mon ange, le prince arrive, Luise." 
 
 She was radiantly happy, witness her frank 
 letter to the Prince in the following summer : — 
 
 "I do nothing but sing and dance, so that 
 every one thinks the heat must have affected 
 me. I shall be so happy at our next meeting 
 that I believe I shall be capable, like the 
 daughter of Herodias, of dancing a solo before 
 the whole army, to the tune of ' If it could only 
 always, always last.' The old waggons, that is 
 the carriages, are at the door, the old metal 
 bells are ringing, and I, I don't want to go to 
 church — God forgive me. 
 
 " Adieu, Altesse royale de mon coeur ! " 
 
 Thus the Princess's gay little love-letter. 
 
 During the campaign which followed the 
 betrothal the two Princesses with their grand- 
 mother often visited the camp by the Rhine. 
 
 212 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 Goethe saw them once when he was with the 
 army and watched them from his tent ; he pro- 
 nounced them both himmlische Erscheinungen 
 (" heavenly apparitions "), whose memory would 
 never be effaced. 
 
 The wedding took place in Berlin on Christmas 
 Eve, 1793. Prince Charles of Mecklenburg- 
 Strelitz with his two daughters (performing the 
 journey from Darmstadt to Berlin in a week) 
 reached Potsdam on 21st December. Two 
 days later Berlin received them with lavish 
 decorations and rejoicings. Everywhere garlands, 
 triumphal arches, inscriptions. The first address 
 (appropriately enough in that time of struggle 
 with France) came from a band of thirty orphans 
 in the French Colony in Berlin, dressed in 
 green — the colour of hope. One of their number 
 presented a poem to the bride : 
 
 " Hommage 
 de la Colonie Frangaise 
 k son Altesse Serenissime 
 Madame la Princesse Louise 
 de Mecklenburgh Strelitz." 
 
 a petition for future protection, " accoutum^s 
 sous des Rois bienfaisans a jouir d'un bonheur 
 durable," and assuring her of their love for the 
 Royal House of Prussia. 
 
 213 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Near them a band of German maidens, sym- 
 bolising Innocence, Joy, and Hope, were also 
 prepared with a poem, setting forth how the 
 Crown Prince, to their sorrow and alarm, had 
 lately left Berlin to " conquer the Hydra risen 
 on the banks of the Seine," but to their joy had 
 now returned with glory and the loveliest bride. 
 
 Charmed by the pretty child who recited this 
 effusion, the Princess kissed her in defiance of 
 Court etiquette, but winning all hearts. 
 
 And with aU possible rejoicings and demon- 
 strations of loyalty and affection, with banquets, 
 balls, processions by day and night, the diamond 
 crown of the Hohenzollern was placed on the 
 head of the young bride in the evening of 24th 
 December 1793. After the ceremony came a 
 state ball and a wonderful torch dance, in 
 which all princes, princesses, noblemen, and high 
 officials trod a solemn measure. Poor Countess 
 Voss who regulated Court etiquette, a lady in 
 her sixty -fifth year, was obhged by that etiquette 
 to stand from 6 p.m. till midnight, and made a 
 note of the fact in her diary. 
 
 On Christmas Day, after a state procession to 
 the Cathedral, the young couple took up their 
 residence in the Crown Prince's palace in Unter 
 den Linden. 
 
 214 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 Two days later came the marriage of Prince 
 Louis to Princess Friederike and at a Court ball 
 on 10th January, the sister brides appeared 
 " dressed alike in white satin and black velvet, 
 their beautiful hair disdaining powder, which 
 promptly fell out of favour with the ladies of 
 Berlin." 
 
 Both sisters made a furore by their beauty 
 and charm, their perfect dancing. All was 
 couleur de rose. 
 
 Princess Luise was considered one of the most 
 beautiful women of her time. Tall and slender, 
 yet exquisitely rounded, her figure was admirably 
 set off by the fashion of the day, and she held 
 herself like a queen. One of the Court ladies 
 praises the extraordinary grace of her carriage, 
 her bow, her greeting. When Queen Luise 
 came gliding into a crowded room, she always 
 seemed the most beautiful, the most graceful 
 presence there. Entirely devoid of affectation 
 or self - consciousness, this grace seemed the 
 expression of some inner harmony, some sym- 
 metry of soul and heart. An English lady who 
 saw her in 1800 described her enthusiastically as 
 a realisation of a beautiful young queen in a 
 fairy tale, with her blonde hair, fine and delicate 
 colouring, and her beautiful blue eyes. She 
 
 215 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 dressed with perfect taste, but preferred simple 
 every day attire to the robes used on state 
 occasions. Her husband, too, loved to see her 
 simply dressed, and after a court function would 
 say that he was glad to have his " pearl again in 
 her original purity." 
 
 " Thank God that you are my wife again ! " 
 he was heard to say once after a court function. 
 
 " How so ? " asked Luise. " Am I not always 
 your wife?" 
 
 " Alas, no, you have to be the Crown Princess 
 far too often." 
 
 Princess Luise was fond of dancing; she it 
 was, by the way, who introduced waltzing at 
 Court, in spite of the Queen's disapproval. Later 
 she liked General Bliicher for a partner, because 
 he was such an excellent dancer. 
 
 Dazzled at first, the light-hearted princess 
 threw herself into pleasure and festivities, but 
 soon she found her greatest happiness in adapting 
 herself to her husband's quieter tastes. They 
 both really preferred a simple way of living, and 
 dehghted in shocking Countess Voss, " dame 
 d'dtiquette," as the Crown Prince called her, 
 whose conscientious insistence on ceremonies, 
 rules, precedence, was often irksome. 
 
 Their first living child was born 15th October 
 216 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 1795, a boy, later to become Friedrich Wilhelm 
 IV. Luise became more home-loving than ever 
 after this event, and her letters speak of longing 
 to be away out of the " big world " of balls and 
 functions and snug in her " little world." 
 
 "When we were at home of an evening, 
 drinking tea in our small circle, reading now 
 and again, and rejoicing in our little darhng, I 
 am so happy that I never want to be anything 
 else in all my hfe." 
 
 She was before all things a good wife and a 
 good mother, devoted to her children (eight in 
 all) with the tenderest affection. Their favourite 
 home was at Paretz, near Potsdam, a country 
 house embowered in gardens, lilac groves, 
 avenues of poplar, where they lived the life of 
 country gentry. The Princess might be seen 
 dancing at a harvest festival (careful to wear 
 court finery because it pleased the country folk), 
 or superintending the fStes of village children. 
 " I am never dull there," she said. " I enjoy 
 playing the part of the Lady of the Manor of 
 Paretz." 
 
 On 22nd March 1797, her second son was 
 born, Wilhelm, who became the first Emperor 
 of Germany. 
 
 There was a purer air at Paretz than at 
 217 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Court, where during the last years of Friedrich 
 Wilhelm II. the tone grew extremely corrupt. 
 The King was under the sway of a certain 
 Countess Lichtenstein, the Queen only visiting 
 her hushand, who resided chiefly at Potsdam, 
 after asking permission. 
 
 A change came when the monarch, after a 
 long and severe illness, died (16th November 
 1797). The young king and his consort initiated 
 a different rdgime, and after some years Novalis 
 could praise the influence of Queen Luise, which 
 had been all for good. 
 
 Friedrich Wilhelm III., who hated pomps 
 and ceremonies, had reason to be grateful to 
 his wife, who did the honours so regally and 
 took much of the burden of state functions from 
 his shoulders. She was sufficiently beautiful to 
 dominate the splendour of a court, it seemed 
 indeed a fitting setting for her, the throne a 
 fitting pedestal for one who graced it so well. 
 And she knew how to rule her world. The 
 men adored her, a young Englishman^ visiting 
 Berlin at that time was struck by the chivalrous 
 devotion with which she inspired the band of 
 young courtiers, all intent on her slightest word. 
 
 After his accession Friedrich Wilhelm made 
 
 ^ Sir G. Jackson. 
 
 218 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 several long tours through his dominions, Queen 
 Luise accompanying him. On all these journeys, 
 which must have been fatiguing to an extent 
 unrealisable in our day, the young Queen with 
 her sweet face and manner, her acts of kindness, 
 won the hearts of her subjects. She fulfilled 
 the ideal of a Landesmutter, the mother of 
 her country ; the name of the " Good Queen " 
 became a tradition throughout Prussia. She 
 remembered all sorts and conditions of her 
 poorer subjects, and would send long after- 
 wards presents and tokens of remembrance to 
 the woodcutters, the coalminers, the workers 
 in amber, and others who had interested her. 
 
 (Only a fortnight after returning from the 
 first of these tours, the Queen gave birth to 
 a daughter, Louise Charlotte, afterwards married 
 to Nicholas of Russia.) 
 
 And she could be equally charming to those 
 in other ranks of life — to old General Kockeritz, 
 for instance, whose pipe she filled by way of 
 inviting him to smoke in the royal dining-room ; 
 to another veteran, Kriegsrath SchefFner, whom 
 she enjoined to come in boots to a function, 
 "on no account shoes and thin stockings ; you 
 know I am fond of old friends and like to 
 take care of them." 
 
 219 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Of such kindly thoughtful acts, the small 
 change which buys popularity for princes, this 
 Queen had full store. 
 
 So far, the path had lain in sunshine, flecked 
 by the troubles which fall to every lot, the 
 unavoidable illnesses and family bereavements. 
 But all this time the war-clouds were massing 
 ominously, and the latter part of the Queen's 
 short life was ravaged by the full fury of the 
 storm. 
 
 To touch briefly upon the political aspect of 
 affairs in as far as they affect the Queen : 
 Prussia had pursued a disastrous policy of 
 indecision ever since 1798, when she had made 
 the fatal mistake of refusing to join the coalition 
 of Great Britain and Russia against France. 
 The King and his minister Haugwitz wavered 
 between Russia and France, wishing to remain 
 neutral, finding too late that it was impossible. 
 The Queen, with more insight, was for strong, 
 decisive action. 
 
 By 1805 the situation had grown only more 
 urgent. Europe was now combining against 
 Napoleon : Austria, Russia, England, and some 
 of the smaller German states were united. 
 Prussia still wavered ; the King's policy was 
 still undecided at that moment when decision 
 
 220 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 was imperative. He was anxious to avoid war, 
 for which Prussia was certainly ill-prepared, 
 moreover the bait of Hanover, held out by 
 Napoleon, tempted him. But there was another 
 party at Court, a party anxious for Prussia to 
 assert herself, to declare war, to join the enemies 
 of the Corsican upstart, who treated Europe 
 as a playground of war, dethroned and set up 
 princes like puppets. 
 
 To this party belonged the King's brothers, 
 the Minister Hardenberg, the King's cousin, 
 Prince Louis Ferdinand (to whom Rahel Levin 
 was friend and confidante). The sympathies of 
 the Queen, it was no secret, went with this, 
 the " patriotic " party, although on every other 
 point she and the King were as one. A 
 temperamental difference doubtless lay at the 
 root of this divergence of policy ; the King 
 was inclined to prudence, to hesitation, to care- 
 ful weighing of consequences, a slow, reflective 
 nature ; the Queen, high - spirited, impulsive, 
 courageous. Much blame was attached to her 
 undue influence at this time, it would seem 
 unjustly; she never attempted to form or lead 
 a political party. 
 
 "The Queen did not play any conspicuous 
 part, but she was a constant incentive to the 
 
 221 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 best of the nation to work for their country's 
 deUverance. It was what she was, not what 
 she did, that made her name a watchword for 
 the enemies of Napoleon." ^ 
 
 A decision became imminent after the battle 
 of Austerhtz, in which Austria and Russia were 
 defeated. Napoleon offered a final alternative : 
 immediate war or alliance with France and the 
 coveted Hanover. Haugwitz sent this treaty to 
 Berlin for the royal signature. It was so un- 
 popular that the King was obliged to demand 
 modifications ; a fresh one, still more humiliating 
 for Prussia, was drawn up, and this he weakly 
 signed. After this Prussia was a negligible 
 quantity in Napoleon's diplomacy ; he demanded 
 the dismissal of ministers whom he disliked, set 
 up a new Confederation of the Rhine without 
 consulting Prussia, and finally declared that he 
 no longer recognised the German constitution. 
 This roused a storm of patriotic feeling; the 
 youth of Berhn made a protest under the 
 windows of the French Ambassador, who had 
 published the declaration, sharpening their 
 swords on his doorstep. 
 
 The patriotic party grew imperious in its in- 
 sistence on war. The crowning act of Napoleon's 
 system of repression and tyranny in Germany 
 
 ^ E. H. Hiidsoiij Louisa, Queen of Prnssia. 
 
 222 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 came with the murder of the bookseller Palm 
 of Nuremberg, who had published a pamplet, 
 The Deepest Jiumiliation of Germany, and 
 on refusing to betray the author's name, was 
 decoyed to neutral territory and shot by 
 Napoleon's orders. 
 
 When the inevitable war was finally declared 
 it was war against overwhelming odds — Prussia, 
 with a small army, badly equipped, with scanty 
 supplies of money in her treasury, almost 
 isolated, against the conqueror of Europe with 
 an army four times as great, his veterans, his 
 military genius. 
 
 The Queen's courage grew with danger. She 
 was seen welcoming her own regiment (Queen's 
 Dragoons) wearing a coat with their colours, 
 when they passed through Berlin (18th September 
 1806), often riding at the King's side when 
 he reviewed the troops, and presently she joined 
 him at the camp, her brave, cheerful presence 
 inspiring both King and soldiers. "Persuade 
 the Queen to remain with the army as long 
 as possible," said General Kalkreuth. " I con- 
 sider her presence absolutely necessary." 
 
 This was the beginning of Queen Luise's 
 wanderings ; the Court was practically exiled 
 from Berlin until December 1809. 
 
 When the army was on march the King and 
 223 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Queen travelled in a close carriage, followed 
 by some twenty other vehicles with their suite 
 and effects, the whole surrounded by an escort, 
 a truly strange procession. Thus up and down 
 hill, along muddy or dusty roads, through the 
 mists or sunshine of autumn the royal equipage 
 travelled in the midst of the troops. "The 
 grand cortege came travelling on, all were 
 apparently in good spirits ; the soldiers believed 
 they were on the eve of a great battle and were 
 sanguine of success ; the officers talked of the 
 changes which would result and of the independ- 
 ence which would be given to all Europe." ^ 
 
 Prussia was still dreaming of the glories of 
 Frederic the Great. 
 
 Until the eve of the battle of Jena, the Queen 
 remained with the army, but it was then decided 
 that she would be safer in Berlin, and on 14th 
 October she set out on the weary return journey, 
 attended by Countess Voss, whose undiminished 
 energy seems almost incredible. At a turn in 
 the road the King bade her farewell, they parted 
 with a silent hand-clasp, too full of fears and 
 anxieties to speak. The King returned to fight 
 a battle which should decide the fate of his 
 nation, whilst the Queen pursued her anxious 
 
 ' G. H. Hudson, Louisa, Queen of Prussia. 
 224 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 flight along the least frequented roads, in 
 painful uncertainty as to the fate of both 
 husband and kingdom. Not until the fugitives 
 reached Brandenburg did they hear any tidings. 
 A courier met them there with the laconic 
 message : " The King lives, the battle is lost." 
 The odds had been too great ; Jena and 
 Auerstadt were national disasters (16th October 
 1806). Luise afterwards spoke of this as the 
 most dreadful journey of her life. 
 
 In Berlin another courier brought a message 
 from the King. 
 
 " Where is the King ? Is he not with the 
 army ? " asked the Queen. 
 
 " We have no army now," was the reply. 
 
 All was in confusion at Berlin. The royal 
 children had already been taken away for safety, 
 and the Queen stayed only one night, leaving 
 early next morning to join them at Schwedt. 
 
 Presently came the news that the King was 
 safe, and after another week of wandering and 
 hardships she joined him at the fortress of 
 Ciistrin, where they remained some time. Often 
 the Queen was seen here, wrapped in a travelling 
 cloak, walking on the ramparts by her husband's 
 side. 
 
 Before the French advance the fugitive 
 225 p 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 monarchs retreated from' place to place, en- 
 during all kinds of privation and misery. At 
 the wretched village of Oertelsberg their only- 
 accommodation was one small room which had 
 to do duty both as sitting and bedroom, so that 
 the King perforce went out for a walk every 
 morning whilst breakfast was being prepared. 
 Food and water were bad ; the room was dirty, 
 vermin-infested; at Marienwerder they were 
 lodged in an equally dirty tavern. 
 
 Through aU this wretchedness the Queen kept 
 her cohrage high ; never was she more lovable 
 and sympathising, more of a helpmeet to her 
 husband. Her cheerfulness and tact were in- 
 valuable, and never were such qualities in better 
 place, for the King was by nature gloomy, easily 
 depressed, taciturn. To such a nature the com- 
 panionship of a bright, strong spirit like the 
 Queen's, meant everything. He realised what 
 she was to him, and told her that their troubles 
 had made him love her more than ever. 
 
 There is a significant entry in her diary (5th 
 December 1806), the day of their departure 
 from Oertelsberg : — 
 
 " Who never ate his bread in sorrow, 
 Who never spent the darksome hours 
 Weeping and watching for the morrow, 
 He knows ye not, ye heavenly Powers. 
 226 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 " To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us, 
 To guilt ye let us heedless go, 
 Then leave repentance fierce to wring us : 
 A moment's guilt, an age of woe ! " 
 
 — Goethe's Harper's Song. T. Carlyle (Trans.). 
 
 In these dark days the only consolation for 
 the royal couple came from the constant 
 assurances of love and esteem from all classes 
 of their subjects, as when, for instance, a 
 deputation arrived with the sum of two thou- 
 sand gold pieces, " collected by His Majesty's 
 faithful Mennonites " (an obscure religious sect), 
 a gift thankfully received and repaid in happier 
 days. With this a farmer's wife brought fresh 
 butter for Her Majesty, when the Queen 
 in her impulsive way took off her own shawl 
 and put it on the good wife's shoulders, " as a 
 keepsake from me." 
 
 Meantime the French occupied Berlin and 
 Napoleon housed in the royal palaces, boasting 
 that only to his generosity did Berlin owe its 
 continued existence ; he might have set fire to 
 it and killed the inhabitants — a sang et a feu. 
 
 Queen Luise was the object of his extra- 
 ordinary, implacable hatred. The bitterness of 
 his denunciations, in fact, gives the measure of 
 her importance : she was a foeman worthy of his 
 
 227 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 steel. He set himself deliberately to weaken her 
 influence by blackening her character, publishing 
 his series of infamous bulletins in which he 
 represented her as the real cause of the war. 
 "The best blood of the nation has been shed 
 through her," he declared. 
 
 " We have taken 150 flags " (ran the bulletin 
 of 30th October 1806), "some of them em- 
 broidered by the hands of the beautiful Queen, 
 a beauty as dangerous to the Prussian nation 
 as Helen was to the Trojan." Another declared: 
 " Every one acknowledges that the Queen is the 
 cause of the misfortunes suffered by the Prussian 
 nation." Always jealous of Prussia's friendship 
 with Russia, he accused the Queen of shameless 
 intrigues with the handsome Czar Alexander, 
 and, further, of every kind of immorality and in- 
 trigue. He was not above examining her private 
 papers, ransacking her apartments in Potsdam 
 and Berlin for correspondence which might in- 
 criminate her. This mad persecution of a help- 
 less woman defeated its own ends by arousing 
 universal sympathy with its object. Queen 
 Luise was loved, adored by the nation as never 
 before ; her very name became a national watch- 
 word, a symbol of Prussia's hopes. A convincing 
 instance of this occurred a year later. 
 
 228 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 On her birthday (10th March 1807) Napoleon 
 gave orders that no pubUc demonstration was 
 to be permitted. In the evening at the theatre 
 Iffland the actor appeared on the stage with a 
 bouquet, which he pressed significantly to his 
 heart and then hid beneath his coat. The 
 audience, perfectly understanding this dumb 
 show, burst into applause so loud and unceasing 
 that it threatened to become a demonstration. 
 The actor was actually arrested and sent to 
 prison, but declared that he gloried in such 
 persecution for the sake of his noble Queen. 
 Illuminations in her honour were held behind 
 shuttered windows, even French soldiers drank 
 her health : " Moi aussi," said General Hulin, 
 "j'ai bu a la santd de cette jolie femme." And 
 yet another celebration of the day was the 
 Luisenstift, an institution for the education of 
 the children of poor soldiers, for which funds 
 were collected by Berlin citizens. 
 
 The exiled Court spent Christmas (1806) at 
 Konigsberg under better conditions than those of 
 Oertelsberg. But now the Queen and one of 
 her children were ill with typhoid ; at Christmas 
 her condition was critical. And no sooner was the 
 crisis past than news came of the French advance 
 on Konigsberg. It was thought dangerous to 
 
 229 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 remove the patient at this stage of the illness, 
 but she herself urged it. 
 
 Her physician, Dr Hufeland, describes how 
 on 7th January, in the bitterest cold, in storm 
 and sleet, the Queen was placed on mattresses in 
 the carriage and driven some twenty (German) 
 miles to Memel. Three days and nights they 
 travelled, partly on the ice, spending the night 
 in whatever wretched quarters were available. 
 " The first night the Queen lay in a room 
 with broken windows, the snow drifting in on 
 her bed, without proper food. Surely no Queen 
 was ever in such straits ! I was constantly afraid 
 of a stroke. Yet she kept her courage, her trust 
 in God, and inspired us all. The open air, how- 
 ever, proved beneficial ; instead of growing worse 
 she improved during this dreadful journey. Just 
 as we perceived Memel at last on the farther 
 shore the sun shone out, lighting up the town 
 which was to be our resting-place. We took 
 it as a good omen." 
 
 Here the Court remained for some time, the 
 Queen recovering her strength. The daily 
 routine was necessarily simple, and three times 
 a week the Queen held an informal reception, 
 at which she and her ladies made lint for the 
 wounded. 
 
 230 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 Presently came the armistice. The three 
 monarchs — of Russia, Prussia, and France — took 
 up their quarters in Tilsit in order to discuss 
 terms of peace. 
 
 A letter from Queen Luise to her father 
 dates from this period, when Prussia's fate was 
 trembling in the balance. 
 
 It was written in Memel, 17th June 1807 : 
 
 " Again terrible trouble and grief are upon 
 us and we are on the point of leaving the 
 kingdom, perhaps for ever. Think what I feel, 
 but I implore you, do not misunderstand your 
 daughter 1 Never believe it is cowardice which 
 brings me low. 
 
 " Two consoling thoughts raise me above 
 suffering : first, that we are not the playthings 
 of chance, we are in God's hands. He guides 
 us ; secondly, that we shall fall with honour. 
 The King has proved to the world that his 
 desire is for honour, not for shame. Prussia 
 wiU not voluntarily wear the chains of slavery. 
 In no single respect could the King have acted 
 otherwise, without being untrue to himself and 
 a traitor to his people. . . . 
 
 " If serious danger threatens, I am to go to 
 Riga — God will help me to bear the sad moment 
 when I must pass the boundary of my kingdom. 
 
 281 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 It will need strength. . . . Once more, best of 
 fathers, we shall fall with honour, respected and 
 beloved by the nations. We shall always have 
 friends because we deserve them. I cannot 
 express the consolation I find in this thought. 
 I bear everything with the calm which only 
 faith and a clear conscience can give. Therefore 
 rest assured, dear father, that we can never be 
 quite unhappy ; many, loaded with fortune's 
 gifts and crowns, are less happy than we. 
 . . . One more word for your comfort, never, 
 never shall we do anything not in strictest 
 accordance with honour and for the good of 
 the whole. Do not think of single acts of 
 pettiness." 
 
 She can be happy in poverty as long as honour 
 is saved, but " I cannot hope again, no one can 
 who has been cast down from the heights as I 
 have. If good should befall us, ah, no one 
 could grasp it, feel it and enjoy it more thank- 
 fully than I, but I cannot hope again." 
 
 The famous interview of Queen Luise with 
 Napoleon, in which a woman's wit and influence 
 was pitted against the conqueror of Europe, 
 reads dramatically. Its compliments, allusions, 
 its stilted thrusts and parryings have almost a 
 theatrical flavour. It is difficult to realise how 
 
 232 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 at the time each word was hving, each pause 
 tense with the tremendous odds at stake. 
 
 When it was first suggested that she should 
 beg for favourable terms of peace, the Queen 
 shed tears of wounded pride at the thought of 
 going as a suppliant to the man who had so 
 vilely insulted her. " Only God knows what 
 this costs me, for although I may not actually 
 hate this man, I cannot help seeing in him the 
 cause of the wretchedness of the whole nation 
 and of the King. I must be polite to him ; it 
 will be very difficult." 
 
 To an extraordinary degree the King, his 
 ministers, the Czar Alexander, all placed their 
 hopes in the personal influence of the Queen 
 whom Napoleon had insulted ; it was their last 
 resource, and they clung to it desperately. The 
 negotiations were going badly. "All our hope 
 is in you. Save the State ! " was the cry. 
 Luise herself had no great hope of success ; 
 feeling, she said, like a bird with a broken wing, 
 how could she hope to prevail? Full of mis- 
 givings and dread she went to Tilsit. The in- 
 terview was 6th July 1807. Napoleon on his side 
 was quite curious to see this Queen, of whom 
 he had heard so much, and he treated her 
 at this juncture with imperial politeness. At 
 
 233 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Tilsit his own state carriage drawn by eight 
 horses met her with an escort of French 
 dragoons, and brought her to the temporary 
 quarters of the King of Prussia (the house of a 
 miller), where the interview took place. Soon 
 after her arrival at this house Napoleon rode up 
 with a brilliant retinue, among them Murat, 
 Berthier, Talleyrand, and was received by the 
 Prussian King before the house, the Queen 
 awaiting him in an upper room. Two of her 
 ladies, one of them the faithful, inevitable 
 Countess Voss, met Napoleon at the foot of the 
 staircase, and he hastened upstairs, where the 
 Queen was awaiting him in a beautiful dress 
 of white crgpe embroidered with silver, a tiara 
 of pearls in her hair. 
 
 During the interview the King and his suite 
 remained below, and only Talleyrand accom- 
 panied Napoleon. 
 
 The Queen regretted that the Emperor should 
 have to visit her in such a poor place — he had 
 stumbled in mounting the narrow staircase — to 
 which Napoleon replied by a banal compliment 
 about the insignificance of obstacles with such 
 an aim in view. 
 
 She made a few commonplace remarks about 
 the climate of Prussia, trusting that his soldiers 
 
 284 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 had not found it too trjdng, to which the 
 Emperor returned his military catchword : " The 
 French soldier is trained to endure every kind 
 of climate," adding : " How could you think of 
 going to war with me?" 
 
 " We were mistaken in our calculations as to 
 our resources," the Queen answered. 
 
 "And you trusted in the fame of Frederic 
 the Great and deceived yourselves — that is, 
 Prussia ? " 
 
 And Queen Luise proudly replied: "Sire, 
 on the strength of the Great Frederic we 
 may be excused for having been mistaken as to 
 our own strength, if indeed we were entirely 
 mistaken. . . ." 
 
 At which reply, Talleyrand incomprehensibly 
 declared afterwards. Napoleon looked as awkward 
 as a school-boy. 
 
 Still, the past glory of Frederic the Great did 
 not solve the question of the moment — Prussia's 
 future. 
 
 Luise implored favourable terms of peace, 
 using every possible argument, appealing to his 
 generosity, his reputation in the eyes of Europe, 
 shedding tears as she spoke of the sufferings of 
 her people and her husband. 
 
 Napoleon listened with interest; he wavered 
 285 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 — Luise even saw a kindly expression in his 
 smile. " Vous demandez beaucoup, mais j'y 
 songerai." 
 
 At this moment the King entered. He 
 appeared in the nick of time, Napoleon told the 
 Czar Alexander that same day, "il y mit son 
 mot et j'en fus ddivr^ ... a quarter of an hour 
 more and I should have promised the Queen 
 everything." 
 
 Napoleon admitted afterwards that the Queen 
 of Prussia was undoubtedly clever, well informed 
 and possessed extraordinary knowledge of State 
 affairs. She had been the real ruler for years, 
 he judged. In spite of his utmost efforts, he 
 declared, she constantly led the conversation, 
 directing it as she chose, recurring to her subject, 
 yet with so much delicacy and tact that it was 
 impossible to be offended. He had expected 
 to see a beautiful woman and a Queen with 
 manners befitting her station, but he saw "the 
 most admirable Queen and at the same time 
 the most interesting woman I had ever met." 
 
 Napoleon invited their Majesties to supper 
 that evening and to a banquet a couple of days 
 later, at which it became evident that he was un- 
 wavering in his determination to crush Prussia, 
 Queen Luise was dressed in full regal state, 
 
 236 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 and Napoleon received her with every mark of 
 courtesy, placing her on his right hand, the King 
 of Prussia on his left. Thus the enemies sat 
 through the banquet, the Emperor in high good 
 humour, the King reserved and grave. By one 
 of life's little ironies Countess Voss arrived at 
 the supper to find no place reserved for her, but 
 as etiquette demanded that the Queen should 
 have a lady in attendance, a place was found for 
 the venerable embodiment of ceremonial at the 
 foot of the imperial table. 
 
 During the banquet it became evident that 
 Napoleon was determined to drive a hard 
 bargain, there was to be no question of relent- 
 ing. The Queen did her best to throw in a 
 supplicating word, but in vain. 
 
 " Comment done, la Reine de la Prusse porte 
 un turban ? Ce n'est pas pour faire la cour 
 a I'Empereur de Russie, qui est en guerre avec 
 les Turcs ? " thus Napoleon jestingly alluded 
 to her head-dress. 
 
 " C'est plutdt, je crois, pour faire ma cour 
 a Rustan " (the Emperor's attendant Mame- 
 luke). So the poor Queen parried the clumsy 
 sallies of her adversary. 
 
 When he offered her a rose, Luise smiled 
 and pleaded, " With Magdeburg — at least ? " 
 
 237 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 But Napoleon showed the claws beneath the 
 velvet glove, and said he must remind her that 
 it was for him to give, for her to take. And 
 the Queen — 
 
 " There is no rose without a thorn, but 
 these thorns are too sharp for me," as she 
 refused the flower. 
 
 And all through the evening entertainment 
 of music and dancing her hopes sank ever 
 lower, and the next day in an interview with 
 the King it was clear that Napoleon meant 
 to keep the fortress Magdeburg, the key to 
 Berlin, which he would enter when he chose. 
 He would make it impossible for Prussia to 
 injure, however much she might hate, France. 
 Probably he was embarrassed at having to refuse 
 so persistently Luise's persistent entreaties, and 
 in the end, on taking leave with many com- 
 plimentary speeches, regretted that he could 
 not grant what she had desired — it was his 
 evil destiny! 
 
 " I have been cruelly deceived ! " said Luise, 
 as she realised that she had humbled her pride 
 in vain. 
 
 In a letter of Queen Luise (to Frau von 
 Berg, 10th October 1807), she speaks of the 
 terribly hard conditions imposed by the French 
 upon Prussia. An indemnity of 154 million 
 
 288 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 (marks) ; a third of which was to be paid at 
 once, another third was to be met by the ceding 
 of territory. As guarantee, the French de- 
 manded five fortress towns, which they would 
 occupy with 40,000 French soldiers. Of these 
 10,000 were cavalry, and the King of Prussia 
 was to feed, clothe, and arm them ... it 
 seemed impossible to meet these conditions. 
 
 " If we only keep Berlin ; but I often fear 
 he will rob us of that too, and make it the 
 capital of another kingdom. If it comes to 
 that, I have only one wish : that we may go 
 far away to live as private individuals and 
 forget, if possible ! How is Prussia fallen ! 
 Abandoned through weakness, persecuted by 
 arrogance, weakened through misfortune, we 
 must fall ! . . . " 
 
 " My birthday was a dreadful day for me ! 
 In the evening a brilliant festival given by the 
 town in my honour . . . how sad that made 
 me I My heart was torn. I danced, I smUed ! 
 I said pleasant things to my hosts, was friendly 
 to all, and I did not know what to do for 
 misery! To whom will Prussia belong next 
 year ? Where shall we all be scattered ? " 
 
 We see the same suffering reflected in the 
 lives of all the notable persons of that period 
 of national humiliation, but surely the full 
 
 289 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 brunt of the tempest was felt most by those 
 at the helm of the ship of state. 
 
 The royal family remained at Konigsberg 
 dm'ing the French occupation of Berlin (which 
 continued until the end of 1808), only returning 
 to their capital 23rd December 1809, when 
 they received a wonderful welcome. It was 
 the 16th anniversary of Queen Luise's entry 
 into Berlin as a bride : she had won all hearts 
 then, but now she was idolised. Her beautiful 
 face bore traces of suffering, her smile was 
 rare, her lovely eyes dimmed, she had grown 
 delicate in health. "Even in the midst of 
 this unspeakable joy" (she had written to her 
 brother George) " my heart contracts, a name- 
 less fear makes me dread accidents before or 
 after this longed-for moment (of return to 
 Berlin). You will say perhaps I have grown 
 fearful through being so long unaccustomed 
 to happiness. I often catch myself adopting 
 this form of consolation, but, unfortunately, 
 it does not help. Dispersed for the moment, 
 my fears return with renewed force." 
 
 These fears and forebodings which so fre- 
 quently depressed the Queen in her last 
 months, were doubtless a symptom of ill- 
 health ; her heart was weakened by the strain 
 
 240 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 of long sufferings, whilst the harsh climate of 
 East Prussia had severely tiied a constitution 
 formed in the mild districts by the Rhine. 
 
 Her two last children had been born in 
 Konigsberg (in 1808 and 1809), and she was 
 stiU far from strong. 
 
 The wonderful Countess Voss at 80 years 
 of age was still regulating Court ceremonial. 
 At the christening of the last baby she entered 
 in her diary : 
 
 " 7th November 1809. — The Queen brought 
 little Princess Charlotte to ask if I would let 
 her, in place of me, hold the baby to be baptised. 
 Of course I said yes — although it is not really 
 correct — at eleven years of age, in a child's frock, 
 without a train ! She is really too young, but 
 we must remember we are still in Konigsberg, 
 and cannot be so particular about etiquette ! " ^ 
 
 Countess Voss, who at 78 years of age, 
 during the Court's wanderings, could sleep 
 cheerfully and well on the floor when there 
 was no bed, was indeed a wonderful example 
 of that heroic generation. She was destined 
 to outlive the royal mistress whom she had 
 learnt to love so devotedly. 
 
 ' Voss, S. W. C. (Grafin) Neun und sechzig Jahre am preussischen 
 Hoft. 
 
 241 Q 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 With the cessation of war a new era dawned 
 for Prussia, an era of reform and progress, in 
 which Queen Luise took the keenest interest. 
 No one reahsed more than she the necessity 
 for progressive measures ; she recognised that 
 Prussia had clung to the old ideals too long. 
 France was intellectually her superior. Largely 
 owing to the Queen's influence, Stein was 
 recalled, and appointed Chief Minister (October 
 1807), inaugurating immediately a series of 
 reforms in land laws, education, allowing 
 freedom of choice as to vocation, etc. Men 
 of ideas always found in the Queen not only 
 sympathy but understanding ; she combined 
 rare insight with a broad outlook. Long ago 
 she had been convinced that all Germans, 
 should unite closely, and form one nation, 
 otherwise they could never possess any political 
 significance. She was deeply interested in the 
 education of her children, and delighted with 
 the ideas of Pestalozzi. "Men make the 
 times," she said, " the times do not make them- 
 selves ; therefore I wish my children to grow 
 up good, that they may influence their times 
 for good." Whilst at one with the King on 
 this point, she saw that his ideal of bringing 
 up a prince to be good, sincere, and just, was 
 
 242 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 not sufficient ; he must have wide views of life 
 and things as well. 
 
 As late as 1808 she was busy studying the 
 historical lectures of Professor Siivert, asking 
 frankly for explanations of words and points 
 she did not understand (the Gracchi and the 
 word " hierarchy " she confessed, puzzled her). 
 " I am never ashamed to ask questions ; those 
 who never ask remain stupid, and I hate 
 stupidity." She admired Schiller greatly, and 
 repeatedly begged him to settle in Berlin. 
 
 In June 1810 the Queen visited her father 
 in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, meeting her grand- 
 mother, her sister Friederike and other mem- 
 bers of the family once more. Here the King 
 joined her, and some happy days were spent, in 
 which she seemed almost her old joyous self. 
 
 Conscious of her exceeding peace and con- 
 tentment, she sat down at her father's writing- 
 table, during the temporary absence of her 
 husband and the rest of the family, and penned 
 what was destined to be her last letter : 
 
 "MoN CHER PERE, — Je suis bicn heureuse 
 aujourd'hui comme votre fille et comme I'epouse 
 du meilleur des dpoux ! Luise. 
 
 " Nbu-Strelitz, ce 28 Juin 1810." 
 
 248 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 She seemed slightly ailing next day, it was, 
 however, judged of so trifling a nature that 
 the King returned to Berlin for a few days. 
 But on 16th July a sudden spasm of the heart 
 came on, and for five hours the agony continued. 
 It was then that the physicians discovered 
 serious disease of the heart, and a messenger 
 was despatched for the King. Before he could 
 arrive (July 19th) she had suffered excruciatingly, 
 an inflammation of the lungs complicated by 
 heart trouble was declared, and it became evident 
 that beautiful Queen Luise was doomed. 
 
 " She could be saved if she were not my wife," 
 said the King, in the bitterness of his heart at 
 this last blow of fate. " She is my wife, and 
 therefore she must die." 
 
 He had brought with him their two eldest 
 sons, the Crown Prince and Prince Wilhelm, 
 but the poor Queen was too weak to speak, and 
 could only struggle painfully for breath as she 
 died before their eyes. The King sat on the 
 edge of her bed chafing her cold hands, " then," 
 says Countess Voss, "he kept one and put the 
 other in my hands for me to rub it warm." So 
 the sands of life ran out. Late in the evening 
 the Queen opened her beautiful eyes wide and 
 looking up to heaven, said : " 1 am dying. Jesus, 
 
 244 
 
Queen Luise 
 
 make it easy ! " A moment lateu. she had drawn 
 her last breath. 
 
 The King was Uterally heartbroken and never 
 really recovered from this blow; some consola- 
 tion he found in their seven surviving children, 
 but no one could take the place of the wife 
 who had been ever5rthing to him. With his 
 own hand he locked the gate of the avenue 
 at Paretz through which she had walked by his 
 side before her last journey to Mecklenburg. 
 It remained unopened for decades. 
 
 No one was better fitted than Countess Voss 
 to speak of the character of the royal mistress 
 she had known so intimately and loved so well, 
 from her advent at the Court as a girlish bride, 
 through all the hopes and fears of womanhood. 
 
 She wrote : 
 
 "At all times (as at the birth of her stiU-born 
 child) I was amazed at her courage and steadfast- 
 ness . . . then and in those dai'kest days later ; 
 at the death of her darling, the little Prince 
 Ferdinand ; in the miseries of war, flying from 
 one place to another, her resignation to God's 
 will never faltered ; no suffering could trouble her 
 soul's peace and her faith in Eternal Providence." 
 
 245 
 
CAROLINE SCHLEGEL 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Waitz, G. Caroline Briefe, 1871. 
 
 „ „ Caroline Boehmer und ihre Freunde, 1882. 
 Huchj Ricarda. Die Romantik, 1908. 
 Sidgwick, Cicely. Caroline Sohlegel, 1889. 
 AthencBum, 1798-1800. 
 
Garoliniz lichlizgfzl 
 
CAROLINE SCHLEGEL 
 
 "Development is oui" fate.'' — R. Varnhagen. 
 
 Among the enthusiastic band of young Roman- 
 ticists who captured literary Germany at the end 
 of the eighteenth century flits the graceful figure 
 of Caroline Schlegel, her blue eyes smiling, still 
 somewhat enigmatically, as she gazes at us across 
 the gulf of a century. 
 
 The life of this woman is closely bound up 
 with the leaders of the Romantic School, with the 
 Schlegel brothers, with Schelling ; she was in the 
 centre of the movement at Jena " the cradle of 
 Romanticism," an inspiring, intellectual force as 
 well as a charming feminine personality. Caroline 
 was the emancipated woman of her day, living her 
 theories rather than expressing them in literature 
 or art. 
 
 Drifting from the ordinary conventional circles, 
 she cast in her lot with the intellectual nomads, 
 afire with revolutionary ideas, under whose 
 banner the most brilliant minds in Germany 
 
 249 
 
Some German Women and their Salens 
 
 were enlisting. Had it been otherwise, had her 
 life-story been less closely interwoven with that 
 of these famous men, the great world would 
 probably have heard little of Caroline. She was 
 personally charming, witty, intellectual, wrote 
 delightful letters (what clever women did not, 
 in those days ?), and even excellent literary 
 criticisms, but these gifts alone would not have 
 brought her fame. Her claim remains that she 
 Jiyed her fdeafe ^^nstead of writing them. And 
 her personality fascinated and influenced the 
 men who were her friends ; some — Wilhelm and 
 Friedrich Schlegel, for instance — she inspired to 
 their best work. She had her salon in Jena; 
 had it been in Berlin, she would certainly have 
 rivalled the other notable Romantic women 
 there. And her letters tell us so many interest- 
 ing personal details about the great men of her 
 day, they link up so many threads in the relations 
 between them ! Reading them, we seem to have 
 known these circles quite intimately ; to have 
 lived in Jena, when Fichte lectured and Goethe 
 came over to call, to have attended philosophical 
 teas and listened to the Schlegels' satirical com- 
 ments on Schiller's latest poems. 
 
 Dorothea Caroline Albertina Michaelis was 
 bom 2nd September 1763 in Gottingen, at 
 
 250 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 that time the most famous University on the 
 Continent. Her father, Professor Michaelis, 
 was a well-known Oriental scholar, and his 
 house formed an intellectual centre both for 
 the leading lights of the University and for 
 any distinguished travellers who chanced to 
 pass that way. Caroline grew up in the 
 University atmosphere; like other girls she 
 absorbed current ideas from brothers and 
 students, flirted, and formed friendships with 
 girls in her own set. Therese Heym, for 
 instance, like herself the daughter of a pro- 
 fessor, was destined to exercise an enormous 
 influence on Caroline's subsequent career. 
 
 Caroline grew up into a tall, graceful girl, 
 with soft blue eyes and a " flower-hke droop of 
 the head," — quite uncommonly pretty besides 
 being uncommonly intelligent. Hers was a 
 lovable nature, bright and sunny, with womanly 
 charm and winning ways which disarmed 
 criticism of the coquetry and pert speeches of 
 which, it must be confessed, she was often 
 guilty. All through her life Caroline kept her 
 happy, bright disposition ; she even cultivated a 
 philosophy of happiness to which she clung in 
 the most adverse circumstances. "One must 
 never be as sad as one's fate" was a saying of 
 
 251 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 hers in later years. Friedrich Schlegel was 
 struck by this characteristic. "She considers 
 enjoyment the aim of hfe, happiness a duty," 
 he wrote, and "the strongest proof of her 
 inner perfection is her cheerful self- content- 
 ment." By this Selbstzufriedenheit he meant, 
 of course, not conceit, but the harmony which 
 comes from a well-balanced nature, a harmony 
 sadly lacking in Friedrich himself, as in so 
 many of the Romantics. 
 
 CaroUne's marriage with Georg Bdhmer, a 
 young country doctor (in June 1784) trans- 
 planted her from the inspiring circles of 
 Gottingen to Clausthal, a mining village in 
 the Hartz mountains, unfortunately also to a 
 narrow and monotonous existence.^ With her 
 
 ^ Her girlish letter describing the wedding transports us to old 
 world days, with the bridal wreath woven of real myrtle, and 
 "many presents, including the silhouette on glass of the two 
 maidens binding the wreath. . . . When my toilet was completed, 
 I was a pretty bride. . . . After 4 o'clock came Boehmer and the 
 guests, about thirty people. Thank Heaven, the old uncles and 
 aunts were not there, so it all passed off better than is usual on 
 such occasions. " There was much merry-making, although, according 
 to the fashion of that period of sentiment, every one was frequently 
 "moved to tears." After a souper at a friend's house a few days 
 later the bride and bridegroom were conducted to the garden to 
 admire an illuminated device with the words : " Blessed is he who 
 has a virtuous wife, his span of life shall be doubled." After which 
 they revelled in sentiment and punch. "What a spectacle that 
 is,'' wrote Caroline, " a family each member of which is so loving 
 and good, and now to be received in it as a bride ! " 
 
 252 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 usual optimism she made the best of things, 
 proved herself a good wife and mother — ^three 
 children were born here — and struggled bravely 
 against depression. " Don't be too downhearted, 
 Caroline," she would say sometimes, with a 
 smile at her own reflection in the mirror. Her 
 great resource was reading ; her letters to friends 
 are full of requests for new books. Mental fare 
 was solid in those days : history, biography, 
 Spinoza's philosophy, French and English authors 
 (Miss Burney's Cecilia is mentioned) and the 
 Don Carlos of Schiller, a young Swabian 
 poet — "rather too provincial as yet," Caroline 
 pronounced his style. 
 
 Clausthal was undoubtedly dull, and Caroline 
 found it so. In after years she looked back 
 upon it with a shudder, upon herself as a 
 prisoner in that gloomy vaUey. 
 
 But at the end of four years the prison doors 
 were opened. Dr Bohmer, who had been a 
 devoted husband in spite of the scant intellectual 
 sympathy between them, died rather suddenly 
 (1788), and Caroline left Clausthal for ever, 
 returning to her parents' home in Gottingen. 
 Her third child, a boy, born after his father's 
 death, only lived a few months, her second 
 little girl died in the following year, and the 
 
 253 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 young widow was left with one daughter, 
 Augusta Bohmer, and hfe still before her. 
 
 There were offers of marriage and numerous 
 flirtations. All her life Caroline was busy with 
 affaires du cceur. August Wilhelm Schlegel, 
 at this time a student at Gottingen, six years 
 her junior, feU in love, but she laughed him 
 to scorn although encouraging his attentions. 
 A deeper feehng attracted her to a somewhat 
 older man, a certain Tatter, tutor to the 
 Hanoverian Princes, who were then attending 
 the University, but this admirer always seems 
 to have fought shy of marriage with the 
 "coquettish widow," as Caroline calls herself. 
 
 In 1792 she decided to leave her own people 
 and make a fresh start in Mainz, now the home 
 of the old friend of her girlhood, Therese Forster 
 (formerly Therese Heym), whose husband, Georg 
 Forster, a literary man, was ardently in sympathy 
 with the French Revolutionists. 
 
 At this time Mainz (Mayence), so near the 
 French frontier, seemed uncertain as to which 
 country it belonged or wished to belong. The 
 aristocrats at the head of affairs were of course 
 German in sympathy, but a strong party of 
 democratic spirits desired to join the .French 
 Republic. The Forsters were of this party, 
 
 254 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 and Caroline was soon drawn into the circle of 
 political intrigue. In December 1792 the city 
 admitted the French under General Custine, 
 without striking a blow ; the aristocrats fled 
 and the Republic was proclaimed. Forster, the 
 city librarian, was made President of the Jacobin 
 Club and otherwise identified himself with the 
 French cause. In this time of political upheaval 
 social ties were also loosened ; freedom was the 
 password in every department of life. So that 
 Therese Forster, no longer in sympathy with 
 her husband, left him, accepting the protection 
 of Huber, a secretary to the German Legation. 
 Thus Therese left Mainz, but Caroline stayed 
 on and became known as the friend of Forster. 
 Soon she was so deeply imphcated with the 
 Revolutionists that Tatter, to whom she made 
 a last appeal, definitely withdrew from any 
 responsibility connected with her affairs, and 
 in a desperate mood, resolved, as she said, " to 
 be happy at any cost," she became the mistress 
 of a Frenchman, whose name does not transpire. 
 With the spring of the following year (1793) 
 came retribution. The German army, several 
 of the little Rhenish principalities uniting to 
 make a force, re-took Mainz. Forster had gone 
 to Paris as a representative of the " Rhenish 
 
 255 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Republic" (which never existed), and Caroline 
 was arrested and accused of aU kinds of 
 immorality as well as political offences. In 
 some sense she was considered a hostage for 
 Forster, being described as his amie (quite 
 wrongfully, judging from all the evidence on 
 that point) ; her protests were unavailing. 
 
 With her little daughter Auguste she was im- 
 prisoned in a fortress, herded with other prisoners 
 in a common room — in short treated with the 
 utmost harshness. After some wretched months 
 her brother, Dr Philip Michaelis, petitioned for 
 her release, offering his services as an army 
 surgeon in return. Wilhelm Schlegel, the 
 despised suitor of former days, hastened to add 
 what influence he possessed in her favour, and 
 the prisoners were released. 
 
 But Carohne found herself practically an out- 
 cast, her reputation gone, scandal magnifying 
 her offences. She was not allowed to set foot 
 in the Rhenish provinces, even Gottingen closed 
 its gates to her and she was forbidden to return.^ 
 
 ^ As late as 1800 this was in force. " Decree of the Hanoverian 
 University Council to the Rector of Gottingen, 26th September 
 1800 : We learn from many sources that Professor August Wilhelm 
 Schlegel of Jena with his wife, formerly the widow Boehmer, me'e 
 Michaelis, will shortly arrive in Gottingen. As already under date 
 16th August 1794 we forbade her to remain there, it must be 
 intimated to her relatives, and, if necessary, to herself that she 
 
 256 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 Everywhere she found herself coldly received. 
 Worse than all, she was expecting to become 
 a mother, this time without the legal protection 
 of a husband. 
 
 Wilhelm Schlegel, who in spite of everything 
 remained devoted, placed her under the care 
 of his brother Friedrich, a young student in 
 Leipzig. Here, too, difficulties arose, and a 
 lodging had to be found for her outside the 
 Saxon frontier, though not far from the city. 
 And here a child was born which, fortunately, 
 did not hve, and with this the disreputable 
 episode in Caroline's life came to an end. 
 
 The two Schlegel brothers, August Wilhelm 
 and Friedrich, are notable figures among the 
 Romanticists. Wilhelm, the elder by five years, 
 will always be famous as the man who by his 
 fine, poetic translation gave Shakespeare to the 
 German nation. In daily life he was the correct, 
 polished, yet.kindly man of the world. Friedrich, 
 " with more genius but less talent," was the 
 enthusiastic young poet, the dreamer. These 
 
 must leave, in the event of the said Professor's wife wishing to 
 stay longer than a. couple of days in passing through the town, 
 (This does not apply to her husband.) Should, however, the 
 professor's brother, Frederic Schlegel, who has become notorious 
 through his corrupt writings, arrive with the intention of remaining 
 some time, he also is to be informed that he must leave Gottingen.' 
 
 257 R 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 two brothers adored each other, and their 
 brotherly love was a rare and delightful thing. 
 Overflowing with ideas and aspirations, " die 
 uhermuthigen Gotterhuben " (as Wieland called 
 them) joined forces with other young men of 
 the same modern tendency : Brentano, Von 
 Arnim, the Grimms, Tieck, Novalis, and con- 
 solidated into a force, a movement. 
 
 It was Friedrich Schlegel, who, five years 
 later, started the Athenceum in whose pages 
 the ideas of the Romanticists were formulated. 
 It ran only a brief course (1798-1800), but was 
 eagerly read and exercised an enormous influence 
 on art and literature. For the Athenceum 
 Schleiermacher, the philosophic theologian, wrote 
 his Creed for Noble Women which sounds 
 strangely modern in our ears a hundred years 
 later. Wilhelm Schlegel's famous comparison 
 of music with architecture appeared in its 
 pages. 
 
 Like most young men with ideas, Friedrich 
 Schlegel considered it his mission to awaken the 
 Philistines (as he called them, the Harmonious 
 Blockheads). Romanticism,^ in awakening in- 
 dividual consciousness, certainly also did much 
 to rouse German national consciousness, then at 
 such a low level. " Not Hermann and Wotan, 
 
 258 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 but Art and Science are German national 
 divinities," wrote Friedrich in the Athenceum. 
 "Perhaps no nation is worthy of freedom but 
 justice awards it before the forum dei." There 
 was a great beUef in the speedy advent of a 
 new order of things. In a passage of pecuUar 
 metaphor the Athenceum wrote: "The new era 
 announces itself as quick-footed, winged ; the 
 rosy dawn has put on seven-leagued boots." 
 Great things were at hand : " lightning flashes 
 have long played across the horizon of poetry, 
 soon, however, it will no longer be question 
 of one single storm, the whole sky will be 
 aflame. . . . Then the nineteenth century wiU 
 really begin, and at last there will be readers 
 who can read," i.e., the Athenceum would no 
 longer be declared "incomprehensible." 
 
 Friedrich himself was at his best in short 
 paragraphs and aphorisms ; his " Fragmente " 
 were a great feature. Carohne contributed some 
 Reviews and Criticisms, which — especially those 
 on Shakespeare — display a fine literary judgment, 
 " We must have some Esprit de Caroline, " 
 Friedrich used to say. 
 
 Caroline's influence on Friedrich Schlegel was 
 extraordinary. Until she appeared upon his 
 horizon the young man had never concentrated 
 
 259 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 his talents in any particular direction but was 
 leading an idle, dissipated, aimless existence. 
 When she came to Leipzig, fugitive and out- 
 cast, his chivalrous instincts awoke. She seemed 
 to him a wonderful, heroic creature, a new 
 type of woman, persecuted by fate but always 
 cheerful, courageous, even noble in her mis- 
 fortunes. She inspired him to work, and he 
 idealised her in the character of Juliane in his 
 much discussed novel, Lucinde. " Through 
 her 1 have become a better man," he wrote. 
 He was certainly in love with Caroline, but 
 with real nobility, knowing his brother's love 
 for her, he kept his own feelings in the back- 
 ground, and the fine relationship of the brothers 
 remained undisturbed. 
 
 Finally, in 1796, Caroline, urged by her family 
 and realising the need of a protector for herself 
 and Auguste, became the wife of Wilhelm 
 Schlegel (1st July 1796), and settfed with him 
 in Jena. This union, it must be confessed, was 
 not at all in accordance with Romantic traditions. 
 In spite of Schlegel's splendid qualities of heart 
 and intellect, she never really loved him, and 
 married him from motives of worldly wisdom. 
 At first, indeed, they thought of dispensing 
 with the legal tie, and only submitted to it as 
 
 260 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 a social necessity. "We never considered the 
 union a binding one," Caroline declared later. 
 However, by this marriage she achieved social re- 
 habilitation, and that, all things considered, with 
 surprising suddenness. And in the beginning 
 things promised well. 
 
 Jena, the University town, was a congenial 
 home for literary folk. Schiller was living 
 here ; Fichte was giving his famous lectures 
 on the Ego ; Weimar, the home of Goethe 
 and Wieland, was delightfully near. Jena is 
 described in a letter by Dorothea Veit : " Green 
 velvet carpets on the mountains, embroidered 
 over with violets, cowslips, and primroses, all 
 inwoven with sweet - smelling herbs ; all the 
 trees in the most glorious blossom, masses of 
 lilac and May-flowers ; a kind of willow with 
 orange - like perfume grows eve];;ywhere on 
 meadows and hills. The swift rushing river, 
 clear as a mirror ... an atmosphere soft, mild, 
 and blue all around one, lying like a veil on 
 the hills, such is spring-time in Jena." The 
 students, too, were less rough in their manners 
 than was the case in other universities, where 
 ladies could not venture to take country- 
 walks alone. Here they were refined, musical, 
 philosophical — "everywhere talk of poetry, of 
 
 261 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Wilhelm Meister — of transcendental philosophy, 
 and from every house the sound of guitar and 
 violin." Such was Jena^_ destined, Jo___becoBae 
 the "Cradle of Romanticism/'^ 
 
 The young couple were welcomed by the 
 SchiUers and other residents, and settled down 
 in this pleasant spot, Wilhelm busy with his 
 translations, CaroUne helping him, copying 
 manuscripts, writing criticisms, etc. Some of 
 his best work, it is noted, was done under her 
 influence. Her stormy past seems to have been 
 forgotten, at any rate she was soon one of the 
 bright particular stars of Jena. A charming 
 hostess, she speedily made their home a centre 
 of social intercourse. Schlegel, too, loved society, 
 and their evening receptions were quite brilliant 
 aifairs. Another attraction was her daughter, 
 Auguste Bohmer, now growing into a pretty 
 and interesting girl, idolised by her mother, the 
 pet of her stepfather and the youthful Uncle 
 Friedrich. 
 
 It was a pity that Caroline soon estranged the 
 SchiUers by her unsparing ridicule of SchUler's 
 poems, which she never appreciated, or indeed 
 understood. Goethe was the idol of the 
 Romanticists, but they never did justice to 
 
 ^ Ricarda Huch, Die Eomantik. 
 262 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 Schiller. Caroline writes to the absent Auguste 
 once that " we nearly fell from our chairs with 
 laughing " at the first reading of " that ridiculous 
 poem, Die Glocke," which some wit suggested 
 might be improved by being read backwards ! 
 She and her husband certainly influenced 
 Friedrich Schlegel (who at first had admired 
 Schiller greatly), and inspired some of his most 
 cutting criticisms. Schiller never forgave these 
 things. His nickname, " Dame Lucifer," clung 
 to Caroline more closely than she liked. Some 
 satirical lines in the JTenien were supposed, too, 
 to aim at her. Whether well-founded or not, 
 the supposition is significant. 
 
 In 1798 a new figure appears on the scene. 
 This was a young lecturer of philosophy named 
 ScheUing, a pupil of Fichte, who had already 
 recognised his strong originality. 
 
 Starting a modest course of lectures on his 
 own account (as Privat Dozent, unattached to 
 the University) he made an extraordinary im- 
 pression at once, and soon had enthusiastic 
 followers. Fichte's strong cult of individuahty 
 lay at the root of the Romantic movement, 
 but ScheUing exercised an enormous influence 
 on its later development, imparting a deep, mys- 
 tical tendency which coloured Romantic art and 
 
 263 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 literature. He taught the absolute identity of 
 the spirit within and of nature outside our- 
 selves : " Nature is spirit ; spirit is invisible 
 nature. Nature and spirit are \mo aspects of 
 the World Soul." Nature is this spirit striving 
 towards outward expression. This philosophy 
 was the very soul of Romanticism and intensified 
 the movement in a marvellous degree. The 
 young professor (he was only twenty-three) was 
 a striking personality ; strength in every line of 
 his square-cut face with its broad brow and 
 flashing eyes, a being all fire and impetuous 
 energy — "bold, daring, abrupt." (Bettina von 
 Arnim describes Tieck as modeUing the square, 
 broad, splendid Schelling-Kopf.) 
 
 Friedrich Wilhelm Josef ScheUing, like the 
 Schlegel brothers, had grown up in a quiet 
 parsonage (their father was a Protestant pastor 
 near Hanover, he was the son of a pastor in 
 Wiirtemberg). He joined them in the literary 
 movement of the day and Jena soon became 
 the most important centre of Romanticism. 
 For although the AthencBum was published in 
 Berhn, the literary leaders were at this time in 
 Jena. 
 
 Life in these Jena circles was full of interest. 
 Goethe would come over from Weimar to talk 
 
 264 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 over literary matters with Wilhelm Schlegel. 
 Parties were made up to drive over to Weimar 
 on such occasions as the first performance of 
 a new play by Schiller. After Walknstein's 
 Lager (1798), for instance (which the Romantics 
 as usual condemned), Caroline writes that Fichte 
 persuaded her to drink champagne with him, and 
 she afterwards drove home with Schelling, whilst 
 her husband stayed behind to talk to Goethe. 
 
 Caroline writes that Goethe came over on 
 horseback with the last part of " Wilhelm Meister 
 tied on behind him, for he rides a good deal in 
 spite of his stoutness, and brings it over in MSS. 
 Schiller says he will invite us soon to hear it 
 read." She made Fichte's acquaintance at the 
 " Clubb," and describes him as " a short, sturdy 
 man with fiery eyes, very carelessly dressed. 
 After the AthencBum here, the newest event is 
 the performance of Wallenstein, Part I., Die 
 Piccolomini. ... I am translating Shakespeare's 
 As You Like It into iambics, prose, and even 
 rhymes occasionally." (Caroline appears to have 
 rendered considerable help in these translations, 
 and Schlegel did very little of this work after 
 she left him.) 
 
 Friedrich Schlegel brought his wife (formerly 
 Dorothea Veit), to his brother's home on a long 
 
 265 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 visit, but Caroline did not find her sympathetic 
 — she was too abrupt and mascuUne, lacking 
 those feminine graces which Caroline herseK 
 cultivated so admirably. At this time the 
 Schlegels seem to have practically kept open 
 house, some eighteen persons dining every day, 
 — fortunately Caroline was an excellent house- 
 keeper as well as a clever hostess. 
 
 They were devoted to amateur theatricals. 
 On New Year's Eve of 1800, a masque written 
 by William Schlegel was performed, in which 
 the new Century was represented as an Infant, 
 the foster child of Ignorance, recognising its real 
 parents as Genius and Freedom, a characteristic 
 expression of the boundless hope felt in the 
 dawn of a new era. 
 
 In summer there were long walks and 
 excursions, on winter evenings they read and 
 studied. Caroline describes these things in her 
 bright, gossiping letters to Auguste, who spent 
 some months (1799) in Dessau, where she had 
 the opportunity of good singing lessons. It 
 was then that Tischbein painted Auguste's 
 portrait, a sweet girlish face with a charming 
 expression and a striking resemblance to her 
 mother. 
 
 After Auguste had gone came a rainy day. 
 266 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 " I could think of no other consolation than buying 
 a heap of flowers and arranging them about me, 
 they were my children. They had a dehcious 
 fragrance, but they could not sing." 
 
 " 31st October 1799. 
 
 " I know not what my child is doing. Do 
 you think because I was willing to let you stay 
 there longer, that I do not love you ? Believe 
 me, you are the dearest thing your mother has, 
 and you will know this well later." She 
 gossips of literary interests. " Kotzebue has 
 written a play against the Schlegels and had it 
 performed during the Fair. One part, described 
 in the Athenceum, is meant to represent Frederic, 
 ' lately sent to the mad-house,' for the rest, the 
 thing has absolutely no wit, outside the Schlegel's 
 own. There was a great uproar in the theatre 
 for and against, the Leipzigers were naturally 
 for it. Muller, however, has forbidden its 
 further performance. It is called the Hyper- 
 borean Donkey or The Civilization of our Time. 
 . . . Schiller's Museticalendar has come. The 
 poem of Imhof is not much more than a troop 
 of hexameters, but yesterday morning we nearly 
 fell off our chairs laughing over a poem of 
 Schiller's, The Song of the Sell. It is d la Voss, 
 a la Tieck, a la Diable, at least it will be this 
 
 267 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 last. . . . Child of my heart, do you want any- 
 thing ? . . . La Veit continues to he an excellent 
 woman, and Frederic goes on dreaming. The 
 Schillers have a daughter. Are you at last 
 learning to sing? Your despairing mother, 
 
 Caroline." 
 
 The relations between Schelling and the 
 Schlegel household seem strangely complicated ; 
 one has to read between the lines of Caroline's 
 letters in order to understand them. ^Schelling 
 was soon an inmate of the house. At first he 
 did not understand Caroline, and she complains 
 that he is quarrelsome. " He is always on his 
 guard against the irony in the Schlegel family." 
 But before long they were friends, and both 
 mother and daughter admired and loved him. 
 Schlegel was always his friend. Schelling seems 
 to have loved Auguste, a girl of wonderful 
 promise, with all her mother's talent and charm, 
 precociously developed in this atmosphere of 
 intellect. 
 
 Evidently Auguste was drifting into an 
 engagement with Schelling; Caroline content 
 to have it so, when in the summer of 1800, 
 mother and daughter travelled to Boklet, a little 
 place in Bavaria, where Caroline was to drink 
 
 268 
 
Caroline Schlegd 
 
 the waters. They were escorted on their journey 
 by Schelling, who was going to Bamberg on 
 business. Suddenly, after a few day's illness, 
 Auguste— died (12th July 1800), her death 
 coming as an impossible, overwhelming catas- 
 trophe to all who knew her. In the letters 
 of all these celebrated men the girl of fifteen 
 is spoken of with extraordinary admiration and 
 affection. Her young life had been the budding 
 centre of so many hopes. Her death was a 
 crushing blow to Schelling, who fell seriously ill. 
 
 CaroUne was at first inconsolable. And in 
 her sorrow she drifted away from her husband, 
 though at first she seems to have deceived her- 
 self as to the real nature of her affection for 
 Schelling, now no longer motherly. Caroline 
 wrote to Schelling, trying to ignore the possi- 
 bility of love between them. " Goethe loves 
 you as a father, I as a mother, what strange 
 parents ! Do not grieve us. . . . " And in the 
 style of her " set " she told him (1800) : 
 
 " ' I must try if I cannot produce from 
 
 Death ^ Joy l^^ and Peace.'" 
 Grief Love 
 
 Significantly she once begged her husband to 
 find for her a passage in Homer, " Die Herzen 
 
 269 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 der guten sind heilbar " (" The hearts of the good 
 can be healed "), for " I cannot find it in Homer, 
 only in my own heart." At last the two recog- 
 nised the fact that they loved each other. 
 ScheUing^ strange as it may jseem, ^^a^ Ijhe real 
 love of Cliroline's life, in spite of the difference 
 in their ages (he was twelve years younger). 
 Wilhelm Schlegel was much in Berlin at this 
 time on account of his literary work, and in 
 1802 settled there altogether. Caroline preferred 
 Jena, and she and Schelhng now became insepar- 
 able, taking no pains to hide the fact. Strange, 
 how this woman was once more borne on the 
 stormy waves of passion from her quiet haven 
 of refuge to an entirely new Hfe! This time 
 she acted on the promptings of her own nature. 
 The Romantics recognised no tie as binding save 
 that of real affection, and Wilhelm Schlegel put 
 no difficulties in the way of a divorce. A petition 
 (chiefly in Caroline's handwriting) was sent to 
 the Grand Duke, pleading incompatibility and 
 the childlessness of the marriage, and a divorce 
 was granted immediately. In May 1803 Caroline 
 was once more free. " We broke a tie which 
 neither of us had ever considered binding," she 
 writes. Throughout Schlegel and Schelling 
 corresponded about the affair in a friendly spirit, 
 
 270 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 and Schlegel afterwards visited the couple in 
 Munich. After the divorce SchelUng took 
 Caroline to his parents at the quiet parsonage 
 in Murrhardt, Wiirtemberg, and they seem to 
 have receive^ her affectionately as a suitable 
 bride for their son. Schelling's diary shows 
 the simple entry : — 
 
 "26^A June 1803. Father married us." 
 
 At first they settled in Wiirzburg, where a 
 Chair of Philosophy was' offered to SchelUng. 
 Afterwards (1805) he obtained a post at the 
 Academy in Munich. 
 
 There was a general dispersal of the Jena 
 Romanticists about this time. Wilhelm Schlegel 
 had settled in Berlin. Friedrich and his wife 
 were in Paris. Fichte had been compelled to 
 resign his post at the Jena University in 1799 
 on account of the setheistic tendency of his 
 teaching, in spite of the efforts of the Schlegels 
 on his behalf. Caroline laments that "the 
 little circle gathered in .Jena is now scattered 
 about the world, teaching the heathen," a remark 
 significant of the Romantic attitude towards an 
 unenlightened world. 
 
 Apparently Caroline had found a congenial 
 soul-mate at last. She worshipped her husband, 
 shared his intellectual interests as few women 
 
 271 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 could have done, and made him, besides, a 
 charming and deUghtful companion. She kept 
 her fascinating personahty to the end ; his letters 
 breathe devotion and admiration. It was an 
 ideal union — ^for six years — and then Caroline 
 was suddenly taken by death from her happiness, 
 possibly from future disillusionment. She died 
 almost as suddenly as her daughter had done, 
 and in a similar way, apparently from a form of 
 cholera which was then a constant scourge. 
 They were on a three days' walking tour, and 
 Carohne (ScheUing wrote) had never been so 
 sweet and lovable, when she suddenly fell ill 
 and succumbed at once, dying within a few 
 hours (7th September 1809) ; he thought she was 
 weakened by having just nursed him through 
 an illness. 
 
 There is no doubt that Caroline's friends loved 
 her devotedly. She was a unique creature, 
 ScheUing said : " one must either love her wholly 
 or not at all ..." a rare woman with "the 
 keenest intellect united with the most womanly, 
 the tenderest, the most loving heart." He was 
 inconsolable at her loss. 
 
 " God gave her to me, Death cannot rob me 
 
 of her," were the words he inscribed on her 
 
 tomb. 
 
 272 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 JPven her enemies adiiJLted her absolute 
 sincerity, and the/ way in wh'?h she remained, 
 true to herself and her convictions. It was this 
 which made her so true a daughter of the 
 Romantic movement. 
 
 Schelling married after some years Pauline 
 Gotter, the daughter of a friend of Caroline's 
 youth. Friedrich Schlegel died suddenly in 
 1828. The vicissitudes of Wilhelm Schegel are 
 chronicled by Henriette Herz : 
 
 " No sooner had Madame de Stael met August 
 W. Schlegel than she realised his intellectual 
 importance, and wished to attach him to her- 
 self" She begged Madame Herz to persuade 
 him. " I only want him to teach my children 
 German ; all the rest of the time shall be at 
 his own disposal. He makes his translation 
 of Shakespeare a pretext, but je ne vols pas la 
 necessite," she said with some warmth, "I do 
 not see the necessity for translating the EngUsh 
 poet for the benefit of the Prussian capital ! " 
 
 In due course ^^adame de Stael carried her 
 point and Schlegel as tutor of her children to 
 Coppet. Here he shone in congenial intellec- 
 tual circles ; also travelled in Italy and France, 
 visited Vienna and Stockholm. He wrote a few 
 lectures and essays, became secretary to the 
 
 273 S 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 Crown Prince of Sweden in 1813, and after the 
 fall of Napoleon returned to Madame de Stael. 
 
 A second marriage with the daughter of a 
 professor turned out no better than the first, it 
 ended in a separation. In later life he devoted 
 himself to the study of Oriental languages, and 
 became professor of Sanscrit in Bonn. He died 
 in 1845. 
 
 Henriette says the time Schlegel spent with 
 Madame de Stael was the time of his best 
 literary work. Her influence was stimulating 
 and inspiring. " He was not at his best as a 
 University professor in Bonn. He was not fitted 
 to be a German professor, not at home with the 
 rough German students. He must often have 
 seemed ridiculous to them and very strange to 
 his colleagues. I saw him again on my return 
 from Italy in 1819 as professor in Bonn, on 
 which occasion he was very friendly towards me. 
 How he had altered externally ! The bright 
 glance of other days was dull, his complexion 
 pale and faded, the taU figure had grown heavy, 
 his former intellect was only to be imagined I 
 
 "We made excursions by land and water with 
 Bonn professors and their wives. They were 
 merry and noisy, but the more merry and noisy 
 they grew, the quieter Schlegel became. At 
 
 274 
 
Caroline Schlegel 
 
 last he would sit in complete but polite indiffer- 
 ence, like an elderly Frenchman who does not 
 understand German but is thrown into German 
 society, nor did his external appearance contra- 
 dict this idea. Really he did not grasp what 
 was spoken around him, even if he understood 
 the words. He made a painful impression upon 
 me." A sad picture of the once brilliant and 
 courtly Romantic writer ! 
 
 275 
 
CHARLOTTE STIEGLITZ 
 
BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Brandes, G. Rahel, Bettina, and Gharlotte Stieglitz, 1896. 
 Mundt T. Gharlotte Stieglitz, ein Denkmal, 1835. 
 
Gharlotts2 gtiszglitz 
 
CHARLOTTE STIEGLITZ 
 
 " A great thought which has lost itself." — C. Stibglitz. 
 
 In the early Thirties of the last century the 
 name of Charlotte Stieglitz rang throughout 
 Germany, startling as a sudden cry. Mundt's 
 book, Charlotte Stieglitz, ein Denkmal, which 
 appeared in 1835, the year following her 
 death, was read in a frenzy of admiration and 
 enthusiasm. She promptly became the heroine 
 of Jung Deutschland, and was glorified in 
 their writings, notably in Gutzkow's Wally, 
 and other works of the then New School. 
 
 One single act — her own suicide — had made 
 her famous. It was a mad, foolish act, done 
 for so little reason, for such a childish, ludi- 
 crously mistaken idea of value. One can almost 
 smile pityingly as well as shudder at the poor 
 girl's dreadful heroism (she was only twenty- 
 eight at the time of her death). It was a mad 
 impulse, born of bookish ideals, lampUght 
 ambitions, literary cravings — all far removed 
 
 279 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 from everyday human hfe and the good sohd 
 earth. 
 
 Yet there was something in the splendid 
 courage of the deed, something noble in the 
 nature of the woman who did it, which roused 
 an enthusiasm throughout Germany such as 
 it is scarcely possible to realise now. She had 
 thrown away her life for a mistake, it is true, 
 but it was thrown away with such magnificent 
 generosity and self-saCrifice. 
 
 And deeper than the superficial reasons for 
 Young Germany's enthusiasm lies the fact that, 
 coming at the moment when the world's ideals 
 of women were being raised to higher levels, 
 Charlotte Stieghtz revealed a new and un- 
 suspected force of character in her sex, an 
 energy of initiative which made her bold 
 enough to be her own fate, and sacrifice her- 
 self instead of conforming to the old ideals of 
 suffering passively and being sacrificed. One 
 of Germany's famous women at the dawn of 
 woman's "emancipation," she revealed, not 
 woman's possible intellect like Rahel Varn- 
 hagen, but woman's possible heroism. 
 
 This seems to have been the psychological 
 significance of her message to Jung Deutsch- 
 land. 
 
 280 
 
Charlotte Stieglitz 
 
 Charlotte Sophie Willhofft, for this was her 
 maiden name, was born in 1806, of middle- class 
 parentage. She grew up in Leipzig, and, when 
 only sixteen years of age, became engaged to 
 a young student named Heinrich Stieglitz. 
 They married six years later, on his obtaining 
 the post of librarian at the Royal Library in 
 Berlin. In addition to his work at the library 
 and as a teacher, Stieghtz was unfortunately 
 also a poet — unfortunately, for herein lies the 
 tragedy of their lives. He was but an indifferent 
 poet and he was ambitious. Conscious of his 
 own poetical weakness, he was constantly 
 tortured by his inability to produce something 
 really great. 
 
 Charlotte, who adored her husband and 
 believed him to be a great man, shared these 
 ambitions, she cherished the highest ideals and 
 wished her Heinrich to become nothing less 
 than a great inspiring National Genius. But 
 he could not. Genius bloweth where it listeth, 
 and Heinrich Stieglitz remained uninspired by 
 its breath. 
 
 In vain he worked industriously at versifica- 
 tion, in vain his devoted wife watched over him 
 and his moods, in vain she encouraged and 
 besought his lagging Muse ; the forceful word 
 
 281 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 never came. Stieglitz remained neat and 
 literary, but uninspired, mediocre. He inclined 
 chiefly to Oriental subjects for his poems, which 
 met with a very fair amount of success, but 
 he was not, and never could be, a great poet. 
 
 Ill-health compelled him to give up his post 
 as librarian, and he fell into a state of nervous 
 depression. Charlotte began to fancy that by 
 marrying her he had condemned himself to a 
 life of sordid drudgery unworthy of a poet, 
 that the daily routine of teaching duUed his 
 best energies. Perhaps, if he were set free, 
 he might be lifted above the small miseries of 
 life. Once she said with remarkable insight : 
 
 " I have watched you closely and am con- 
 vinced that the best thing for you would be 
 some real, deep suffering. Now you are ill 
 in and of your own self; a real great grief 
 would lift you above your self" 
 
 The poet himself had a fateful dream in 
 which, after seeing his wife drown, he was 
 suddenly inspired to write great things. 
 
 Charlotte herself was by no means without 
 inspirations. Once when her husband had 
 struggled unsuccessfully with a scene in his 
 tragedy, Selim III., she wrote it for him 
 during his absence. The scene is a very good 
 
 282 
 
Charlotte Stieglitz 
 
 one, Stieglitz himself called it seelenvoll, and it 
 is pubUshed in the tragedy. 
 
 She was the bright centre of a little group 
 of intellectual friends who gathered round them 
 in Berlin, and her beautiful voice and artistic 
 singing attracted musicians to the house as 
 well as literary men. 
 
 In appearance she was very attractive; her 
 portraits shows a young face, innocent, in- 
 telligent, and tender ; she is described as having 
 beautiful regular features, a charming mouth 
 and large brown eyes " sparkhng with courage," 
 with a mass of brown curls dressed in the fashion 
 of the day. As a young girl some one noticed 
 in her a strange, mystical expression, such as 
 the old Teutonic races were wont to ascribe 
 to their wise women, those who had the gift 
 of prophecy. 
 
 Her sayings are both witty and thoughtful. 
 Her remark, for instance, about a man with 
 poetic gifts who had grown dull and prosy in 
 the routine of daily life : " The swan has left 
 him, but the duck still waddles after him." 
 
 Of the second part of Goethe's Faust she said, 
 " It is a work of Goethe grown old — not of our 
 old Goethe." 
 
 Her husband has recorded that on visiting the 
 283 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 waterfall Imatra in Finland she exclaimed : " Is 
 it not like a great thought which has lost itself 
 in the loneliness of these rocks ? " 
 
 And in her diary she wrote : " That we shall 
 live on I believe. Hotso shall we live ? Certainly 
 in some wonderful spiritual manner. And I see 
 so many wonders here that I believe in still 
 greater ones yonder T 
 
 Once she said to her husband : " Has not 
 every poet his dream-ladder on which angels 
 go up and down ? " But no angels alighted on 
 her poet's dream-ladder, and Charlotte became 
 increasingly distressed thereat. 
 
 Poor little poet's wife ! She, once said that 
 human beings are our anchors in the sea of life, 
 "only they must be the right ones," and un- 
 fortunately she never found her right anchor in 
 life. In the world outside, too, there was a 
 disturbed atmosphere ; Europe was ringing with 
 echoes of old and new. Everywhere was unrest, 
 a striving after some unattainable thing. In 
 France, Fourier and Saint Simon were preach- 
 ing ; in Germany, Hegel was in the air ; the 
 young school with Heine was waging war against 
 Romanticism. She was interested in everything, 
 but her strength was worn out in the constant 
 effort to ward off her husband's periods of 
 
 284 
 
Charlotte Stieglitz 
 
 depression, to inspire him with courage and 
 perseverance, to save him all the worries of daily 
 life — in short, to maintain him in the mood 
 suited to a great poet who was to voice the 
 aspirations of his age. 
 
 He was but a poor hero, her poet, and not 
 in the least what she imagined him. He is 
 described as looking "bold, passionate, full of 
 genius," but being in reality weak and without 
 any perseverance, one of those in whom appear- 
 ance and character are at variance. His com- 
 plaints of world-weariness and the like sound 
 very weak and trivial. " How short is life and 
 how much time is wasted in attending to our 
 lowest needs ! " And Charlotte answered : 
 "Length of life is nothing, strength of life is 
 everything." 
 
 In a pessimistic mood he declared : " Only 
 the dead are healthy, no living human being is 
 healthy if he once begins to think and feel 
 deeply ... no matter what hours of intellectual 
 ecstasy — that divine poison — he may enjoy." 
 
 And Charlotte again answered: "Yes, but 
 such hours are not real life, however splendid 
 they may be. Real life is the strength which 
 possesses itself, and is calm within and by itself." 
 
 This was about the sum and total of the 
 285 
 
Some German Women and their Salons 
 
 many reasonings and discussions in their drama 
 of intellect and moods. Charlotte's word was 
 always " Strength." 
 
 But it was hard work and Charlotte herself 
 was not equal to the strain. Her hushand was 
 in a worse state of depression than ever, and 
 she herself was ill, when she at last came to a 
 dreadful decision. 
 
 On 29th December 1834, Stieglitz was absent 
 for some hours at a concert. The young wife 
 put the house in order and wrote a letter of 
 farewell to him, clothed herself in a long white 
 dress, and, lying down on her bed, calmly 
 stabbed herself to the heart with a dagger of 
 Turkish workmanship, which had been her 
 present to her husband when they started on 
 their wedding journey, six years before. 
 
 She must have lain there and suffered in stoic 
 silence for some time, but she was dead when 
 Stieglitz returned. Her letter ran thus : — 
 
 "You could not be unhappier than you are, 
 beloved ! But you may become happier, even 
 in real sorrow ! There is often a strange blessed- 
 ness in being unhappy, it will surely come to 
 you. . . . Things will go better with you, much 
 better now, why ? I feel it, although I have no 
 
 286 
 
Charlotte Stieglitz 
 
 words to express why. We shall meet again 
 some time, freer, less bound ! But you must 
 first live your life out here, must go about in 
 the world bravely. 
 
 " Greet all whom I loved and who loved me 
 in return. Through all eternity. 
 
 " Thy Charlotte. 
 
 " Do not be weak, be calm and strong and 
 great ! " 
 
 But the strange terrible deed of sacrifice nearly 
 killed Stieglitz. He had loved Charlotte very 
 dearly, and never recovered from the blow, 
 although he lived some fifteen years longer. In 
 obedience to her last wishes he tried to be calm 
 and strong. Henceforth he looked upon himself 
 and his life as something to be carefully kept 
 for her sake, and so used as, if possible, to justify 
 her deed. But he never became a great poet. 
 
 " Greater love hath no man than this, that he 
 lay down his life for his friend," he wrote, " but 
 no one ever with greater love caused greater 
 suffering than Charlotte." 
 
 287 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abnim, Achim von, 186j 188, 
 
 190 
 , Bettina von, 49, 128, 130, 
 
 131, 167 
 Athenceum, 76, 258, 269 
 
 Baubb, Hofrath, 81 
 Beethoven, 144, 179 
 Bohmer, Auguste, 254, 262, 266 
 
 , Georg-, 262 
 
 Borne, Ludwig, 71, 90, 94 
 Brentano, Clemens, 44, 128, 161, 
 
 163, 172, 199 
 
 , Maximiliane, 159 
 
 , Peter, 160 
 
 Brinckmann, Count, 106, 109, 
 
 114 
 
 Chamisso, a. von, 88, 127 
 Courland, Dachess of, 83 
 
 DoHNA, Alexander von, 79 
 
 Elslbb, Fanny, 143 
 
 FioHTB, 73, 107, 120, 124, 265, 
 
 271 
 Finckenstein, Karl von, 117 
 Forster, Georg, 254, 265 
 
 , Therese, 251, 264-265 
 
 Fouque', de la Motte, 127, 134 
 Friederike, Princess of Meck- 
 lenburg - Strelitz, 208, 211, 
 IH216 
 Friedrich Wilhelm II., 210, 218 
 
 Friedrich Wilhelm III. 
 
 216, 218, 220 
 IV., 93, 199 
 
 211, 
 
 GfiLiEU, Mile, de, 209 
 Gentz, 73, 111, 113, 143 
 Gockel, Thusnelda von, 37, 38 
 Goethe, Cornelia, 15, 22, 28 
 
 , Elisabeth, 3, 173, 210 
 
 , Johann Kaspar, 14, 17, 
 
 24, 31, 32 
 , Johann Wolfgang (see 
 
 Elisabeth Goethe), 100, 136, 
 
 178, 190, 201, 265 
 Gotter, Pauline, 273 
 Grillparzer, 148 
 Grimm, W. and H., 187, 201 
 Gunderode, Karoline von, 170, 
 
 173, 198 
 
 Haugwitz, 220, 222 
 
 Heine, Heinrich, 127, 146, 147 
 
 Herz, Dr Marcus, 66, 79, 83 
 
 , Henriette, 66, 61, 273 
 
 Heym, Therese (see Forster), 261 
 Humboldt, Alexander von, 71, 
 82, 93, 127, 129 
 
 Iffland, 229 
 
 Jaoobi, 197 
 
 Joachim (violinist), 189 
 
 Jung Deutschland, 137, 279 
 
 Kathbn, Frau von, 86 
 
 289 
 
 T 
 
Index 
 
 Kleistj Heinrich von, 126 
 
 La Roche, Sophie, 43, 168, 163 
 Lemas, Dr, 62 
 Levin, Marcus, 98 
 Louis, Prince, 211, 216 
 
 , Ferdinand, Prince, 79, 84, 
 
 105, 221 
 Luise, Queen, 40, 84, 207 
 
 Marwitz, Alexander von, 124 
 Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Duke of, 
 
 208, 213, 243 
 Mendelssohn, Moses, 53, 54, 72, 
 
 73,81 
 Michaelis, Professor, 251 
 
 Napoleon, 173, 233 
 Nathusius, 200 
 
 Pachta, Countess Josefine, 142 
 Palm, 223 
 
 RicHTEB, Jean Paul, 73, 90, 106, 
 
 135 
 Riickert, 88 
 
 Saint-Martin, 145 
 Schelling, F. W., 263, 264, 268 
 Schiller, 263, 262, 267 
 Schlegel, A. W., 254, 257, 260, 
 
 270, 273 
 , Caroline, 249 
 
 Schlegel, Dorothea, 73, 89, 261, 
 
 266 
 
 , Friedrich, 73, 75, 89, 267 
 
 Schleiermacher, 71, 74, 84, 86, 
 
 106, 164, 190 
 Schloesser, Georg, 30 
 Silesius, Angelus, 145 
 Stael, Madame de, 3, 114, 273 
 Stein, Frau von, 47 
 
 , Fritz von, 47 
 
 Stieglitz, Charlotte, 279 
 , Heinrich, 281 
 
 Textor, Schultheiss, 7 
 Thoranc, Count, 20 
 Tugendbund, 81 
 
 Unzelmann, Frau, 110 
 Urquijo, d', 119 
 
 Vabnhagen von Ense, Karl, 
 120, 121, 126, 133, 147 
 
 , Rahel, 54, 97 
 
 Veit, Dorothea, see Schlegel 
 
 Voss, Countess, 214, 216, 224, 
 237, 241, 246 
 
 Vulpius, Christiane, 46 
 
 Weimar, Amalia, Duchess of, 
 
 33 49 
 Wieland, 34, 169, 177 
 Wiesel Pauline, 142 
 
 PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND II YOUNG STREET. 
 
 290