Some German Women and Their Salons, by Mary Hargrave

J :/"%^. €nml\ Hmwîtg pilratg loethe Collection THE GIFT OF 3ame$ Morgan Hart ./\.vl^.î:>..?^. Mlmix. DATE DUE ti^.^^^m"^ 7f-T ^*!=*H9?0^t /i»i. I'll , C. m^^RtrnfÂR^-t^^^sm S£fi^-9^: GAYLORD PRir-ITEDINU S A. "^£^1^^ 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 * . 'Sîîimki:iiM&?mmî:i:MiimMS^:i âhszl SOME GERMAN-^Biriif . V 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 personality 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 intellectual 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 stimulating influence was felt by the younger generation, 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 1 THE JEWISH SALOXfS 51 HENRIETTE HERZ 59 E.AHEL VAB.NHAGEN, THE GERMAN SIBYL OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 95 BETTINA VON ARNIM . 155 QUEEN LUISE .... 205 CAROLINE SCHLEGEL . 247 CHARLOTTE STIEGLITZ 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 PRUSSIA OF ... ,, 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 to all things, learn know 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 intellectual 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.

Load more