Philipp

|90| Gottfried Phillip Michaelis, born [lacuna (15 August)] 1768 in Göttingen, † [lacuna (21 August)] 1811 as a military physician in Harburg, victim of a severe dysentery epidemic.

|91| Philipp was a handsome, lively boy, though also forceful. Because we were so close in age, he was a beloved playmate. He did not attend public schools. We always had a private tutor at home, during the earlier years always excellent men who later made names for themselves, such as Professor Kleucker in Kiel, and the abbot in Hannover, I believe Feldlusen was his name. My brother lived and slept with them in the oriel room and chamber alongside the grand lecture hall. Apart from classes and homework, however, my brother did not really have anything else to do with them, since they were simultaneously students at the university themselves, though always quiet and diligent people, theologians. Nor can I recall ever having come upon anything inappropriate or any visitors [with them] when I arrived for my own classes. I do remember that such teachers received 50 Reichsthaler as well as a room, but not the midday meal, such was free board, free coffee, and in the evening a warm dinner in their rooms. I was rarely upstairs except for my classes.

We did form a closer relationship with a certain Herr Bernstein, who also went on excursions with us, a very good but poor and ugly person who later lost everything he had earned in the Gera fire, [1] whereupon my father took him in again for Phillip and me, just as he similarly supported himself by tutoring elsewhere as well. But this man was not really the right one for my brother, who needed a vigorous, active man. Herr Bernstein could, however, also be quite forceful, and I recall scenes that prompted us to complain to Father and caused various misunderstandings. He was also the last teacher [we had], and afterward my brother received instruction in all the academic subjects from university tutors and the school rector [Christian Julius Luther?], for as a pupil he was never absent, though during the period of his confirmation he did attend my father’s winter-semester lectures on morals, and also Hebrew. Father believed this would not hurt him regardless of which course of study he ultimately pursued. Thus he also received quite good instruction in mathematics, which, as he put it, strengthened one’s powers of judgment, ludicium [lucidium], as he put it. We often heard my father use that word in expressions such as “a man without ludicium [lucidium].”

In 1786, however, he must have started attending the university, for when I returned from Gotha [summer 1786] he was already a student and attending lectures on anatomy by Wrisberg. |92| I can still remember his pale and repulsive face when, as was customary at the time, he arrived at 12:00 for the meal. He spent little time with us while he was a student, nor were his acquaintances ours, though he was and remained closely acquainted from his early youth with our family’s lady friends, such as Marianne Heyne, Louise Böhmer, and Dorothea Schlözer. But to return to when he was 14 years old, Blumenbach filled a large gap; he frequently visited our family, doubtless also because he was making an effort to court Caroline, was from Gotha himself and thus knew most of the acquaintances that both Lotte and Caroline had made there, and, finally, was the cousin of elderly Professor Dr. Walch, who was close friends of our family and whose son and daughter [Wilhelmine] also belonged to the Sunday Society, as did the sons of Hofrath Feder and Equerry Ayrer; we spent many a happy evening with the family of Hofrath Feder, who at the time had a house tutor who was exquisite at entertaining us children; indeed, we loved gathering around him so much that we were even willing to forgo sleigh rides around the Allee Street in order to listen to his comic farces and fairy tales.

Magister Blumenbach greatly loved my brother. Philipp was always with him, seeking him out wherever he happened to be, in the natural-science cabinet and so on, as well as at all the experiments with the air pump and electrifying machine, of which he had several different sorts, including one that was quite large; indeed, once when my brother thought it was not yet charged, he received such a shock that Blumenbach found him unconscious. During that period, he and I also took dancing lessons with Blumenbach! who was supposed to be cultivating his external appearance as well, on account of which both Caroline and Lotte constantly teased him. — When he was 14 years old, my brother also suffered a severe chest illness, during which Blumenbach was his loyal attendant and companion despite being so much older. We were quite doubtful Philipp would even recover, and my mother was afterward quite grateful to Blumenbach. This friendship endured throughout our lives — [Philipp] Michaelis also received his doctorate with Blumenbach, as did later his son Adolph Michaelis as well, the current professor in Kiel; the dear elderly man wrote me with both joy and heartfelt interest about the examination.

It was not until the winter semester of 1786 — or 1787, I cannot remember exactly — before [Philipp] Michaelis went to the university in Marburg to study under my brother Hofrath Michaelis, |93| and then in Mainz under Sömmerring and Fischer. Before that, however, he made the acquaintance of a person who did exert a certain measure of influence on him — in various branches of learning, including aesthetics as well as philosophy and religion. It was Carl Grosse from Magdeburg. Philipp spent almost every evening there before dinner, which took place at 8:00 just as later [?], though my brother always also had to be home — and indeed was — at 11:00, since he slept in the same chamber as my father as a precaution; even though my father could ring for the servant from his own bed if necessary, a chance occurrence had made this arrangement more desirable. In any event, after balls etc. he came home later without really disturbing my father. Their shared acquaintance with Blumenbach probably brought Grosse and my brother closer. Grosse himself was also writing about the sublime and about the transmigration of souls during this period. [2] Although my brother now spoke a good deal about Grosse, we ourselves had never really spoken with him, and had really only seen him going to meet Phillip. Phillip did, however, finally bring him to meet us toward summer. Grosse then departed, and [Philipp] Michaelis as well. This person had something mysterious about him, and impressive and frightening; I especially feared him, and one can always count on such people never bringing about anything good.

[Philipp] Michaelis now continued his studies in Marburg [from October 1788] and Mainz. In Marburg he enjoyed the most pleasant social relationship with von Hanstein family, which Franz La Roche also frequently visited, with whom my brother then became friends. Unfortunately, he [La Roche] died in Marburg. This relationship did, however, provide cordial ties to Frau von La Roche as well as to the Brentano family, especially contact with a son from the first marriage, whom I also saw in Göttingen with [Philipp] Michaelis and Grosse later as well, whom I never trusted, however. The relationship with Frau von La Roche and Frau von Moen (or Möhn) was quite close, and [Philipp] Michaelis thought a great deal especially of Frau von Moen, whom he later met quite frequently at the home of Frau von Hügel, wife of the envoy there. It was to this Frau von Möhn that he [Philipp] also gave the only drawing of him we had. A painter in Göttingen, Spek, had sketched him because he was such a handsome boy. But what happened to the picture afterward? I believe [Philipp] Michaelis himself once tried to get it back.

|94| [Phillip] returned to Göttingen from Mainz; Grosse had also returned a couple of months earlier, but under completely different circumstances. To wit, he came as Marquis von Grosse Count von Vargas, though he did not call himself such to acquaintances[?]. [Philipp] Michaelis had already written beforehand that we should receive him cordially, that he required extreme delicacy in his dealings with people, that he was unhappy, and that he had made the acquaintance of a rich heiress on one of his journeys, [Marginal note: Grosse also had a portrait of the lady.], who had died soon thereafter. [He was now the] heir of both the [lady’s] property and the title. When he appeared in Göttingen, he called himself M[arquis] Grosse. That was how he reintroduced himself to Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Richter. He wore a green uniform with silver, lined with yellow, Stolbergean court clothes, and a Maltese cross, prompting the nickname “Maltese knight.” All these things were a mystery that attracted everyone’s attention. [Philipp] Michaelis returned and had his doctoral defense with Grosse as his opponent. The doctoral banquet was additionally attended only by Marianne Heyne, Dorothea Schlözer, Lotte and I, and the other opponents. Neither my father nor my mother attended, that is, the affair was quite peculiar. — In the meantime, [Philipp] Michaelis spent every evening with Grosse in a garden house near the town gate, where he [Grosse] lived with a manservant and the gardener. Because Grosse did not, as was customary, have himself introduced to the princes, the latter were constantly [?] talking and asking about him, which often caused some embarrassment. [3]

In the meantime, Grosse complained that his letters were being opened at the post office. I do not know exactly what was found in them, but it was something to the effect that his whole story was likely nothing but fiction. But who could confirm or refute it? My brother Philipp wanted to fight a duel with my mother’s brother because the latter was often in the comptroller’s office at the post office; my other uncle was the senior postmaster. Although there was no duel, my brother did not abandon Grosse, instead continuing to see him daily. Grosse, however, no longer came to our house. My father forbade it, I believe, and the latter [the uncle?] also told my mother and father that Grosse was in fact a gentleman of fortune. As did Schlözer, which then generated hatred on all sides. Nor did [Philipp] Michaelis ever speak to me about it. Grosse for his part could not prove that his letters had been opened, nor did my uncle ever produce any real evidence that Grosse was not what he claimed to be. Grosse left Göttingen, saying that although he could not justify himself just now, time would do so. But time did not bring any explanation, |95| and I am quite sorry that Grosse’s letters to [Philipp] Michaelis, with whom Grosse long remained in contact, were burned a few years later. I inquired about them, and my sister-in-law told me that my name was mentioned quite often in them. But if [?] Grosse did not defame me, nor also [?] [write] anything that would damage my reputation or honor, then perhaps he defended himself to Michaelis [for having?] wanted to use me as for some reason or purpose, feigning love he never felt. But enough; I think Count Vargas in Copenhagen is this Carl Grosse.

After my brother [Philipp] completed his studies, he took a scholarly trip. The various papers in his estate will reveal how far he made it, whether to Rome or to northern Italy, namely, Pavia and Pisa, where he met Tatter, the legation secretary and companion of Prince Augustus of England, current Duke of Sussex; Tatter was our dear, common friend, one who, despite all his excellence, I would nonetheless call unhappy. [Philipp] Michaelis traveled quickly from Pavia back to Frankfurt am Main, where he successfully accomplished his goal, namely, securing Caroline’s release [July 1793]. From there he returned to Göttingen, and from there went to the Netherlands as a physician with the Hannoverian troops under the Duke of York. From there he went to Mainz and Frankfurt, where he visited his lady friends [see above], though he was still quite weakened from illness, coming then to visit us in Braunschweig. It was in Göttingen that he heard about my engagement to Professor Wiedemann. In Braunschweig my brother formed a close friendship with Wiedemann that continued on into the future.

After receiving a position as a military physician in Harburg, my brother married Auguste Sümpher there, an officer’s daughter. A successful practice, skill, and continued studies secured his advancement. Heaven, however, had destined things to be quite different, for he died in the summer of 1811, a victim of a dysentery epidemic, at the most handsome age, with an excellent reputation as an honest man and excellent physician, both as a surgeon, obstetrician, as well as in his treatment of internal illnesses. He left behind 3 sons. [4] The 4th, like his father, fell victim to dysentery, which was probably more dangerous to the father, who, even as he returned from the war, had already long suffered from such a malady, his internal organs being thus weakened even though he had enjoyed good health again. |96| He also had three daughters [Emma, Sophie, Marie]. Two of them as well as the youngest son remained with their mother, while the youngest daughter went to live with a girlfriend in Hamburg, and, when her foster mother died — who was like a second mother to her — thence to Dresden, to a lady who was a native of Hamburg. During a visit to her family, Professor Olshausen — who had been married to [Luise’s own daughter] Zoe Wiedemann — made her acquaintance in her brother’s house, with whom he was friends; he came to love her, and she is now the happy and beloved spouse of the man whom I as mother will always love and respect as a friend. — The eldest daughter is now governess to the young Prince of Württemberg in Paris. She had traveled to Paris to become proficient in French that she might someday thereby create an independent life for herself. Just as she was about to depart, [she] received, through a friend and patroness who had recommended her, a commission to care for the motherless young boy [the Prince of Württemberg], a charge she has loyalty fulfilled. Moreover, she is now also quite respected by the royal family itself and will in the future doubtless continue to be similarly employed and be able to live without worry.

Wiedemann immediately took in both the eldest son, Gustav Adolph, as well as the second. The eldest was both diligent and also had the drive to study at the university, the path he then did indeed take. Wiedemann always derived considerable pleasure from his foster son. Indeed, he remained a son to Wiedemann until the very last moment in Wiedemann’s hour of death! May God reward Adolph. — Adolph lived with us until he left for Göttingen, attending school, and when that was inadequate for Wiedemann’s desires and demands, this good foster parent also engaged tutors, and Adolph shared with my daughter Minna instruction in history and geography from the current Dr. Johansen in Copenhagen. In Göttingen he received stipends as well as 10 louis d’or from the Duke of Cambridge — who was his godparent! — after I myself had requested stipends, being then directed to the administration, namely, the trustee von Arnswaldt, who immediately gave his consent through his secretary, Herr Lichtenberg. After completing his studies and journeys, which admittedly my husband could not finance, [Adolph] returned to Kiel, ultimately becoming Wiedemann’s successor. — I have |97| gone on at such length because I wanted to create a kind of monument to him within our family, as a loving son and perpetually obliging friend, whose behavior even as a young boy never caused me grief or trouble, but only joy and honor.

Because Eduard, the second, was more easy going, and not so much a friend of learning, it was quite nice when after a couple of years he moved into a different situation and [was able] to enter military service, for which finances were also available, since the Duke of Cambridge gave him a position in the English-German legion. He finished his training in Hannover, where he attained the rank of lieutenant of the guard. Whether it was because he attended a duel, or something else — he took his leave and received a pension. He also had the salary of the legion. And yet an inactive life, despite all the love of amusement, was no real life for him. He entered the war on the side of the Poles, and, according to the news we received, fell at Ostroleka [May 1831]. May he rest in peace. He was a dear, if frivolous, and yet affectionate boy, always pleasing and always ready with such an enormously good nature. I was extremely fond of him, and he, too, gave me much joy. When my husband, without telling me but at my request, took him in, he wrote his mother, “Aunt [Luise] was really happy when I came, yes, truly.”

Notes

[1] The German town of Gera was devastated and virtually destroyed by fire on 18 September 1780. The fire, apparently started by an arsonist (a stonemason), quickly spread throughout the city because of the drought-like conditions and the winds it generated. Of 897 buildings, 785 were destroyed, including the theater; ten people died. Back.

[2] Ueber das Erhabene (Göttingen 1788); Helim, oder über die Seelenwanderung (Zittau, Leipzig 1789) Back.

[3] Concerning Grosse’s reluctance to socialize with the princes, see esp. supplementary appendix 114.1. Back.

[4] See letter 314 for Caroline’s opinion concerning “the disastrous way my brother is raising his little boys.” Back.