Labré, Benedict Joseph (1748–83): Pilgrim and mendicant saint. Although religiously predisposed from childhood, inclined to do public penance for even minor sins, he was rejected by the Trappists, Carthusians, and Cistercians as being unsuited for community life (mental illness was suspected). He joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and found his calling in a life of solitude, poverty, and pilgrimage, visiting the major European sanctuaries, begging food but giving away alms, and even being said to levitate and to have cured illnesses. Spent his last years in Rome, collapsing in the church Santa Maria dei Monti during Holy Week 1783. Canonized in 1881. (Portrait: frontispiece to Giuseppe Loreto Marconi, Vie de Benoit-Joseph Labre: Mort à Rome en odeur de Sainteté [Lille 1821].)
La Fayette, Marie-Joseph, Marquis de (1757–1834): French general and politician. Fought in the American War of Independence. In 1789 he was sent to the Estates General and was active in the French Revolution as commandant of the nascent national guard and as the initiator of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man.” He lost prestige, however, in part because of his advocacy of a constitutional monarchy and as a result of printed attacks especially from Jean-Paul Marat. In 1792, after the Assembly declared him a traitor, Lafayette took refuge in the neutral territory of Liège, where he was taken and held as a prisoner of state for five years, first in Prussian and afterward in Austrian prisons (1794–97 in Olomouc, a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic), not returning to France until after the Restoration.
Lafontaine, August Heinrich Julius (1758–1831): Writer. Studied theology in Helmstedt in 1777–80, thereafter working as a private house tutor, from 1786 in Halle, then becoming a military chaplain in 1789. He resigned this appointment in 1801 and withdrew to an estate near Halle to write. He briefly was a canon in Magdeburg at the initiative of Friedrich Wilhelm III. One of the most prolific and widely read authors of the time, writing ca. 160 novels and stories, some in epistolary form, largely in the style of trivial sentimental stories of family and society. (Portrait: frontispiece to J. G. Gruber, August Lafontaine’s Leben und Wirken [Halle 1833].)
Lafontaine, Jean de (1621–95): French poet and fable author. Admirer of ancient authors, including Plato, Plutarch, and the Latin poets, though also of Calderon. Initially a disciple of Voltaire. Came into his own esp. as an author of fables (1668), then published successive collections of stories, sometimes in imitation of others (Bocaccio, Ariosto), including in Amours de Psyché (1669), in imitation of Apuleius.
Lamb, Charles (1775–1834): English writer, critic, contributor to literary journals, also known for his letters. The essay “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare” from 1810 appeared in The Works of Charles Lamb in Two Volumes, 2 vols. (London 1818), vol. 2 (coincidentally published by C. and J. Ollier, who also published the journal in which Charles Julius Hare’s translation of Wilhelm and Caroline Schlegel’s essay on Romeo and Juliet was published).
Lampadius, Wilhelm August Eberhard (1772–1842): Mining engineer, chemist, agronomist; from 1785 apprenticed as an apothecary in Göttingen, from 1789 at the university there, from 1791 part of a research expedition to Russia, from 1793 employed at the mining academy in Freiberg, from 1795 professor of chemistry and mining engineering there. In 1799 he experimented with flammable gases, and in 1811 set up a gas lantern in his own house in Freiberg, the first on the European continent.
Langer, Johann Peter (1756–6 August 1824): Painter, studied in Germany, France, and Holland, strongly influenced by Nicolas Poussin. From 1784 professor in Düsseldorf, from 1789 director of the Art Academy, and from 1801 of the Düsseldorf gallery as well. From 1806 in Munich, where he reorganized the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts from 13 May 1808, becoming its first director (Schelling was general secretary) and remaining there the rest of his life. One of the most vehement opponents of new developments in art, defending instead the earlier principles of schematism.
Langer, Robert von (1783–1846): Son of Peter Joseph Langer, under whom he also studied. Traveled in Germany, from 1799 in France, and 1804–5 in Italy, where he was strongly influenced by the works of Raphael, whose style he tried to combine with that of Nicolas Poussin, who had influenced his father; focused more on nature in his own work. From in Munich, from 13 May 1808 professor of painting at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (Schelling was its general secretary; Langer took this position in 1820). Followed the strictly classical style of his father, treating both religious and secular themes.
Lannes, Jean (1769–1809): French military officer, of modest background, joined the military and became a sergeant-major of a division in 1792, but later lost that position in a reorganization. Came to Napoleon’s attention in Italy, who promoted him to general. Fought in Egypt and several other campaigns and developed an acknowledged sense for military strategy. Particularly effective in 1800 in Montebello and Marengo; a few years later he was created Duke of Montebello. Became a marshal of France and commanded part of the grande armée at Austerlitz in 1805. In 1806 contributed significantly to the campaigns in Saalfeld and Jena, later also at Friedland. After further service and promotions participated in the later Austrian War, during which he was mortally wounded at Aspern-Essling.
Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de (28 March 1749–5 March 1827): French mathematician, astronomer, polymath, member of the new commission established for weights and measures, also occupied various political offices under Napoleon. Demonstrated mathematically, among other things, various elements of stability associated with the solar system and celestial bodies.
La Roche, Franz Wilhelm von (1768–91): Youngest son of Sophie von La Roche; friends with Gottfried Philipp Michaelis during the latter’s university studies in Marburg, La Roche himself studying forestry science there under Jung-Stilling. Died apparently of an inflammation of the intestine. (Portrait: unknown artist.)
La Roche, Maximiliane Euphrosyne von, married name Brentano (1756–93): Younger daughter of Sophie von La Roche. In 1774 she married the widowed Frankfurt businessman Peter Anton Brentano, who was twenty years her senior, in what turned out to be an unhappy marriage from which issued Clemens, Christian, and Bettina Brentano. She died in childbirth. Goethe was briefly attracted to her in 1772 and incorporated features of her personality in the character of Lotte in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Leipzig 1774), a character otherwise modeled after Charlotte Buff. Died in childbirth (her twelfth) in 1793 at the age of thirty-seven.
La Roche, Sophie von, née Gutermann (1730–1807): Writer. Grew up in Augsburg, settled in Biberach after her father dissolved her engagement to an Italian physician. Wieland fell in love with her in Biberach, and she is represented in many of his poems from the period. Their relationship foundered on his mother’s gossip, and she entered a marriage of convenience with Georg von La Roche, with whom she moved to Mainz in 1754, she also having left behind her earlier, more rapturous enthusiasm for such writers as Klopstock but still enjoying the intentional affectation of sentimentality in public. In 1762 the couple moved with Count Stadion (1691–1768), La Roche’s patron and alleged father, to an estate near Biberach, thence (1768–70) to a house in Bönigheim, where she wrote her first novel, the Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771), an attempt modeled after Samuel Richardson’s epistolary novels to deal with the depression associated with her marriage and the isolated life on the estate. The novel instantly made her a literary celebrity. La Roche received an appointment with the Archbishop of Trier, and the family moved to Ehrenbreitstein across from Koblenz on the Rhine, where their salon became a meeting place for prominent figures. After La Roche died in 1780, Sophie lived primarily in Speyer and Offenbach, where she tried to supplement her diminished income by prolific literary production. Grandmother of Clemens and Bettina Brentano (Portrait: Berlinischer Damen Kalender auf das Jahr 1809; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung.)
Launay de Tilliers, Auguste de: 1788 a pupil of Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha, where he had gone to improve his German, then 1788–91 a law student in Göttingen, where according to Caroline (letter 111) he was also one of Elise Bürger’s devotees; later moved to Hamburg.
Bernard René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay (1740–14 July 1789): French governor of the Bastille and commander of its garrison when it was stormed on 14 July 1789. De Launay was seized eventually lynched, stabbed, and shot; his head was then sawn off, fixed on a pike, and carried through the streets.
Lauriston, Jacques Alexandre Bernard Law, Marquis de (1768–1828): French soldier and diplomat, from 1800 an aide-de-camp who served Napoleon as a negotiator as well. In the years just prior to the First Empire, he was special envoy to Denmark and was selected to convey to England the ratification of the peace of Amiens in 1802. Taken prisoner as a general in action at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.
Lavater, Johann Caspar (1741–1801): Swiss theologian, writer. Studied theology at the Collegium Carolinum in Zürich, taking ordination in 1762 and becoming a pastor in 1786 in Zürich. Lavater was generally inclined to a more independent theological position over against orthodoxy, Pietism, and neology, preferring to circumvent the excessive faith in reason as well as standard church doctrine in defending the continued possibility of biblical revelation not only of spiritual and moral truths, but also of physically discernible divine powers. His more emotional understanding of Christianity came to expression in Aussichten in die Ewigkeit (1769–78) and Geheimes Tagebuch (1771), both of which enjoyed an enthusiastic reception. Yet Lavater was a man of peculiar contradictions, a Protestant with Catholic leanings, a believer in the scriptures and yet also in black magic. Although he authored over 130 philosophical, theological, poetic, and dramatic works, his best known work is the illustrated Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe (4 vols., 1775–78), in which he tried to demonstrate the correspondence between external facial characteristics and a person’s inner nature and the art of divining not only character on that basis, but future events as well. Lavater was also an acquaintance of Goethe since 1773, though the relationship foundered in 1786, Goethe then satirizing Lavater in the Xenien and in Faust. (Self-portrait 1766: in Johann Caspar Lavater, 1741–1801: Denkschrift zur hundertsten Wiederkehr seines Todestages, ed. Stiftung von Schnyder von Wartensee [Zürich 1902], 21.)
Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent (1743–94): French chemist who discovered oxygen (simultaneously with Priestly) and determined the composition of air. Condemned and executed during the Revolution.
Lehmann, Friedrich Adolph von (1768–1841): Composer and pianist, though also with a military and diplomatic career. From March 1798 a royal legation councilor in the service of Prince Leopold Friedrich Franz von Dessau, for whom he even recruited musicians from Dresden. On 29 December 1798, the crown prince’s birthday was celebrated with the first play in the new theater, along with a symphony in four parts composed by Lehmann. His compositions included songs for the piano (ca. 1793), “Des Mädchens Klage” by Schiller, for the piano (1801); eleven variations for the pianoforte (1802), more songs for the piano (1802), and various marches. Caroline Wilken, née Tischbein, mentions him in her memoirs as an acquaintance of her family during their stay in Dessau.
Lehmann, Leo (1782–1859): Well-known Hamburg portraitist, lithographer, and art instructor.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716): Philosopher, mathematician, polymath. Invented infinitesimal calculus simultaneously with but independent of Newton. Departed from Descartes’s mechanical understanding of the universe and instead viewed matter as a collection of monads each of which was a single nucleus of energy and a microcosm of the universe. He assumed a harmony obtaining between spirit and matter pre-established by God, the supreme monad. Leibnitz’s fundamental quest was to determine and understand infinite being through a reduction to quantum-like limiting values, in connection with which he engaged calculus.
Leisewitz, Johann Anton (1752–1806): Writer. Studied law in Göttingen from 1770, where in 1774 his acquaintance with Gottfried August Bürger, Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty, and Heinrich Christian Boie gained him acceptance into the group of poets known as the Göttinger Hainbund. While unhappily practicing law in Hannover, he entered his play Julius von Tarent (1775) in a competition in Hamburg but failed to win. Generally viewed as one of the classic plays of the Storm and Stress period, it premiered in Berlin in 1776 (performed by the Doebbelin company) and was well received by critics, also making an impression on Schiller. In 1781 Leisewitz married Sophie Seyler, daughter of the late actor Abel Seyer, head of the Seyler company, Leisewitz having found stable employment in the administration of the Duchy of Braunschweig. (Portrait: Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 264.)
Lekain, stage name of Henri Louis Cain (1728–1778): French actor, enormously successful member of the Comédie Française, albeit only after some struggle to get admitted.
Lene, last name unknown (dates unknown): Caroline and Wilhelm’s cook in Jena; unlike Rose, the maidservant, Lene did not follow the couple to Braunschweig in the autumn of 1800, and seems to have been replaced by a cook from Braunschweig (possibly that of Caroline’s sister Luise Wiedemann) when Caroline returned to Jena in April 1801 (Luise accompanied her). She is, however, mentioned by Schelling in a letter to Hegel in April 1802 just before Caroline returns to Jena from Berlin and is about to take up residence in new quarters, so Caroline seems to have retained her again at some point.
Lenz, Johann Michael Reinhold (1751–92): One of the representatives of the literary Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement, which essentially also included Goethe, whom Lenz met in Strasbourg and followed to Weimar in 1776. Primarily a dramatist, also publishing on dramatic theory. Also published short narrative works. His unstable nature resulted in his expulsion from Weimar, after which he traveled to Strasbourg and Emmendingen, where efforts failed to help him, and eventually back to his family in Riga. He later travelled to Russia, including St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he died.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519): Expansively talented and prolific Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. Worked in Milan, Florence, Rome, and France.
Leopold II (1747–1792): Third son of Maria Theresia; Archduke of Austria, 1765–90 Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1790–92 emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary.
Leopold III, Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740–1817): From 1758 Prince, from 1807 Duke of Anhalt-Dessau.
Lesage, Alain-René (1668–1747): French playwright and novelist. Began his career with translations from the Spanish, not achieving literary success until 1707 with the comedy Crispin rival de son maître and the romance Le Diable boiteux. After a comedy satirizing the financial world in 1709, and after quarrelling with the Comédie Française concerning acting styles, he began writing for the Théatre de la Foire, providing farces and comedies of manners, often with an oriental setting. Also published several picaresque novels, his Gil Blas (1715–35) exerting considerable influence on eighteenth-century English comic fiction. He is known for depicting the frailties and failings of human nature with a humorous, animated style.
Le Sage, Georges Louis (1724–1803): Swiss physicist and mathematician, contributed to theoretical physics (e.g., the characteristics of gases, gravity) and mathematics, in 1774 constructed a telegraph apparatus with twenty-four wires, each of which corresponded to a letter of the alphabet.
Less, Gottfried (1736–97): Lutheran theologian. From 1752 studied theology in Jena and Halle, from 1761 associate professor of theology at the Academic Gymnasium in Danzig. During a trip to England and Holland, he met the minister Gerlach Adolf von Münchhausen in Hannover, who offered him a position in Göttingen; from 1763 associate professor and university preacher in Göttingen, becoming a regular professor in 1765, attaining his doctorate in theology in 1766. He undertook a journey to Switzerland and southern France in 1774 for health reasons, having always been rather sickly and, as a result, also inclined to irritability. But he did meet and marry (1776) his future wife during this journey, the widow Wilhelmine Ümlin (1748–91), with whom he lived in the Grätzel house in Göttingen. After considerable success and popularity as a professor and scholar, suspicions of heterodoxy and Latitudinarianism, on the one hand, and charges of being behind the times, on the other (along with his difficult personality), prompted him to accept an appointment in 1791 as court preacher in Hannover (as Johann Benjamin Koppe’s successor), consistory councilor, and in 1793, after the death of Johann Adolf Schlegel, superintendent in Hannover. Representative of Enlightenment theology. (Portrait: by Christian Gottlieb Geyser.)
Less, Wilhelmine, née Steinheil, widowed Ümlin (Imlin) (1748 [49?]–91): A native of Rappoltsweiler, Switzerland. From 1776 wife of Professor Gottfried Less in Göttingen, whom she met during his journey to Switzerland and southern France in 1774; her child by her first marriage, Dorothea Salome, died in September 1778, prompting a moving eulogy from Gottfried Less (Trost bey dem Grabe eines einzigen Kindes, Dorothea Salome Less-Imliun, an meine Frau [Göttingen 1778]).
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729–81): Playwright, journalist, critic. Studied in Leipzig and Wittenberg, worked for a time as a journalist in Berlin, also writing plays and becoming acquainted with Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai, eventually became house critic at the National Theater in Hamburg (1765–69), then librarian to the Duke of Braunschweig (1770). Apart from his numerous and significant critical works on art and the theater (Briefe die neueste Litteratur betreffend [1759–65]; Laokoon (1766); Hamburgische Dramaturgie [1767–68]; Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet [1769, to name but a few]), he was also well known for four plays, Miss Sara Sampson (1755), one of the first domestic tragedies in Germany; Minna von Barnhelm (1767), set during the period after the Seven Years War and sometimes called the first modern comedy; the tragedy Emilia Galotti (1772); and Nathan der Weise (1779) on the subject of religious tolerance. Lessing became involved in a bitter dispute with the pastor J. M. Goeze of Hamburg after publishing fragments by the rationalistic, free-thinking theologian Hermann Samuel Reimarus in 1777, whom Lessing had met in Hamburg. Lessing is generally credited with having lifted German criticism to the European level.(Portrait: in Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], plate following p. 232.)
Levin, Händel, née Liepmann (later Christian name: Henriette Robert) († 1823): Wife of Rahel Levin’s oldest brother, Marcus Theodor (Mordechai) Levin (later Christian name: Marcus Theodor Robert) (1772–1826), a merchant and banker in Berlin.
Levin, Rahel Antonie Friederike (married name Varnhagen von Ense) (1771–1833): A native of Berlin and daughter of a well-to-do Jewish family, she was intimate friends during her youth with Dorothea and Henriette Mendelssohn as well as acquainted with Henriette Herz, with whom she later became increasingly good friends. The salon and soirées she kept in her home became one of the most important meeting places in Berlin during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, counting among its regular guests the Schlegels, Henrik Steffens, Schleiermacher, Ludwig Tieck, as well as many from the nobility, the theater, acculturated Jews, and other intellectuals. She spent some time in Paris in 1800, then encountered difficulty after 1806 when her father died and her financial situation changed, and when Prussia’s own fortunes changed so dramatically for the worse. Many of her earlier friends essentially abandoned her. In 1808 she met Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, a Prussian diplomat fourteen years her junior whom she married in 1814 after converting to Christianity. After living in various cities, they returned to Berlin in 1819 and she once again enjoyed keeping a successful social salon, frequented by Heinrich Heine, Alexander von Humboldt, Bettina von Arnim, and others. She already began publishing her extensive correspondence during her lifetime, and new material continues to be published today. (Portrait: Moritz Daffinger.)
Levin, Rose, married name Asser (1781–1853): Sister of Rahel Levin in Berlin, wife of Carel Asser in Amsterdam.
Leyden, Lucas van (1494–1533): dutch painter and engraver; met and was influenced by Albrecht Dürer in Antwerp in 1521; allegedly developed a way to etch on copper instead of iron; first to use aerial perspective in prints.
Leyden (Leiden), Joseph Ignaz, Count von (1734–1809): Diplomat, Bavarian emissary to the Imperial Diet, member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Leyden, Maximilian Count von († 2 March 1807): Son of Joseph Ignaz von Leyden. Member of the commission appointed in February 1802 to oversee secularization of monasteries in Bavaria. From 1805 general commissar of the Bavarian province of Swabia charged with integrating that province into the Bavarian state. Committed suicide in 1807 allegedly because of debts.
Lesay Marnesia, Adrien Comte de (1770–1814): From 1792 student of philology in Göttingen, from 1810 prefect of Strasbourg; translated Schiller’s play Don Carlos.
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (1744–99): Writer and critic, scientist, professor of experimental physics (the Lichtenberg Dust Figures are named for him). The seventeenth child of a pastor’s family, he was early afflicted by kyphoscoliosus. Studied mathematics, natural history, and astronomy in Göttingen in 1763–66. During a trip to England in 1770 accompanying two English students, he conducted a tour for King George III through the observatory at Richmond upon Thames, impressing the king so much that the latter had Lichtenberg appointed associate professor in Göttingen (from 1775 full professor). He visited England again in 1774–75, becoming acquainting with Georg Forster, James Watt, and Joseph Priestley, among others. In Göttingen he taught physics, mathematics, and astronomy, lecturing on experimental physics every semester, one of the most popular courses (and he one of the most popular lecturers) at the university. In 1777 he took thirteen-year-old Maria Dorothea Stechard as his mistress, then in 1783, after Maria’s death in 1782, Margarete Kellner, marrying Kellner in 1789. His importance in literary history derives from his journalistic endeavors and satirical works, the latter including a castigation of Johann Caspar Lavater’s Physiognomische Fragmente (1778). He edited the Göttinger Taschenkalender from 1778, the Göttingisches Magazin from 1780 with Georg Forster, becoming a prolific master of witty aphoristic writing and satire, which he directed against hypocrisy and pretentiousness in various guises. (Portrait: engraving by J.C. Krueger after a painting by Johann Ludwig Strecker.)
Lichtenstein, Karl August, Baron von (1767–1845): Opera singer, composer of singspiele and operas, librettist, translator, theater director in Dessau, Vienna, and Berlin (from 1805). Was raised in Gotha, where his father was a minister. Studied in Göttingen under Johann Nikolaus Forkel, first husband of Meta Liebeskind. From 1798 administrator and theater director in Dessau, whose reputation he developed into one of the foremost in Germany.
Lichtenstein, von Frankenberg, von: Privy councilor and minister under Duke Ernst II in Gotha who, among other things, actively supported the establishment of educational institutions.
Lichtenstein, Martin Heinrich Karl (1780–1857): Physician, zoologist, ethnologist. Studied medicine in Jena and Helmstädt, finishing his degree in 1802, after which he traveled to Capetown, South Africa, with the new Dutch governor, Janssen, as private tutor to the governor’s sons and as private physician. After considerable zoological studies and excursions there, he entered the Dutch army as a surgeon when war against England broke out, returning to Germany after the English occupied the colony. He then lived in Braunschweig, Göttingen, and Jena, working on his travelogue, Reisen im südlichen Afrika (1810–11). After entomological studies, he was appointed professor of natural history at the new Berlin university, contributing to the establishment of the Berlin Museum in 1810 and becoming professor of zoology in 1811, becoming its director in 1813 and rector of the university in 1840. He married in 1815, and his house in Berlin became a social gathering place; a connoisseur and zealous promoter of music, he became one of the most important supporters of music in Berlin during this period.
Liebeskind, Adalbert (2 October 1792–1866): Second son of Meta Forkel, née Wedekind, her first (though extramarital) son by Johann Heinrich Liebeskind (after her separation but before her divorce from her first husband, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and before her marriage to Liebeskind). It was with Adalbert that Meta fled Mainz with her mother and Caroline on 30 March 1793. Adalbert would pursue a military career, attending a cadet school in Munich and being deployed in March 1809 as a junior lieutenant in the Bavarian army in the Tyrolian campaign; from 1812 fought against the Russians, returning home to Munich in the spring of 1814 after having been a Russian prisoner-of-war; 1827 captain 2nd class, 1835 captain 1st class; 1845 married for the second time (little is known about his first marriage except that it ended in divorce with him as the culpable party); 1866 died in Bayreuth.
Liebeskind, Antonia (Antonie) Lucilla Friederike (April [May?] 1794 in Mitau [Jelgava, Latvia]–25 June 1798 in Ansbach): Daughter of Meta and Johann Heinrich Liebeskind; named after Antonia Forster (1758–1823), sister of Georg Forster, with whom the Liebeskinds were acquainted in Mitau.
Liebeskind, Johann Friedrich August Ernst (14 January 1798–6 December 1857): Son of Meta and Johann Heinrich Liebeskind; born in Ansbach, from 1815 studied law in Landshut, later becoming an assessor in the municipal court in Bamberg, from 1859 a resident of Munich. From 23 August 1843 married to Katharina von Münster.
Liebeskind, Johann Heinrich (1768–1847): Studied in Göttingen, where he met Meta Forkel, née Wedekind, finishing his studies there in January 1793, though in the meantime (early 1792) Meta Forkel had become pregnant (the son arrived on 2 October 1792, though Meta had in the meantime left Göttingen). Entered Russian service, then Prussian, from 1807 senior judiciary Rath in Bamberg, from 1808 senior appeals judge in Munich, from 1827 in Landshut and Ansbach; also known as a talented flute player; author of “Essay on an Acoustic of the German Flute: An Article on a Philosophical Theory of Flute-Playing,” originally published in November 1806, now included as Appendix IV in Johann George Tromlitz, The Keyed Flute, ed. Ardal Powell (Oxford 1996), 230–34. More importantly in the present context, having gone to Frankfurt to attend to Meta (whom he married at latest by 1797) and his child, Adalbert, after her flight from Mainz, arrest, and incarceration in Königstein, he provides a valuable eyewitness account of the prisoner transport and prison conditions in his Rükerinnerungen von einer Reise durch einen Theil von Teutschland, Preussen, Kurland und Liefland, während des Aufenthalts der Franzosen in Mainz und der Unruhen in Polen (Strasbourg 1795; also Königsberg 1795).
Liebeskind, Meta (Sophie Dorothea Margarete), née Wedekind, earlier divorced Forkel (1765–? [the customary date of death, 1853, is insufficiently substantiated; see Monika Siegel, “Ich hatte einen Hang zur Schwärmerey”]): Writer and translator. Daughter of the Göttingen professor of theology Rudolf Wedekind. Meta was one of the “Göttinger university mamselles” along with Therese Heyne, Caroline, and others. After a careful upbringing and education, in 1781, at seventeen, she married the music professor Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749–1818, who some view as the initiator of modern music studies at the university level and who in 1802 published the first biography of J. S. Bach), after which she also published novels. She left Forkel in 1788 (divorced 11 February 1794), moved to Berlin, then in the summer of 1789 to Mainz, where her brother, Georg Wedekind, was a professor of medicine and where she earned a living through translation from English and French (largely brokered by Georg Forster) and frequented circles supportive of the French Revolution. She returned to Göttingen in October 1791, where she met her second husband, Johann Heinrich Liebeskind, whom she would marry three years later, albeit not before becoming pregnant in early 1792 and, after fleeing Göttingen, giving birth to her second son (after Karl Gottlieb Forkel in 1782), Adalbert, on 2 October 1792, traveling thence directly to Mainz, where she initially stayed with Caroline. One of the party arrested with Caroline after fleeing Mainz in 1793. Active as a writer later as well, living in various Bavarian cities and also abroad with her second husband, Johann Heinrich Liebeskind. In 1793 her husband’s first position took them to Riga, where they were expelled under suspicion of being sympathetic to the French Jacobins. From 1794 in Königsberg, 1797 in Ansbach, 1807 in Bamberg, 1808, Munich, between 1827 and 1838 alternately in Landshut and Ansbach, from 1838 in Eichstätt. Concerning her (maliciously applied) nickname “Furciferaria,” see Erich Schmidt’s introduction to Caroline’s stay in Mainz, note 4. (Portrait: from the silhouette album of Gregorius Franz von Berzeviczy; by permission, Erika Wagner and Ulrich Joost, Göttinger Profile zwischen Aufklärung und Romantik [Neustadt: Dosse 2011], 64.)
Liebeskind children: Karl Gottlieb Forkel (baptized 21 April 1782), Adalbert Liebeskind (2 October 1792–1866: see specific entry), Antonia (June 1794–June 1798), Johann Friedrich August Ernst (born 14 January 1798), Ferdinand (born 27 April 1800), Georg Karl Heinrich Ludwig (6 May 1802); the couple also adopted Wilhelmine Rosalie Knebel (born 18 November 1794), great-niece of Karl Ludwig von Knebel, in 1802.
Liechtenstein, Carl August Ludwig von (1767–1845): Dramatic poet, composer, and theater, intendant of the court theater and chamberlain to the prince of Dessau. As a student in Göttingen, performed on the violin in the concerts of Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Meta Liebeskind’s first husband. Worked at the courts in Hannover and Bamberg. From 1798 in Dessau, where he performed with his wife. Was successful enough in developing the theater offerings there that his company also performed in Leipzig. Resigned from the Dessau job in 1800 and went to Vienna, where he became director of the court theater and its orchestra.
Lindner, Friedrich Georg Ludwig (1772–1845): Journalist, writer, physician. Studied from 1790 in Mitau and from 1791 in Jena, then Würzburg, Göttingen, and Berlin. As a medical student, he was acquainted with David Veit, nephew of Simon Veit, Dorothea Veit’s husband. From 1797 again in Jena, where he attained his medical doctorate. From late 1798 in Berlin, where through David Veit he made Rahel Levin’s acquaintance. Settled in Vienna as a physician in 1800, where through his Berlin friends he became acquainted with Henriette Mendelssohn, Dorothea Veit’s sister. Had literary connections with Sophie Mereau. From 1809 in Weimar working for Friedrich Justin Bertuch while teaching in Jena. From 1813 professor in Jena, though from 1814 moved back to his family estate. From 1817 back in Weimar, but had to leave the same year for political reasons associated with a secret report from August von Kotzebue to the Russian czar. Advocated a larger Germany later as a counterbalance to Prussia and Austria. Expelled from Stuttgart in 1824, he moved to Munich, where from 1828 he edited a political journal with Heinrich Heine. Satirized Hegel in a later drama (1844).
Lindsay, Lady Anne, married name from 1793) Barnard (1750–1825): English writer, artist, travel writer. Although her ballad “Auld Robin Gray” (1771) was extremely popular, she did not acknowledge authorship until two years before her death. She accompanied her husband to South Africa as Lady Anne Ballard, her journals providing an important source concerning life in Cape Town during the British occupation (Lady Anne Barnard at the Cape of Good Hope. 1797–1802, ed. D. Fairbridge [Oxford 1924]). After the death of her husband she and her sister established a literary salon in London.
Link (also Linck), Wilhelm (†1788?): Jurist, originally from Heidelberg, attested to have been in Göttingen from November 1777 till Easter 1780. An early love interest in Caroline’s life.
Loder, Johanna (Hannchen) Helene Antonie (1788–1844): Eldest daughter of Justus Christian Loder and his first wife Wilhelmine, née Roederer. From 28 August 1801 married to Christian Ludwig Runde (1773–1849), president of the upper appellate court in Olderburg. Henrik Steffens may have had a romantic interest in her during his stay in Jena.
Loder, Justus Christian (1753–1832): After studying medicine in Göttingen from 1773, earning his doctorate in 1777, in 1778 he became professor of anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics in Jena, where he established a new anatomical theater, surgery facility, and maternity ward. From 1778 married to Wilhelmine Dorothea Victoria, née Röderer (Caroline speaks about them moving to Jena). From 1792 married to Luise, née Richter (born 1773), daughter of August Gottlieb Richter, professor of surgery in Göttingen. Goethe often attended his lectures in Jena. After an appointment in Halle in 1803, he left in 1806 after the French occupation, moving first to Königsberg (where he became the personal physician to the Prussian royal family in 1808 and for his services was ennobled), then becoming a practical physician in Petersburg, then in Moscow, becoming the personal physician to Czar Alexander I in 1810 and also heading several Russian field hospitals during the campaigns against Napoleon. Acquired particular renown through his anatomical publications, his Tabulae anatomicae quas ad illustrandam humani corporis fabricam collegit et curavit Iustus Christianus Loder (Vinariae 1794–1803), which were the most important systematic and most complete collection of illustrations at the time; was a close acquaintance of Goethe in this regard, whom he had met in Jena. (Portrait: engraving by F. Müller after a painting by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.)
Loder, Wilhelmine Dorothea Victoria, née Röderer (1756–91): Childhood friend of Caroline. Daughter of Johann Georg Röderer, professor of gynecology and obstetrics in Göttingen (1726–63, from 1751 professor in Göttingen and for a time personal physician to the king of England), and sister of Caroline Schlözer, wife of August Ludwig Schlözer. From 1778 wife of Justus Christian von Loder, who accepted an appointment in Jena.
Löffler, Josias Friedrich Christian (18 January 1752–4 February 1816): Theologian, cleric. From 1769 studied in Halle, worked for a time as private house tutor in Berlin, from 1777 pastor at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Berlin, then at the Charité, from 1778 Prussian military chaplain. After publishing Der Platonismus der Kirchenväter (1781), after whose second edition the university in Copenhagen bestowed the doctorate on him, from 1782 professor of theology and preacher in Frankfurt an der Oder. He lectured on New Testament exegesis, church history, and theological literature. Although his rationalistic leanings in theology (e.g., his reduction of revelation to what can be supported by rational evidence) did prompt some opposition, he was generally respected because of his character. Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt lived in his house in 1787–88. From 1788 general superintendent and senior consistory councilor in the duchy of Gotha. His wife, Dorothea Elisabeth, née Silberschlag, from Berlin, died the following year, 1789, and Duke Ernst II of Gotha thought so highly of Löffler that the duke accompanied him on a trip to Switzerland to help him recover from the loss. A good friend of Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha and of his own publisher, Friedrich Frommann in Jena. His second wife, Katharina Sophie Elisabeth, née Silberschlag (daughter of the general superintendent in Stendal and cousin of Löffler’s first wife) (1 September 1772–12 January 1799), whom he married in 1792 and who bore him two daughters, was allegedly sickly and died in 1799, being then buried next to Löffler’s first wife. Löffler had two daughters in each marriage: Henriette, Wilhelmine (1811–77; married name Gunther; her daughter, Löffler’s eldest granddaughter, married Friedrich Johannes Frommann in 1830), Amalie (1794–1878, who married Friedrich Thiersch), and Julie. — Löffler courted Caroline during her trip to Gotha with her sister Luise in October 1791. (Portrait: frontispiece to vol. 3, Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler, Kleine Schriften von Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler nach seinem Tode gesammelt und herausgegeben [Weimar 1818].)
Lohenstein, Daniel Casper von (1633–83): Silesian Baroque playwright and novelist.
Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France (1785–8 June 1795): Twenty-seventh Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. From 21 January 1793 (following his father’s execution) the uncrowned king of France. Imprisoned after the storming of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792. Although he allegedly died of tuberculosis on 8 June 1795, controversy and rumor quickly arose concerning the circumstances of his death.
Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1772–10 October 1806): Nephew of Friedrich the Great, third son of Prince Ferdinand of Prussia. Military training, fought in the Wars of the First Coalition (1792–94), wounded during the siege of Mainz (Caroline heard the cannon fire from the prison in Königstein). Part of the circle around Queen Luise of Prussia at the court in Berlin advocating opposition to Napoleon. Killed in action at a skirmish in Saalfeld during action preceding the battles of Jena and Auerstädt.
Louis the Pious (778–840): Charlemagne’s son; ruled with the latter from 813, then as sole emperor of the Franks from 814.
Louis XVI (1754–21 January 1793): From 1770 husband of Marie-Antoinette, from 1774 king of France; deprived of his powers by the legislative assembly in August 1792, beheaded on 21 January 1793 after a failed attempt to flee in June 1791.
Lorenz (dates unknown): “Quite helpful” (so Friedrich Schlegel in May 1799) library assistant in Göttingen involved in sending books to Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel in Jena and Berlin during 1799–1800, also at the behest of Johann Dominik Fiorillo there.
Loyola, Ignatius of (1491–1556): Founder of the Society of Jesus (1539), or Jesuits.
Lucian (ca. 125 BCE–after 180 CE): Rhetorician and satirist known for his wit and brusquely satirical nature who wrote in Greek but was likely Aramaic. Variously illustrated and criticized contemporary life, manners, and art.
Ludecus (Ludekus), Johann August (1742–1801): Financial and tax counselor in Weimar, from 1775 privy secretary and treasurer of Anna Amalie and financial administrator of her son Prince Konstantin, brother of Karl August. From 1793 married to Johanne Caroline Amalie, née Kotzebue (1757–1827), sister of August von Kotzebue.
Ludecus, Johann Wilhelm Karl (Carl) (Caroline spells it Ludekus) (1768–1854): From 1791 territorial administrative councilor in Weimar, from 1803 as court secretary; retired from Weimar service in 1829.
Ludecus (Ludekus), Johanne Caroline Amalie, née Kotzebue (1757–1827[?]), sister of August von Kotzebue. Initially a lady-in-waiting to Duchess Anna Amalie in Weimar, from 1793 married to Johann August Ludecus. Published under the pseudonym Amalie Berg. Lived in the same house as Johanna Schopenhauer after the latter arrived in Weimar n 1806 and was a regular visitor to the latter’s evening tea gatherings.
Luden, Heinrich (Hinrich) (1778–1847): Historian, professor in Jena from 1806. Although he lost virtually everything when French troops pillaged Jena during his first year there, and had a difficult time financially as an unsalaried professor, his lecture course “History of the German People” in 1808 met with considerable interest among the students in the wake of Fichte’s Speeches to the German Nation (Luden had reviewed Fichte’s Über das Wesen des Gelehrten [Berlin 1806] for the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung in 1806).
Ludwig I of Bavaria (25 August 1786–29 February 1868): Son of Maximilian I and Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. From 1825 king of Bavaria. Pronounced patron of the arts (also had Schelling’s bust added to the Valhalla collection) and architecture. Became increasingly conservative and repressive, finally abdicating at the outbreak of the revolution of 1848. Crown prince during Caroline and Schelling’s stay in Munich.
Ludwig I of Hessen-Darmstadt (1753–1830): From 6 April 1790 Ludwig X, reigning Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt, from 14 August 1806 Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Hessen, from 7 Juli 1816 Grand Duke of Hessen and “bei Rhein.” The three sons Luise Wiedemann mentions in her memoirs are Friedrich (1788–1867), Emil (1790–1856), and Gustav (1791–1806).
Ludwig Friedrich II von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1767–1807): From 1793 till his death the reigning prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Duke of Hohnstein, Herr von Blankenberg, Leutenberg, etc. From 1791 married to Karoline von Hesse-Homburg (1771–1854), with whom he turned his residence into a center for the arts, founding, among other institutions, the Rudolstadt theater. Granted Wilhelm Schlegel the title of Rath on 28 May 1796.
Luise von Hessen-Darmstadt (30 January 1757–1830): Daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse (a general in Prussian service who had moved his family to Berlin during the Seven Years War), from 3 October 1775 wife of Duke Karl August von Sachsen-Weimar. (Portrait: 1795, Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.)
Luise, Queen of Prussia (Luise, Princess von Mecklenburg-Strelitz; full title: Herzogin Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie zu Mecklenburg) (1776–1810): From 1793 consort of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, from 1797 queen (Friedrich von Hardenberg extolling them as an exemplary married couple in a piece written for the occasion). An extremely popular queen for her humanity and kindness (e.g., for her attempts to address differences in educational opportunities among her subjects), she fled with the rest of the court in 1806 after the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena, later being rebuffed by Napoleon during a meeting in Tilsit at which she pleaded for more lenient terms for Prussia (1807). Although the king and queen returned to Berlin in 1809, she died soon thereafter, her early death and previous popularity contributing immediately to her becoming a national, almost mythical character in the popular imagination, the rumor even being circulated that she died of a broken heart after Prussia’s humiliation. (Portrait: frontispiece to Paul Schreckenbach, Der Zusammenbruch Preußens im Jahre 1806 [Jena 1906].)
Lulli, Jean-Baptiste (1633–87): Italian composer appointed by Louis XIV to direct music at court. Composed ballets, including comedic ballets with Molière, though was especially influential in developing opera in France.
Lurz, Johann Baptist Christoph (dates unknown): Director of the receptorate, i.e., of the administration of the university endowment in Würzburg. Initially as a Hofrath, then from December 1808 with the title Freiherr von Lurz.
Luther, Christian Julius (1735–1807): Pastor at St. James (St. Jacobi) Church and private lecturer in Göttingen, 1764–73 general superintendent in Clausthal (which may have been one reason he accompanied Caroline’s mother to Clausthal to pick her up after Caroline’s husband died in 1788). Studied in Göttingen 1755–58, from 1760 vicar in Hannover, from 1763 pastor in Harpstädt, from 1764 deacon in Clausthal, from 1773 pastor in Göttingen. According to Erich Schmidt (1913), 685, Caroline is alluding (to Lotte Michaelis on 28 May 1786 [letter 70]) to Christian Julius Luther’s son, Martin Luther (1766–1843, also a theologian, from 1781 student in Göttingen, from 1793 military chaplain, from 1797 pastor in Lüdersburg), whereas Julius Steinberger, Erinnerungen, 128, believes the reference is instead to the father, the latter of whom apparently never climbed into the pulpit without first making sure he was properly adorned with makeup. Luise Wiedemann (and perhaps Caroline in letter 74) mentions the engagement of his daughter but does not provide the suitor’s name.
Luther, Martin (1766–1843): Theologian and son of Göttingen superintendent Christian Julius Luther. From 1781 student in Göttingen, from 1793 military chaplain, from 1797 pastor in Lüdersburg.
Luther, Martin (1483–1546): German reformer largely responsible for the emergence of the Reformation and Protestantism. Although he was originally trained as an Augustinian friar and priest, also lecturing in Wittenberg, he became disillusioned with the Roman church, developing instead a doctrine of salvation by faith alone and attacking the church’s practice of selling indulgences (“95 Theses” of 1517 nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg), and eventually the primacy of the papacy itself. Eventually excommunicated but given sanctuary in Saxony. Prolific author, also translating the New and the Old Testament into German, the language of which exerted enormous influence on the development of the German language. (Portrait: from Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], plate following p. 138.)
Lux, Adam (1765–4 November 1793): German sympathizer of the French Revolution. Although a farmer’s son in the Electorate of Mainz, he managed to attend the university there, working later as a tutor and marrying into the family. Moved to Mainz and became a representative of the Rhenish-German National Convention (the parliament of the Republic of Mainz). Accompanied Georg Forster to Paris as Mainz representative. After witnessing the execution of Charlotte Corday, who had just murdered Jean-Paul Marat, he published a pamphlet in her defense. Guillotined after some rather odd behavior, including announcing his intention of committing suicide publicly.
Lyster, Thomas William (1855–1922): Began work as an assistant librarian at the Library of Ireland as a young man, from 1895 till 1920 head librarian. Translated Heinrich Dünmtzer’s biography of Goethe as Life of Goethe (2 vols. London 1883).