• 129a. Wilhelm Schlegel to Luise Michaelis in Göttingen: Amsterdam, 18 June 1793 [*]
Amsterdam, 18 June 1793
|654| Please forgive me, most worthy friend, for not answering your letter until now — a letter of infinite value to me both for the detail and precision of its news as well as for the generosity with which you took the trouble to inform me of such. You know me too well to attribute this silence either to neglect or to lack of concern.
Precisely the opposite was the case. The sad news of a death in your family [1] and what at the time was still the worrisome imprisonment of your sister — well, far too much misfortune had descended far too suddenly on your family. I simply did not know what to say or how I should express myself |655| — and every time I tried to write you, my own overwhelming concern for these events prevented me.
I now finally have the opportunity to offer my congratulations. Your sister just now alerted me of her release from Königsberg [Königstein], which I view as a harbinger of her complete release. The one loss is admittedly irreplaceable — and even the good fortune of your eldest sister has not yet been completely reestablished, nor will, at least in a certain sense, the consequences of the irksome inconvenience she has suffered ever be entirely extinguished. That notwithstanding, a more favorable ray of sunshine is finally now reemerging — and with things having been so terrible, one is certainly satisfied enough if things are at least bearable now. —
I had just received news of Charlotte’s death from your eldest sister when I received your letter. I was truly chagrined that my own, tardy letter to you then occasioned the renewal of such utterly sad feelings for both you and your mother. Your portrayal of the noble, gracious traits that yet characterized her final hours provided an element of melancholy joy for me. You described these scenes so vividly that I felt I was actually there, particularly since I am so well acquainted with your family. [2] It evoked all the pleasant, amiable hours I spent in your house in the company of you and your sisters, and yet also reminded me that these times would never return as they once were.
It must have been an incomprehensibly harsh blow for your esteemed mother — really, by far the most cruel imaginable, and, moreover, on top of the unpleasant circumstances affecting Madam Böhmer at precisely the same time — |656| no, it was simply too much, and even an otherwise steadfast disposition could easily have succumbed under such grief.
What disastrous circumstances, what a disastrous chain of multifarious, complicated events conspired, as it were, to entangle your sister Caroline in the most unpleasant of situations! I anticipated nothing good since last fall — and since the conquest of Mainz by the French, [3] indeed, even earlier, when it was first threatened by the fall of Speyer, [4] I spared neither entreaties nor reasoning trying to prompt her departure.
But nothing had much effect — yet I never tired of repeating them anew. You can imagine how startled I was when, after a long interim period, I received a letter written from her prison in Frankfurt! —
I immediately wrote to Humbold[t] asking that he address the coadjutant, with whom he is very well acquainted. [5] Your sister also wrote him straightaway asking the same thing — I have not heard whether the coadjutant genuinely did get involved in the matter, since he otherwise generally steers clear of everything concerning the circumstances of state. —
Right at the beginning, I also suggested to your sister that she see whether Herr Schlözer might be able and even have the desire to bring about something favorable in the matter for her. [6] She recently let me know that she had indeed done so — and it seems that through the zeal with which he took up her cause Schlözer has proven to be a genuine friend of your family. —
Admittedly, her situation is now infinitely better — except that as long as she is still bound to a specific town by her personal promise we are still dealing with the position from which she is being viewed as a hostage; and as long as such be the case, she is still not really secured against the possibility that her circumstances may yet worsen anew.
In the meantime, however, |657| much has indeed been gained insofar as through her release the entire element of suspicion, accusation, and guilt is eliminated. Now one can enter an emphatic plea in Hannover on behalf of a Hannoverian subject, with, I would hope, some chance of success. [7] This was previously rather difficult because, as you are probably aware, people have spread all sorts of fictitious stories in Hannover about that which Madame Böhmer is alleged to have done [8] — making it necessary to contend with this extremely unfavorable prejudice, and also because hatred of the French system there is so great that even the most distant favoritism toward it is inevitably viewed as a crime.
Now that she has been released without any investigation at all after nine weeks of imprisonment that was as harsh as it was undeserved, one is relieved of the trouble of having to contradict and refute all such silly gossip; and now, I hope, your multifarious family ties will perhaps help prompt some definitive measures on the part of the Hannoverian administration. I am desiring and indeed anticipating most longingly the complete end to this irksome story — and I flatter myself that I may congratulate you in this regard almost in advance.
Notes
[*] Response in draft or copy form to Luise Michaelis’s letter from Göttingen on 7 May 1793 (letter 125a).
Although Wilhelm is writing from Amsterdam, he himself soon made the long journey to Kronberg and Frankfurt to assist Caroline (Calendar für das Jahr 1803 [Offenbach]; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung; map: W. R. Shepherd, Historical Map of Central Europe about 1786 [1926]):
[1] Charlotte Dietrich, née Michaelis, had died on 2 April 1793. Concerning the circumstances and the resulting scandal, see Georg Tatter’s letter to Luise Michaelis on 27 April 1793 with note 1. Back.
[2] These lines suggest that the ellipses after the first paragraph of Luise Michaelis’s letter to Wilhelm on 7 May 1793 (letter 125a) (a lacuna Erich Schmidt took over from Georg Waitz’s original publication of the letter, [1871], 376–78), likely contained this — regrettably, now lost — detail concerning the circumstances of Lotte’s death. Back.
[3] The French entered Mainz on 21 October 1792. Back.
[4] The French general Adam Philippe de Custine had taken Speyer on 30 September 1792 and Worms on 5 October. Back.
[5] Concerning this strategy and Wilhelm von Humboldt’s relationship with Karl Theodor von Dalberg, coadjutant in Erfurt for the Elector of Mainz (Erfurt was a dominion of the Elector of Mainz at the time), see Caroline’s letter to Friedrich Wilhelm and Luise Gotter on 19 April 1793 (letter 122), to Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter on 27 and 28 April 1793 (letters 123, 124), and Humboldt’s own letter to Wilhelm Schlegel on 25 May 1793 (letter 127a). Back.
[6] Concerning August Ludwig von Schlözer’s actions on Caroline’s behalf, see Luise Wiedemann’s Erinnerungen, pp. 81–82. Back.
[7] As a native of Göttingen, Caroline was a subject of the Electorate of Hannover. See the chapter on Lower Saxony in the supplementary appendix on Germany in the late eighteenth century, esp. the section on the Elector of Hannover. Back.
[8] These rumors continued to play a tenacious role in Caroline’s life; among the worst, and apart from allegations that she had been an overt Jacobin, see Friedrich Schlegel’s letter to Wilhelm on 3 April 1793 (letter 121c). Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott