Iffland, August Wilhelm (1759–1814): Actor, theater director and manager. Iffland ran away from home in 1777 after a vehement argument with his father, who intended him to study theology, whereas Iffland himself had been inspired by performances of the Ackermann and Seyler companies in Hannover. In Gotha he performed under Conrad Eckhof until the latter’s death, whereupon the ensemble was disbanded and Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg engaged most of the Gotha ensemble at the Mannheim National Theater, where he was director and where Iffland developed into the preeminent character actor of his day with a style contrasting the declamatory style favored in Weimar and instead emphasizing realistic detail and lavish stage productions. In Mannheim Iffland had tremendous success in the role of Franz Moor in the premiere of Schiller’s Die Räuber. Iffland also wrote plays himself and did guest performances at the court theater in Weimar. From 19 May 1796 married to Luise (Louise) Margarethe, née Greuhm, and that same year director of the Berlin National Theater, from 1811 of all theater performances before royalty. In reponse to various criticisms, including those of Dalberg, he published an autobiography in 1798, Meine theatralische Laufbahn. Under his directorship, the Berlin National Theater became one of the leading stages in Germany, performing plays by Schiller and Goethe, though also by Corneille, Molière, Voltaire, Lessing, and Shakespeare. The main fare, however, was plays by August von Kotzebue and Iffland himself, largely conservative, sentimental-comedic moralizing plays that were popular among the middle classes at the time. (Portrait: frontispiece to vol. 1 of A. W. Ifflands Dramatische Werke, 16 vols. [Leipzig 1798].)
Iffland, Luise (Louise) Margarethe, née Greuhm (3 October 1760–1 September 1819): Originally from Darmstadt, from 19 May 1796 wife of August Wilhelm Iffland, albeit rather against Iffland’s own intentions. Having become acquainted with Louise Greuhm, chamber lady to the princess in Mannheim, Iffland was once surprised by the prince himself in the princess’s chambers while the latter was sounding Iffland out concerning the prince’s affairs with actresses. When asked by the prince what he was doing in his wife’s chambers, Iffland stuttered that he loved Mademoiselle Greuhm and was asking the princess for permission to marry her; the prince himself granted such permission on the spot, and thus was the engagement immediately made public (Hermann Uhde, Denkwürdigkeiten des Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt (1772–1841), 2 vols. [Hamburg 1875] 2:90).
Ilgen, Karl David (1763–1834): Theologian, scholar, educator. After suffering through difficult circumstances as a youth, the gifted Ilgen studied in Leipzig 1783–88, after which he became head of the city school in Naumburg until being appointed professor of Near Eastern languages in Jena in 1794 as Johann Gottfried Eichhorn’s successor. From 1799 professor of theology in Jena. From 1802 to 1830 he was rector of Schulpforta, which after the Congress of Vienna was changed into a Prussian Gymnasium. Contributed significantly to what has since become known as the “older documentary thesis” concerning the composition of Genesis by disclosing a second Elohist (E) author, effectively demonstrating the presence of three source documents.
Ilsemann, Johann Christoph (1727–1822): Apothecary, natural scientist. After learning pharmacology from his father and working for several years as an apprentice apothecary in Wolfenbüttel and Berlin, in 1751 he took over the apothecary in Clausthal, which he ran for the next sixty years. During this time he also acquired considerable scientific knowledge and for many years was the only authority in Clausthal for questions regarding the considerations of chemistry in the mining business; conducted extensive experiments in chemistry and mineralogy (e.g., concerning the separation of barium oxide from iron). From 1775 lectured at the Clausthal Mining School on mineralogy and later on metallurgy and chemistry, also publishing in the emerging journals in the field. The king of Hannover appointed him mining commissioner on the basis of his accomplishments.
Imhoff, Anna Amalie von (married name Helvig) (1776–1831): Writer, translator. Grew up on her family’s estate near Nuremberg before coming to Weimar in 1790 with her widowed mother, where she became a lady-in-waiting to Duchess Luise and lived part of the time with her aunt, Charlotte von Stein. Schiller published some of her early poetry in his Musen-Almanach and Die Horen, including Abdallah und Balsora in 1797. Goethe helped revise what is perhaps her most famous work, Die Schwestern von Lesbos (1800). She married a Swedish officer in 1803 and moved with him to Stockholm, returning to Germany in 1810 to live in Heidelberg and Berlin before returning to Stockholm in 1814 and yet again to Germany (Berlin) in 1816, where she frequented the circle around Bettina von Arnim. (Portrait 1800 by Johann Lorenz Kreul.)
Imhoff, Luise von, née von Schardt (1750–1803): Sister of Charlotte von Stein, aunt of Anna Amalie von Imhoff.
Itzig, Isaak Daniel (20 December 1750–7 July 1806): Royal construction engineer in Berlin, banker of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, Prussian road construction inspector, cofounder of the Jewish Free School in Berlin. He supported emancipation efforts on the part of the Jewish population in Prussia and also made a name for himself as a builder of roads (e.g., in planning and financing the Berlin-Potsdam chausée), also planning to establish a road construction monopoly, which would have given his company preferential treatment. In 1791 the king awarded him state citizenship on the basis of his accomplishments (the first Jew to receive such), but his firm went bankrupt in 1796 because of unredeemable invoices for shipments to the French army. An acquaintance of Friedrich Ludwig Meyer in Berlin with whom Meyer seems to have resided at least for a time. (Portrait: Daniel Berger after Anton Graff [1789].)
Jacob, Ludwig Heinrich von (1759–1827): Political scientist, philosopher, writer. Studied in Halle and in 1781 received a position at the Gymnasium there, from 1787 professor at the university, and from 1806 at the university in Kharkiv in the Ukraine, from 1816 back in Halle.
Jacobi, Anna Catharina Charlotte (Aunt Lotte) (29 February 1752–1832): Eldest half-sister of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. After the death of Jacobi’s wife, Elisabeth (Betty) (1743–84), she and her sister Helene took care of Jacobi’s household until his death in 1819.
Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich (25 January 1743–1819): Jacobi early developed philosophical and literary interests but took over the family business in 1764, the same year he married Helene Elisabeth (Betty), née von Clermont (1743–84). After he gave up the business in 1772, his estate near Düsseldorf became a literary and cultural gathering place. His second epistolary novel, Woldemar (Flensburg, Leipzig 1779), which involved a character attracted to two women, was widely read, but he also acquired renown for his role in what has become known as the “pantheism dispute” involving Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s alleged turn to pantheism and Spinozism late in life. Caroline herself requests from her sister Lotte the work that initiated the dispute, namely, Über die Lehre des Spinoza, in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn (1785; 2nd, rev. ed. 1789); the book prompted discussion throughout the learned world in Germany at the time and profoundly influenced the representatives of German Idealism, especially Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. In 1794, in the face of advancing French troops, he moved to Hamburg and then to Eutin, where he lived for the next ten years before moving to Munich. In 1807–12 he was president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Caroline and Schelling, in Munich from 1806, were acquainted with him). Jacobi was involved in several controversies during the period, including Fichte’s atheism dispute in 1799; he also took a position against Kantian critical philosophy in 1801 and in 1811 against Schelling. Jacobi was inclined to advocate the primacy of faith and revelation in accessing truth. (Portrait: 1801, by Johann Peter Langer.)
Jacobi, Susanne Helene (Lehne, Lene, Mama Lene) (28 March 1753–10 July 1838): Younger Half-sister of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. After the death of Jacobi’s wife, Elisabeth (Betty) (1743–84), she and her sister Charlotte took care of Jacobi’s household until his death in 1819.
Jacobi, Johann Georg (1740–1814): Writer, professor, brother of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. From 1758 studied theology in Göttingen, from 1761 studied law in Helmstedt, but pursued neither further. From 1762 again in Göttingen, where he studied literature and the arts. From 1766 professor of philosophy and eloquence in Halle. Acquainted with Christoph Martin Wieland and Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim during this period; the latter helped him become a lay canon in Halberstadt in 1768. From 1774 published the journal Iris (1803–13 with the title Iris. Ein Taschenbuch für Frauenzimmer), in which some of Goethe’s early works appeared. From 1784 professor in Freiburg im Breisgau. As a poet, Jacobi was inclined to the style of the anacreontics under the influence of Wieland and Gleim and French and English models. (Undated portrait by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.)
Jacobi, Maximilian (1775–1858): Physician, psychiatrist, son of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. From 1798 married to Anna, née Claudius (1801–43), daughter of the writer Matthias Claudius. Studied medicine in Jena, Göttingen, Edinburgh, London, receiving his degree in 1797 in Erfurt.
Jacobs (Jakobs), Christian Friedrich Wilhelm (1764–1847): Prolific classical philologist, writer, librarian. Studied theology in Jena, where he came under the influence of J. K. F. Manso. From 1784 studied philology in Göttingen under Christian Gottlob Heyne, from 1785 taught at the Gymnasium in Gotha, from 1807 at the Lyzeum in Munich, where he also became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Returned to his former position in Gotha after a dispute with J. C. von Aretin in Munich because of criticism Jacobs leveled at a catalog of Greek manuscripts. In Gotha he also became head librarian at the ducal library and director of the numismatic collection. Married Christiane Seidler on 22 May 1792; after her death on 27 December 1812, he married her younger sister in 1817, Dorothea (Dorette) Seidler; the latter died on 4 February 1836. Jacobs was especially known for his Greek grammar and his philological editions and commentaries of classical authors. (Lithograph after the 1834 portrait by Jacobs’s son, Paul Emil Jacobs [1802–66]; Archiv der Schleswig-Thüringischen Familie Jacobs; personal communication from Rudolf W. L. Jacobs.)
His children with Christiane included:
• the four sons (in order eldest to youngest):
Jacobs, Friedrich Wilhelm Josias (24 March 1793–29 July 1833): Eldest son of Friedrich and Christiane Jacobs in Gotha. From 1813 studied medicine in Göttingen, Würzburg, Munich, and Vienna before settling as a general physician in Gotha, where he also published poetry and philological works. From 1822 plagued by epilepsy whose severity eventually prompted him to be committed to an institute in Jena, where he died. (Portrait: 1823 drawing by his brother Emil Jacobs; original lost, copy courtesy of Pastor Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
Jacobs, Wilhelm (dates unknown): Second son of Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha. Eventually became a lawyer and ultimately a ducal administrator in Gotha. Married twice. (Portait by his brother Emil Jacobs; copy courtesy of Pastor Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
Jacobs, Gustav (born 1795): Third son of Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha. Chose a career with the military, eventually attaining the rank of major and publishing a book on the experiences of Gotha soldiers during 1807–15. Good friends with the poet August von Platen. Also studied history and mathematics in Jena, and published translations from the French. (Portait by his brother Emil Jacobs; copy courtesy of Pastor Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
Jacobs, Paul Emil (10 August 1802–66): Youngest son of Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha. Later became a well-known artist whose style hovered between classicism and later romanticism and whose work can still be seen in several public places in Gotha. He also lived in Rome, Frankfurt am Main (1829), St. Petersburg (1830), Hannover, and, after the death of his first wife, Greece. His first wife was Eulalia Reinhardt, his second Luise Jahn. (Portait: copy courtesy of Pastor Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
• and one daughter:
Jacobs, Marie Gabrielle (1800–1873): Daughter of Friedrich Jacobs. Later married to the Gotha attorney Ernst Behm; mother of the geographer Ernst Behm (1830–84). (Portrait: copy courtesy of Pastor Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
Jacobs, Christian Wilhelm (1763–1814): Friedrich Jacobs’s eldest brother, studied law in Jena and then became an attorney and administrator in Gotha. Author of, among other things, a traveller’s guide to the Thuringian Forest, Der Thüringer Wald, besonders für Reisende geschildert, 2 vols. in 4 (Gotha 1807–12). Married Friederike Hartmann (1773–1820) from Hannover in 1798, an acquaintance of Luise Michaelis and a niece of Sarah Elisabeth (Mother) Schläger.
Jagemann, Henriette Caroline (or Karoline) Friederike, later von Heygendorff (1777–1848): Singer, actress. Daughter of Christian Joseph Jagemann, from 1775 ducal librarian and councilor in Weimar. After recognizing her talent, Duchess Anna Amalia sent her to Mannheim to train under August Wilhelm Iffland and Heinrich Beck. She left Mannheim when Iffland himself did, returning the Weimar, where she debuted in 1797 in the opera Oberon by Wranitzky and became one of the greatest attractions of the Weimar theater, generally considered one of the most beautiful and gifted artists in Germany at the time. She quickly also became the mistress of Duke Karl August, who in 1809 elevated her to the status of Freifrau von Heygendorrf and granted her an estate, though she remained a member of the Weimar theater until his death in 1828, after which she immediately left Weimar and lived in Mannheim, Berlin, and Dresden. From 1809 she directed the opera in Weimar, and her intrigues prompted Goethe to separate himself from the theater entirely in 1817, after which she was the sole director. Well known for her roles of Thekla in Schiller’s Wallenstein and Elisabeth in Schiller’s Maria Stuart. (Portrait: in the role of Ion, 1803, by Jakob Wilhelm Christian Roux.)
Jenisch, Daniel (1762–1804): Theologian, polyhistor who engaged in considerable polemic against both Goethe and the Romantics. Studied theology and philosophy in Königsberg (under Immanuel Kant), attaining a masters, moved then to Berlin in 1786, where in 1788 he became the tertiary preacher at the church of St. Mary. From 1792 fourth deacon at St. Nicolai, from 1793 professor of ancient studies at the Berlin Academy of Formative Arts with a position at the Architectural Academy as well, and of German literature at the French Gymnasium. From 25 May 1794 married to Henriette Diterich, daughter of a high consistory councilor and archdeacon at St. Mary’s in Berlin. He published numerous works on theology, philosophy, philology, and history, translated from the English and French, and contributed to several Berlin journals and to Der Teutsche Merkur. His Kritik des dogmatischen, idealistischen und hyper-idealistischen Religions- und Moral-Systems was published in 1804. It is uncertain whether his death by drowning in the Spree River was intentional; he seems simply to have disappeared from Berlin in 1804.
Jenkins, Thomas J. (dates unknown): Banker in Rome who forwarded letters from Germany to both Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer and Georg Ernst Tatter during their stay in Italy.
Jerusalem (daughters of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem, sisters of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, whose suicide in Wetzlar on 30 October 1772 inspired parts of Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [Leipzig 1774]): Philippine Charlotte (1745 [or 1743]–1823); Susanne Christine Moritz (dates unknown); Friederike Magdalene (1759–1836). All remained unmarried. Charlotte was the domina in the Braunschweig Protestant Convent of the Cross from 1789 to 1823. Friederike, the youngest, was a poet; she lived in her father’s house in Braunschweig until his death in 1789, where she also became acquainted with significant contemporaries such as Johann Kaspar Lavater. Her poetry, published between 1780 and 1787 and also represented in Johann Heinrich Voss’s Musenalmanach, reflected that of the Göttinger Hainbund. From 1789 she lived as a canoness in the Protestant convent Wülfinghausen near Hannover. Charlotte also published an edition of her father’s works after his death (1792–93).
Jerusalem, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm (1709–1789): Theologian. From 1727 studied theology, philosophy, history, and mathematics in Leipzig and Wittenberg, spent time in Holland to complete his study of the natural sciences, then 1734–37 as a private tutor in Göttingen. After several years in England, became the tutor to the sons of Duke Karl I of Braunschweig in 1742 and court preacher in Wolfenbüttel. One of the founders of the Collegium Carolinum school in Braunschweig (1745), which he directed 1745–70. From 1752 head of the Braunschweig preachers’ seminary, abbot of Riddagshausen, from 1771 vice president of the consistory in Wolfenbüttel. Friend of Lessing and one of the most important German theologians of the Enlightenment. Father of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, whose suicide in Wetzlar on 30 October 1772 inspired Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Goethe had known him in Wetzlar, as had Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, later husband of Luise Stieler). See above concerning his daughters.
Jerusalem, Philippine Charlotte (1745[or 1743]–1823): Daughter of the Braunschweig Enlightenment theologian, preacher, and abbot of Riddagshausen Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem (1709–89); sister of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, whose suicide in Wetzlar on 30 October 1772 inspired parts of Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Her father’s final official act, on 16 August 1789 and in concurrence with the Duke of Braunschweig, was to appoint Charlotte as the domina (mother superior) in the Braunschweig Protestant Convent of the Cross, the previous domina, Anna von Witzleben, having died on 28 July 1788. Charlotte remained domina till her death in 1823. She also published an edition of her father’s works from his literary estate in 1792–93.
Johnson, Samuel (1709–84): English writer, critic, biographer, poet, essayist. His edition of Shakespeare, which appeared in 1765 and to which the commentator George Steevens (1736–1800) contributed, was later superseded by other scholarly editions but nonetheless contained important material in its apparatus, including emendations and a highly regarded preface.
Jonas, Fritz (1845–1920): German educator and literary historian who edited an edition of Schiller’s letters (Stuttgart 1894) and biographical materials on Schiller’s friend Christian Gottfried Körner (Christian Gottfried Körner: Biographische Nachrichten über ihn und sein Haus [Berlin 1882]).
Joseph II (Benedikt August Johann Anton Michael Adam) (1741–90): From the line of Habsburg-Lorraine, eldest son of Empress Maria Theresia and Francis I. From 1765 till his death in 1790 emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1780 also king of Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary. Tried to acquire the Duchy of Bavaria in exchange for the Austrian Netherlands but was thwarted by Friedrich II (the Great) in the Bavarian War of Succession (July 1778–May 1779). (Portrait: Zweihundert deutsche Männer in Bildnissen und Lebensbeschreibungen, ed. Ludwig Bechstein [Leipzig 1854], unpaginated [alphabetical] entry on Joseph II., deutscher Kaiser.)
Josephine (Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie) (24 June 1763–29 May 1814): Empress of the French, Queen of Italy. Born in Martinique. Her father took her to France while she was quite young to marry Alexandre de Beauharnais, an arranged marriage, with whom she had two children, Eugène and Hortense. Returned to Martinique in 1787 to attend to her ill mother. During the French Revolution, her husband, known as an advocate of constitutional principles, was thrown into prison and executed. After having part of the property restored, she met Napoleon Bonaparte, whom she married in 1796. Josephine was crowned empress at Paris and at Milan, but Napoleon divorced her in 1810 for dynastic reasons, she having borne him no children. She then retired to her residence of Malmaison with the title empress-queen-dowager. (Portlrait: frontispiece to Walter Geer, Napoleon and Josephine: The Rise of the Empire [New York 1924].)
Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste (1762–1833): French Revolutionary office and one of Napoleon’s maréchal de l’empire. Joined the French army in 1778 but retired to private life in 1784, being commissioned anew in 1789 in the local national guard and subsequently becoming an officer in the French Revolutionary army.
Jung (Jung-Stilling), Johann Heinrich (1740–1817): Physician, writer, professor. Worked various jobs before studying medicine at Strasbourg, where he met Goethe and Herder, afterward practicing in Elberfeld, where he became known for operating on cataracts. But on the whole the practice left him dissatisfied and in debt, and from 1778 he pursued an academic career as a professor of agriculture, technology, commerce, and the veterinary art in Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg (from 1784), and as professor of economical, financial and statistical science in Marburg (from 1787, where he was friends with Caroline’s brother Christian Friedrich Michaelis) before returning to Heidelberg in 1803. Although he published journals, poems, several novels, and eleven academic texts (including on veterinary medicine, e.g., healing , he is best known for his autobiography, which was published essentially in installments during his life: Heinrich Stillings Jugend (1777; whence also the name Jung-Stilling), Heinrich Stillings Wanderschaft (1778), Heinrich Stillings häusliches Leben (1789), Heinrich Stillings Lehr-Jahre (1804); the volumes were published collectively as Heinrich Stillings Leben in 1806, and a final volume, Heinrich Stillings Alter in 1817. (Portrait: in Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 253.)
Jung, Maria Saloma (Selma), née St. George (1760–90): From 1782 second wife of Johann Heinrich Jung (Jung-Stilling) in Marburg. She was twenty-two when they married, he forty-two, they having been introduced by Sophie von La Roche; she would, however, die on 23 May 1790, before Caroline even left Marburg. Jung would marry a third time in 1790/91.
Jünger, Johann Friedrich (1756[9?]–97): Writer. After apprenticing as a merchant, he studied philology and then law in Jena but broke off his studies because of financial problems. Moved to Leipzig and published a satirical novel (1781–87) and a translation of a piece by C. de Laclos. Became acquainted with the publisher Georg Joachim Göschen and through him with Friedrich Schiller (1785) in Gohlis, then in Weimar. After being dismissed from his position as a private tutor to a prince’s family, he moved to Vienna, where from 1789 he was employed in the court theater. Financial problems again prompted his dismissal in 1794, after which he lived amid increasing problems of depression. He was known especially for his free translations and adaptations of English and French authors, e.g., Samuel Constant de Rebecque, Camille, ou Lettres de deux Filles de ce siècle, traduites de l’anglais sur les originaux.
Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) (ca. 55–60 BCE—ca. 140): Poet and last great satirist of Roman literture; his sixteen satires portray in the harshest colors the vices of Roman society, albeit without humor, seeking instead to elicit aversion and horror at the sinful Babylon that Rome had become.