202a. Friedrich Schlegel, Wilhelm Schlegel, and Caroline to Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer in Jena: Dresden, 6 July 1798 [*]
Dresden, 6 July 1798
[Friedrich:]
For today, my good friend, let me merely take the opportunity to relate to you with a few words that I accompanied my brother here in order to spend part of the summer [1] and that I must thus ask that you send the new issues of the Philosophisches Journal, issues I am greatly anticipating, to me here. [2] I have the Journal up to the twelfth issue of 1797, inclusive; but surely more must have appeared in the meantime. –
Might we ask you to do us the great favor of taking care of the copies of our Athenaeum that are intended for Jena? In a few days you will be receiving a package with copies of the second issue. I will include a note concerning how they are to be distributed.
I am delighted that Schelling will be coming to join you, since Jena does, after all, constitute one of the poles of my own existence, and every additional interesting man there thus represents a pleasant prospect at least for the future. [3] But I am also glad for my brother’s sake, who made his acquaintance in Leipzig and is quite favorably disposed toward him.
I merely fear, however, that all of you will increasingly forget me the less I am indeed able to be missed in so select a company. That said, I do hope to reclaim my old position at least when I return. Please relate as much to Fichte along with my sincerest and warmest regards.
One more small request. My brother has prepaid for me Fichte’s piece on morality and also already sent and brought along for me the copy except for the preface, which was not yet ready at the time of his departure. [4] Would you be so kind as to request this from those in charge in my brother’s name and send it along to me with the next shipment of the Philosophisches Journal?
My warmest regards to your spouse.
Yours as ever,
Friedrich Schlegel
[Wilhelm:]
Today I, too, can send you but a few lines of greeting — I will wait to write you in greater detail soon.
The six copies of the second issue of Athenaeum that we have charged our bookseller with sending to you are intended (1) for you yourself, (2) for your Journal society, [5] (3) for Schiller, (4) for Fichte, (5) for Schütz and (6) for Hufeland. [6] We will be much obliged if you can take care of this for us.
To my considerable delight I now hear that Schelling will be coming to Jena. Could he not occupy the downstairs room in our apartment, where Dr. Meyer lived? It would be quite pleasant having him as our housemate. Please do suggest as much to him if the room is not already taken for the winter. [7]
My regards to your dear spouse and the acquaintances who remember me.
Yours as ever,
A. W. Schlegel
[Caroline:]
A thousand greetings from me as well. You two are no doubt awaiting the imminent arrival of your little son. [8]
[Caroline]
Notes
[*] Sources: “Briefe von Friedrich Schlegel,” ed. L. Lier, Erich Schmidt, and Jakob Minor, Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte 15 (1887), 434–35; KFSA 24:141–42 (passage “We will be much obliged if you can take care of this for us” omitted in the former, included in the latter).
Although Caroline did not sign the letter, Erich Schmidt identified the second postscript as likely coming from her hand (Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte 15 [1887], 435n2). Back.
[1] Concerning the gathering of the Romantics in Dresden during the summer of 1798, see Rudolf Haym’s brief description cited in Caroline’s letter to Dorothea Marie Campe on 6 May 1798 (letter 200b), note 9. Back.
[2] Friedrich himself had already published in the Philosophisches Journal. Back.
[3] Schelling had just been appointed an unsalaried professor (extraordinarius) in Jena; see Goethe’s letter to Schelling on 5 July 1798 and Schelling’s to Goethe on 8 July 1798 (letters 201f, 201g). He would, however, first make the Schlegels’ acquaintance in Dresden rather than Jena. Back.
[4] Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Das System der Sittenlehre nach den Principien der Wissenschaftslehre (Jena, Leipzig 1798). Back.
[5] Wilhelm is alluding to the subtitle of the Philosophisches Journal, namely, Von einer Gesellschaft deutscher Gelehrten, “by a society of German scholars.” Back.
[6] Christian Gottfried Schütz and Gottlieb Hufeland were the editors of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, where Friedrich and Wilhelm were trying to have Athenaeum reviewed; this matter eventually created considerable tension between them and the editors. Back.
[7] Schelling returned to Jena with Johann Diederich Gries from Dresden in October 1798 after spending time with the Schlegels. On 25 June 1798 Schelling wrote to his father (Plitt 1:238; Fuhrmans 2:145; Niethammer and Schelling were fellow Swabians and had both attended the state-sponsored seminary in Tübingen):
You can relate to Pastor Nicolai’s wife that Niethammer is extremely happy and has a wife who is not only rich, but also, something far more important, pretty, cheerful, and good. – When I go to Jena, I will be living with him, for he has no fewer than two houses of his own.
The location of Schelling’s initial residence in Jena, however, is still obscure given the lack of documentation; that is, he seems not to have lived in the same apartment as the Schlegels. Peer Kösling, Die Frühromantiker in Jena, 41–43 (detailed discussion of sources in 82–83n86), has narrowed the possibilities down to essentially two, albeit with reservations because of conflicting information.
Schelling may have lived initially in what was known as the “Oppermann House along the Graben” at what is today Am Heinrichsberg 2 (earlier Johannisplatz 22), a house that may or may not have been owned by Niethammer. It was located just in Jena’s northwest corner opposite the Powder Tower (parts of which still stand in Jena) and, on the other side, the cemetery with Jena’s Friedenskirche.
On the following map, the house is indicated at top left with the Kirchhof (cemetery and church), Caroline and Wilhelm’s residence in the right rear wing at Leutragasse 5 at center, the Lutherplatz (see below) at top right (Franz Ludwig Güssefeld, Topographische Charte der umliegenden Gegend Von Jena / nach eigenen Messungen und andern Origin. Zeichnungen [Jena 1800]; reprinted [in larger format] in August J. G. K. Batsch, Taschenbuch für topographische Excursionen in die umliegende Gegend von Jena [Weimar 1800]):
Here possibly the house (see Kösling’s cautious discussion) in 1906; the church steeple is visible in the background (Stadtmuseum Jena; reprinted in Die Frühromantiker in Jena, 42, plate 19):
If Niethammer was indeed not the owner at the time, then Schelling may have lived there for a brief period before moving into the house owned by Niethammer (not Leutragasse 5) whose location is still unknown.
In any case, Kösling’s research reveals that though Schelling does indeed seem to have lived initially with Niethammer at what must likely remain an undisclosed location, in early 1799 he realized he needed more room in anticipation of his brother Karl Schelling’s arrival as a medical student. He accordingly made arrangements to move into larger quarters in the Asverus house, the same house into which Caroline herself would move in 1802, and she herself speaks of the housewarming party she, Wilhelm, and Friedrich gave for Schelling on 30 September 1798 in this house.
See Caroline’s letter to Auguste on 30 September 1799 (letter 245). His residence after returning to Jena from Bamberg in October 1800, however, is undocumented (Kösling, 43). Back.
[8] Adolph Julius Niethammer would be born on 21 August 1798 (†1882); his imminent birth seems to have been one reason Schelling did not immediately move in with the Niethammers. Back.
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott