Remembering Caroline Schelling

Commemorative Program on 6 September 2009

in the Maulbronn Town Hall

(from maulbronn.de current events, summer 2009)

          Two hundred years ago in Maulbronn, on 7 September 1809, Caroline Schelling, wife of the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, died. The couple had journeyed from Munich for a brief visit in the Maulbronn monastery, where Schelling’s father had been the prelate for several years. Caroline returned exhausted from an excursion with Schelling and others and died within a few hours of dysentery. Schelling’s grief was infinite. The beautiful obelisk alongside the church, which the philosopher had erected with an inscription for his beloved wife, keeps her memory alive today.

          The memorial on Sunday, 6 September 2009, in the Fruchtkasten (town hall) of the Maulbronn monastery commences after the welcome at 3:30 p.m. with a reading from Caroline Schelling’s letters and a theater performance by the Karlsruhe Theater Troupe at 4:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m. the well-known author Eckart Kleßmann will speak on “I was bold, but not wanton. The Life of Caroline Schlegel-Schelling.”

          Admission is free, but the theater troupe would appreciate a modest voluntary contribution.

          The event is directed by the International Schelling Society and supported by the town of Maulbronn, the town of Leonberg, and the Pädagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg (program announcement).

Selected Pictures from the Memorial Program

 Guests arrive in the Maulbronn Town Hall

The Karlsruhe Theater Troupe

begins its performance of

An Inhospitable Isle. Defiantly Happy.

We were profoundly moved while reading the letters of

Caroline Schlegel-Schelling to her friends and family,

letters not intended for the public, letters that are instead

intimate, unaffected documents of self-expression. These

moving documents of an extraordinary personality,

of a woman who acquired and exercised the “art of living”

amid the most adverse circumstances, provided the

biographical foundation for our unique interpretations.

In which passages do these stored life experiences,

this “historical material,” either contrast or merge

with our own lives?

(from the troupe’s theater bill)

Readings from Caroline’s letters:

The dramatization (ten scenes) emerged from the red thread of Caroline’s biography.

Our portraits of six women were drawn from Caroline’s various personality traits

and life periods. Passages from her letters prompt the various

 female characters to enter into the action, where paths for

change are revealed.  We became aware for the first time of

the power a letter, a sentence from a letter, or merely a single

word from a letter might have in plunging a person down into

hell or elevating that person up into heaven.

(from the troupe’s theater bill)

Musicians accompany the performance.