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1763
2 September 1763 Caroline Albertine Dorothea Michaelis born in Göttingen
1765
Michaelis family moves into the house at what is today Prinzenstrasse 21
1764 back to top
24 October 1764 Brendel Mendelssohn born in Berlin
1765 back to top
1766 back to top
17 October 1766 Charlotte (Lotte) Wilhelmine Michaelis born in Göttingen
1767 back to top
8 September 1767 August Wilhelm Schlegel born in Hannover
1768 back to top
15 August 1768 Gottfried Philipp Michaelis born in Göttingen
21 November 1768 Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher born in Breslau
1769 back to top
1770 back to top
12 September 1770 Luise Friederike Michaelis born in Göttingen
1771 back to top
1772 back to top
10 March 1772 Friedrich Schlegel born in Hannover
2 May 1772 Friedrich von Hardenberg born in Oberwiederstedt
1773 back to top
31 May 1773 Ludwig Tieck born in Berlin
1774 back to top
Easter 1774 Caroline begins her time at the boarding school of Sarah Elisabeth Schläger in Gotha (according to Luise Wiedemann in her memoirs, Caroline left for Gotha when she, Caroline, was fourteen, i.e., in 1777 [or 1776?], though Luise herself acknowledges in those memoirs that her memory was at that time not the best)
1775 back to top
27 January 1775 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling born in Leonberg
28 February 1775 Sophie Tieck born in Berlin
1776 back to top
1777 back to top
1777–78 Caroline attends the boarding school of Sarah Schläger in Gotha
Summer 1777 (?) Johann Friedrich Blumenbach courts Caroline; a year later, the relationship has ended
1777 Wilhelm Link makes Caroline’s acquaintance in Göttingen; Caroline: “He has loved me since the first moment he saw me, quite unchanged for three years now, right up to the present [1780]”
1778 back to top
1778 Caroline visits Gotha, overjoyed “when I saw the towers of Gotha for the first time again in my 15th year”
1779 back to top
1779 According to Georg Forster in a letter to Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring on 17 June 1784, Therese Heyne’s “most intimate friend at the time [1779], namely, precisely this Caroline Michaelis”
1780 back to top
30 March 1780 Caroline’s school friend Luise Stieler marries Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter in Gotha
October 1780 Caroline in Gotha for a visit with her father
Late 1780 Lotte Michaelis sent to attend Madam Schläger’s boarding school in Gotha to remove her from Pedro Hockel in Göttingen; meets August Kotzebue in Gotha; Caroline and Madam Michaelis accompany her to Gotha
1781 back to top
9 June 1781 Frederick of York, Bishop of Osnabrück and son of King George III, arrives for an official visit in Göttingen
December 1781 Pedro Hockel leaves Göttingen
1782 back to top
mid-April 1782 Caroline travels to Kassel with Madam Schlözer to meet August Ludwig and Dorothea von Schlözer on their return from Italy, and thence to ride back to Göttingen with them; Caroline’s first visit to Kassel
17 April 1782 Lotte Michaelis returns to Göttingen from Gotha
1782 Franz Wilhelm Böhmer becomes head of the Surgical and Hospital Clinic in Göttingen
October 1782 (uncertain) Caroline becomes engaged to Franz Wilhelm Böhmer
1783 back to top
27 February 1783, Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meier, Friederike Böhmer, Caroline, Lotte Michaelis, and the Göttingen students Peter August Friedrich Koskull, Karl Friedrich Gebhard Schulenburg, Piter Poel, and a certain Frankenberg take a walk to Kerstlingeröderfeld near Göttingen. Caroline, Lotte, and Frankenberg go “into an open barn where there is lots of hay lying around, and there, as Koskull related, they cavorted in an indecent manner. Koskull went over and closed the door and blocked it with a big piece of wood.” The following day, the other students apply a decidedly risqué folk tune to the escapade
3 April 1783 Brendel Mendelssohn marries Simon Veit in Berlin
September 1783 Goethe visits Göttingen; Caroline misses his visit at her family’s house
1784 back to top
7 February 1784 Franz Wilhelm Böhmer becomes town and mining physician in Clausthal; oath of office on 21 February
3/4 May 1784 Caroline’s half-brother, Christian Friedrich (Fritz) Michaelis, returns to Göttingen from America and Great Britain. Caroline is deliriously happy at his return
14 May 1784 Caroline, her brother Fritz Michaelis, Wilhelmine Less, and others (?) journey from Göttingen to Northeim (Nordheim) to meet with Franz Wilhelm Böhmer, who comes in from Clausthal
1784 Christian Friedrich (Fritz) Michaelis succeeds Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring as professor of medicine at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel, while Sömmerring goes to Mainz
Sunday, 13 June 1784 Franz Wilhelm Böhmer arrives in Göttingen for the wedding
Tuesday, 15 June 1784 Caroline breakfasts with Johann Franz Wilhelm Böhmer, later joined by her brother Fritz (Friedrich) until 11:00 a.m.; after the midday meal, Caroline has her hair done while Friederike Böhmer and Charlotte Nieper weave her bridal wreath from natural myrtles; Caroline speaks with her father and then gets dressed; at 4:00 p.m. Böhmer arrives with the wedding group (38 persons); Caroline’s father accompanies her to the service, where she marries Franz Böhmer (Caroline’s first marriage), bringing an 800 Thaler dowry into the marriage
Wednesday, 16 June 1784 The Böhmer sisters (who are now Caroline’s sisters by marriage) and Luise and Lotte Michaelis serenade Caroline in the morning; after receiving company till midday, at 4:00 both families go to Wilhelmine Less’s for a small party in the new couple’s honor; after coffee, Gottfried Less leads Caroline and Franz Böhmer out into the garden, where they are serenaded by a harpist and singer; that evening they attend a small social gathering at the home of the theologian Johann Bernhard Gottfried Osann
Thursday, 17 June 1784 Caroline’s half-brother Fritz (Friedrich) gives a déjeunée for 40 to 50 people in her uncle’s garden; the Heynes and Blumenbachs attend; there is considerable dancing; Caroline: “a kind of dizziness had absolutely seized everyone”; the evening concludes with dinner at the Böhmers, Caroline’s new in-laws
Friday 18 June 1784 Caroline, Franz Böhmer, and Caroline’s brother Fritz serve as godparents to a newborn child; they spend the afternoon paying visits in Göttingen; that evening Johann Heinrich Grätzel gives a party for the newlyweds, which ends up in the apartments of the Prince of Nassau on the upper story with dancing until 1:00 a.m. and then serenading for the newlyweds
Saturday, 19 June 1784 the newlweds attend yet another déjeunée in the morning, then that evening August Ludwig Schlözer gives a ball in honor of the newlyweds
Sunday, 20 June 1784 Caroline and Franz Böhmer receive visitors; during the afternoon, Caroline pays visits of her own in town, spending 3 hours alone with Therese Heyne, then to the family of Johann Georg Feder for dinner
Monday, 21 June 1784 Caroline and Franz Böhmer take leave of family and friends in Göttingen; Caroline has a silhouette done for her mother in a tableau with Franz Böhmer and her brother Fritz; at noon, Caroline and Franz Wilhelm Böhmer leave Göttingen for Clausthal, spending the night in Osterode; Caroline: “for the first time I genuinely felt that I was married, since now I had to follow my husband and was leaving everything behind”
Tuesday, 22 June 1784, 6:00 pm, arrival in Clausthal
1784 (dates uncertain) Friederike Böhmer spends four weeks with Caroline in Clausthal
Autumn 1784 Luise Michaelis begins attending Madam Schläger’s boarding school in Gotha
1784 (dates uncertain) Caroline and Franz Wilhelm Böhmer travel to Goslar and return to Clausthal by way of Oker and the Oker Valley, where they spend the night with an acquaintance
1784 (dates uncertain) Caroline takes an excursion to Hannover with “the Meyers” by way of Osterode; along the way, in Nordheim, she speaks with a certain Herr W., a former suitor of her sister Lotte, who has rejected him in favor of someone else but apparently now wants to renew the relationship: “It violates all propriety, Herr W., if you do not remove yourself from her entirely”
1784 (dates uncertain) Caroline visits Nordheim (Northeim), 20 km north of Göttingen; has a testy encounter with a certain Herr W., allegedly Charlotte Michaelis’s love interest whose behavior Caroline did not find entirely appropriate
During her pregnancy, Caroline reads Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto (London 1765 [for 1764]), presumably in the English original, sent to her by Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer
1785 back to top
Early 1785 August von Kotzebue possibly sees Lotte Michaelis in Göttingen
April 1785 Charlotte Michaelis in Clausthal for Auguste’s birth
28 April 1785 Philippina Augusta (Auguste) Böhmer (Caroline’s first daughter) born in Clausthal
May 1785 Caroline’s parents in Clausthal after Auguste’s birth
13 May 1785 Auguste baptized; her two grandmothers are her godparents
Spring 1785 Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer and his wife, Friederike, née Böhmer, visit Caroline in Clausthal
Summer 1785 Caroline’s excursions likely include Gittelde near Clausthal, where she visits her mother-in-law, Henriette Philippine Elisabeth Böhmer, the latter’s daughter Louise, and Louise’s fiancé G. J. F. Meister
16 July 1785 Caroline and Auguste, accompanied by her mother-in-law, Henriette Philippine Elisabeth Böhmer, arrive in Göttingen for the first visit since Caroline’s wedding; they travel by way of Katlenburg and the “fairy castle” (so Caroline) of magistrate Johann Arnold Wilhelm Reinbold, an uncle of Caroline’s mother
25 August 1785, 10:45 p.m., Caroline and Auguste arrive back in Clausthal from their visit in Göttingen
Last week in August, first week in September 1785 Caroline suffers from toothaches
2 September 1785 Caroline celebrates her birthday “very quietly” and feels sick when she gets up that morning; Franz Wilhelm Böhmer, gives her an English tea set (perhaps Wedgwood) for her birthday
9 September 1785 Caroline’s godson, Gustav Gotter, dies in Gotha; her brother Fritz Michaelis is visiting with her in Clausthal when she receives the news
10 October 1785 Marianne Heyne arrives to spend a month visiting Caroline in Clausthal; Johann Friedrich Blumenbach picks her up there on 7 November, remains a day in Clausthal for a visit
Ca. 7 November 1785 the entire family of Christian Emmerich Stisser moves in with Caroline and her husband in Clausthal before leaving the town after thirty-eight years there
7 November 1785 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach picks up Marianne Heyne in Clausthal to take her back to Göttingen, spends a day with Caroline and Franz Wilhelm Böhmer
13 November 1785 Family of Christian Emmerich Stisser leaves Clausthal and thus moves out of Caroline’s own house; the father seems to have sent his family on to Katlenburg and then was himself the final member to leave
1786 back to top
April 1786 Caroline and Franz Wilhelm Böhmer visit the family of Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich and Erdmuthe Eleonore Trebra in nearby Zellerfeld; at the time, Trebra was deputy mining administrator in Zellerfeld
Easter 1786 Dorothea Schlözer travels to the Harz Mountains with her father; studies mining and tours the mines
Easter 1786 Christian Friedrich (Fritz) Michaelis appointed professor of medicine in Marburg
3 May 1786 Wilhelm Schlegel matriculates at the university in Göttingen
Summer 1786 Luise Michaelis returns to Göttingen after attending Madam Schläger’s boarding school in Gotha since autumn 1784
14 July—21 August 1786 Dorothea Schlözer, without her father, in Clausthal for mineralogical studies, staying at the home of Superintendent Georg Christoph Dahme
1786/87 Caroline hosts dinners at her house in Clausthal
1787 back to top
23 April 1787 Sophie Therese (Röschen) Böhmer (Caroline’s second daughter) born in Clausthal; Luise Michaelis in Clausthal for the birth
13 May 1787 Röschen baptized; Sarah Elizabeth Schläger from Gotha, a relative on her father’s side in Halle, and her two grandfathers are her godparents
5 September 1787 Johann David Michaelis granted the title of privy Justizrath
September 1787 Therese Forster returns to Göttingen with Georg Forster from Vilnius
Ca. autumn 1787 Caroline visits Göttingen, presumably with her two daughters, Auguste and Therese
Christmas 1787 Fritz Michaelis in Clausthal; Georg Heinrich and Charlotte (née Böhmer) Nieper visit for Christmas as well
1788 back to top
4 February 1788 Franz Böhmer dies in Clausthal; Caroline’s mother and Superintendent Christian Julius Luther travel from Göttingen to Clausthal to bring her back to Göttingen
1788 (date uncertain) Caroline attends social gatherings at the home of Heinrich Ehrenfried Conrad Hannibal, second preacher in Clausthal, and his wife
June 1788 Franz Böhmer’s medical library auctioned off in Göttingen
20 July 1788 Johann Franz Wilhelm Böhmer (Caroline’s first son) born in Göttingen; godparents include Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von Trebra and Fritz Michaelis; dies presumably in September or October
Late summer (?) 1788 Caroline returns to Clausthal, presumably to close up the house and otherwise take leave
Autumn 1788 at latest, Caroline leaves Clausthal for Göttingen for the last time; draws widow’s pension (presumably a quarter of Böhmer’s salary)
1789 back to top
Between 12 April (Easter ) and 31 May (Whitsun) 1789 (likely closer to the latter) Caroline, Auguste, and Therese (and Lotte? Luise Wiedemann, née Michaelis, recounts that Lotte did not follow for a visit until the following winter) depart Göttingen for Marburg, where they move in with Caroline’s half-brother, Christian Friedrich (Fritz)
1789 after Sophie von La Roche has tea with her at Reitgasse 14, Caroline joins Philipp Michaelis and Johann Heinrich Christian Selchow and his wife in Ockershausen, just outside Marburg, at a “small souper” at the home of Madam von Malsburg (later wife of Caroline’s half-brother, Fritz Michaelis)
after 14 July 1789 (?) Lotte Michaelis back in Göttingen after spending time in Marburg
Autumn 1789 (?) Lotte Michaelis (re?)joins Caroline in Marburg, returns to Göttingen later but is then back in Marburg in December
17 December 1789 Therese (Röschen) Böhmer dies in Marburg; Lotte Michaelis present; certain people in Marburg accuse Fritz Michaelis of having contributed to her death through his ill-considered treatment; he falls into despair, and Caroline notes years later that “I truly had my hands full trying to console him”
1790 back to top
April, May, or June (“spring”) 1790 Caroline, Auguste, and Lotte visit Therese and Georg Forster in Mainz (Lotte seems already to have been in Marburg by mid-March according to Georg Tatter [see letter 89])
Spring (late?) 1790 Caroline and Auguste return to Marburg
15 August 1790 Caroline participates in a communal outing to the Frauenberg, south of Marburg
Unspecified time in Marburg: according to Luise Wiedemann, Caroline receives “a marriage proposal from Frau (Fräulein?) von Malzburg’s (Malsburg’s) brother, Herr von Breitenstein”
Summer, autumn 1790 Lotte remains in Mainz, has an aventure (Caroline) with Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring
Early October 1790 Lotte possibly returns to Göttingen from Mainz with Johann Heinrich Grätzel, a neighbor of the Michaelis family in Göttingen (prompted by Therese Huber?)
30 November 1790 August von Kotzebue arrives in Mainz, leaves ten days later for Paris; apparently had planned to rekindle his romance with Lotte Michaelis on returning to Mainz in January 1791
30 December 1790 Philipp Michaelis receives his Dr. med. in Göttingen
1791 back to top
Before 12 January 1791 (possibly October 1790) Lotte returns to Göttingen
February 1791 at latest, Lotte Michaelis definitely back in Göttingen
Late May 1791 Wilhelm Schlegel moves to Amsterdam to accept a position as tutor in the family of the banker Henry Muilman
Late July 1791 (apparently esp. 29, 30 July) an otherwise unspecified but apparently extremely stressful event takes place in Caroline’s immediate circumstances in Marburg, prompting her to leave; she has possibly already decided about eventually moving to Mainz
22 August 1791 Johann David Michaelis dies in Göttingen; Caroline back in Göttingen before he dies
Mid- to late October 1791 Caroline and Luise Michaelis visit Gotha, where Josias Friedrich Löffler courts Caroline; Caroline becomes acquainted with Anna Caroline Ettinger, née Seidler, and Amalie Reichard, née Seidler
Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter woos Caroline on behalf of Josias Friedrich Löffler; Mother Schläger also tries to persuade Caroline to accept his hand; Caroline vacillates, then declines and leaves Gotha
30 October 1791 at a social gathering in Göttingen, Caroline quarrels with Johann Georg Feder about Samuel Richardson’s novel The History of Sir Charles Grandison
late 1791 Caroline seems to have declined a marriage proposal from Wilhelm Schlegel
December 1791 Caroline definite about moving to Mainz
1792 back to top
Late February 1792 Caroline and Auguste arrive in Mainz; in late July Caroline writes that her residence is located on the Welsche Nonnen Gasse; this residence, the Reidt house, is near the church of St. Emmeran, five minutes from the house of Georg and Therese Forster
21 April 1792 Therese Forster gives birth to her fourth child, Georg, who dies on 23 or 24 July
3 June 1792 Lotte Michaelis marries Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Dieterich
July 1792 H. A. O. Reichard and his wife, Amalie, née Seidler, visit Mainz and the Forsters; Caroline also socializes with them and is enthusiastic about Amalie Reichard
July 1792 Caroline and Therese Forster read Gottfried August Bürger’s translation of Alexander Pope’s “Eloisa to Abelard” (1717) together
23/24 July 1792 the infant son of Therese and Georg Forster, Johann George Karl Forster, dies in Mainz; Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, however, was presumably the father (Huber had been living with the Forsters since December 1790)
4 August 1792 Georg Ernst Tatter sees Lotte Dietrich, née Michaelis, for the last time in Göttingen; “she was so happy, and when we parted she embraced me so ardently, I never dreamed it would be the last time”
21 August 1792 Goethe visits Georg and Therese Forster in Mainz, encounters Caroline there as well
Ca. 20 September 1792 Georg Ernst Tatter travels to Mainz to visit Caroline “for a couple of days,” the last time she ever sees him
Ca. 28 September 1792 Tatter leaves Mainz for Italy
Early October 1792 Caroline takes in Meta Forkel as a housemate
21 October 1792 French occupy Mainz under General Adam Philippe de Custine
Autumn 1792 (?), early 1793 (?) Caroline dines “on several occasions with Custine”
7 November 1792 Georg Forster joins the Jacobin Club in Mainz
November 1792 Caroline seems to have suffered from a case of gout
7 December 1792 Therese Forster leaves Mainz with her daughters, Therese and Claire, and goes to Strasbourg under Ludwig Ferdinand Huber’s protection
1793 back to top
24 January 1793 Caroline mentions plans to leave Mainz in a letter to Luise Gotter
February 1793 Caroline becomes pregnant by the French lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Dubois de Crancé, adjutant to his uncle, the Mainz commandant General François Ignace d’Oyré
March 1793 Caroline apparently suffers so severely from gout that it prevents her from leaving Mainz
17 March 1793 Mainz declared a republic
25 March 1793 Georg Forster leaves Mainz, goes to Paris (arrives 29 March)
27 March 1793, 8:00 p.m., Lotte Dieterich, née Michaelis, gives birth in Göttingen to Charlotte Dieterich amid considerable complications and questionable birthing methods on the part of those attending her
30 March 1793 Caroline and Auguste leave Mainz with Frau von Esebeck, Meta Forkel, the latter’s mother, Sophia Magdalena Wedekind, and four children, heading south toward Mannheim trying to reach Gotha by way of Mannheim in the south
Unclear chronology and sequence of events, but perhaps reconcilable: According to one account (Therese Huber, née Heyne), “having hardly arrived at Oppenheim, she [Caroline] (the 4 women and 3 children traveling with her) found themselves surrounded by retreating Frenchmen and in the next instant facing the first troops of the advancing Prussians. They fled on foot, their luggage was seized, and had a French captain not taken them in, they themselves would have fallen into enemy hands. . . . Returning to Mainz, they procured the means necessary for crossing the Rhine at Kastel and for proceeding directly to Frankfurt”
Other accounts contradict the previous: Caroline and her traveling companions seem to have been detained (or simply stopped?) in Oppenheim (between Mainz and Worms, though Luise Michaelis mentions that they made it farther south toward Mannheim, viz., as far as Guntersblum), were then detained in Hattersheim (also “Hadersheim,” northeast Mainz, west of Frankfurt) and on 2 April 1793 (?) taken under guard to Frankfurt, where they spend three days under house arrest; the women seem to have been given the opportunity to escape in both Guntersblum and Frankfurt
2 April 1793 Lotte Dieterich née Michaelis, dies in Göttingen; Augustus Frederick, the later Duke of Sussex, sends his condolences to Madam Michaelis
3 April 1793 Lotte Dieterich autopsied
6 April 1793 Lotte Dieterich buried in Göttingen
8 April 1793 Caroline, Meta Forkel, and Sophia Magdalena Wedekind taken to the fortress Königstein, where they arrive at 5:00 pm and are incarcerated; Johann Heinrich Liebeskind travels in the carriage from Frankfurt to Königstein with Meta Forkel and is mistaken for Georg Christian Wedekind
“During the initial four weeks prisoners were neither interrogated nor even allowed out of their cells for fresh air” (from Johann Heinrich Liebeskind’s account)
15 April 1793 Wilhelmine Luise Wedekind also arrested
28 April 1793 the French state newspaper Moniteur reports that Caroline, Georg Forster’s “[romantic] lady friend,” had been taken to Königstein
Spring 1793 “people have spread all sorts of fictitious stories in Hannover about that which Madame Böhmer is alleged to have done” (Wilhelm Schlegel in a letter to Luise Michaelis), including that she was French General Adam Philippe Custine’s mistress (Friedrich Schlegel in a letter to Wilhelm)
by 1 May 1793 Caroline aware that she is pregnant (first mention in an extant letter)
after 7 May 1793 Caroline informs Wilhelm Schlegel of Lotte Michaelis’s death
late spring, early summer 1793 Caroline contemplating suicide in Königstein should she not be released soon and her pregnancy become known; Wilhelm Schlegel manages to smuggle poison to her in the prison
Caroline writes on 15 June 1793: “I have hardly been able to get out of bed for 3 weeks now” (i.e., between ca. 17 May 1793 to 14 June 1793); she writes in the same letter: “this cough is stubborn and agonizing”
14 June–11 (13) July 1793 Caroline put under house arrest in Kronenberg (Kronberg), “plagued by headaches and by an incessant cough that has now become chronic”
17 June 1793 Philipp Michaelis returns from Italy and comes to Kronberg; coalition troops begin shelling Mainz
by 18 June 1793 Caroline has informed Wilhelm Schlegel of her release from Königstein and transfer to Kronenberg (Kronberg)
19 June 1793 Philipp Michaelis appeals directly to the king of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II, on Caroline’s behalf after the king declines an appeal from the Hannoverian administration (Philipp’s petition seems to have been dated 1 July 1793)
4 July 1793 the king of Prussia signs a rescript freeing Caroline and Auguste
11 July 1793 Caroline receives word of the rescript
13 July 1793 Caroline and Auguste released, depart Frankfurt for Leipzig that same day accompanied by Wilhelm Schlegel
Caroline seems to have been inclined to take up residence in Berlin, place the newborn (but out-of-wedlock) child with a rural family, and then move with Auguste to Gotha; should she, i.e., Caroline, not survive the birth or suffer other complications, Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer was then to take Auguste to Gotha to be raised by the Gotters; Meyer, however, already living in Berlin, seems to have been unwilling to go along with the plan
between mid-July and 20 July 1793 Caroline and Auguste arrive in Leipzig with Wilhelm Schlegel, initially staying with the publisher Georg Joachim Göschen
23 July 1793 Mainz taken by the coalition troops
2 August 1793 In Leipzig, Caroline meets Friedrich Schlegel for the first time
7 August 1793 Caroline and Auguste arrive in Lucka; the Leipzig publisher Georg Joachim Göschen introduces Caroline to her new landlord and housemates as “his stepsister who wanted to reconcile relatives and whose husband was not yet in a position to make a declaration of marriage etc.”
11–17 August 1793 Friedrich Schlegel pays Caroline a brief visit in Lucka sometime during the week
24–27 August 1793 Friedrich Schlegel visits Caroline in Lucka, delivers letters suggesting her pregnancy was known in Mainz
26 August 1793 upset at the prospect that her pregnancy had become known, Caroline spends essentially the entire day sick in bed with “cramps and vehement agitation and dazed nerves, amid the most painfully awkward, confused hallucinations”
11–14 September 1793 Friedrich Schlegel visits Caroline in Lucka, delivers a letter written by Wilhelm Schlegel on 5 September
mid-September 1793 “The stove in her room proved to be completely unusable. . . . For several days she [Caroline] had to live downstairs among the whole family, in the common room, which had an extremely bad effect on both her mood and her physical condition”
10 October 1793 Caroline (and Auguste?) takes a walk to the neighboring village of Berndorf and its mill
Between 16 and ca. 22 October 1793 Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer visits Caroline in Lucka for “several hours” on his way back to Berlin; Caroline never sees him again
Ca. 22–23 October 1793 Friedrich Schlegel visits Caroline in Lucka
Ca. 29, 30 October 1793 Friedrich Schlegel visits Caroline in Lucka
1 November 1793 The portrait of Wilhelm by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein arrives in Leipzig for Friedrich Schlegel to take to Caroline in Lucka
2 November 1793 Friedrich Schlegel goes out to Lucka from Leipzig with Wilhelm’s portrait, finds Caroline “very ill indeed, and utterly persuaded that things [viz., the birth] were happening too soon”
3 November 1793 (Sunday), around 11:00 a.m., Wilhelm Julius Krantz (Caroline’s second son) born in Lucka
4 November 1793 Wilhelm Julius Krantz baptized in Lucka; Friedrich Schlegel attends as one of his godparents; Caroline “suffered from her customary nervous disquiet, though not to a particularly high degree”
5 November 1793 Georg Joachim Göschen, who had secured Caroline her hiding place in Lucka, tells Friedrich Schlegel that “I also now know that your brother is not the father of the child”
6 November 1793 Friedrich Schlegel back in Lucka to see Caroline; Caroline suffering from “nerves, but not severely, and her spirits remained serene; then the milk fever started, from which she also suffered some severe pain but which, like the nervous disquietude, did not last long”
7 November 1793 after a restful night’s sleep, Caroline doing better
13 November 1793 Friedrich Schlegel writes to Wilhelm Schlegel that Caroline is “doing as well as you could possibly wish”
ca. 15 November 1793 Friedrich Schlegel back in Lucka to see Caroline
17 November 1793 Friedrich Schlegel writes to Wilhelm Schlegel that Caroline is now “able to walk around the room for a fairly long time with the child on her arm, and yet a lack of strength is probably the only real ill she is suffering now. Only rarely a sleepless night, headache, or cramps”
24 November 1793 Caroline has written to Friedrich Schlegel to complain of weakness, pain and cramps dissolving “into an opium-like inebrity,” of “lying there rigidly, without sleeping, and utterly dazed,” of severe headaches that last for a couple of days, a coated tongue, but of an easement in her leg pain; Friedrich to Wilhelm: “she always perceives her ills to be much worse than they are”
5 December 1793 Caroline writes: “I am doing well and have been leaving my room and going over to the other house,” and “the doctor believes the only thing left now for which he can treat me is homesickness”
mid-December 1793 Caroline “was in great danger of losing Julius,” her newborn son
Christmas 1793 Friedrich Schlegel spends the holidays with Caroline, Auguste, and her son, Julius, in Lucka; Caroline suffering from severe rheumatism, “the third or fourth time this winter” (Friedrich Schlegel).
1794 back to top
10 January 1794 Georg Forster dies in Paris
mid-January 1794 Friedrich Schlegel spends three days with Caroline in Lucka before leaving Leipzig for Dresden
late January 1794? Caroline and Auguste leave Lucka; her newborn son, Wilhelm Julius Böhmer (Krantz), remains behind in foster care
4 February 1794 (or shortly thereafter) Caroline and Auguste leave Leipzig and travel to Gotha
8 February 1794 Caroline and Auguste arrive in Gotha
20 February 1794 Caroline seems still to be considering a move to Berlin despite F. L. W. Meyer’s earlier discouragement
16 March 1794 Caroline has abandoned the idea of moving to Berlin but is considering German-speaking Switzerland
10 April 1794 Therese Forster marries Ludwig Ferdinand Huber in Switzerland
by 10 May 1794 Caroline has abandoned the idea of moving to German-speaking Switzerland or to Riga, but is distantly considering Prague
June 1794 Caroline’s mother, sister Luise, and niece Lotte (child of Caroline’s deceased sister, Lotte) visit Caroline in Gotha
second half of 1794, early 1795 Caroline tries — ultimately without success — to arrange things such that she and Auguste can move to Dresden
July 1794 Caroline and Auguste visit Göttingen, having accompanied Caroline’s mother, sister Luise, and niece Lotte back from a visit to Gotha (Caroline and Auguste are documented as being there on 16 July 1794)
16 August 1794 a rescript of the Hannoverian University Board of Trustees forbids Caroline from remaining in Göttingen
late August 1794 Caroline visits with General François Ignace Ervoil d’Oyré in Gotha, great uncle of her son Julius
31 August 1794 Although Caroline has essentially decided on Dresden, she still does not know where she and Auguste will be moving
1795 back to top
7 April 1795 according to Friedrich Schlegel, Caroline had lately been suffering “from an illness whose causes seem to have been more disquiet and emotional suffering than any genuinely physical malady”
Chronological peculiarities arise concerning Caroline’s exact departure date from Gotha for Braunschweig. According to Brigitte Roßbeck (124–25), Caroline and Auguste left Gotha on an undetermined day in March and made an interim stop in Göttingen, where on 1 April 1795 she signed an inheritance protocol with her mother, brothers Fritz and Phillip, and sister Luise. According to Friedrich Schlegel in a letter to Wilhelm Schlegel on 7 April 1795, Caroline left her “present place of sojourn” (Gotha? Göttingen?) on 12 April 1795. Caroline herself, however, in a letter on 16 April 1795 from Braunchschweig, relates how she had to convince the coachman not to take them to Braunschweig by way of Göttingen.
If they departed on 12 April 1795, according to Caroline their route took them to Braunschweig by way of Dingen(?) and Mühlhausen on the first day. The visit to Göttingen, however, might well have taken place before the final departure from Gotha. That is, Caroline journeyed to Göttingen in March to take care of inheritance issues, returned to Gotha, then departed Gotha for Braunschweig on 12 April 1795; the latter departure date accords with her account to Luise Gotter.
13 April 1795 midday arrival in Worbis after having the carriage get stuck in the Hüpstedter Forest, then on to Gieboldehausen, where they spend the night
14 April 1795 they pass by Katlenburg, then journey on to Eisfeld (Eisdorf), where they rest, then on to Seesen and Lutter, where they meet up with Caroline’s mother and continue into Braunschweig, presumably arriving that same day
16 April 1795 Caroline, now living with her mother and sister Luise in Braunchschweig (Caroline and Auguste possibly in an apartment in the house of the writer Johann Arnold Ebert), writes Luise Gotter mentioning that their apartment is still being wallpapered and painted, but that a courier had arrived the day before, 15 April 1795, with a letter for her
20 April 1795 Caroline’s son, Wilhelm Julius Krantz, dies in Lucka; Caroline seems never to have seen him again after she left Lucka
23 April 1795 Wilhelm Julius Krantz is buried in Lucka
mid-May 1795 Caroline: “I would like to cough if I could do so without such pain — I coughed up a bit of blood”
May 1795 Caroline and Auguste dine with the family of Joachim Heinrich Campe in Braunschweig
June 1795 Caroline, Auguste, and Philipp Michaelis visit the art gallery in the Salzdahlum Castle between Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel
1795 (undetermined date) Philipp Michaelis in Braunschweig, questions Luise Michaelis about her having rejected Carl Wilhelm Hoppenstedt in favor of Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann
Late June or early July 1795 Wilhelm Schlegel moves back to Germany
August 1795 neither Wilhelm nor Caroline seem yet to have been seriously considering marriage
Autumn 1795 Caroline and Auguste visit the art gallery in the Salzdahlum Castle again, this time with Wilhelm Schlegel; afterward they continue on to Wolfenbüttel to visit the family of the pedagogue Ernst Christian Trapp; that evening they dine with the family of Joachim Heinrich Campe in Braunschweig; Johann Friedrich Vieweg also attends
As late as 22 October 1795 Caroline and Wilhelm still considering emigrating to America
December 1795 Luise Michaelis becomes engaged to Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann in Braunschweig
1796 back to top
January 1796 Caroline borrows 550 Thaler from her mother
January 1796 Georg Joachim Göschen seems to have offered or brokered Caroline a position as governess to an otherwise unidentified child; Caroline declines the offer
28 January 1796 Caroline’s review of Madame de Genlis’s Les Chevaliers du Cygne appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
January or February 1796 Philipp Michaelis spends time with Caroline, Luise Michaelis, and their mother in Braunschweig before going to Harburg
28 March 1796 Luise Michaelis and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann marry in Braunschweig
April 1796 Auguste Böhmer inherits at least 1500 Goldthaler from her grandmother Henriette Philippine Elisabeth Böhmer
Late March–early May 1796 Wilhelm Schlegel in Dresden, thence to Leipzig, Jena, and Weimar to prepare for his and Caroline’s move to Jena
May 1796 in Dresden Wilhelm Schlegel socializes with, among others, Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker, who in a letter to Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer in Berlin on 22 May 1796 mentions Wilhelm’s “excellent mind,” the pleasure he found in Wilhelm’s company, and that Wilhelm’s “most important project now is to publish the true Shakespeare”
Wilhelm Schlegel rents quarters for himself in Jena through September in the house of the merchant Beyer on the marketplace (today: no. 23)
28 June 1796 Wilhelm Schlegel still in Jena after having visited Weimar for the first time, but in a letter to Schiller that day mentions he is about to leave in inclement weather “in an uncovered carriage” and plans to travel as far as Merseburg
1 July 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel marry in Braunschweig in the Church of St. Catherine (Caroline’s second marriage)
5 July 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel arrive in Gotha on their way to Jena
8 July 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel depart Gotha, Luise Gotter accompanies them part of the way; they settle in Jena, initially in a “garden house” probably in the general area between the Löbder Gate and the Paradise greenspace
9 July 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel visit the Schillers in Jena
July 1796 Caroline visits Charlotte von Kalb in Jena, whom Caroline often encounters at the Schillers’; the family of Gottlieb and Luise (née Wiedemann, Luise Wiedemann’s, née Michaelis’s sister-in-law) Hufeland visits Caroline and Wilhelm, who return the visit
17 July 1796 Goethe visits Caroline at her home in Jena; she and Wilhelm visit the Schillers that afternoon and then go to the university Professors’ Club that evening; Goethe makes an appearance at both places
19 July 1796 Caroline remarks that she was “wretchedly sick” on this particular day (with “a cold and ended up with a swollen throat — and a fever”); that notwithstanding, Karl August Böttiger visits the Schlegels in Jena; Caroline remarks that Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer has also visited her
6 or 7 August 1796: Friedrich Schlegel settles in Jena in Wilhelm’s earlier apartment at Markt 23, “beim Kaufmann Beyer”; Wilhelm Schlegel remarks that by this time, Caroline “has been doing very well since that initial indisposition”
4 September 1796 at latest, Caroline and Wilhelm have already decided to move into different quarters in Jena
Early October 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm, and likely also Friedrich, move into the rear edifice at Leutragasse 5 in Jena
first half of October 1796 Caroline’s first visitor in her new residence at Leutragasse 5 is Johann Friedrich Blumenbach from Göttingen, her former suitor
October 1796 Caroline explains to Luise Gotter many of the references in Goethe and Schiller’s scandalous Xenien, which had just appeared in Schiller’s Musenalmanach
7 November 1796 according to Wilhelm Schlegel, Caroline “has not been well for several days”
8 November 1796 Caroline’s review of two plays by Kotzebue appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
December 1796 Karl Ludwig von Knebel visits the Schlegels in Jena
17–19 December 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm’s first visit to Weimar
17 December 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm attend the Weimar theater for a performance of Cimarosa’s Die heimliche Heirath; Caroline meets the Weimar actress Corona Schröter in the theater
18 December 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm have tea at the home of Johann Gottfried Herder; Christoph Martin Wieland attends
While at the inn in Weimar, Caroline enjoys the company of the Berlin satirist Johann Daniel Falk
19 December 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm call on the actress Corona Schröter in Weimar during the morning
19 December 1796 Caroline and Wilhelm dine at Goethe’s house for the midday meal, then return to Jena after 5:00 pm
28 December 1796 Caroline’s review of Marianne Ehrmann’s Amaliens Feierstunden appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
1797 back to top
8 January 1797 Philipp Michaelis marries Auguste Katharine Sympher in Harburg
7 February 1797 Caroline’s review of Chabanon’s Meine Liebschaften appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
10 February 1797 Caroline’s review of Wackenroder and Tieck’s Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
11 February 1797 Caroline’s review of Elizabeth Inchbald’s Nature und Kunst appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
18 March 1797 Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, husband of Luise Gotter, née Stieler, dies in Gotha
10 April 1797 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste depart for Dresden
25, 26 April 1797 Caroline’s review of Friedrich Schulz’s writings appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
prior to 2 May 1797 Wilhelm and Caroline visit Dora Stock in Loschwitz or Dresden; Caroline also made the acquaintance of Christian Gottfried and Minna Körner, the former of whom remarks that Caroline “does not please me”
May 1797 Caroline and Wilhelm make the personal acquaintance of the publisher Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker in Dresden
14 May 1797 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste in Pilnitz, their departure having been delayed
20 May 1797 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste return to Jena from Dresden after a stopover in Dessau to visit the Tischbeins
Whitsun (early June) 1797 Luise and C. R. W. Wiedemann and Madam Michaelis visit Baron von Brabeck at Söder Chateau near Hildesheim
14 June 1797 Caroline’s review of several plays by Iffland appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
15 June 1797 Caroline’s review of three plays appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
15 June 1797 Caroline’s review of six plays appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
15 June 1797 Caroline’s review of Neujahrsgeschenk: Papiere auf dem Nachlasse eines kaiserlichen Offiziers appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
Summer 1797 Friedrich Schlegel moves from Jena to Berlin
August 1797 Friedrich Schlegel and Brendel Veit become acquainted in Berlin
16 August 1797 Caroline’s review of the translation of Lafontain’s Claire Duplessis et Clairant appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
Between 10 and 22 August and between 24 August and 5 September 1797 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) visits Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste in Jena
Late August, early September 1797 Amalie Reichard, who seems to have scorned Caroline in Gotha when Caroline moved there from Lucka in early 1794, ignores Auguste at the Seidlers’ residence in Jena, “despite spending 6 hours in the same room with her”
15 September 1797 Wilhelm Schlegel writes in a letter that “my wife has been under the weather the past few days with a catarrh”
24 September 1797 Wilhelm Schlegel writes to Goethe: “Many warm regards from my wife, who recently has not been feeling well and is still taking medication, though I do hope she will improve yet before winter”
Early to mid-September 1797 Meta Liebeskind, on her way from Berlin to Ansbach, visits Caroline in Jena for four days with her husband and two children, Adelbert and Antonia
Autumn 1797 Caroline has been trying repeatedly since early summer 1797 to get Luise Gotter and her daughters to come to Jena for a visit
20 October 1797 Caroline’s review of J. G. Hoche’s Des Amtmanns Tochter appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
1797 Publication of Schiller’s Die Horen 10, no. 6 with Caroline and Wilhelm’s article on Romeo and Juliet
ca. 3 December 1797 publisher Georg Joachim Göschen stays with Caroline and Wilhelm for a week while in Jena on business (arrival date uncertain)
16 December 1797 (afternoon) Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel visits Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel in Jena
21 December 1797 Friedrich Schlegel moves in with Schleiermacher in Berlin
December 1797 initial tension between Wilhelm Schlegel and the editors of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
Christmas 1797 Luise and Cäcilie Gotter in Jena till early February 1798; Cäcilie remains with Caroline for a lengthier stay
1798 back to top
20 January 1798 Caroline’s review of Nonne und Aebtissin im Wochenbette appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
27 January 1798 Caroline’s review of Julchen Grünthal appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
Early February 1798 Luise Gotter returns to Gotha; her daughter Cäcile remains in Jena
6 February 1798 Karl Emanuel Ott (Luise Wiedemann, née Michaelis’s brother-in-law) departs Jena
11 February 1798 during evening tea, the Schlegels read aloud Goethe’s play Egmont: Ein Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen
ca. 19–21 February 1798 Karl Gustav von Brinckmann visits Caroline and Wilhelm in Jena, delivers a letter from Friedrich Schlegel; Brinckmann also visits Goethe on 18, 20, and 22 February, and Schiller on 19 February 1798
6 February 1798 Karl Emanuel Otth departs Jena after visiting the Schlegels and Lotte Wiedemann
3 April 1798 Wilhelm and possibly Caroline dine with J. F. A. Tischbein and Goethe at the home of Justus Christian Loder in Jena
Easter 1798 Athenaeum 1,1 (1798) appears with Caroline’s review of Lafontaine’s novels
April 1798 Cäcilie Gotter, in Jena with Caroline since December 1797, returns to Gotha
24 April–4 May 1798 (24, 25, 27, 30 April and 1, 3, 4 May) Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel in Weimar to see August Wilhelm Iffland perform; Auguste accompanies them to Weiamr. Wilhelm and Caroline also attend several breakfasts that Goethe gives in honor of Iffland; Caroline has conversations with Iffland on the subject of placing the plays of Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter
9 May 1798 before sunrise Caroline, Auguste, and Johann Diederich Gries depart Jena for Dresden by way of Leipzig (where they likely stay overnight at the home of Georg Joachim Göschen) and Meissen
12 May 1798 Caroline, Auguste, and Gries arrive in Dresden during the evening
between 15 and 30 May 1798 Caroline dines at the home of Ernst Friedrich Adam von Manteuffel in Dresden, where she meets (and quarrels with) Jean Paul at dinner
after ca. 20 May 1798 Wilhelm Schlegel in Berlin (by way of Leipzig) with Friedrich; they, Caroline, and Auguste reside in an otherwise unidentified garden house
27–30 May 1798 Schelling in Jena for the first time, first meeting with Goethe and Schiller
30 June 1798 Schelling appointed professor of philosophy (extraordinarius) in Jena
30 June 1798 Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel arrive in Dresden from Berlin
July 1798 Athenaeum 1,2 appears
2 July 1798 Caroline and Friedrich Schlegel speak “at length” about their previous differences and misunderstanding
5 July 1798 Goethe informs Schelling of his appointment in Jena
mid-July 1798 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel become the godparents to Siegmund (Adolph) Hufeland, son of Gottlieb and Louise (née Wiedemann) Hufeland in Jena
23 July 1798 Caroline’s review of Neueste Entdeckungen im Reiche der Weiber und Mädchen and Und er soll dein Herr sein. I Mos. 3,16 appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
11 August 1798 Wilhelm Schlegel announced as newly appointed professor extraordinarius in Jena
mid-August 1798 Schelling departs Leipzig for Dresden
18 August 1798 Schelling arrives in Dresden, where he and Caroline meet for the first time
24 August 1798 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Rahel Levin (possibly Schelling as well) take an excursion from Dresden to the Uttewalder Grund near the town of Wehlen in the forested area known as Saxon Switzerland
25–26 August 1798 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) in Dresden
Summer 1798 Rahel Levin in Dresden
Summer 1798 Caroline, Auguste, and Johann Diederich Gries take an excursion from Dresden to Freiberg to visit Friedrich von Hardenberg and August Herder; Gries remains in Freiberg when Caroline and Auguste return to Dresden, returning to Dresden later together with Hardenberg
31 August 1798 Friedrich Schlegel arrives back in Berlin
after 17 September 1798 Fichte briefly in Dresden
after 20 September 1798 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste visit the Tischbeins in Dessau on their way back to Jena
2 or 3 October 1798 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Auguste arrive back in Jena
5 October 1798 Schelling arrives in Jena with Johann Diederich Gries
12 October 1798 Caroline, Wilhelm Schlegel, Schelling, and Johann Diederich Gries attend the premiere of the first part of Schiller’s Wallenstein trilogy in the newly renovated Weimar Theater; because Wilhelm has to remain in Weimar after the performance, Schelling rides in the carriage back to Jena with Caroline in his stead
14, 15 November 1798 Caroline dines with Goethe in Jena; gives a fête for him soon thereafter
8 December 1798 Caroline’s review of Der Gesundbrunnen appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
17 December 1798 Dorothea Veit leaves the house of her husband Simon Veit in Berlin and moves into an apartment on Ziegelstrasse with her son Philipp Veit
Christmas 1798 Auguste receives a new clavier as a gift from Dresden
1799 back to top
11 January 1799 Dorothea Veit divorced from Simon Veit
12 January 1799 August Herder visits the Schlegels in Jena
24 January 1799 Caroline encounters Josias Friedrich Löffler in Jena, their first encounter since she declined his offer of marriage in Gotha in October 1791; Löffler, who in the meantime had lost his second wife, had brought his daughter to Weimar
Early 1799 Ludwig Tieck in Dresden
2 February 1799 Wilhelm Schlegel, Caroline, and Auguste attend the performance of Schiller’s Die Piccolomini in Weimar
25 February 1799 Wilhelm Schlegel dines with Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler, Caroline’s former suitor, at the home of Jena publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Fromman
28 February 1799 Caroline and Auguste perform in Jena in an amateur theater performance of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder’s Die Heirath durch ein Wochenblatt and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter’s Der schwarze Mann
Early March 1799 Athenaeum 2,1 appears with the essay “Die Gemählde,” containing Caroline’s descriptions of paintings and her material on Raphael
16 or 17 (?) April 1799 Henriette Mendelssohn in Jena on her way to Vienna by way of Leipzig and Dresden
20 or 22 April 1799 Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel attend the performance of Wallensteins Tod in Weimar
28 April 1799 Schelling sends Auguste flowers for her fourteenth birthday
29 April 1799 Caroline’s review of Orlando der Rasende appears in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
9 May 1799 Caroline and Wilhelm attend a dinner at the Jena excursion locale Driesnitz, also attended by the Hufelands, Pauluses, Loders, Fichtes, Frommanns, and Kotzebues
By 10 May 1799 Schelling begins taking his meals at the house of Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel in Jena
6 June 1799 Christian Wilhelm von Dohm visits the Schlegels during the morning in Jena; they attend a social gathering that evening in his honor
before 9 June 1799 Sidonie Hardenberg — Friedrich von Hardenberg’s sister — visits the Schlegels in Jena
21 June 1799 Friedrich von Hardenberg to Weimar to see Goethe
3 July 1799 Fichte arrives in Berlin
17 July 1799 Ludwig Tieck stays with the Schlegels in Jena for two weeks, makes the acquaintance of Friedrich von Hardenberg, who had traveled over to Jena on 17 July as well
21 July 1799 Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich von Hardenberg, and Wilhelm Schlegel dine with Goethe in Weimar
Summer 1799 After seeing Caroline for the first time at a concert, Friedrich Karl von Savigny writes: “Madam Schlegel’s appearance has a considerable element of independence about it; she seems to be keeping herself up quite well and is allegedly even getting increasingly pretty now”
Early August 1799 Athenaeum 2,2 appears with Caroline’s review of Johannes Müller’s “Fragmente aus den Briefen eines jungen Gelehrten an seinen Freund”
Early August 1799 Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann, their daughter Emma, and Luise’s and Caroline’s mother all come to visit the Schlegels in Jena from Braunschweig
Ca. mid-August 1799, a week after Caroline’s relatives from Braunschweig arrive, Sophie Tischbein also arrives for a visit; her two daughters, Caroline and Betty, come over from Weimar occasionally to visit until the guests from Braunschweig leave, then they remain in Jena as well until 14 or 15 September; at one point, Caroline has 15–18 people at her home for the midday meal
31 August 1799 Wilhelm Schlegel makes the acquaintance of Minna van Nuys in Jena
Sunday, 1 September 1799 Friedrich departs Berlin for Jena
2–5 September 1799 Friedrich arrives in Jena
From early autumn 1799 Caroline “privately separated” (according to Friedrich Schlegel) from Wilhelm and more intimately linked with “another friend,” namely, Schelling
3 September 1799 Johann Diederich Gries arrives in Jena from Göttingen for a month-long visit, during which he takes his midday meal with the Schlegels
September 1799 Johann Diederich Gries “comes by here almost every day [to Caroline’s] for lunch, though I must remark that considerably more goes into his mouth than comes out”
14 or 15 September 1799 Sophie, Caroline, and Betty Tischbein conclude their stay with the Schlegels in Jena and return to Dessau; Auguste goes with them and remains there until 26 November 1799
16 September 1799 Auguste and her travelling companions (Sophie, Caroline, Betty Tischbein) likely dine at midday with Carl Christoph von Hoffmann and his wife at Dieskau Castle just outside Halle
22 September 1799 Caroline, Wilhelm Schlegel, and Johann Diederich Gries spend the evening at the house of publisher Friedrich Frommann in Jena
28–29 September 1799 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) in Jena
6 October 1799 Dorothea and Philipp Veit arrive in Jena at midday
Autumn 1799 according to Dorothea Veit, “he [Goethe] visits no one but Schiller [in Jena], though the Schlegels themselves and Schelling visit him [Goethe] daily in his quarters in the old castle, where he is residing”
10 October 1799 Dorothea Veit has tea with Wilhelm Schlegel, Caroline, Schelling, and Karoline Paulus
12 October 1799 Caroline invites Johanne Fichte over for lunch; they go for a walk, presumably at least with Wilhelm Schlegel if not also with Dorothea Veit and Friedrich Schlegel; the Frommanns join them during the afternoon; Madam Fichte stays till 8:00 in the evening and notices the romantic relationship developing between Caroline and Schelling
13–15 October 1799 Philippine Hoppenstedt, née Böhmer (Caroline’s sister-in-law from her first marriage), arrives in Jena with her husband, Carl Wilhelm Hoppenstedt, and the latter’s brother and sister-in-law, August Ludwig and Louise Sophie Hoppenstedt, née Klockenbring; they depart the evening of 15 October 1799
15 October 1799 Wilhelm Schlegel departs Jena for Leipzig but arrives too late to see the performance of Kotzebue’s play Der hyperboreische Esel contra Athenaeum (all further performances were forbidden); Friedrich had traveled through Leipzig on his way from Berlin to Jena a few weeks earlier and was able to attend a performance
16 October 1799 Friedrich Schlegel “was so unsuspecting that, when the day after Wilhelm’s departure for Leipzig that which I could not help but notice did indeed happen [to wit: an overt show of affection between Caroline and Schelling], I was genuinely quite surprised”
15 October 1799 Hamlet performed in Berlin in Wilhelm Schlegel’s translation. F. J. Beschort performs the role of Hamlet, A. W. Iffland that of Polonius, and Friederike Unzelmann that of Ophelia.
17 October 1799 Ludwig, Amalie, and Dorothea Tieck arrive in Jena
21 October 1799 Schelling’s brother Karl arrives in Jena to begin his medical studies
11–15 November 1799 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) in Jena
22 November 1799 Wilhelm Schlegel departs Jena in the morning for Dessau to pick up Auguste
26 November 1799 Auguste returns to Jena from Dessau with Wilhelm Schlegel
December 1799 Fichte returns temporarily to Jena, where his family is still living
late autumn, early winter 1799 Auguste takes confirmation lessons together with Luise Seidler from the Jena superintendent Christian Ömler
December 1799 Auguste confirmed
1800 back to top
mid-January 1800 Caroline and Dorothea Veit read Sophie Bernhardi’s fairy tale “Die Stimme im Walde” from the latter’s incipient collection Wunderbilder und Träume in eilf Mährchen (Königsberg 1802).
February 1800 Auguste begins to translate Boccaccio’s story of Ghismonda and Guiscardo from The Decameron
mid-February 1800 Friedrich Schlegel and Caroline have a serious falling-out; Friedrich remarks to Schleiermacher that he had been “prompted to take Wilhelm’s side and in so doing to forfeit to a considerable degree Caroline’s friendship”
ca. 1–3 March 1800 Caroline falls ill with catarrhal fever, which turns into nervous fever
March 1800 Fichte and his family leave Jena permanently for Berlin
16 March 1800 After having been treated by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland in an anti-Brunonian (John Brown) fashion and only getting worse (“seriously ill”), Caroline begins recovering after Schelling badgers Hufeland to treat her according to the Brunonian method with “volatile stimulants and continuous fortifiers such as quinine, Hungarian wine, nourishing creams, and strong bouillon”
17 March 1800 Caroline noticeably improved, though painful complications from a mustard plaster persist
21 March 1800 Caroline still ill but apparently out of danger
22 March 1800 Caroline’s illness seems to take a significant turn for the better during the night
23 March 1800 Caroline begins a week of sleepless nights
26 March 1800 Caroline improves sufficiently for Wilhelm to travel over to Weimar to visit Goethe
Late March 1800 baths (twice daily) and opium are virtually the only treatments that seem to be helping Caroline
night of 28–29 March 1800 Caroline sleeps for the first time in a week but then suffers severe cramps
night of 29–30 March 1800 Caroline again unable to sleep
30 March 1800 although Caroline’s nervous fever has passed, she again suffers from sleeplessness and especially from severe cramps caused presumably by the excruciating pain of the mustard plaster; not doing as well as the past couple of days (28, 29 March); suffers a mild fainting spell; Caroline also bathes on this day, having been bathing sometimes twice a day and even at night for relief especially from the cramps
31 March 1800 Auguste writes to Luise Gotter that “today it has already been 4 weeks that she has been sick” and that “they say she was in danger of dying a couple of times”
Late March/early April 1800 Caroline’s “recovery is proceeding only very slowly, and with constant relapses”
Late March/early April 1800 first issue of Athenaeum (1800) appears
4 April 1800 Wilhelm writes to Goethe: “My wife is recovering only very slowly”; although Caroline’s nervous fever has passed, she is still bedridden and suffering from spells of hysteria and cramps; her physicians recommend a stay at a mineral-springs spa; anticipated departure the middle of May; Dorothea Schlegel mentions on 10 April 1800 that the choice was the mineral-springs spa in Bocklet
ca. 13 April 1800 (around Easter) Schelling buys Auguste a shawl in Jena
ca. 16 April 1800 Caroline still sick, develops a fever rash, which her physicians believe signals the final crisis
17 April 1800 Schelling in Weimar to take leave of Goethe before leaving for Bamberg on 2 May
26 April 1800 Caroline still extremely weak and not at all fully recovered; Wilhelm Schlegel writes to Georg Joachim Göschen that “it has been eight weeks now” “that my wife has been in bed seriously ill with nervous fever”
prior to 28 April Dorothea Veit writes that “Caroline continues to be ill; more specifically, she has had a rash now for more than a week, which her physicians are calling the final crisis”
end of April Caroline taking a ride each day with Auguste and Schelling
ca. 1 May 1800 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) in Jena for a short visit
Friday, 2 May 1800 Schelling departs Jena on foot for Bamberg
Saturday, 3 May 1800 Schelling arrives in Saalfeld
Sunday, 4 May 1800 Caroline still needs fortifiers such as Hungarian wine, is recovering her strength only very slowly, and is still constantly interrupted by the cramping
Monday, 5 May 1800 Caroline and Auguste depart Jena for Saalfeld accompanied by Wilhelm and a maidservant
Tuesday, 6 May 1800 Wilhelm stops in Weissenfels on his way to Leipzig, visits Friedrich von Hardenberg and spends an evening with Luise Brachmann
Thursday, 8 May 1800 Caroline, Auguste, and Schelling arrive in Bamberg with the maidservant
15 May 1800 Auguste takes an excursion to Bug near Bamberg, refuses to stay and dance because the company is allegedly not the best
16 May 1800 Caroline “still very weak and is still having occasional cramps in her head” but able to to walk about on her own in her room and go out for rides
18 May 1800 Auguste hears “some beautiful music” in one of Bamberg’s Catholic churches; is planning to visit the Altenburg castle ruins
26 May 1800 the cadjutor for the principality Bamberg is elected in Bamberg
30 May 1800 at latest, Wilhelm Schlegel back in Jena after visiting Goethe in Leipzig
ca. 1 or 2 June 1800 Schelling departs Bamberg to return to his parents in Württemberg after his brother’s death in Genoa
4 June 1800 Schelling presumably arrives in Schorndorf to visit his parents
4 June 1800 Auguste, Andreas Röschlaub, and the latter’s cousin take an excursion to a neighboring village
4 June 1800 Caroline still trying, unsuccessfully, to rent a garden house in Bamberg for herself, Schelling, and Auguste
ca. 4 June 1800 Auguste takes a second excursion to Bug with Caroline, Röschlaub, and the latter’s cousin; again refuses to enter
June 1800 Auguste involved in theater rehearsals in Bamberg (Nina)
7 June 1800 Caroline and Adalbert Friedrich Marcus visit the latter’s sister-in-law
8 June 1800 Caroline again unsuccessful in trying to rent their own accommodations in Bamberg (Nonnenbrücke 1); Auguste seems to come down ill, complaining of “pains in her shoulder,” and also has a fever; Caroline puts her to bed
9 June 1800 Caroline and Auguste plan to leave Bamberg for Bocklet on 12 June; Auguste has still not yet recovered
9 June 1800 Caroline receives a visit from Commerzienräthin Marcus (wife of Nathan Moses Marcus)
ca. 12 June 1800 Caroline and Auguste depart Bamberg for Bocklet, planning to stay only until the end of July
14 June 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel meets with Goethe in Weimar concerning legal matters involving his dispute with the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
22 June 1800 at latest, Caroline and Auguste in Bocklet
Late June 1800 Friedrich and Dorothea already making arrangements to move out of the house at Leutragasse 5 for the coming winter
Late June 1800 Ludwig Tieck and his family depart Jena for Weissenfels, Giebichenstein, and Hamburg before settling again in Berlin
29 June 1800 Schelling departs Schorndorf after visiting his parents, departs Stuttgart at 6:00 p.m. for Heilbronn
30 June 1800 Schelling in Künzelsau on his way back to Bamberg from Schorndorf in Württemberg
July 1800 H. E. G. Paulus also in Bocklet with his wife, Karoline, and daughter, Sophie
ca. 1 July 1800 Auguste falls ill in Bocklet
ca. 3 or 4 July 1800 Schelling arrives in Bocklet after his trip to Schorndorf
6 July 1800 Schelling anticipates Auguste will soon recover and that they will be back in Bamberg on 12 July
Saturday, 12 July 1800 Auguste dies in Bocklet; the physician Andreas Röschlaub arrives in Bocklet from Bamberg
16–19 July 1800 Caroline and Schelling return to Bamberg, initially staying in the hotel Bamberger Hof
20 July 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel, in Jena, learns of Auguste’s death
21 July 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel departs Jena for Bamberg
ca. 24 July 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel arrives in Bamberg; unclear where he and Caroline, on the one hand, and Schelling, on the other, resided until all three left in early October
July 1800 on Wilhelm’s first evening in Bocklet, he speaks with Büchler, the physician who treated Auguste in Bocklet and who happens to dine at the same table with Wilhelm; Wilhelm has the impression that Büchler is trying to shift the blame for Auguste’s death onto someone else; Wilhelm later receives from Adalbert Friedrich Marcus the essay Büchler composed relating his, Büchler’s, side of the story of Auguste’s treatment and death
4 August 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel, Caroline, and Schelling visit the Bamberg hospital
6 August 1800 Friedrich Schlegel accompanies Dorothea to Dornburg NE of Jena; she stays 12 days, he 1, possibly paying a clandestine visit to Sophie Mereau on 7 August in Camburg on his way back to Jena
ca. 19 August 1800 Friedrich and Dorothea back in Jena
prior to 21 August 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel visits Auguste’s grave in Bocklet
21 August 1800 at latest, Wilhelm Schlegel decides to go to Berlin instead of returning to Jena
22 August 1800 at latest, the family of H. E. G. Paulus back in Jena from Bocklet
August 1800 Athenaeum 3,2 (1800) appears (final issue)
14–20 September 1800 Johann Diederich Gries in Bamberg, sees Caroline, Wilhelm, and Schelling regularly
Week of 15 September 1800 Karl von Hardenberg and Friedrich von Hardenberg in Jena for a couple of days
22 September 1800 Schelling sick for several days in Bamberg
25 September 1800 Friedrich Schlegel spends “an entire evening dining with him [Goethe] tête-à-tête” in Jena
26 September 1800 Hannoverian Board of Trustees issues a rescript reconfirming that Caroline be prohibited from staying for any length of time in Göttingen
28 September 1800 Rose, the maidservant, departs Jena to meet up with Wilhelm Schlegel and Caroline in Gotha
by 30 September 1800 Friedrich and Dorothea move out of the house at Leutragasse 5 and into an apartment on Unterm Markt
1 October 1800 Wilhelm Schlegel and Caroline depart Bamberg for Braunschweig, Schelling and Johann Diederich Gries for Jena; the four travel together as far as Coburg, then take different routes
3 October 1800 Schelling and Gries arrive back in Jena
4 October 1800 Wilhelm and Caroline arrive in Gotha, travel thence to Göttingen (see below), Braunschweig (Caroline), and Hannover (Wilhelm)
6–8 October 1800 Wilhelm and Caroline in Göttingen for 2 1/2 days, Caroline and her brother-in-law Johann Friedrich Eberhard Böhmer negotiate a settlement concerning Auguste’s portion from the will of Caroline’s father-in-law, Georg Ludwig Böhmer, who had died in August 1797 and who had stipulated that Auguste’s portion (2500 Reichsthaler) not be paid out until three years after his death; the negotiated settlement now stipulated that the portion not be paid out to Caroline until the spring of 1803, coincidentally concurrent with her divorce from Wilhelm Schlegel and marriage to Schelling
in Göttingen Caroline and Wilhelm receive an invitation from Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck to visit his estate, Söder; Caroline departs Göttingen first, leaving Wilhelm behind and traveling on to Braunschweig; Wilhelm then travels on to Hannover to visit his mother; they are to meet in Söder
ca. 9 October 1800 Caroline arrives in Braunschweig
18 October 1800 Friedrich Schlegel delivers his inaugural lecture in Jena
19 October 1800 Caroline, after spending the previous night with a case of diarrhea, travels to the Söder estate accompanied by her brother-in-law, C. R. W. Wiedemann (they arrive at 5 p.m.), where Wilhelm Schlegel awaits her at the inn, Söder Heidekrug; Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck immediately sends his carriage, and they are taken to the estate, where they will spend two days as Brabeck’s guests
22 October 1800 Wilhelm, Caroline, and Wiedemann sign the Söder guestbook and return to Braunschweig
27 October 1800 Friedrich Schlegel begins lecturing in Jena
10 November 1800 After a previous “light attack” after returning from Söder, Caroline now has a “more serious” attack that threatens to turn into the sort of nervous fever she suffered in the spring; she receives the same medical treatment as earlier
November 1800 Caroline “continues to be sickly,” according to Wilhelm Schlegel, whereas he himself is “quite healthy by virtue of a good diet”
24 November 1800 Friedrich Schlegel writes to Wilhelm that he is ““quite glad to hear that Karoline has recovered again”
12 December 1800 Goethe to Jena
25 December 1800 Schelling, in Jena, writes to Caroline in Braunschweig, informing her of his New Year’s Eve plans; Caroline receives the letter on New Year’s Eve itself
26 December 1800 Schelling returns to Weimar with Goethe
27 December 1800 Schleiermacher writes to his sister, Charlotte, about Wilhelm Schlegel, “who for some time now has not lived on the most harmonious of terms with his wife”
late December 1800 Caroline refers to the ring Schelling has just sent her as “the first, the only true wedding ring for me”
31 December 1800 Schelling dines with Goethe and Schiller in Weimar, then celebrates New Year’s Eve privately with them and Henrik Steffens
1801 back to top
1 January 1801 Wilhelm and Caroline give a souper in Braunschweig, at which Wilhelm reads aloud his Tristan and his Shrovetide play on the meeting of the two centuries (Ein schön kurzweilig Fastnachtsspiel vom alten und neuen Jahrhundert), Goethe’s Palaeophron and Neoterpe, and, “for dessert,” Schelling’s eerie but anonymous “The Last Words of the Pastor of Drottning, in Zealand”
4 January 1801 Schelling returns from Weimar to Jena
January 1801 Hegel arrives in Jena
early February 1801 in a letter to Goethe, Wilhelm Schlegel relates that Caroline “has been in perpetually poor health since the death of her daughter and will be staying here until the spring”
21 February 1801 Wilhelm departs Braunschweig for Berlin; Schelling dines with Goethe and Schiller in Weimara
21–22 February 1801 Schelling visits Goethe in Weimar; 21 February 1801 Schelling attends the performance of Tancred in Weimar directed by Goethe
23 February 1801 Caroline and Luise Wiedemann attend a déjeuner in Braunschweig at the home of Marie Sophie von Sierstorpff; attendees include Sophie von La Roche, Susanne Bandemer, and Johanna von Haugwitz, wife of the Prussian minister
23 February 1801 Wilhelm probably arrives in Berlin
28 February 1801 Caroline visits the publisher Friedrich Vieweg
5 March 1801 Marie Sophie von Sierstorpff visits Caroline
6 March 1801 Caroline writes Schelling that she “will be staying in Jena for the summer” but provides no information about her plans for the autumn or winter
9 March 1801 August Ferdinand Wiedemann (born 2 August 1800), Luise Wiedemann’s son, falls ill in Braunschweig; Caroline helps care for him, apparently staying up all night
10 March 1801 between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon, August Ferdinand Wiedemann dies
11 March 1801 Caroline suffers one of her “relapses,” with chattering teeth and an effusion of blood; remains bedridden for two days
14 March 1801 Friedrich Schlegel’s disputatio in Jena
15 March 1801 Friedrich Schlegel and Dorothea Veit use Caroline’s apartment at Leutragasse 5 for his doctoral celebratory banquet, much to Caroline’s chagrin
24 March 1801 evening Caroline receives word of the death of Philippine Hoppenstedt, née Böhmer, of complications from induced childbirth under the care of Benjamin Osiander, under whose care Lotte Michaelis had died under similar circumstances in 1793; Caroline writes two days later that “the news came so unexpectedly for me that I could not sleep the following night and as a result am again somewhat ill, though nothing that will last long”
24 March 1801 Schelling and Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer visit Schiller in Jena; after his final lecture in Jena, Friedrich Schlegel hastens that night to Weissenfels, where Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) lies gravely ill
March 1801 Dorothea Marie Campe visits Caroline and the Wiedemann’s in Braunschweig
25 March 1801 Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) dies in Weissenfels; Friedrich Schlegel present
29 March 1801, Sunday, Caroline and her maidservant, Rose, travel to Celle; Rose returns to Braunschweig; Caroline visits the families of Georg Christoph Dahme and her brother-in-law Justus Ludwig Bechtold Böhmer
30 March 1801, Monday, Philipp Michaelis’s wife, Auguste Katharine, née Sympher, meets Caroline in Celle; Emilie von Berlepsch, returning from Scotland, also in Celle
1 April 1801, Wednesday, Caroline, Auguste Katharine Michaelis, and the latter’s brother-in-law travel to Harburg through the Lüneburg Heath
4 April 1801 Caroline visits the sister of Karl August Moritz Schlegel in Harburg
6 April 1801 Caroline crosses the Elbe to Hamburg but is staying in Altona with the stepmother (and the latter’s second husband) of Philipp Michaelis’s wife
9 April 1801 Caroline attends the French theater in Hamburg, stays with the family of Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer
11 April 1801 Caroline returns to Harburg
16 April 1801 Caroline departs Harburg, meets her mother in Celle, who travels on to Harburg to stay with Philipp Michaelis; during this stopover in Celle, Caroline along with her sister Luise Wiedemann, the latter’s daughter, Emma, and her mother visit with the family of Christoph Dahme; Chanoinesse Schläger is also there, and travels back to her convent in Wienhausen with Caroline and her companions, who linger there briefly
18 April 1801 evening, Caroline and her traveling companions arrive back in Braunschweig
19 April 1801 Caroline packs for her return trip to Jena, tries to visit Minna van Nuys, who is, however, not at home; dines with Stefan Winckelmann at the Wiedemanns’ that evening, who accompanies her home after dinner; intimations from Winckelmann that Friedrich Schlegel and Dorothea Veit have been speaking ill of Caroline in Jena
20 April 1801 Caroline attends the French theater in Braunschweig; sees Mademoiselle Sérigny in D’Alayrac’s Adolphe et Clara, ou les deux prissonniers
ca. 20 April 1801 Dorothea Veit journeys to Leipzig from Jena to have new teeth made, hence is not in Jena when Caroline returns
21 April 1801 Caroline departs Braunschweig for Jena with her sister, Luise Wiedemann, and the latter’s daughter, Emma
23 April 1801 at about 7:00 pm Caroline arrives in Jena with Luise Wiedemann and the latter’s daughter, Emma; does not notify Schelling until the next morning
24 April 1801 4:00 in the afternoon Friedrich Schlegel visits Caroline, finds Schelling already there
26 April 1801 Sunday afternoon Caroline and Schelling read Wilhelm Schlegel’s poems together
27 April 1801 Luise Wiedemann visits her sister-in-law Luise Hufeland across the courtyard from Caroline’s apartment; Caroline does not accompany her, but she and Luise plan various visits for the afternoon
ca. 27 April 1801 Caroline visits the family of Justus Christian Loder in Jena; a similar visit to Rosine Eleonore Niethammer was unsuccessful because the latter was not at home
2 May 1801 Caroline and Schelling in Weimar for a performance of Don Juan, speak with Goethe in the theater; Luise Gotter also there with Cäcilie Gotter; return to Jena that night with Schelling, who had come over separately but in time for the performance; Goethe asks Schelling to stay overnight, Schelling declines
5 May 1801 Caroline scheduled to have tea with Johanne Frommann in Jena; Caroine’s sister, Luise Wiedemann, dines with her sister-in-law, Konradine Luise Hufeland, that evening, albeit without Caroline, who is still on unfriendly terms with the Hufelands; this same day, Schelling visits Gottlieb Hufeland
6 May 1801 Schelling meets with Goethe in Jena, goes riding, engages in extensive conversations
6 May 1801 Justus Christian Loder pays Caroline an hour-long visit in Jena; his wife had already visited Caroline twice since Caroline’s return to Jena on 23 April 1801
7 May 1801 Friedrich Schlegel departs Jena for Leipzig, where he will pick up Dorothea Veit and return to Jena
10 May 1801 Friedrich Schlegel and Dorothea Veit return to Jena from Leipzig
11 May 1801 Caroline encounters Friedrich Schlegel in the Paradies green-space in Jena and speaks with him about Eduard D’Alton, who seems to have accompanied Friedrich and Dorothea back to Jena from Leipzig
11 May 1801 Caroline and Luise Wiedemann(?) or Schelling(?) dine at the home of Justus Christian and Louise Loder in Jena
16 May 1801 Schelling attends performance of Schiller’s Wallenstein in Weimar with the Tübingen publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta
mid-May 1801 Caroline reads Fichte’s Sonnenklarer Bericht (“A Crystal Clear Report Concerning the Actual Essence of the Newest Philosophy: An Attempt to Force the Reader to Understand”): “I made enormous fun of it”; Schelling “merely glanced at it”
mid-May 1801 Schelling reads his “Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie,” Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik 2 (Jena, Leipzig 1801), no. 2, 1–127, with Caroline line by line, who is “able to comprehend all this better than the Sonnenklarer Bericht”
ca. 21–25 May 1801 Caroline suffers one of her “customary attacks and relapses” and is “extremely weak for several days” after being “perhaps a bit busy in the house”
25 May 1801 Caroline receives a visit from Johanna Sophia Bohn, Johanne Frommann, and Konradine Luise Hufeland in Jena (she had previously been estranged from the latter after Wilhelm Schlegel’s and Schelling’s break with the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung in the autumn of 1799)
week of 25 May 1801 Cäcilie Gotter spends one day with Caroline in Jena; Johann Diederich Gries dines with Caroline and Luise Wiedemann at Leutragasse 5 in Jena
28, 29 May 1801 Schelling meets with Goethe in Jena
week preceding 31 May 1801 Cäcile Gotter visits Caroline in Jena for a day from Weimar
31 May 1801 Julie Gotter arrives in Jena “almost unannounced” to stay with Caroline, remains until March 1802
6 June 1801 Luise Wiedemann and her daughter Emma travel over to Weimar with with Johann Wilhelm Ludecus
8 June 1801 Julie Gotter writes to her mother, Luise Gotter, that Caroline, “whose health is unfortunately not the best just now,” almost never leaves the house, though on 8 June 1801 she writes that “we usually go over to Schelling’s garden each afternoon, and from there take a walk,” and on 9 June 1801 that “when the weather is good, we go to his [Schelling’s] garden in the afternoon, where Madam Schlegel usually spends a bit of time studying philosophy with him”
9 June 1801 Julie Gotter writes to her sister Cäcile in Weimar that “Schelling comes by daily, though not always at midday, since he is now lecturing,” and that “everyone here sleeps in until 8:00″
11 June 1801 Caroline mentions that Luise Wiedemann had already been in Weimar for several days; on 15 June 1801 she is still in Weimar
11 June 1801 Caroline, together with Julie Gotter, pays a visit to Konradine Luise Hufeland in Jena, wife of Gottlieb Hufeland, Caroline’s neighbors across the courtyard at Leutragasse 5, from whom she and Wilhelm (and Schelling) had been estranged since the autumn of 1799; Caroline remarks that “she [Madam Hufeland] then received me quite graciously,” and Julie Gotter relates to her mother that the “former good relationship” between the two women had now been reestabslihed; after the visit, Julie Gotter and Schelling visit Rosine Eleonore Niethammer at the latter’s estate in Wenigen-Jena
14 June 1801, Sunday, according to Julie Gotter’s letter to her sister Cecile, Schelling spent “from morning till evening” at Leutragasse 5 with Caroline
18 June 1801 Luise Wiedemann and her daughter Emma, in Weimar since 6 June 1801, return to Jena accompanied by Cäcile Gotter and Minnchen Conta
22 June 1801 Caroline trying to recover from an otherwise unidentified illness and still suffering from a headache; has allegedly not been out of the house since 12 June 1801, something Julie Gotter’s letters at least broadly confirm
25 June 1801 2 p.m. Luise and Emma Wiedemann return to Jena from Weimar, where they have been since 6 June 1801; Cäcile Gotter and Minchen Konta accompany them but return to Weimar at 5 p.m.
Late June early July 1801 the Jena publisher Friedrich Frommann and his wife Johanne pay a visit to Caroline in Jena
28 June 1801 Caroline and her housemates — Luise Wiedemann and Julie Gotter (but not Luise’s daughter Emma) — spend the day in Dornburg, toss a glass into the Saale River in honor of Goethe’s ballad “The King in Thule” (and must compensate the tavern keeper for it)
30 June 1801 Julie Gotter’s 18th birthday; Justus Christian Loder and his wife, Charlotte Louise; Caroline and her housemates Julie and Luise Widemann eat dinner in the garden behind Leutragasse 5
July 1801 Justus Christian Loder pays Caroline a “gallant” morning visit each week in Jena
July 1801 Caroline indicates certain people “unnecessarily and malevolently betrayed me” to Charlotte Ernst, née Schlegel, possibly a reference to Caroline’s Lucka pregnancy
Before mid-July 1801 Caroline travels once to Weimar and once to Burgau, to the latter with Julie Gotter and presumably Luise Wiedemann, but not with Schelling
20 July 1801 Dorothea, after being ill, departs for Franconia and Bocklet with Philipp Veit, accompanied by H.E.G. Paulus; Karoline Paulus and her daughter, Sophie, are already there
Late July 1801 Caroline sick in bed, allegedly because of the damp weather, awakens “one fine morning with an utterly swollen face. I had to bathe with herbs, was extremely weak”
27 July 1801 Justus Christian Loder visits Caroline in Jena “just to check on how I was doing”
from 28 July 1801 Caroline keeps to her bed for two weeks; has a severe fever, the diagnosis is “nervous fever”
July or August 1801 Dorothea Veit visits Auguste’s grave in Bocklet accompanied by a young woman who cared for Auguste during the latter’s illness the previous summer
7 August 1801, Friday, Wilhelm von Humboldt pays Caroline a visit in Jena
August 1801 Caroline reads Schleiermacher’s Sermons (Berlin 1801) and is quite taken by them
8 August 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel departs Berlin for Jena
11 August 1801, Tuesday afternoon, Wilhelm arrives in Jena from Berlin; Caroline has been “in bed and already sick for two weeks,” though the fever has subsided; the illness seems again to be nervous fever
15 August 1801 Friedrich departs for Bocklet to pick up Dorothea
17 August 1801 Caroline feels well enough after her illness to go for a carriage ride
18 August 1801 Caroline feel well enough to go for a modest walk; Julie Gotter writes to her mother, “Madam Schlegel would have been in wretched shape indeed had I not been here”
18 August 1801 Julie Gotter writes concerning Dorothea Veit: “The baseness and vileness of Madam Veit . . . is limitless . . . You simply cannot conceive of her vile enough . . . The whole situation is dreadfully awkward and unpleasant for Caroline, and she avoids speaking about these things whenever possible”
20 August 1801 Wilhelm and Caroline, possibly also Luise Wiedemann and Julie Gotter, inspect a prospective new apartment at Neugasse 23 in Jena
21 August 1801 Wilhelm writes to Sophie Bernhardi in Berlin that Caroline has recovered from her illness “enough to go for rides and walk” but is still “extremely weak”
Ca. 22 August 1801 Friedrich and Dorothea depart Bocklet for Jena with H.E.G. and Karoline Paulus; arrival in Jena by 24 August at latest
24 August 1801 Caroine, Schelling, and Julie Gotter go on an excursion to Löbstedt, ca. 3 ½ km northeast of Jena
25 August 1801 a rainy day in Jena; Wilhelm Schlegel will probably read something aloud as is his custom if Schelling is not there, who according to Julie Gotter “cannot bear to listen when someone reads”
31 August and 1 September 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel visits Goethe in Weimar
initial days of September 1801 Friedrich Tieck arrives in Weimar from Paris
4 September 1801 Caroline has been bedridden with severe attacks of cramps for a week, i.e., since ca. 28 August 1801, but is now recovering; mid-September: using opium “quite a bit recently”
6 September 1801 Friedrich Tieck dines with Goethe
7 September 1801 Caroline “has been a bit indisposed again these past few days” (thus Wilhelm’s remark to the actress Friederike Unzelman in Breslau); Friedrich Tieck arrives in Jena
8 September 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel returns to Weimar to meet with Goethe after receiving a letter on 7 September from Friederike Unzelmann concerning her arrival in Jena
7–11 September 1801 Friedrich Tieck visits the Schlegels in Jena (their first personal acquaintance); Julie Gotter writes on Friday, 11 September, that he has been in Jena “since Monday” (7 September)
18 September 1801 Wilhelm Schlegels remarks in a letter that “Caroline has had to use it [opium] again quite a bit recently. Things are only tolerably well with her”
19 September 1801 Friederike Unzelmann arrives in Weimar for eight successive guest performances beginning on 21 September
21 September 1801 Caroline, Wilhelm Schlegel, Luise Wiedemann, and Julie Gotter arrive in Weimar to attend Friederike Unzelmann’s performances; Cecile Gotter, who is currently living in Weimar, presumably attends with them; the first performance is Maria Stuart; Luise Gotter also comes to Weimar with Pauline Gotter; first and only meeting between Schelling and his second wife, Pauline, before their marriage in 1812
22 September 1801 Schelling meets with Goethe at midday; “grand tea” (so Goethe) for Friederike Unzelmann presumably also attended by Wilhelm Schlegel, possibly Caroline
Late September 1801 Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann arrives in Jena
1 October 1801 Luise Gotter and her two daughters Cäcilie and Pauline return from Weimar to Gotha; they do not attend Friederike Unzelmann’s final performance in Weimar as the lead in Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm on 1 October 1801; Caroline is ill that morning but recovers sufficiently to attend the theater that evening.
1 October 1801 Schelling visits Goethe while Friedrich Tieck works on Goethe’s bust that morning; Schelling visits Goethe that afternoon as well; that evening Schelling, Caroline, Wilhelm, Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann, and Julie Gotter attend Friederike Unzelmann’s final guest performance in Weimar as the lead in Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm; Carl Schelling, who has been ill, comes over from Jena for this performance
2 October 1801 Friederike Unzelmann departs Weimar for Leipzig; Caroline, Wilhelm, Schelling, Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann, and Julie Gotter depart Jena in two carriages at 9:00 a.m., arrive back in Jena at midday
5 October 1801 Julie Gotter takes a “long walk” with Wilhelm Schlegel and Luise Wiedemann; Caroline presumably too ill to accompany them
ca. 8 or 9 October 1801 Caroline, Julie Gotter, and presumably Wilhelm Schlegel and Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann (and Schelling?) take an excursion to Rothenheim just south of Jena, where an impressive view of the Saale River valley can be had from the top of what is still known as the Trumpet Cliff
9 October 1801 Caroline, Wilhelm Schlegel, Julie Gotter, and presumably Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann dine during the evening at the home of Justus Christian and Luise Loder in Jena
by 11 October 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck’s Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1802 appears
ca. 11 October 1801 the good weather prompts the housemates at Leutragasse 5 to take “an hour-long walk each afternoon” (as Julie Gotter writes to her sister Cäcilie)
19 October 1801 Schelling calls on Goethe in Jena
20 October 1801 Gottlieb Hufeland and his wife, Luise (Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann’s sister), give a farewell dinner for Luise and Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann in Jena; Goethe also attends; the Wiedemanns return to Braunschweig from Jena shortly thereafter
Autumn 1801 at some point Friedrich Tieck begins lodging with the Schlegels at Leutragasse 5
1 November 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel sees Goethe in Jena, reads his play Ion aloud to him while Friedrich Tieck continues work on Goethe’s bust
3 November 1801 Wilhelm departs Jena for Berlin
6 November 1801 Friedrich Schlegel calls on Goethe in Jena
8 November 1801 Schelling calls on Goethe in Jena; Friedrich Tieck finishes work on Schelling’s portrait that evening
8 November 1801 Sunday Julie Gotter takes a walk with Friedrich Tieck in Jena; in the Paradise greenspace, they encounter, first, Karoline Paulus, Dorette Seidler, and Goethe walking together, then, second, Friedrich Schlegel and Dorothea Veit; that evening, Julie Gotter attends a ball in Jena with Louise Loder
9 November 1801 “Caroline is again not feeling well, and has such a headache as to make it impossible for her to write” (Schelling); Friedrich Tieck departs Jena for Weimar; Schelling and Julie Gotter accompany him part of the way; on returning to Jena, Julie finds her (or her mother’s) cousin Karl with Caroline but does not immediately recognize him
10 November 1801 Julie Gotter reports home: “Unfortunately, Madam Schlegel was not well [the previous day when Julie’s cousin was in Jena] — but today she is better”
by mid-November 1801 Caroline pays a visit to Louise Loder in Jena; otherwise Caroline is suffering from headaches and has not been out of the house since Wilhelm’s departure for Berlin on 3 November 1801
by mid-November Schelling’s brother, Karl Schelling, moves into Wilhelm Schlegel’s room at Leutragasse 5 in Jena
15 November 1801 Julie Gotter, escorted by Schelling, attends the ball given by students from Livonia and Estonia
16 November 1801 Julie Gotter writes: “Caroline has also not been doing well, though today she is a bit better”
before 16 November 1801 Caroline receives separate visits in Jena from Karl Gustav Himly and Charlote Luise Augusta Loder
ca. 29 November 1801 Friedrich departs Jena for Berlin in the company of Friedrich Tieck
1 December 1801 Wilhelm begins lecture series in Berlin
2 December 1801 Friedrich arrives in Berlin with Friedrich Tieck
3 December 1801 Ludwig Friedrich Catel visits Caroline and Julie Gotter at Leutragasse 5 in Jena
5 December 1801 Julie Gotter writes: “Caroline is doing tolerably well now, almost better than during the summer. . . . We did take a ride on the day the weather was good . . . Otherwise, because the weather has been so unpleasant she has gone out but a single time for several weeks now”
ca. 10 December 1801 Caroline, who had been relatively well of late, has (or recently had) an “episode” of illness, one Schelling, however, thinks will quickly pass; Caroline writes on 10 December 1801: “I am suffering horribly from dizziness”
ca. 11, 12 December 1801 Schelling brings the Danish student Nikolaus Moeller by to meet Caroline
21 December 1801 Caroline and Schelling attend the performances of Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel’s Die Brüder and Schiller’s prologue Wallensteins Lager in Weimar
26 December 1801 scheduled premiere of Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion in Weimar postponed
1802 back to top
Saturday, 2 January 1802 Caroline, Schelling, and Julie Gottter travel to Weimar at midday for the premiere of Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion the same day; Schelling rides alongside their carriage on the way over; all are seated in Goethe’s loge; Schelling remains overnight with Goethe, returns to Jena the next day; Caroline and Julie Gotter dine and remain overnight in the Erbprinzen Inn in Weimar, also return the next day
4 January 1802 the publisher Friedrich Frommann and his wife, Johanne, visit Caroline in Jena
11 January 1802, Monday, Johann Diederich Gries visits Caroline in Jena
14 January 1802 The Frommann family in Jena host a “grand pickenick“; Julie Gotter attends, but not Caroline, who fears the heartache of being reminded of Auguste at such events
16 January 1802 Caroline’s review of Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion appears in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt
January 1802 Nikolaus Moeller visits Caroline regularly in Jena
20 January 1802 Friedrich Immanuel and Rosine Eleonora Niethammer along with Nikolaus Moeller (or the latter later?) have tea with Caroline in Jena
23 January 1802 Schelling dines with Goethe in Jena
27 January 1802 Friedrich Schlegel departs Berlin for Dresden, Dorothea departs Jena for Dresden; they meet up in Leipzig
27 January 1802 Caroline, Julie Gotter, Karl Schelling, and the Norwegian Nikolaus Moeller celebrate Schelling’s twenty-seventh birthday in the apartment at Leutragasse 5; “the champagne that was finally brought out for everyone made the company merry indeed” (Julie Gotter to her mother on 5 February 1802)
30 January 1802 Caroline, Schelling, and Julie Gotter in Weimar for the performance of Schiller’s adaptation of the play Turandot with Italian masks
1 February 1802 Friedrich and Dorothea in Dresden
5 February 1802 Julie Gotter writes to Luise Gotter: “Because of the current damp weather and deep muck everywhere, Caroline almost never leaves the house, though she is doing well enough in her own way”; Julie contiues later in the letter: “Schelling generally arrives here with us at 6:00, and that is usually the most interesting part of the day”
14 February 1802 Goethe (in Jena) queries Caroline about negotiating with the theater in Frankfurt about Wilhelm’s play Ion
20 February 1802 Schelling calls on Goethe in Jena in the evening
1 March 1802 Karl Friedrich Zelter has tea with Caroline in her apartment in Jena
4 March 1802 Caroline has “been a bit ill” but is “doing better now,” i.e., right before her journey to Berlin
6 March 1802 Julie Gotter, Caroline’s house guest since 31 May 1801, departs Jena for Gotha “amid a great many tears”
ca. 8 March 1802 Caroline recently “suffering violently from a stomachache accompanied by diarrhea”
ca. 6–11 March 1802 Caroline has “been inviting a guest over each evening,” apparently for tea, including Hegel
ca. 10 March 1802 Rosine Eleonore Niethammer visits Caroline and regales her with the gossip about August von Kotzebue’s shipwrecked celebration for Schiller
11 March 1802 Schelling calls on Goethe in the morning
13 March 1802 Schelling calls on Goethe in the evening
ca. 16 March 1802 Johanne Frommann visits Caroline to return the copy of Ludwig Tieck’s drama Octavian because her husband, Friedrich Frommann, would not be publishing it
18 March 1802 Caroline writes that “for several days I myself have felt very ill indeed”
After 18/19 March 1802 Caroline travels to Berlin with her maidservant, Rose, accompanied by Karl Friedrich Grattenauer, probably by way of Halle; in Berlin, she resides at Lindenstrasse 66 with Grattenauer and his wife, Anna Philippine Elisabeth Grattenauer
24 April 1802 Caroline experiencing “physical weakness” amid all the activities in Berlin
While in Berlin, Caroline exchanges visits with Luise Iffland but sees August Wilhlm Iffland only on stage; also, at a souper, sits next to the resolute adversary of the Jena Romantics Garlieb Merkel, who, however, “flirts” with her
28 April 1802 Caroline and Wilhelm attend the performance of Kotzebue’s Die deutschen Kleinstädter in Berlin
Late April, early May 1802 Schelling travels to Berlin
15/16 May 1802 Ion performed in Berlin; Caroline and Schelling attend both performances, presumably with Wilhelm Schlegel
16 (17?) May 1802 Caroline, Wilhelm, and Schelling dine with Friederike Unzelmann in Berlin, presumably at the Unzelmann’s residence at Französische Strasse 47
17 May 1802 Caroline cancels a visit to Wilhelm in Berlin because of a headache; Wilhelm mentions an “incident” that occurred during Caroline’s visit that arguably might free him from financial obligations to which he had earlier agreed
19 May 1802 Caroline departs Berlin for Leipzig with Wilhelm Schlegel, Schelling, and her maidservant, Rose
21 May 1802 Caroline arrives in Leipzig with Wilhelm, Schelling, and Rose; probable meeting with Friedrich Schlegel there, who is in town for the Leipzig book fair
24 May 1802 Caroline departs Leipzig for Jena with Schelling and Rose, arriving that evening
24 May 1802 (evening) Caroline arrives in Jena and moves into a new apartment, almost certainly in the house of the tanner Eckardt in the northeast section of Jena next to the inn Zum Schwarzen Bär, which later bore the address Lutherplatz 3; Caroline earlier refers to the house as the “Asverus house” after the previous lessee, Ludwig Christoph Asverus
26 May 1802 The performance of Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion is canceled in Berlin after the actress Henriette Meyer’s husband refuses to allow her to perform the “lewd” role of Creusa again
29 May 1802 Schelling and Hegel (but not Caroline) attend the premiere of Friedrich Schlegel’s play Alarcos in Weimar; Friedrich and presumably Dorothea Veit also attend; at the end of the play, the audience allegedly breaks out in laughter
30 May 1802 Schelling and Hegel dine with Goethe in Weimar; Friedrich and Dorothea depart for Paris
June 1802 Schleiermacher moves from Berlin to Stolp; he and Friedrich Schlegel never see each other again
4 June 1802 Schelling receives Dr. med. honoris causa from Landshut
5 June 1802 The Italian improvisatore Pietro Scotes arrives in Jena
13 June 1802 Wilhelm returns to Berlin via Dresden
Sunday or Monday, 13 or 14 June 1802 Friedrich Tieck dines at midday with Caroline and Schelling in Jena
ca. 15 June 1802 Caroline speaks at length with Goeth in Jena about, among other things, the new theater in Lauchstädt
early summer 1802 Caroline makes the acquaintance of Axel Gabriel Silverstolpe in Jena; later in Berlin, he relates to Wilhelm Schlegel that Caroline had divulged to him that she and Wilhelm had decided on getting a divorce; Silverstolpe seems instead to have heard such news from Sophie Sander in Weimar and mistakenly (or intentionally?) attributed his knowledge of it to Caroline herself
26 June 1802 Caroline and Schelling see Goethe’s prologue Was wir bringen and Mozart’s opera Titus at the opening of the new theater in Lauchstädt
27 June 1802 Caroline and Schelling see Goethe’s prologue Was wir bringen again as well as Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel’s Die Brüder. Ein Lustspiel nach Terenz in fünf Akten in Lauchstädt
28 June 1802 Caroline and Schelling probably also attend a performance of Schiller’s Wallenstein (i.e., Wallensteins Tod) in Lauchstädt
Late July 1802 Friedrich and Dorothea arrive in Paris
August 1802 Caroline in good health (“my health is good now almost without interruption”) and is taking walks in Jena that often last “several hours”; seems also to have been working on a translation or stage adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors; Schelling sent the first act to Goethe in mid-September, though the play was never performed
ca. 8 August 1802 Luise Schläger (the chanoinesse) visits Caroline in Jena; Caroline fetched from the house of the publisher Friedrich Frommann to greet her
20 September 1802 Friedrich Tieck visits Caroline and Schelling in Jena
22 September 1802 Schelling calls on Goethe in Weimar to discuss Caroline’s and Wilhelm Schlegel’s divorce; Wilhelm von Humboldt also present
13 October 1802 Wilhelm’s To the Public distributed in Jena
mid-October 1802 Julie Gotter and presumably her mother and sister, Cäcilie, seem to have paid Caroline at least a short visit in Jena
mid-October 1802 Caroline travels over to Weimar for an unknown reason
by 1 November 1802 at latest, Caroline and Wilhelm’s divorce petition sent to Duke Karl August in Weimar
14 December 1802 Wilhelm Schlegel receives a missive, likely delivered to Caroline in Jena, summoning him to appear before the High Consistory in Weimar by 10:00 a.m. on 1 February 1803 with regard to the divorce petition submitted to Duke Karl August
26 December 1802 Schelling dines with Goethe, Schiller, and Karoly von Podmanitzky in Weimar; he and Podmanitzky spend several days in Weimar
before 29 December 1802 Caroline receives a similar summons from the High Consistory
1803 back to top
14 January 1803 Caroline receives a missive from the High Consistory in Weimar excusing her from having to appear personally before it in the matter of her and Wilhelm Schlegel’s divorce; Wilhelm receives a similar missive
1 February 1803 High Consistory meets in Weimar and decides against immediately excusing Caroline and Wilhelm from making a personal appearance, presumably out of ire toward Duke Karl August for having intervened in the matter
9 February 1803 Caroline receives a missive from her attorney, C. F. Hufeland, informing her that the High Consistory is now demanding after all that she show sufficient reason by 15 February 1803 for why she should be excused from making a personal appearance
11 February 1803 “measures already taken,” presumably by Goethe (with the aid of Christian Gottlob Voigt), to intervene in the High Consistory’s “chicanery” of insisting on “sufficient reason” from Caroline and Wilhelm for not appearing personally
12 or 13 February 1803 Schelling rides over to Weimar to speak with Goethe about the High Consistory’s resistance to excusing Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel from personal appearances
25 February 1803 Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation assigns the bishoprics Würzburg and Bamberg to Bavaria, a decision that will profoundly affect Caroline and Schelling’s future plans
19 March 1803 Schiller’s play Die Braut von Messina oder die feindlichen Brüder. Ein Trauerspiel mit Chören (Tübingen 1803) premieres in the Weimar theater; Caroline does not attend because she has feigned ill health in order to avoid having to appear before the Weimar Consistory as part of her and Wilhelm’s petition for divorce
30 April 1803 Lawyers for Caroline and Wilhelm announce divorce to be granted on 17 May
15 May 1803 Schelling dines with Goethe and Schiller in Weimar
17 May 1803 divorce granted for Caroline and Wilhelm
ca. 20 May 1803 Schelling sells his writing lectern for 2 Thaler 6 Groschen to a “new ecclesiastical owner,” namely, Johann Gottlieb Marezoll, who had just arrived in Jena as the superintendent and pastor at the municipal church; his daughter Louise Marezoll published a translation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in German in 1830
22 May 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart Jena for Murrhardt at 3:00 a.m., traveling by way of Bamberg and Nürnberg; initial plans are to stay a while in Swabia, then continue through Switzerland, where they will also spend time, and then on to Italy, then to return to Germany (Jena?) by way of France and perhaps Spain, though not for 2 years
24 or 25 May (following a journey of 3 days), Caroline and Schelling spend two days in Bamberg in the company of by Adalbert Friedrich Marcus, they leave Bamberg, then spend 1/2 day in Würzburg
evening of 30 May 1803 Caroline and Schelling arrive in Murrhardt after a 9-day journey from Jena, including finally a 3-day journey from Würzburg by way of Swabian Halle, Michelfeld and Bubenurbis, meeting Carl and August Schelling then between Bubenurbis and Ziegelbronn at the New Tavern (Zum Stok), who have ridden out from Murrhardt to meet them
3–10 June 1803 Friederike Unzelmann guest performances in Stuttgart; arriving in Stuttgart from Murrhardt at midday, Caroline and Schelling, who are staying at the inn Der König von England, attend her performance of the lead role in Schiller’s Maria Stuart on 10 June 1803
11 June 1803 morning, Caroline and Schelling speak with Friederike Unzelmann at her accommodations in Stuttgart, who tells them not to be surprised if Therese Huber should walk in at any minute; Therese does not, but a half hour after returning to their accommodations, Caroline receives news that Therese will be coming to visit her from Friederike Unzelmann’s forthwith, a brief visit that does indeed happen; it is the first meeting between the two women since Therese left Mainz on 7 December 1792
19 June 1803 Caroline writes to her sister, Luise Wiedemann, in Braunschweig: “Let me also reveal to you that Schelling will not be returning there,” i.e., to Jena, regardless of whether and, if so, how long Caroline and Schelling might be in Italy
June 1803 Hölderlin spends a day and a half visiting Schelling and Caroline in Murrhardt; Schelling: “the sight of him unsettled me”
26 June 1803 afternoon, Schelling’s father performs marriage ceremony for Caroline and Schelling (Caroline’s third marriage) in the Church of St. Januarius in Murrhardt
28 June 1803 Caroline and Schelling to Cannstatt for the mineral springs
June or July 1803 Schelling visits Heidelberg, presumably with Caroline
June or July 1803 Claire Forster spends two days with Caroline in Ludwigsburg; Schelling likely with them as well
summer 1803 Friedrich Wilhelm von Hoven and presumably his wife, Henriette von Hoven, travel to Murrhardt with Schelling and Caroline for a visit
4 August 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart Cannstadt and return to Murrhardt
August (or summer) 1803 Caroline and Schelling hike extensively in Württemberg (if perhaps not the “entirety,” as Schelling remarks)
ca. 18 August 1803 Caroline ill with a fever in Murrhardt
after 18 August 1803 Therese and Ludwig Ferdinand Huber spend 3 days in Murrhardt visiting the Schelling family
28 August 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart Murrhardt for Munich, by way of Stuttgart
30–31 August 1803 Caroline and Schelling in Heidelberg (perhaps longer)
1(?)–3 September 1803 Caroline and Schelling in Stuttgart
before 3 September 1803, meeting between Therese Huber, Schelling, Caroline, and Meta Liebeskind in Stuttgart
3 September 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart for Tübingen
5 September 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart for Munich by way of Ulm and Augsburg
7 September 1803 evening Caroline and Schelling arrive in Munich
8 September 1803 Schelling meets with Georg Friedrich von Zentner concerning a position in Würzburg
9 September 1803 Caroline attends the theater in Munich, hears the singer Josephine Cannabich
14 September 1803 Schelling dines with Georg Friedrich von Zentner and Maximilian von Montgelas in Munich and learns of his appointment in Würzburg
24 September 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart Munich
29 September 1803 Caroline and Schelling arrive in Bamberg by way of Landshut, where they pick up Andreas Röschlaub
30 September 1803 Schelling receives his formal appointment to a professorship in Würzburg with a salary of 1200 Gulden, 300 Gulden travel costs, and free housing
10 October 1803 Caroline and Schelling arrive back in Murrhardt by way of Landshut, Regensburg, Bamberg, Würzburg
31 October 1803 Caroline and Schelling depart for Würzburg
early November 1803 upon arriving in Würzburg, Schelling and Caroline find that their apartment has not yet been vacated and prepared, there still being some question about whether the entire university might yet be moved to Bamberg, so they reside in an inn
early- to mid-November 1803 Schelling summoned to Bamberg twice for consultations with Count Friedrich Karl von Thürheim concerning the reorganization of the university in Würzburg; on one of those trips, he spends two days and is accompanied by Friedrich Wilhelm von Hoven, and the decision to keep the university in Würzburg has been made before their arrival
November 1803 Caroline and Schelling move into their apartment in the university complex; Henriette von Hoven arrives with her children at the end of November to join her husband in their apartment in the seminary’s main building, adjacent to the university, the Paulus family a few days later
22 November 1803 Georg Friedrich von Zentner gently warns Schelling against engaging in scholarly polemics in Würzburg
1804 back to top
1 January 1804 Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung debuts
late January, early February 1804 Caroline seriously ill, “the good sense of my family and friends alone — and my own — kept me from coming down with a serious nervous fever”
after ca. 22 February 1804 Caroline no longer sees or visits with Henriette von Hoven in Würzburg
March 1804 Caroline receives Auguste’s bust from Friedrich Tieck; Schelling and Caroline already putting out feelers for a professorial position outside Würzburg
late February 1804 Caroline calls on Henriette von Hoven in Würzburg, whom she finds not at home; the two cease social contact
6 April 1804 Dorothea Veit converts to Christianity, weds Friedrich Schlegel in Paris
April 1804 Friedrich and Dorothea make plans to move from Paris to Cologne
Night of 18–19 April 1804 Wilhelm Schlegel leaves Berlin with Madam de Staël
22 April 1804 Count Karl Friedrich von Thürheim sends Schelling his first official rebuke
2 May 1804 Wilhelm Schlegel leaves Weimar with Madam de Staël
8 May 1804 Wilhelm Schlegel arrives in Würzburg with Madam de Staël
8/9 May 1804 11 pm till 1 am Wilhelm visits Schelling and Caroline in their apartment in Würzburg
9 May 1804 before 8 am Wilhelm visits Caroline in her apartment in Würzburg before his departure
6 June 1804 Dorothea Schlegel arrives in Cologne to set up her household with Friedrich Schlegel
ca. 23 June 1804 Meta Liebeskind, née Forkel, arrives for a visit with the Schellings
ca. 24 June 1804 Hölderlin, accompanied by Isaak von Sinclair, visits Schelling and Caroline in Würzburg; last meeting between Schelling and Hölderlin
final week of June 1804 Schelling and Caroline accompany his sister, Beate Schelling, back to Murrhardt from Würzburg, where she has been living with Caroline and Schelling since early November 1803; on their return trip, Carolina and Schelling pass through Jagstburg and Mergentheim, in the latter of which three Würzburg acquaintances have traveled down from Würzburg to meet them for the afternoon meal; they arrive back in Würzburg the next afternoon
June–July 1804 Caroline and Schelling attend theater performances presumably in Randersacker, southeast of Würzburg, accompanied by Meta Liebeskind
Monday, 23 July 1804 Caroline and Schelling visit the family of Karl Kaspar Siebold in Würzburg
July 1804 Caroline and Schelling take excursions to Zell, Veitshöchheim, and the Aumühle in the area around Würzburg
July 1804 Caroline, Schelling, and several friends walk to the Dürrbach Valley behind the Steinwein vineyard north of Würzburg for an evening, returning then to Würzburg by moonlight.
3 August 1804 Caroline and Schelling attend the opening of the new theater in Würzburg
Sunday, 5 August 1804 Meta Liebeskind departs Würzburg after what was apparently a six-week visit with Caroline
week of 6 August 1804 a “two-week illness” prompts Schelling and Caroline to cancel plans to visit Carl Joseph and Anna Marie Windischmann in Aschaffenburg
ca. week of 6 August 1804 Caroline receives a visit from Johann Diederich Gries in Würzburg, who had just spent six weeks in the mineral-springs spa Bad Liebenstein
Wednesday, 8 August 1804 Adalbert Friedrich and Maria Juliana Marcus, along with two daughters (?) from the family of Stephan Christian Stengel arrive in Würzburg, attend the theater, where they meet Caroline and Schelling
Thursday evening, 9 August 1804 Adalbert Friedrich Marcus and his wife and companions dine with Caroline and Schelling; they depart on Friday, 10 August 1804
ca. August 1804 Ludwig Tieck’s play Kaiser Octavianus (Jena 1804) is read aloud at Caroline’s home, presumably at an evening gathering
(early?) September 1804 Caroline receives another visit from Johann Diederich Gries in Würzburg on his way from Heidelberg back to Jena; she and Schelling try unsuccessfully to convince him to move to Heidelberg
4 September 1804 Caroline and Schelling depart for Bamberg
autumn 1804 Henry Crabb Robinson encounters Schelling (and Caroline?) with a group of students in Bug, the popular tavern outside Bamberg
Late October 1804 Caroline and Schelling return to Würzburg
7 November 1804 Count Karl Friedrich von Thürheim sends Schelling his second official rebuke
mid-December 1804 Hegel suggests in a letter to Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer that Schelling may be angling for a position at the university in Erlangen
20 December 1804 Schelling offers to provide reviews from an anonymous hand (Caroline) for the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung under the rubric of belles-lettres to Heinrich Karl Abraham Eichstädt, editor-in-chief
24 December 1804 Ludwig Ferdinand Huber dies in Ulm
1805 back to top
ca. 1 January 1805 Madam Sturz, wife of Karl Joseph Sturz, territorial administrator in Würzburg, pays a visit to Caroline
27 January 1805 Caroline gives a grand fête for Schelling’s 30th birthday; Caroline retires sometime after 2 a.m., though some guests stay until the tolling of the town’s bells at dawn, when Schelling himself finally goes to bed
28 January 1805 Caroline and Schelling visit Madam Sturz, wife of Karl Joseph Sturz, territorial administrator in Würzburg
18 March 1805 Caroline’s reviews of the travestied Nathan der Weise and a volume of poems by Wilhelm Calezki appear in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
16 April 1805 Caroline’s former romantic interest Georg Ernst Tatter dies in Petersburg
6 May 1805 Caroline’s review of C. A. von Chamisso and K. A. Varnhagen’s Musenalmanach auf das Jahr 1805 appears in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
28 June 1805 Caroline’s review of Samuel Bürde, Poetische Schriften appears in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
early August 1805 Prince Paul of Württemberg in Würzburg, visits the Schellings, Pauluses, and von Hovens
August 1805 Caroline and Schelling considering ways to resume their journey to Italy that was disrupted by war during the summer of 1803
26 August 1805 orders given for the French Grande armée to march from the Channel coast to Germany and cross the Rhine River
10 September 1805 Austrian army crosses the border into Bavaria and threatens Munich
12 September 1805 Prince Elector Maximilian of Bavaria arrives in Würzburg from Munich after Austrian troops’ incursion into Bavaria; his court and retinue occupy several buildings and residences in Würzburg, including the Borgias Building where the Pauluses and von Hovens live, but not the Schellings’ apartment in the Old University building
late September 1805 Schelling speaks with Georg Friedrich von Zentner in Würzburg about his, Schelling’s, status at the university and prospects for the future, i.e., well before it was determined that Würzburg would pass to Tuscany as a result of the Treaty of Pressburg in late December 1805; i.e., Schelling seems to have been well aware of the precariousness of his position and was discussing with Zentner the possibility of journeying to Italy and France
7–28 October 1805 Caroline and Schelling have two men residing in Schelling’s auditorium (one story beneath their living quarters)
29 October 1805 Prince Elector Maximiian of Bavaria and his entourage arrive back in Munich
1806 back to top
1 January 1806 Würzburg passes from Bavaria to Tuscany as a result of the Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December 1805, jeopardizing the status of all Protestant professors in Würzburg
mid-January 1806 at latest, Caroline and Schelling are certain they will be leaving Würzburg
19 January 1806 Schelling writes Friedrich von Zentner in Munich proposing a position that would enable him to spend several years in Italy and France (Rome and Paris) as a kind of cultural or scholarly representative of the Bavarian government
11 February 1806 Caroline and Schelling’s reviews of eleven novels appear in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
19 February 1806 Caroline’s review of the Bibliothek der Robinsone and the Bibliothek des Romantisch-Wunderbaren appears in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
6 March 1806 Schelling refuses to take the oath of allegiance to the new territorial lord of Würzburg, the Grand Duke of Tuscany
24 March 1806 Würzburg students bring Schelling an ovation
7 April 1806 Schelling’s review of August von Kotzebue, Kleine Romane, Erzählungen, Anekdoten und Miscellen, vol. 1, appears in the Jenaische allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
18 April 1806 Schelling departs Würzburg for Munich; Caroline comes down with a cold
18 (or 19?) April 1806 Caroline visits the ailing Karl Joseph Sturz in Würzburg, finding that “the appearance of his room and surroundings is so dreadful that even his acquaintances go there only for God’s own sake”
ca. 18–25 April 1806 Caroline receiving visits from Martin Köhler (“with gentle assiduousness and always at the appropriate times”), Georg Michael Klein (“several times each day”), Johann Baptist Spix (“so that you can see I have not forgotten you”), and Michael Behr (“at just the moment when things were supposed to become Bavarian again and he himself firmly believed it to be so”)
19 April 1806 Schelling stays overnight in Ansbach, visits the family of Meta and Johann Heinrich Liebeskind
20 April 1806 Sunday Schelling departs Ansbach at 4 a.m.; spends the night in Eichstädt; Caroline has “one of my most violent headache days, messing up all my wonderful plans to go out into the world and look around a bit”
21 April 1806 Schelling arrives in Munich
22 April 1806 Caroline visits the family of Christoph David Anton Martini in Würzburg; she also encounters Prince Maxiilian von Thurn und Taxis greeting the citizen cavalry at the Rennweg Gate in Würzburg in preparation for the arrival of the new prince elector
27 April 1806 Caroline writes that “in the ten days I have been alone, I have spent 6 with a headache and the onset of a more serious illness”
29 April 1806 Theresia Döllinger visits Caroline in Würzburg, keeps her company — because of Caroline’s illness (?)
1 May 1806 at 2 p.m. Caroline is escorted to the apartment of a certain Herr Schott, where she has been offered a seat at the window alongside his wife to view the entry of the Archduke of Tuscany into Würzburg as new electoral prince; Martin Köhler is also present in the apartment, and she does indeed get a glimpse of the archduke
3 or 4 May 1806 Caroline has coffee with Christian Johann Baptist von Wagner and his wife, Jeanette, in the Würzburg Royal Gardens
4 May (?) 1806 Caroline has coffee in the Würzburg Royal Gardens with Johann Jakob and Jeanette Wagner to observe the arrival of the three children of Ferdinand III
4 May 1806 between 11:00 a.m. and noon, Caroline observes Prince Elector Ferdinand and his children as he reviews the parade of the uniformed Würzburg citizenry on Residence Square from the Residence balcony
4 May 1806, 9:00 p.m. Caroline, Martin Köhler, a certain Herr Schott, and the latter’s wife are in one of the 90 carriages trailing behind the new prince elector, Ferdinand, on a circuitous tour of Würzburg streets to view the myriad illuminations in the latter’s honor; at 10:00 “a slight gust of wind and a gentle spring rain quickly extinguished all the carefully but poorly prepared fun”; Caroline, at about the same time, has her companions let her out when the processional reaches her gate (presumably the gate leading into the Old University and its courtyard, where her apartment is located), and returns home
5 May 1806, Monday, Malchen (Amalie), from Bamberg, otherwise unidentified, visits Caroline in Würzburg
ca. 5–7 May 1806 Johann Baptist Lurz “was passing by and saw me at the window, stopped in the middle of the street, chapeau-bas and with his sword, haranguing me and requesting permission to pay a visit. At 12:00 he then really did show up, though I was just then in my bath and all the doors were shut”
6 May 1806 Caroline attends the theater in Würzburg on Ferdinand III’s birthday to see the performance of August von Kotzebue’s Fanchon, das Leyermädchen. Vaudeville in drey Acten, von Bouilly; Joachim von Schwarzkopf accompanies her to the theater, where she sits with a certain Montjoye from Bamberg and Vechenbach (Fechenbach) from Würzburg; she jokes that Martin Köhler acted as her Cicisbeo
ca. 6 May 1806 Joachim von Schwarzkopf, husband of Sophie Bethmann, visits Caroline in Würzburg, accompanies her to the theater (see above)
8 May 1806 just at twilight Caroline receives an unexpected visit from Johann Diederich Gries from Jena; he stays for tea; he is on his way from Jena to Heidelberg, where he is relocating
ca. 8 May 1806 Caroline speaks with the wife (née Lämmert) of the Bavarian administraor Count Joseph du Terrail-Bayard about the high cost of living in Munich
9 May 1806 H. E. G. Paulus, on his way to the library (located on the ground floor beneath the Schellings’ apartment) visits Caroline, pays her what she describes as an honnête compliment (the Schellings were otherwise not on particularly good terms with the Pauluses)
9 May 1806 Joachim von Schwarzkopf visits Caroline again just as she is writing to Schelling in Munich
12 May 1806 Franz Lothar Sorg, professor of experimental physics, stops by to ask Caroline for a quill; Würzburg coachmen meet with Caroline to discuss their fees for transporting her to Munich
14 May 1806 Caroline places an announcement in the Würzburger Intelligenzblatt publicizing her auction on Friday 20 May 1806; the same issue contains an announcement concerning an individual traveling alone to Munich who is seeking a traveling companion; the contact is the wife of a certain artillery captain Franz Roppelt on Zellergasse (across the Main River), who will reappear in the Intelligenzblatt the day after Caroline departs Würzburg; see below for 21 May
15 May 1806 Minister Anton von Wolkenstein, Johann Hennebritt, and Johann Michael Seuffert stop by Caroline’s apartment in Würzburg in preparation for her auction the following day
Friday, 16 May 1806, and Saturday, 17 May 1806, 10:00 a.m. till noon and 3:00 till 6:00 p.m., Caroline holds a quite successful (ca. 1100 fl.) auction of home furnishings and household items in Würzburg; Peter Himmelstein functions as auctioneer; the prince elector Ferdinand III of Tuscany, as Caroline reports, “got my tea table for 20 fl.”
Tuesday, 20 May 1806 Caroline departs Würzburg for Munich
Wednesday, 21 May 1806 Artillery Captain Franz Roppelt (or his wife) announces in the Würzburg Intelligenzblatt the private sale of various household items and furnishings that seem to have been left over from Caroline’s auction
Saturday, 24 May 1806 Caroline arrives in Dachau, where Schelling meets her
Sunday (Pentecost), 25 May 1806 Caroline arrives in Munich
Late May, early June Caroline and Schelling move into an apartment in the south Rondell of the new (1802) edifice at the Karlsthor (Karl/Charles Gate) in Munich, building no. 7, third floor; Schelling is receiving a salary of 1500 fl.
13 July 1806 or thereafter, Caroline and presumably Schelling attend one of four performances of Cimarosa’s opera Gli Orazi e i Curiazi, opera in three acts, with Antonio Brizzi, Teresa Bertinotti, and Auguste Schmalz
by 28 June 1806 Schelling has visited Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in Munich several times and, presumably with Caroline, dined with Jacobi twice; Jacobi complains that Caroline “quite gets in his way”
by the first week in August 1806 Schelling receives word that he will receive an official appointment to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, which will enable him to live essentially as an independent scholar in Munich
14, 17 October 1806 Battles of Jena, Auerstedt, and Halle; Caroline and Schelling assiduously follow newspapers reports of military and geopolitical developments, Schelling especially in the reading rooms of the “Museum” reading society in Munich
29 November 1806 Schelling visits Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in Munich for the “first time in weeks,” the latter having suffered from “head gout”
1807 back to top
January 1807 Caroline remarks that “those with whom I have social contact is quite small, nor do we ourselves wish it otherwise,” but that she does see a great deal of the niece and sister of Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati; she also socializes with the sisters Charlotte Wiebeking, née Rousseau, and Auguste (Dorette) Schlichtegroll, née Rousseau, and their husbands, Georg Heinrich Wiebeking and Adolf Heinrich Friedrich Schlichtegroll; the sisters were granddaughters of “Mother Schläger” from Caroline’s Gotha period
Schelling and Caroline take an interest in the alleged powers of the Italian Francesco Campetti to divine metals and water; Schelling’s (and presumably Caroline’s) probable visits to demonstrations of Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s experiments with Francesco Amoretti in Munich are enumerated below (according to the letters of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi)
27 January 1807 Caroline, suffering from a “lethal headache,” remains home rather than go with Schelling to celebrate his thirty-second birthday at a ball in Munich
late January 1807 Caroline encounters Caroline and Antoinette Hanstein in a Munich shop for fashion accessories, whose family she had known in Marburg
30 January 1807 Schelling and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi attends experiments with Francesco Campetti
23 May 1807 Caroline’s review of Wilhelm Neumann and Karl August Varnhagen, Erzählungen und Spiele and Wilhelm Elogius Meyer, Eros appears in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
13 June 1807 Schelling (and presumably Caroline) at Ritter’s apartment with Francesco Campetti at the Karls Gate 3
17 June 1807 Schelling (and presumably Caroline) at Ritter’s apartment with Francesco Campetti; Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi does not attend
30 June 1807 Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi seems to have attended an experiment at Ritter’s apartment without Schelling
before July 1807 Caroline suffers from a lengthy, “stubborn throat inflammation”
summer 1807 Caroline and Schelling seeing Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer and his wife, Rosine, more often socially than earlier in Würzburg
4 July 1807 Schelling and presumably Caroline dine for the first time with Count Louis-Guillaume Otto of Mosly, French envoy to the court in Munich; Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi had introduced them
ca. mid-July 1807 Beate Gross’s (née Schelling) son, Friedrich, dies in Gaisburg (Stuttgart) (Schelling’s nephew)
August 1807 Carl Friedrich von Rumohr in Munich, visits Caroline and Schelling, visits the art galleries with both of them
August 1807 Schelling tries to get Henrik Steffens an appointment in Munich (ultimately unsuccessfully)
August 1807 Schelling (and presumably Caroline) at Ritter’s apartment with Francesco Campetti with an otherwise unidentified “apparatus” secured by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
second half of August 1807 Schelling dines with the Gotha cellist Johann Konrad Schlick and the latter’s daughter, Caroline, at the home of Heymann Pappenheim in Munich
from 17 September Caroline and Schelling receive visits from Sophie Bernhardi, who spends a week in Munich on her way from Rome and Florence to Prague; Sophie, who was running out of money, was awaiting financial assistance from Wilhelm Schlegel, who had it forwarded by Karl von Hardenberg, Friedrich von Hardenberg’s (Novalis) brother
Monday evening, 12 October 1807 Schelling delivers the keynote address at the public assembly of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities on the name-day of King Max Joseph of Bavaria, “On the Relation of the Plastic Arts to Nature”; Caroline, as a woman, listens from a concealed gallery
11 November (or December) 1807 Auguste (Dorette) Schlichtegroll gives a “grand tea” in Munich; almost all the guests, however, including Caroline and Schelling, are “non-Bavarians,” as Caroline reports
4 December Wilhelm Schlegel leaves Coppet with Madam de Staël for Vienna by way of Lausanne, Bern, Zürich, Schaffhausen, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich
15–21 December Wilhelm Schlegel with Madame de Staël in Munich on their way to Vienna, where they arrive on 28 December 1807
evening of Wednesday, 16 December 1807 Schelling and Caroline dine with Madame de Staël in Munich
Sunday, 20 December 1807 Schelling and Johann Wilhelm Ritter arrange a déjeuner physique for Madame de Staël in Munich, likely a presentation of the experiments with Francesco Campetti or some variation thereof; Caroline presumably attends
late 1807 Meta and Johann Heinrich Liebeskind move to Munich with their four sons; Meta (at the time: Forkel) had been Caroline’s housemate in Mainz
December 1807 Caroline and Schelling vacate their apartment at Karlsthor 7 and move into the apartment of the Munich banker H. S. Pappenheimer (till April 1808); location unknown
1808 back to top
5 February 1808 Caroline’s mother dies in Kiel; “I seized on it as an occasion — or so it seems even to me — to cry myself completely out”; afterward Caroline suffers from an “inflammation of the throat that for 2 days was extremely serious indeed”
February 1808 Konradine Luise Hufeland (Luise Wiedemann’s sister-in-law) in Munich for 2 weeks with her children; meets Caroline several times socially with Rosine Niethammer
21 March 1808 Caroline receives Johann Wilhelm Ritter at their apartment at noon, then parries his attempts to meet with Schelling to request a 5-day loan; Ritter responds with a bizarre letter to Schelling (letter 431a) in which he consistently refers to Caroline not as “your wife” but as “she” and “her,” and to Schelling himself as the “Herr Husband”
early April 1808 Carl Friedrich von Rumohr arrives in Munich
11, 12, 13 April 1808 Schelling and presumably Caroline attend lectures by the newly arrived (16 March 1808) French “aeronaut” André-Jacques Garnerin on hot-air/hydrogen balloon physics and ascents; the lectures are held in the redoute hall used by the Museum Reading Society of which Schelling is a member
16 April 1808 Friedrich and Dorothea Schlegel convert to Catholicism in Cologne
(late?) April 1808 Caroline and Schelling vacate the apartment of the Munich banker H. S. Pappenheimer and move into a summer apartment at Hinter der Galerie 63 ¾ (Behind the [Art] Gallery) “in the house of the court confectioner Dieterich”; the house and large garden are located “behind the gallery” just to the west of the English garden
13 May 1808 Schelling appointed general secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts
27 May 1808 Schelling receives civilian service award bestowing personal (non-hereditary) nobility (with von)
June 1808 the purported Italian diviner of metals and water Francesco Amoretti returns to Italy
10 June 1808 Caroline and Schelling observe the hydrogen-balloon ascent of the French “aeronaut” André-Jacques Garnerin over Munich, during which he also dropped a cat to the ground in a parachute
mid-July 1808 Carl Friedrich von Rumohr unexpectedly leaves Munich
August 1808 Caroline, Schelling, and two acquaintances take a “charming trip up to the Bavarian mountains and lakes” as well as parts of Tyrol
September 1808 Bettina Brentano arrives in Munich (till mid-1810)
September 1808 Caroline already familiar with the apartment into which she and Schelling are about to move at Im Rosenthal 144; the exact date of their move is unknown; it is the last apartment in which Caroline will live
13 October 1808 Ludwig Tieck leaves Vienna with Sophie Bernhardi
19 October 1808 Ludwig Tieck and Sophie Bernhardi arrive in Munich
November 1808 Caroline and Schelling attend several gatherings at which Ludwig Tieck reads dramatic pieces aloud
5 November 1808 Caroline visits Ludwig Tieck and Sophie Bernhardi; Bettina Brentano arrives as well, and Caroline invites her to visit her that evening; Bettina declines
mid- to late November 1808 the family of Georg Heinrich Karl Wiebeking invites the Schellings to a grand tea party after Wiebeking’s return from north Germany and his pilot work on the feasibility of a canal connecting the Weser and Elbe Rivers; Caroline gives them a party in return at which Ludwig Tieck performs readings
late 1808 Carl Friedrich von Rumohr returns to Munich
1809 back to top
13 February 1809 Schelling’s reviews of August von Kotzebue, Kleine Romane, Erzählungen, Anekdoten und Miscellen, vols. 2–4, and A. E. [Christian August Gottlob] Eberhard, Gesammelte Erzählungen, vol. 3, appear in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
10 April 1809 Austrian army under Archduke Karl crosses the Bavarian frontier; Karl is to march to the Isar in the direction of Landshut, General Bellegarde to Regensburg, and General Jellachich to Munich
ca. 16 April 1809 Friedrich Tieck arrives in Munich, seems to have begun working on Schelling’s bust (in plaster) on 25 April 1809
ca. 27 May 1809 Friedrich Tieck finishes Schelling’s bust
26 June 1809 Schelling comes down sick, initially with catarrhal fever, then a nagging cough, and cannot not leave the room
7 August 1809 Schelling still sick
7 August 1809 Caroline alerts Pauline Gotter of Friedrich Jacobs’s upcoming visit to Gotha, whom Caroline has charged with “bringing you back with him. He knows how serious I am about it and will do everything he can to make it happen”
17 August 1809 Caroline and Schelling attend a social evening at the home of Friedrich Immanuel and Eleonore Rosine Niethammer in Munich; Schelling experiences renewed breast tightness, so they leave earlier than Caroline would have liked; it is at this gathering that she makes ominous remarks about yearning to get away from Munich and about perhaps never returning
18 August 1809 Caroline and Schelling depart Munich for Maulbronn, where Schelling has written to a friend that they intend to spend “several months be leading a completely solitary life in the Maulbronn monastery,” whereas Caroline has written that they would be back in Munich by the end of September
August 1809 Caroline and Schelling in Ulm, where they climb to the top of the cathedral
Before 28 August 1809 Caroline and Schelling arrive in Maulbronn
1–3 September Caroline, Schelling, his brother Karl, and others take a 3-day excursion in the surrounding area, possibly to Schelling’s birthplace Leonberg
2 September 1809 Regine Justine Pauly dies in Maulbron from the epidemic of dysentery (or typhus) and nervous fever
3 September 1809 Caroline falls ill in Maulbronn with the “first attacks” and several quickly successive; bowel evacuations several hours after returning from the excursion; late that same evening she is “beset by pain and fever”
4 September 1809 early in the morning, Caroline tells Schelling, “I can feel the destruction advancing so quickly that I believe this time I might — die!”
4, 5, 6 September 1809 Schelling summons the Maulbronn physician and sends an express rider to Stuttgart to fetch his brother, Karl Schelling, a respected physician in his own right; Caroline suffers the worst of the illness. “It was for only about a day that she bore with the most noble steadfastness and genuine grandeur of spirit the enormous suffering associated with this illness. Her final days were quiet; she had no sense either of the power of the illness itself or of the approach of death” (Schelling to Luise Gotter)
6 September 1809 “During the final evening, she felt light and cheerful; all the beauty of her loving soul opened up one final time. The perpetually beautiful lilt of her speech turned into music. Her spirit already seemed as it were to be free of her body, hovering over it as if over the husk that it would soon be leaving forever” (Schelling to Luise Gotter)
Thursday, 7 September 1809, 3:00 a.m. Caroline dies in Maulbronn, “gently, without struggle. Nor did her grace abandon her even in death, for when she was dead, she lay there with her head turned in the most charming, peaceful fashion, an expression of serene and magnificent peace on her face” (Schelling to Luise Gotter)
Saturday, 9 September 1809, 4:00 p.m. Caroline buried in Maulbronn, “behind the church, close to the rear wall”
13 September 1809 news of Caroline’s death reaches Munich, where “everyone who knew her was deeply moved and upset”
20 September 1809 Schelling leaves Maulbronn with his sister, Beate, and brother, Karl, spends several weeks in Stuttgart.
22 September 1809 news of Caroline’s death reaches the Gotter family in Gotha
10 October 1809 Schelling visits Caroline’s grave in Maulbronn before returning to Munich alone
7 November Johann Martin Wagner arrives in Munich and moves in with Schelling at Im Rosenthal 144 at Schelling’s request
Autumn 1809/winter 1810 Meta Liebeskind helps Schelling close up his Munich household
1810 back to top
16 January 1810 Johann Martin Wagner departs Munich
20 January 1810 Schelling returns to Stuttgart after falling ill in Munich
April/May 1810 Schelling in Maulbronn from Stuttgart, possibly working on the dialogue “Clara”
August 1810 Schelling visits Maulbronn from Stuttgart
8 September 1810 Beate Gross’s (née Schelling) son (Schelling’s nephew) dies and is buried in Maulbronn
October 1810 Schelling returns to Munich
early October 1810 Schelling moves out of his and Caroline’s last apartment at Im Rosenthal 144 and into an apartment “to the left of the Karl Gate, right on the corner, facing the mountains, with a magnificent view, and sun the entire day.” It was, he maintains, the apartment Caroline had always wanted but which while she was still alive never became vacant
1811 back to top
August 1811 Philipp Michaelis dies
1812 back to top
11 June 1812 Schelling marries Pauline Gotter in Gotha
© 2011 Doug Stott