Maass, Wilhelmine (1786–1832–36?): Actress, native of Berlin, where she studied ballet and then also acting under Friederike Unzelmann. From 17 February 1802 till Easter 1805 in Weimar, where she quickly received leading roles, learned to perform parts written in specific meters, but where during her final period she was disciplined for impropriety. The Weimar theater direction was so nervous about losing her that they forbade her to perform guest roles in her native Berlin. She did perform six guest roles in Berlin when her Weimar contract expired in 1805, but refused an offer to move to Danzig in order to remain in Berlin (till 1816). Lived in Darmstadt for a period, returning to Berlin in a guest performance in 1819. In Berlin she was extremely successful in roles requiring a naive, cheerful performance, but also managed in more serious roles such as heroines, queens, and tragic love interests, though such roles sometimes exceeded her talent and in part suffered from her diminutive stature. (Portrait: Goethe und sein Kreis, ed. Franz Neubert, 2nd ed. [Leipzig 1919], 134.)
Machiavelli, Nicollo (1469–1527): Italian political philosopher, administrative official in Florence with duties that included trips abroad (France, Germany), but lost his position and was imprisoned when the Medici returned to power in 1512. Later retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing. Known esp. for his theory of government and statecraft in Il principe (The prince) (1513), which describes how the acquisition and effective use of power may require less-than-savory methods. Also wrote a book are the art of war and on Florentine history.
Mack (Baron von Leiberich), Karl (1752–1828): Austrian military officer. Participated in the War of Bavarian Succession, elevated to the status of baron (von Leiberich) in 1791. From 1793 chief-of-staff to the Austrian commander in the Netherlands. In 1794 he was made a major-general, but the failure of the allied armies (like their earlier successes) was ascribed at least in part to him, and he fell into disfavor. In 1798 he was forced into a ceasefire and flight into the French lines to avoid being murdered by his own men; he later escaped from French prison and became commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops in Germany in the Third War of Coalition. Surrendered to Napoleon at Ulm in 1805, sentenced to death by a war tribunal in 1807, receiving imprisonment instead, released in 1808, rehabilitated in 1819. (Portrait: Friedrich Kircheisen, Napoleon I. und das Zeitalter der Befreiungskriege in Bildern [Munich, Leipzig 1914], 129.)
Macpherson, James (1736–96): English writer who in 1760–63 published alleged poetic translations of the Gaelic warrior Ossian; the translations were in fact his own work and yet exerted an enormous influence on the German Storm and Stress writers, including Herder and Goethe, the latter of whom included lengthy quotes in his Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Leipzig 1774). (Portrait: frontispiece to vol. 1 of The Poems of Ossian, translated by James Macpherson, Esq., 3 vols. [London 1805].)
Mahlmann, Siegfried August (1771–1826): Writer, journalist, newspaper publisher. Studied law in Leipzig but broke it off to be a private tutor in Riga, accompanying his charge back to the universities in Leipzig, Göttingen, and possibly Halle. After various journeys, including Russia, he returned to Leipzig and in 1799 went into the bookselling business, taking over the editorship of the Zeitung für die elegante Welt in 1805, then the Leizpiger Zeitung in 1810.
Majer, Friedrich (1772–1818): Scholar of ancient studies, art historian who introduced Arthur Schopenhauer to Hinduism and Buddhism. Studied in Jena from 1781, living then in Weimar; from 1804–05 royal tutor to Prince von Reuss-Schleiz Heinrich LXII, whom he accompanied at the universities of Würzburg (where he met Caroline and Schelling again) and Bamberg. From 1804 again in Jena, also lecturing privately in Weimar. In a letter to Sophie Mereau on 31 October 1804 (Briefwechsel zwischen Clemens Brentano und Sophie Mereau, 2 vols. [Leipzig 1908] 2:102), Clemens Brentano characterizes Majer, who was currently in Würzburg with his charge, with tongue-in-cheek humor: “I chanced to see the god Kama [Majer] standing in the courtyard of the Isenburg Hotel in his sky-blue uniform; he has already been here in Würzburg for six months with his pupil and has been constantly socializing with the loftiest nobility.”
Malcolmi, Amelie (née Malcomi, widowed Miller, divorced Becker, later married Wolff) (1780–1851): Actress. Daughter of actor Carl Friedrich Malcolmi (died 1819). Debuted when she was eleven, from 1794 part of the ensemble at the court theater in Weimar, soon becoming Weimar’s first tragedienne. At Goethe’s behest, Schiller entrusted the role of Princess Isabella to her in the Bride of Messina in 1803. Her significant performances include that of the duchess in Wallenstein, the nurse in Maria Stuart, Iphigenia, and Antigone. From 1816 at the court theater in Berlin with her third husband, P. A. Wolff (who piqued Goethe in 1807 by initiating, without Goethe’s knowledge, the premiere of Goethe’s Tasso, which Goethe did not think suitable for the stage), where she performed until 1841. (Portrait: Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.)
Malortie, Ferdinand (1771–1847): Son of General Karl von Malortie; later a forestry director.
Malortie, Colonel Karl (Carl) von (1736–98): Chamberlain/governor to the sons of King George III while they were studying at the university in Göttingen beginning in October 1786.
Malsburg (Malzburg), Friederike Sophie Charlotte, née von Breidenbach gen. Breidenstein (5 March 1752–27 February 1814): A native of Marburg, seems to have lived in Ockershausen (just outside Marburg) when Caroline was there 1789–91. From 25 September 1773 married to Konrad (Kurt) Hilmar Carl von der Malsburg (18 September 1727–26 July 1784), a member of the military with the rank of Oberst. From 1794 wife of Caroline’s brother Christian Friedrich Michaelis in Marburg, her second marriage. Together with her younger sister (or other relative), she aided Caroline in December 1789 during the illness and death of Caroline’s youngest daughter, Therese. According to Luise Wiedemann, her brother, Herr von Breitenstein, made a proposal of marriage to Caroline in Marburg. As Frau Obristen von der Malsburg, geb. von Breitenstein, in Marburg (wife of Colonel/Captain von der Malsburg, née von Breitenstein), she is listed among the subscribers of a posthumous collection of poems in 1794, namely, Johann Georg Pranger, Gedichte: Nach seinem Tode herausgegeben (Meiningen 1794).
Manners, Lord Robert (1758–23 April 1782): British naval officer and nobleman. Flag-captain of the ship Resolution under Sir Chaloner Ogle. The ship saw heavy action in the Battle of the Saintes (April 9–12, 1782), a British victory over the French during the American Revolutionary War near a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies, during which Manners’s arm was broken and both legs wounded, one being then amputated. Although he was sent back to England aboard the frigate Andromache, he died of tetanus on April 23, 1782, and was buried at sea.
Mannert, Konrad (1756–1834): Historian, geographer. Studied in Altdorf after a late start with his secondary education. From 1784 taught at the Sebaldus School in Nuremberg, from 1786 at the St. Aegidien Gymnasium there (where he was also librarian). In 1788 he published the first volume of his geography of antiquity, Geographie der Griechen und Römer, whose fourteenth and final volume would appear in 1825. On the basis of this and other historical works, he was appointed professor in Altdorf in 1796, then in 1805 professor of history at the university in Würzburg, which the Bavarian administration was reorganizing. In 1806, when as a result of the Peace of Pressburg the archepiscopal territory of Würzburg passed to Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany and a restoration was implemented, Mannert managed to maintain his position (perhaps unwillingly) even though he was a Protestant (most of the other Protestant professors appointed by Bavaria was forced to leave) until in 1807 he received an appointment in Landshut, then moving to Munich in 1826 when the university in Landshut was transferred there, where he retired in 1828 for health reasons. Apart from his geographical work, he concentrated on German and Bavarian history.
Manso, Johann Kaspar Friedrich (1759–1826): Philologist, translator, poet, historiographer. A native of Gotha, studied theology in Jena from 1779, then switched to philology. From 1783 professor at the Gymnasium in Gotha, where he seems to have been a love interest of Caroline’s friend Minchen Bertuch (though Manso never married). He moved to Breslau in 1790, and from 1793 was director of the Maria Magdalene Gymnasium in Breslau, where he remained the rest of his life and where he taught largely the upper classes, specializing in the interpretation of the Greek and Roman classics as well as German literary history, rhetoric, and aesthetics, often attracting students from the university in Breslau (founded 1806) to his lectures. Also active as a poet, translator, and historian. As a translator he was criticized for tending to submerge the individuality of the author. Manso, as representative of the more rationalistic wing of the Enlightenment, never denied harboring a certain antipathy toward the “geniuses” in Weimar and Jena. His own poem “Die Kunst zu lieben” (1794) prompted Schiller, whom Manso had antagonized with a review in the Allgemeine Bibliothek, to publish a whole series of epigrams against Manso in the Xenien, who responded with Gegengeschenke an die Sudelkönige in Weimar und Jena von einigen dankbaren Gästen (1797). Manso’s significance derives otherwise from his historiographical works, esp. Sparta. Ein Versuch zur Aufklärung der Geschichte und Verfassung dieses Staates (1800–1805), the Leben Kaiser Constantin’s des Grossen (1817), and esp. his Geschichte des ostgothischen Reiches in Italien (1824). His Geschichte des preussischen Staates bis zur zweiten Pariser Abkunft (1819–20) presents the thesis that the tragic Prussian defeat at Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 derived ultimately from the time of Frederick the Great, who, so Manso, developed his state into an artificial entity the reality of which did not correspond to the real balance of power in Europe; when the task of living up to that artificial Prussian identity fell to Frederick’s successors, they were bound to fail. (Portrait: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, No.761, ca. 1850.)
Manteuffel, Johann von, née Wagner (1761–1802): wife of Ernst Friedrich Adam von Manteuffel (1762–1822), a Saxon legal official.
Mara, Gertrud Elisabeth, née Schmehling, “Madam Mara” (1749–1833): Operatic singer with essentially a three-octave range, for a time recognized as the greatest singer Germany had produced. Born in Kassel, daughter of a musician, learned violin from him as a sickly child confined to a chair by illness. Patrons enabled her to travel to Frankfurt and the Low Countries in 1755 with her father, where she also received vocal training. From 1759 in England, where her father was advised to develop her singing talents (girls not being welcomed as violinists), 1761 in Ireland, 1763 again in England, where her father was arrested for being in debt. After his release they traveled through Holland and back to Kassel, their home (1765). Her hopes for being engaged with the Kassel opera were dashed when the first singer, Morelli, remarked that she sang “like a German.” Subsequent travels took them to Göttingen (1766; where Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter was impressed by her performance), Hannover, Braunschweig, and Leipzig, where Goethe even wrote a poem about her performance. Debuted as a vocal prodigy in Vienna and London, took vocal training in London and Leipzig; in Leipzig her rival was Corona Schröter, whose voice, however, through faulty early training, was not as strong. After performances in Leipzig and Dresden (1766, 1767), Friedrich II of Prussia engaged her in his court operatic company in Berlin. She married the debauched cellist Johann Mara in 1772, a dissolute drunkard of whom Friedrich II disapproved; when they tried to flee Prussia in 1774 after being denied leave to go to London, Friedrich imprisoned him for ten weeks. From 1777 they performed in various German towns, including 1778 in Göttingen (where Caroline may have heard them, since she praises his violin playing in a letter anticipating their visit to Göttingen in 1782). After Friedrich denied her a six-week leave for health reasons in 1780 and dismissed her, the couple successfully fled to Prague and ultimately to London. After her husband’s behavior began alienating her public (as attested by Caroline’s remarks), she left him in 1795, agreeing to pay him an annual pension. She subsequently traveled and performed with enormous success all over Europe, then settled in Moscow, where she lost most of her earnings and even her property in the catastrophe of 1812. She eventually moved to Estonia, becoming a music teacher in Reval (Tallinn, Estonia), where she died impoverished. Her voice was said to have an extraordinary range, and she allegedly sang with flawless intonation. (Portrait: by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.)
Mara, Johann Baptist (1744–1808): Musician, cellist, husband of Gertrud Elisabeth Mara.
Marat, Jean Paul (1743–93): Swiss-born French scientist and physician best known as one of the most radical activists in the French Revolution. One of the more extreme voices and a vigorous defender of the Parisian sans-culottes; his radical denunciations of counterrevolutionaries supported much of the violence that occurred during the wartime phases of the French Revolution. As a deputy to the national convention and a leader of the Montagnards, he advocated and incited such violent measures as the September 1792 massacres (to which Caroline alludes) of over twelve hundred jailed “enemies of the Revolution,” compiled “death lists,” and helped launch the Reign of Terror. He was stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday.
Murat, Joachm (25 March 1771–13 October 1815): Son of an innkeeper, became an aide de camp to Napoleon in Italy. From 20 January 1800 married to Caroline Bonaparte, third sister of Napoleon. Led the French cavalry at the battles of Jena, Eylau, and Friedland. Marshal 1804; made a prince in 1805; from 1806 archduke of Berg and Cleves; from August 1808 King of Naples and of Two Sicilies. In the retreat from Moscow, Napoleon offended him, prompting him to resign his command. Failed in his intrigues with Austria in January 1814, escaped to France but rejected by Napoleon. Sought asylum in England after Waterloo but was refused, failed to retake Naples and was taken prisoner. Executed by the Bourbons in 1815. (Portrait: from Ida M. Tarbell, “Napoleon Bonaparte: Second Paper,” McClure’s Magazine 4 [1894] 1 [December 1894], 3–30, here 14.)
Marezoll, Johann Gottlieb (21 December 1761–15 January 1828): Studied in Leipzig, then taught theology from 1789 in Göttingen. In 1794 became pastor at the German church in Copenhagen but eventually was unable to deal with the climate; had the opportunity to move to Jena in 1803, where he remained the rest of his life as superintendent and pastor at the municipal church. Also a member of the Weimar High Consistory. His daughter Louise Marezoll published a translation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in German in 1830 (Leipzig). Marezoll purchased Schelling’s lectern when the Schelling and Caroline left Jena in May 1803. (Portrait: Stadtmuseum Jena.)
Marchetti Fantozzi, Maria (1767–possibly 1807): Leading Italian soprano opera singer and actress during the 1780s and 1790s; she impressed Emperor Leopold II and enjoyed considerable success in both Venice and Berlin. From ca. 1783 married to the tenor Angelo Fantozzi. A native of Naples, she came to Germany in 1791, was engaged by the Royal Theater in Berlin in 1792, where she remained until 1805, thereafter performing in concert in Berlin and then moving to St. Petersburg. She seems to have had black hair and was regarded as an extremely beautiful woman. Various composers, including Mozart (the role of Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito), wrote music specifically for her, taking advantage esp. of her remarkable range (extending from C below the staff to C on the second leger line). Josepha Marchetti-Fantozzi, presumably her daughter, was already performing in the Munich opera in 1806, leaving in 1816. (Portrait: by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger; Universität Frankfurt am Main, Porträtsammlung Friedrich Nicolas Manskopf.)
Marcus, Adalbert Friedrich (1753–1816): Physician. Studied medicine in Göttingen, finishing his degree in 1775; studied two additional years in Würzburg (1776–78) before settling in Bamberg. He converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1781 and became personal physician to the electoral bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal. From 1781 married to Maria Juliana, née Schlör (1751–1826). From 1789 director and teacher at the newly established General Hospital there, an institution he initiated and which became exemplary for hospital development with its simultaneous focus on therapy, teaching, and research. From 1803, when Bamberg passed to Bavaria, he was director of all medical facilities in Franconia and teacher at his newly established (1802) school of surgery. From 1808 head of the medical committee and director of the medical teaching institution, where he remained the rest of his life. His professional life reflects the entire, animated development of German medicine of the time. He was one of the first adherents of Brunonianism (Prüfung des Brown’schen Systems der Heilkunde durch Erfahrungen am Krankenbette, 4 vols. 1797–99), later advocating Andreas Röschlaub’s theory of excitation. He then became acquainted with Schelling, who had come to Bamberg in the summer of 1800 to study the effects of the Brunonian method on actual patients in Marcus’s hospital, prompting Marcus himself to study and become an adherent of Schelling’s philosophy of nature (co-editing the Jahrbücher der Medicin als Wissenschaft with Schelling, 1806–8). Later he also became an adherent of the antiphlogistic method of treating inflammatory illnesses, his own methods, like those of François Joseph Victor Broussais, allegedly degenerating to a kind of vampirism. Marcus, while doubtless an intelligent, talented, and dedicated physician, nonetheless lacked the inclination for detached, objective criticism, and, prompted by his own imagination and enthusiasm, tended to seize on every new idea, including Mesmerism, vacillating from one theory to the next. By contrast, as a person he was allegedly of a noble character and a conscientious official, also enhancing medical services relating to midwives and the incurably ill, and introducing smallpox vaccination. (Portrait: frontispiece to Dr. Speyer and Dr. Marc [Marcus’s nephews], Doktor A. F. Marcus nach seinem Leben und Wirken [Bamberg 1817].)
Marc(us), Friedrich (Nathan Moses) (1747–1801): Brother of Adalbert Friedrich Marcus; commerce Rath and banker in Bamberg (one of two brothers who followed Adalbert Friedrich Marcus to Bamberg).
Marcus, Maria Juliana, née Schlör (1751–1826): Daughter of a master forester in Schmalwasser bei Neustadt/Saale. From 1781 married to Adalbert Friedrich Marcus in Bamberg. Marcus seems to have adopted daughters that he had with Maria Juliana’s cousin, Theresia Schlör.
Marc(us), Philipp Nathan († 1800): Brother of Adalbert Friedrich Marcus; merchant, banker, and consular representative of the United States of America in Bamberg (one of two brothers who followed Adalbert Friedrich Marcus to Bamberg).
Marenholtz, Georgine Charlotte Auguste, née von Hardenberg (1769–1845): From 1788 second wife of Baron Wilhelm von Marenholtz (1752–1808), whom she divorced in the mid-1790s; she would eventually have a turbulent and complicated relationship with Benjamin de Constant, finally marrying him in secret on 5 June 1808.
Maria Anna, Countess von Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken (1753–1824): Sister of the first king of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph, and from 1780 wife of Wilhelm von Bayern-Birkenfeld.
Maria Theresia (1717–1780): From the House of Habsburg, from 1740 reigning archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia. Her husband, Franz I Stephan, was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1745, though she herself assume most of the responsibility for governing the Habsburg monarchy. Mother of the later emperor Leopold II and grandmother of the later emperor Franz II and of the later prince elector of Würzburg Ferdinand III.
Marie-Antoinette (1755–93): Daughter of Maria Theresa, from 1770 married to King Louis XVI of France. Guillotined on 16 October 1793.
Marie Sophie Friederike of Hesse-Kassel (1767–1852): Connected by birth with the Danish royal family; though a native of Hanau, she was raised in Denmark from 1769, German nonetheless being her first language. From 1790 married to her cousin Friedrich VI, crown prince of Denmark.
Marmontel, Jean-François (1723–99): French author of numerous works of lesser significance, including tragedies, comedies, comic operas (Zémor et Azor [1771]; music by Grétry), light comedy, shorter tales with a moral intention, and historical romances (one of which was condemned by the Sorbonne for advocating tolerance, the censure serving, much as is the case today, merely to advertise the book and make the condemning body look ridiculous); from 1783 secretary of the Académie Française.
Martens, Franz Heinrich (1778–1805): Studied medicine in Leipzig and Jena, receiving his doctorate in the summer of 1800, returning then to Leipzig to establish a practice as a general physician. From 1804 professor extraordinarius in Jena, apparently quickly advancing to the status of full professor. Unfortunately, he died on 11 May 1805. Published widely especially in obstetrics, even doing his own illustrations and creating a portable Voltaic battery (ADB).
Martens, Georg Friedrich von (1756–1821): Professor of international law in Göttingen, domestic politician, diplomat, founder of a seven-volume index of international treaties, Recueil des traités (1791–1808). Studied in Göttingen himself, attaining his law doctorate in 1780, thereafter becoming a private lecturer and, in 1784, a full professor.
Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) (ca. 40–102 C.E.): Spanish-born epigrammatist, mendicant, eventually found a rich patroness back in Spain who granted him property. Known for his pointed, polemical-satirical epigrams exposing the scandalous and hypocritical side of Roman society.
Martinengo, Catharina Josephine, née Ackermann (March 1775–13 September 1836 in Würzburg): Native of Grosslangheim, wife of Gotthard Martinengo; died of consumption in Würzburg. At a dinner in Bocklet in 1801, she spoke at length with Dorothea Veit about Auguste’s death the previous summer, when she had met Caroline and Wilhelm, the latter of whom had allegedly paid considerable attention to her and she to him. She and her husband seem to have had no children.
Martinengo, Gotthard (4 May 1765–20 November 1857) (date of death from Würzburger Abendblatt [1857] no. 278 [Saturday, 21 November 1857]: A native of Würzburg, from May 1803 councilor in the second deputation of the newly constituted Prince Electoral Territorial Administration of the principality of Würzburg under Count von Thürheim (Regierungsblatt für die Churbayerischen Fürstenthümer in Franken [1803] no. 20 [Saturday, 14 May 1803]). Martinengo was earlier a financial administrator (mint master) in Trier, apparently with his father, Johann Nikolaus Martinengo, the latter of whom was similarly variously employed in Würzburg between 1763 and 1802. In 1794 provisional mint master (warden) in Würzburg, assistant mint master from 1802 (Biographical Dictionary of Medalists, vol. 3 [1907], 598). In 1806 the son appears generally as an Electoral Bavarian territorial administrator, and from 1806 to 1813 (1812?) as provisional archducal territorial head of the mint administration in Würzburg. He was later a royal Bavarian administrative Rath. He seems to have left behind an estate that included a considerable collection of art and antiquarian objects, some of which he allegedly acquired either illegally or through questionable means amid the confusion of secularization after 1803. Married to Catharina Josephine, née Ackermann. Martinengo is still listed among spa guests in Bocklet in 1809 and 1824, and in Bad Kissingen in 1838. Concerning his art collection, see Enno Krüger, “Frühe Sammler ‘altdeutscher’ Tafelgemälde nach der Säkularisation von 1803,” diss. Heidelberg 2009. When Caroline and Schelling lived in Würzburg (1803–6), he lived across the Main River from them at Schottenanger 137 (Vollständiges Adreß-Buch der churfürstlichen Haupt- und Residenzstadt Würzburg: 1806 [Würzburg 1806], 80, 120).
Martini, Christoph David Anton (1761–1815): Theologian. After studying theology in Bützow in Mecklenburg and in Göttingen (under J. D. Michaelis, Caroline’s father), worked with his father, a superintendent and court preacher in Schwerin. From 1789, when the university in Bützow was merged with that in Rostock, he was professor of theology in Rostock. His Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte des Dogmas von der Gottheit Christi in den vier ersten Jahrhunderten nach Christo (1800) adheres to the rationalist approach to biblical studies. From 1804 professor of church history and Old Testament exegesis and senior consistory councilor in Würzburg. After the Protestant department of theology there was abolished, he was transferred to Altdorf in 1807. From 1809 local ecclesiastical councilor and lycée (university college) professor of history in Munich. His colleague Schlichtegroll referred to him as “a man utterly lacking in dissimulation, the model of an honest, impartial, genuinely pious religious scholar.” (Portrait: Porträtsammlung des Münchner Stadtmuseums.)
Martini, Margarete Marie Friedrike, née Schröder (dates uncertain): Daughter of a governmental administrator in Schwerin. From 1786 married to Christoph David Anton Martini.
Masséna, André (1758–1817): One of Napoleon’s marshals, from 1775 in the French army, retiring in 1789, though he later joined the revolutionary armies.
Mastiaux, Caspar Anton von (1766–1828): A friend of Wilhelm Schlegel’s from student days in Göttingen, where he may also have known Caroline; Mastiaux once refers to Wilhelm as the favorite among the friends from his youth (in a letter to Wilhelm on 15 June 1793; see Körner [1930] 2:2–3).
Mattausch, Franz (1767–1833): Actor, from 1784 in Prague, from 1789 in Berlin, where his first role was Don Carlos in Schiller’s eponymous play, a performance Ludwig Tieck insisted was the best rendering he had ever seen of this character. He seems to have brought a handsome appearance to the roles of male love interest and heroes, though in more sublime roles he is alleged to have had an inclination to affectation, while performing with greater success in burlesques or roles from ordinary life. (Portrait: Simon Klotz.)
Matthisson, Friedrich von (1761–1831): Writer, poet. Studied theology and philosophy in Halle 1778–81 before becoming a teacher in Dessau. From 1783 private house tutor and traveling tutor, from 1795 companion, reader, and traveling companion to Princess Luise von Anhalt-Dessau, from 1812 in the service of Duke Friedrich II of Württemberg (who granted him the patent of nobility in 1809). In Stuttgart, Matthisson became associated with the court theater and royal library. During his travels, he became acquainted with Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock and Johann Heinrich Voss. A widely read poet in the late eighteenth century, Matthisson was a representative of the elegant, sentimental poetry popular at the time. Beethoven set some of his poems to music. (Portrait: 1794, by Christian Ferdinand Hartmann; Gleimhaus Halberstadt.)
Mauvillon, Jakob (1743–94): A native of Leipzig, military writer, historian, translator. His father taught French from 1758 at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig, where Mauvillon himself studied military science, then also law, languages, and mathematics. Served Hannover during the Seven Years War. From 1771 he taught military science and construction in Kassel. From 1784 taught tactics at the Carolinum in Braunschweig, advancing to lieutenant colonel in Braunschweig service. In Braunschweig in 1786, Mauvillon met Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, Count Mirabeau, who was working in Berlin at the time to reconnoiter the Prussian court for the French. Mauvillon supplied material and notes for Mirabeau’s book on the Prussian monarchy, La Monarchie prussienne sous Frédéric le Grand by Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti Mirabeau (1788), and indeed is generally credited for composing considerable portions of the ponderous book, which Mirabeau published in French under his own name and which Mauvillon then published in translation under his. Mauvillon was subsequently accused of revolutionary agitation. (Portrait: 1784, engraving after painting attributed to Werner Kobold; Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Porträtstichsammlung, Inventar-Nr. 32/128.)
Concerning the relationship between Mauvillon and Mirabeau about which Caroline speaks, see George Peabody Gooch, Germany and the French Revolution (London 1920) 426–27:
While the Duke [of Braunschweig] watched the early stages of the [French] Revolution with mingled feelings, one of the most distinguished of his subjects felt a personal interest in its course. Mauvillon, the son of a Huguenot father, had devoted his life to military science and economics, and had served in the Seven Years’ War as an engineer. When Mirabeau visited Germany and resolved to compile a detailed survey of the Prussian Monarchy, he found in him the assistant he required. While the Frenchman supplied the scheme of the book and paid its expenses, Mauvillon collected and arranged the material. “I did the work,” wrote the latter, “and he gave the child a suitable dress for its appearance in the world.” Mirabeau, in turn, publicly expressed his obligations to “my German collaborator” in his preface, and privately pronounced the work “truly excellent in every respect.” The two men took to each other at once, and the Brunswicker described himself as the only man in Germany who agreed wholly with his views on economics and administration. As a democratic liberal Mauvillon welcomed the Revolution, and followed the activity of his friend with sympathetic admiration. After Mirabeau’s death [2 April 1791], when the reactionary tide began to flow, his association with the orator was cast in his teeth. He replied by publishing his letters, which deal largely with their collaboration in The Prussian Monarchy, and reflect honour on both. He remained none the less a marked man, and his letters were opened in the post. One of them, written to a friend in Hesse-Cassel [librarian and professor Ernst Wilhelm Cuhn], expressed his joy that the Constitution was taking root, and expressed the hope that in a year or two he would see the flame of revolution shooting up in Germany. The Landgrave sent a copy to the Duke, asking him to dismiss the writer from his post; but the Duke declined to take action.
Mauvillon was no more of a Jacobin than Mirabeau. He abhorred the horrors, wrote his friend Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, as much as he abhorred the old despotism; but he refused to abate a jot of his democratic faith when the skies darkened. . . . Mauvillon denounced German reactionaries and French doctrinaires with equal vigour.
King Maximilian I of Bavaria (also known as Maximilian Joseph) (1756–1825): 1799–1805 prince elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph), 1805–25 king of Bavaria (as Maximilian I). Son of the Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, succeeded his brother, Charles II, as Duke of Zweibrücken in April 1795 and became Elector of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine in February 1799. A sympathy with France and with French ideas of Enlightenment characterized his reign. From 1785 married to Auguste Wilhelmine von Hessen-Darmstadt, who died in 1796 (it was her daughter, Auguste, who married Eugène Beauharnais in 1806); from 1797 married to Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine von Baden. Until 1813 he was essentially a follower of Napoleon, the relation being cemented by the marriage of his daughter to Eugene Beauharnais, about which Caroline speaks in a rather indignant letter. Through the Treaty of Pressburg in December 1805, however, he received the royal title and important territorial acquisitions, also a member in the Confederation of the Rhine. Remained Napoleon’s ally until the eve of the Battle of Leipzig, when through the Treaty of Ried (October 1813) he joined the Allies. Although as prince elector and king he was involved in Schelling’s appointments in Würzburg (1803) and Munich (1806), he was never particularly favorably disposed toward Schelling. (Portrait: Zweihundert deutsche Männer in Bildnissen und Lebensbeschreibungen, ed. Ludwig Bechstein [Leipzig 1854], unpaginated [alphabetical] entry on Maximilian I. Joseph, König von Bayern.)
Mecklenburg, Elena Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of (1784–1803): Daughter of Czar Paul I of Russia; Catherine the Great, her grandmother, named her after Helen of Troy because of her beauty. On 23 October 1799 she married the hereditary prince Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1778–1819). In March 1801, the year of her incident with Duke Karl August in Berlin, she lost two family members: on 16 March her sister Alexandra in childbirth, then Paul I himself a week later, who was assassinated. She herself died suddenly in September 1803. Her sister married Karl August’s son, Karl Friedrich, in 1804. (Portrait: Josef Grassi, 1802. Pavlovsk Palace.)
Medicus, Ludwig Wallrad (8 August 1771–18 September 1850): Studied political economy in Heidelberg 1789–91, though also mathematics, mineralogy, and mining, then the business school in Hamburg. After his return from Hamburg, pursued forestry and agricultural studies 1792–93 in the Rhine Palatinate and Württemberg. From late 1795 special professor in Heidelberg, and was soon appointed an administrative counsel for mining and forestry, thereby being relieved of his teaching duties. From 1804 professor of forestry and mining studies in Würzburg. From 1806 in Landshut, eventually teaching technology, civil construction, and business, from 1826 in Munich.
Mehmel, Gottlieb Ernst August (1761–1840): Professor of philosophy, librarian in Landshut. Studied at the pedagogical institute in Halle and afterward also theology and philosophy at the university there. From 1780 part-time teacher at the orphans’ school, from 1781 teacher at the pedagogical institute. From 1788, the later minister Prince August Baron von Hardenberg engaged him as a private tutor to his son, whom Mehmel accompanied to Copenhagen for two years, then from 1791 at the university in Erlangen, where in 1792 Hardenberg, who in the meantime had become the Prussian minister governing Ansbach-Bayreuth, appointed him associate professor of philosophy and aesthetics. In 1793 he and his wife journeyed to Königsberg to meet Kant, where he also met Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel. On the return journey he met Matthias Claudius in Wandsbeck. From 1794 secretary of the Institute of Morality and Aesthetics, from 1799 full professor of philosophy. From 1800 co-editor of the Erlanger Litteratur-Zeitung. Published on general philosophy, cognition, logic, aesthetics, and on the relation between philosophy and religion, always with a focus on morality but also subject to the charge of being a Kantian dilettant. Later also published on Fichte. From 1804 also deputy librarian in Erlangen, from 1817 head librarian.
Meiners, Christoph (1747–1810) and (from 1777) his wife, Luise Friederike, née Achenwall, daughter of a Göttingen professor: Historian, ethnographer, polyhistorian. His disinclination to systematic study even as a boy prompted him to pursue his studies more autodidactically, even at the university in Göttingen (1767–70), where he largely made use of the library rather than attending lectures. From 1772 as associate professor in Göttingen, from 1775 full professor. From 1776 member of the Göttinger Society. Prolific, well-traveled author largely of pieces on the history of religions, cultural history, and ethnography. He later edited the anti-Kantian Philosophische Bibliothek (1788–91) with his former professor Johann Georg Heinrich Feder. His Anweisung für Jünglinge zu eigenen Arbeiten (1789) presents a method for reading, excerpting, and combining materials, a method he himself employed but which, at least in his case, did tend to lack precision and depth. In general, Meiners was driven to inform his contemporaries historically concerning every possible topic, whence the bewildering plethora of publications. One of his best-known works was perhaps his Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit (1785, 1793); there and in his Untersuchungen über die Verschiedenheiten der Menschennaturen in Asien und den Südländern, in den ostindischen und Südseeinseln (3 vols., 1811–15) he presented a thesis, one already criticized by Georg Forster and Johann Gottfried Herder, that the “beautiful white race” was fundamentally different from the “ugly colored races.” (Portrait: engraving by unknown artist; Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Inventar-Nr. Graph. Slg. P_1067.)
Meiners, Luise Friederike (Friderica Luisa), née Achenwall (dates unknown): daughter of a Göttingen professor and from 1777 wife of Professor Christoph Meiners in Göttingen. (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], 24.)
(Meiningen,) Karl August Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Saxony Meiningen (1754–82): From 1763, along with his brother Friedrich Karl, from 1782 Georg I (there being no primogeniture), under the regency of his mother, Charlotte Amalie von Hesse-Philippsthal. In Frankfurt, where his father’s residence was located, he met Goethe, thereafter having various personal contact with him. From 1775 co-regent with his mother. Karl early exhibited an interest in art and science, eventually studying in Strasbourg with his brother, where they took advantage of the theater, libraries, and art collections. Also became acquainted with Karl August, Duke of Weimar, and his brother Constantin, though especially with Goethe, whom he met on three occasions in Frankfurt and Strasbourg (Goethe recounts a Frankfurt visit in 1775 in Dichtung und Wahrheit, book 20. A financially prudent ruler who also promoted education and the amateur theater in Meiningen, even performing the title role himself in Johann Anton Leisewitz’s Julius von Tarent (1775) and consulting H. A. O. Reichard in Gotha in theater matters. On 5 June 1780 he married Princess Luise, née Stolberg-Gedern (1764–1834), though they had no children (Caroline, writing in September 1781, could thus easily refer to Luise as the “young duchess of Meiningen”). Karl’s mother withdrew from the regency in February 1782, after which Karl and his brother ruled as coregents, his brother then ruling alone after Karl’s premature death on 21 July 1782.
Meiningen, Luise, Duchess of, née Stolberg-Gedern (1764–1834): from 5 June 1780 wife of Karl August Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Saxony-Meiningen.
Meissner (Meisner), August Gottlieb (1753–1807): Writer. Studied law in Wittenberg and Leipzig (1773–76), where his literary and theatrical interested led to an acquaintance with Conrad Ekhof, Friederike Seyler, and Johann Christian Brandes, and in 1776 already began publishing on his own, including a comic opera. Apparently, however, his mother and various friends advised him to sever his relations with the theater. From 1776 chancery clerk in Dresden, later of the archives there. From 1785 professor of aesthetics and classical literature in Prague, from 1805 consistory councilor and director of the lycée (university college) in Fulda. Although he also wrote poetry and plays and translated singspiels and comedies from the French, he was best known for his prose works and entertaining, moralizing collections of stories (Skizzen [1778ff.]). Also wrote biographies of significant persons associated with the Italian Renaissance and Greco-Roman antiquity (e.g., Alcibiades, 4 vols. [1781–88]); his play Johann von Schwaben (1780) was also popular.
Meister, Georg Jacob Friedrich (1755–1832): From 17 October 1786 husband of Louise Böhmer; 1778–82 studied law at the university in Göttingen, thereafter becoming a private lecturer and, from 1784, professor of law. (Portrait: copper engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen; Herzog-August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel.)
Meister, Leonhard (1741–1811): Swiss theologian, pastor, writer. Inclined to prolific writing even as a child, read voraciously (Spinoza and others), studying also under Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger. From 1757 in Germany, where he immersed himself in French literature. Wholly disinclined to systematic study, he was nonetheless ordained in 1764, spent several years as a private house tutor and administrator, also publishing. Back in Zürich, he published several satirical works that prompted criticism from both pious laity and politicians. From 1773 professor of geography and history at the art institute in Zürich, but with a reputation for sloppiness and moodiness as a teacher; he prefered instead to publish prolifically, which did enhance his reputation both in Switzerland and abroad. Left his professorship in 1791 and became a pastor, moving later to Lucerne but returning to Zürich in 1800. Described himself quite openly as a good-natured, active, neglectful, and restless person who was governed largely by his imagination and moods, as a restless author who generally sacrificed discipline and scholarly rigor to the urge to publish things as quickly as possible, and as someone who “strayed unwillingly into the learned regions . . . never really intending to be scholarly, but merely seeking diversion and recreation.” Whence Schiller’s xenion distich no. 266:
266. Herr Leonhard **.Though I read your name in twenty writings, yet It is precisely your name [Meister, master] that is absent from them all.
Mejer (Meyer), Johann Friedrich (1705–69): Privy secretary at the German chancery in London, father of Georg Ludwig Böhmer’s wife, Henriette Philippine Elisabeth Böhmer.
Mejer (Meyer), Luise Justine (1746–86): Friend and correspondent of young Therese Heyne from Hannover and Celle, from 1785 first wife of Heinrich Christian Boie. (Portrait: 1782 by Heinrich Schröder; Dithmarscher Landesmuseum.)
Mellish, Caroline (Karolina) Ernestine Frederica Sophia Baroness von Stein zu Nord-und Ostheim (1777–1824): Wife of Joseph Charles Mellish. A daughter, Elizabeth, married name von Oppeln, was born in Weimar in 1799, as well as a son, Richard Charles Mellish (1801–65).
Mellish (variously Melish, Melisch) of Blythe, Joseph Charles (Carl) (1769–1823): Educated at the Latin school in Eton and from 1786 studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge. Came to Germany in 1794, traveling by way of Hamburg, where he made Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock’s acquaintance, on to Weimar, where he kept the company of Goethe, Schiller, and Johann Gottfried Herder and was himself received at court. From 1797 Saxon-Weimar Kammerherr. Lived variously in Weimar, from 1798 to 1802 in Dornburg an der Saale (ten kilometers north of Jena), and in Nordheim. From 1808 British consul in Palermo, then in Louisiana, from 1814 consul for Lower Saxony and the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck. — An accomplished linguist, he wrote and translated poetry and plays in German, English, and Latin. Was disinherited by his father on account of his extravagance and gambling, the estate being entailed on his younger brother, Henry Francis Mellish, and his heirs, with remainder to the two sisters. He married a German baroness, Caroline (Karolina) Ernestine Frederica Sophia Baroness von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1777–1824) (Duke Karl August made Mellish a Kammerherr in 1798 to make the marriage possible), and one of his sons was born in Weimar in 1801 (with Goethe as his godfather). In 1802, Schiller bought his third (and last) residence in Weimar for 4200 Thaler, what is today known as the Schillerhaus, from Mellish, who had had the house built for himself. Mellish translated Schiller’s Wallenstein and Maria Stuart, the latter as soon as it was finished, which is why the English version appeared before the German: Mary Stuart. A Tragedy (London 1801); see Elke H. M. Ritt Mary Stuart. A tragedy (1801) von Joseph Charles Mellish: Die autorisierte englische Blankversübersetzung von Schillers Maria Stuart. Analyse und Text, nebst einer Biographie des Übersetzers und handschriftlichem Dokumentationsmaterial (Munich 1993). In 1798 he translated Goethe’s Hermann und Dorothea.
Mendelssohn (later Bartholdy), Abraham (1776–1835): Son of Moses Mendelssohn, brother of Dorothea and Henriette Mendelssohn, founder with his brother Joseph of the Mendelssohn banking firm. Did his banking apprenticeship in Paris, moving back to Berlin in 1812 with his family, where he raised his children as Christians and converted with his wife in 1822, taking the name Bartholdy. Father of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
Mendelssohn, Fromet, née Gugenheim (1737–1812): A native of Hamburg, from 1762 wife of Moses Mendelssohn; mother of Dorothea Schlegel. (Portrait: unknown artist; in Almut Spalding, Elise Reimarus [Würzburg 2005].)
Mendelssohn, Henriette (Jette) (Maria) (23 August 1775–9 November 1831): Daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, sister of Dorothea (Brendel) Mendelssohn-Veit-Schlegel. After her father’s death lived with her sister Recha Meyer in Neustrelitz, during the summer 1793 with Brendel (Dorothea) in Schönhausen, then in Berlin apparently in close contact with her brothers, Joseph and Abraham, then again with Dorothea. Well educated, as were all her siblings, also played piano and was interested in music, art, and literature. Through Fanny von Arnstein accepted a position as governess in Arnstein’s nephew’s house in Vienna, traveling there in April 1799 but resigning and returning disappointed in 1801. From 1802 in Paris (probably at her brother’s behest), where she established a school for girls in the garden house of the banker Fould, her own apartment then becoming a popular meeting place for Germans in Paris and also including Madame de Staël and Benjamin Constant among her guests. From 1812 took another position as governess, though now living a more reclusive life and rather disappointed in the intellectual limitations of her charge, though she did take various journeys during this period (including a visit to Madame de Staël in Switzerland). After criticizing Dorothea’s conversion to Christianity, she herself converted in 1812 (taking the Christian name Maria), though more for social than religious reasons even though later in life she did develop an uncompromising faith which she shared with Dorothea. Returned to Berlin in 1825, where she remained for the rest of her life. She never married.
Mendelssohn, Joseph (Josef) (1770–1848): Banker. Son of Moses Mendelssohn, brother of Dorothea (Brendel) Mendelssohn-Veit-Schlegel. Established a bank in 1795 in Berlin, which from 1799 to 1804 he operated with Moses Friedländer, then with his brother Abraham (1776–1835; father of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Abraham having taken the name Bartholdy after converting to Christianity). His bank’s role in brokering the French reparations to Prussia after 1815 not only prompted considerable growth in the enterprise, but also established connections with the Rothschild’s in Frankfurt. Ultimately one of the most successful private German banks, it was headed by descendants of the family until its acquisition by the Deutsche Bank in 1938. (Portrait: National Library of Israel, Schwadron collection.)
Mendelssohn, Moses (1729–86): Jewish philosopher in Berlin, from 1754 friends with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, corresponded with Immanuel Kant, defended Judaism from the perspective of the laws of reason; as such an advocate, influenced the understanding of Judaism with Kant, Hegel, and others. Father of Dorothea Schlegel. (Portrait: Kunstbesitz der Universität Leipzig.)
Mendelssohn, Recha (1767–1831): Second daughter of Moses and Fromet Mendelssohn, sister of Dorothea and Henriette. Married Mendel Meyer, son of her father’s friend, the banker Nathan Meyer (or Meyerkatz); Mendel Meyer was also the brother of Joseph Mendelssohn’s wife, Henriette, and of Sophie Fraenkel, with whom Dorothea compares Caroline’s external appearance (letter 247c). The marriage was not a happy one and was soon dissolved. Recha then established a boarding school for girls in Altona, and later lived at Berlin in close association with her brother Abraham. Her daughter, Rebecka (1793–1850) married a brother of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. She and her brother Josef were the only two Mendelssohn children to remain Jewish. (Portrait: by Wilhelm Hensel, in Preussische Bildnisse des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zeichnungen von Wilhelm Hensel. Veröffentlicht von der Nationalgalerie Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz [Berlin 1981].)
Mengs, Anton Raphael (1728–79): Son of a Saxon court painter, himself later a court painter for August III in Dresden. Spent considerable time in Rome, including for his early studies, later also in Madrid and then in Rome yet again. Representative of Neoclassicism who was extremely well respected during his lifetime. From 1755 closely acquainted with Johann Joachim Winckelmann. (Portrait: Zweihundert deutsche Männer in Bildnissen und Lebensbeschreibungen, ed. Ludwig Bechstein [Leipzig 1854], unpaginated [alphabetical] entry on Anton Raphael Mengs.)
Menou, Baron Jacques-François de (1750–1810): French general, commander in Egypt after the assassination of Kléber in 1800; adopted Islam, defeated by English at Alexandria in March 1801.
Merck, Johann Heinrich (1741–91) (Caroline: “Merk”): Writer, critic. From 1757 studied in Giessen and Erlangen, from 1762 at the Academy of Art in Dresden. After working as a private tutor in Switzerland, occupied various administrative positions in Darmstadt, also serving as an art guide to Anna Amalia during the latter’s trip to the Rhein in 1778. As a member of the Darmstadt circle, he became acquainted with Goethe, also seeing him later in Weimar (1777–83). Published literary translations from the English, also the critical journal Frankfurter gelehrter Anzeiger in 1772, and contributed to the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek and Der Teutsche Merkur. From 1782 undertook studies in the natural sciences and traveled to Switzerland and Holland for research. Corresponded with Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock, among others. After joining the Jacobin club in Paris in 1790 and later being subjected to hostilities from French émigrés and getting into financial difficulties, he committed suicide in 1791.
Mereau, Emina Gisela Hulda (1797–1832): Daughter of Sophie Mereau and Friedrich Ernst Carl Mereau. From 1824 married Karl Ullmann. When Sophie and her husband divorced in 1801, Sophie was given custody of Hulda, and when she married Clemens Brentano in 1803, Brentano adopted the child.
Mereau, Friedrich Ernst Carl (1765–1825): Professor of philosophy and law in Jena. A native of Gotha, Mereau received a masters in philosophy in Jena along with a doctorate in law before becoming an attorney. From 1795 associate professor of law, from 1800 full professor after publishing several well-received works on international, civil, and penal law. His marriage to Sophie Mereau, née Schubert, ended first in separation, then, through a special dispensation from Duke Karl August (circumventing the ecclesiastical consistory), in divorce, a circumstance influencing Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel’s course of action in pursuing their own divorce. Mereau married Christiane Juliane Herold in 1802, advancing then to administrative positions in 1803 and 1806, though during the events of the war he was accused of espionage and sentenced to death by drawing his judges’ attention to his membership in the Freemasons. His later activity was characterized by extraordinarily effective judgeship and legal work on the local level.
Mereau, Sophie Friederike, née Schubart (or Schubert), later Brentano, pseudonym Serafine (1770–1806): Daughter of a tax administrator, married Friedrich Karl Ernst Mereau in 1793, a professor of philosophy and law in Jena, whom she divorced in 1801. As a writer initially influenced by Christoph Martin Wieland and Schiller, contributing to both Schiller’s periodicals Thalia and the Die Horen, later being more inclined after the fashion of the Romantic school. Published a novel in 1794 under the name Mereau, Das Blüthenalter der Empfindung, then in 1797 the epistolary novel Amanda und Eduard, and two volumes of Gedichte 1800–1802. Edited the Göttinger Musenalmanach for 1803 and the journal Kalthiskos 1801/02. After marrying Clemens Brentano in 1803, whom she had met in Jena in 1799, she lived in Marburg, then from 1804 in Jena, from 1805 in Heidelberg. She died in October 1806 giving birth to her third child (the first two had already died). (Portrait: ca. 1798, by unknown artist.)
Merkel, Garlieb Helwig (1769–1850): Political writer, journalist, resolute anti-Romantic who engaged in countless literary skirmishes with the Jena Romantics but nonetheless flirted with Caroline during her trip to Berlin in 1802. A native of Livonia. Merkel’s father, who died early, educated him early according to the principles of Enlightenment philosophy and rationalism, after which Merkel was essentially self-taught. Several positions as a private tutor on the estates of nobles prompted his rejection of serfdom. He started publishing literary, political, and historical works in the early 1790s. Left Livonia in 1796, studied medicine in Leipzig and Jena before moving to Weimar in 1797, where he became acquainted with Johann Gottfried Herder, Karl August Böttiger, and Christoph Martin Wieland, and then to Frankfurt an der Oder, where he earned his doctorate. From 1799 in Berlin, where he took a resolute position against the “new school” and was drawn into Böttiger and August von Kotzebue’s hostilities against Goethe and Schiller, published several journals (Ernst und Scherz and, with Kotzebue, Der Freimüthige) and opposed Napoleon. Not surprisingly, he had to flee Berlin in 1806 after the Battle of Jena, returning to the area around Riga, Latvia. In his Briefe an ein Frauenzimmer über die neusten Produkte der schönen Litteratur in Deutschland (1800–1803), he attacked Ludwig Tieck and the Schlegels, also criticizing Goethe and Schiller. Variously known for his vanity and overestimation of his own literary-critical abilities. On the other hand, his book Die Letten, vorzüglich in Liefland, am Ende des philosophischen Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1797), which later served as a material source for Latvian and Estonian history, represents one of the earliest criticisms of serfdom. (Portrait: drawing by unknown artist.)
Merlin de Thionville (Antoine-Christophe Merlin de Thionville) (1762–1833): From 1790 representative in the legislative assembly from Moselle, member of the Jacobin Club, later member of the National Assembly from the extreme left of the Mountain Party, one of the most vehement accusers of Louis XVI. Commissar to the armies of the Rhine, Vosges, and Moselle, helped direct the defense of Mainz during the siege of 1793.
Messerer, Johann Theobald (1748–89): From 1782 student in Göttingen and tutor to Heinrich Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken.
Metastasio (Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi) (1698–1782): Italian pastoral poet of the Arcadian school, also engaged in the development of opera, viewed as the initiator of the genre of melodrama.
Metternich, Clemens Lothar Wenzel (1773–1859): Austrian foreign minister for forty years, son of an Austrian ambassador to the courts of prince electors in Germany. Westphalian master of ceremonies at the the coronations of Franz II as Holy Roman Empire in Frankfurt in 1792, about which Caroline speaks in her letters. Married into the Austrian nobility. Westphalian representative at the Congress of Rastadt between 1797 and 1799. From 1801 Austrian envoy to the elector of Saxony, from November 1803 in Berlin. After the battle of Austerlitz, he became Austrian ambassador in Paris. From 1809 Austrian foreign minister, as which he arranged the marriage between Napoleon and Marie Louise. After the fall of Napoleon he presided at the Congress of Vienna but did not favor German unity under Prussia. Although he wielded extraordinary power for the next 30 years, had to flee to England during the revolutions of 1848, returning in 1851 with almost no influence. Known in Germany esp. for his repressive measures in connection with the universities.
Metternich, Mathias (1747–1825): Studied in Mainz and Göttingen, student of Abraham Kästner and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in Göttingen, later professor of physics and mathematics in Mainz, co-founder of the Mainz Jacobin Club, one of its most important members, from 1793 briefly vice-president of the Rheinish-German National Assembly (the Mainz parliament). See his description in the pro-Prussian list of Clubbists Getreues Namenverzeichnis der in Mainz sich befindenden 454 Klubbisten, mit Bemerkung derselben Charakter (Frankfurt 1793), 10: “Metternich, former professor of mathematics and experimental physics in Mainz, thereafter municipal councilor there, currently with the Rheinish National Assembly; a coarse, fat, boorish person who, moreover, is plagued by an untreatable delirium.”
Metz, Andreas (1767–1839): Catholic theologian, philosopher, mathematician. Studied in Würzburg, from 1786 in the priests’ seminary, ordained in 1791, from 1792 chaplain in Grossbardorf, from 1794 professor of philosophy and mathematics at the Würzburg Gymnasium, attained the university venia legendi (permission to lecture), from 1802 full professor at the university as the successor to Maternus Reuss, who, like Metz, was an advocate of Kantian philosophy. Metz published several works in this regard, including Kurze und deutliche Darstellung des kantischen Systems (1802). Also published works on the philosophy of nature and mathematics.
Meusel, Johann Georg (1743–1820): Historian, lexicographer, bibliographer, and philologist in Erlangen and contributor in the field of the scholarly history and other biographical anthologies. From 1764 studied philology and history in Göttingen under Christian Gottlob Heyne and Johann Christoph Gatterer after a bad experience trying to deliver a sermon convinced him to abandon theology. From 1766, after following another professor to Halle, received his doctorate and began lecturing on Greek and Latin writers and on scholarly history. From 1768 full professor of history in Erfurt. Declined an appointment in Giessen and, in 1779, in Jena, but did accept a position in Erlangen later that year, where he spent the rest of his life. An extraordinarily prolific writer whose works were of considerable significance more for the collection and editing of materials than for new ideas. His publications cover European history, literary history, scholarly history, also disciplines ancillary to history, including statistics. One particularly significant work was that begun by Georg Christoph Hamberger (1726–73) in 1767 (Hamberger had been a professor in Göttingen), Das gelehrte Teutschland oder Lexikon der jetzlebenden teutschen Schriftsteller (1796–1834), which includes ca. fifteen thousand German authors; Meusel edited the 3rd–5th editions from 1773 till his death.
Meyer, Angelica Maria Amalia (17 January 1775–13 May 1807): Daughter of Johann Valentin and Margaretha Meyer in Hamburg. One of the Meyers’ eleven children.
Meyer, Ferdinand Daniel (2 January 1778–11 September 1800): Son of Johann Valentin and Margaretha Meyer in Hamburg. One of the Meyer’s eleven children. In 1795 he followed his brother Johann Valentin Meyer to Cadix for business, where he died during an epidemic three days after his brother.
Meyer, Friedrich Albrecht Anton (29 June 1768–29 November 1795): Brother of Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer; studied medicine in Göttingen and later became a physician and naturalist, also trying his hand as a playwright.
Meyer, Wilhelm Elogius (thus on the title page of Eros [Berlin 1805] rather than “Eulogius,” as Caroline spells it) (1784–18 May 1805): A native of Breslau, earned his doctorate in philosophy. He also wrote Horribunda, ein Drama (Berlin 1805) and Klio Thalia (Breslau 1801). His Horribunda was reviewed in the Ergänzungsblätter to the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung 23 (Saturday, 24 February 1810), 183–84; the review begins:
This Horribunda describes our present age, which is despicably abused by its hyper-ingenious children (according to the playwright, the piece is set in the year 1904) and finally murdered. Philosophers and poets, heroic and sentimental women, base and extraordinary personalities of all sorts move about here in colorful groups, mutually provoking and killing one another until, finally, the new age gains victory and emerges triumphantly in perfection from the ruins of the old. There is no real dramatic plan to be found here; instead, what we have is the opportunity to peer into a kind of peep show in which things proceed rather strangely indeed.
Meyer, Friedrich Johann Lorenz (1760–1844): Jurist, writer, canon of the Hamburg cathedral. Studied law in Göttingen from 1778–82, where he received his law doctorate. Became engaged to Friederike Böhmer, and after acquiring financial independence when his mother died undertook an educational tour of Switzerland, Italy, and France. In 1784 he then settled as an attorney in Hamburg, marrying Friederike Böhmer on 12 April 1785, daughter of his Göttingen professor Georg Ludwig Böhmer (becoming thus also Caroline’s brother-in-law); from 1784 (last) cathedral canon in Hamburg. Meyer spoke at Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s funeral on 22 March 1803, publishing a description of the event: Klopstocks Worte. An Seinem Sarge gesprochen den 22. März 1803 (Hamburg 1803); Klopstocks Gedächtniss-Feier (Hamburg 1803). Worked as an attorney and till 1825 as secretary of the Hamburg Society for Promoting the Arts and Useful Professions. Participated in Hamburg diplomatic missions to France (1796, 1801) and visited Russia in 1828, eventually also publishing accounts of his travels. (Silhouette as a student in Göttingen: Carl Friedrich Schubert, Sammlung von Schattenrissen, der Professoren, Studenten, schönen Geistern, auch einigen eleganten Göttinger Piecen – die beygefügten Anmerkungen sind wahr und nicht zur Belustigung sondern zu meiner Erinnerung beygesetzt, Göttingen, d. 20ten Juny 1779 – nec temere nec timide, Handschriftenabteilung der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.)
Meyer, Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm (also: Harburg Meyer) (1758–1840): Writer, born in Harburg. Attended school in Hamburg, after which (1775–79) he studied law in Kiel and Göttingen and then tried, unsuccessfully, to a secure position. Began making contacts in the literary world and publishing, including in Christian August Bertram’s Litteratur- und Theater-Zeitung (Berlin). Worked as a private secretary in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna, then from 1783 in an administrative position in Stade before taking a position in 1785 as professor (extraordinarius) of intellectual history and administrator at the university library in Göttingen through Christian Gottlob Heyne’s mediation, a post he occupied until 1788. During this period he also tutored English princes, took several trips, and made contacts in various literary circles, including with Schiller in Weimar. He gave up the university position in 1788 and traveled through England, France, and Italy, returning to Hamburg in 1791. He then lived as a freelance writer in Berlin. From 1795 to 1797 co-edited the Berlinisches Archiv der Zeit und ihres Geschmacks, which was so severely castigated in Schiller and Goethe’s Xenien (no. 255) even though Schiller had earlier solicited Meyer to proof his Musenalmanach. His financial situation improved when his brother died in 1795, and in 1797, no longer dependent on literary work, he bought the Bramstedt Estate in Holstein, seven miles from Hamburg, where he lived till his death, continuing to travel and publish (he is buried in the cemetery of Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche in Bad Bramstedt). He published poetry and plays, a novel (Fiormona, oder Briefe aus Italien [Berlin 1794]), a biography of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder (Hamburg 1823), and translated works from English, French, and Italian. Although his literary output has been largely forgotten, his name frequently occurs in connection with some of the most significant personalities of the age; his receptive nature, good taste, and sometimes peculiar personality brought him more subsequent renown than did his literary works, e.g., his poetry, which betrays more the dilettante, albeit a gifted dilettante. Even his numerous reviews reveal more the assessment of a reasonably bright man than the solid criticism of a specialist. Pütter, Gelehrten-Geschichte 3:205–9 provides an exhaustive bibliography of his publications. For Erich Schmidt’s original assessment of Meyer in 1913, see supplementary appendix Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer; also Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter on 7 September 1797 (letter 185), note 8. (Silhouette as a student in Göttingen: Carl Friedrich Schubert, Sammlung von Schattenrissen, der Professoren, Studenten, schönen Geistern, auch einigen eleganten Göttinger Piecen – die beygefügten Anmerkungen sind wahr und nicht zur Belustigung sondern zu meiner Erinnerung beygesetzt, Göttingen, d. 20ten Juny 1779 – nec temere nec timide, Handschriftenabteilung der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.)
Meyer, Heinrich (dates unknown): Berlin physician, from early 1801 (at latest) husband of the Berlin actress Johanna Henriette Meyer, née Schüler, who divorced him in 1803. Although 1802 is traditionally given as the year of their marriage, Caroline unequivocally refers to her as “Madam Meyer” in her letters to Wilhelm as early as May 1801. In the spring of 1802, Heinrich Meyer refused to allow his wife to continue to perform the role of Creusa in Wilhelm’s play Ion because he considered some of the lines she had to speak indecent.
Meyer, Johann Heinrich (Caroline often refers to him as Mephistopheles) (1760–1832): Swiss-born artist and art historian, sometimes called “Goethe-Meyer.” Raised near Zürich, studied drawing under H. K. Füsslie, who also introduced him to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. From 1784 in Rome, where he met Goethe in 1786 in an art gallery, their friendship then lasting some forty years, during which he advised Goethe in matters relating to art. From 1788 worked as a drawing instructor in Naples, where he met Duchess Anna Amalia and Johann Gottfried Herder. Goethe invited him to Weimar in 1791, where he then lived in an apartment in Goethe’s home till 1802, also directing the renovation of the house in a classicist style. Returned to Rome and Florence, then taught at the art school in Weimar after his return, becoming its director in 1806. In 1799 he directed the interior decoration of the Weimar castle. From 1798 co-published the periodical Propyläen with Goethe, in which they also conducted competitions for young artists. He contributed to the latter’s anthology Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert (1805), and to Goethe’s theory of colors. Between 1809 and 1815, he wrote his history of art (Geschichte der Kunst), which was published posthumously. (Portrait: J. Schmeller; Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 284.)
Meyer, Johann Valentin (5 January 1745–1811): Elder half-brother of Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer in Hamburg. Enjoyed a thorough education, including time abroad (primarily France) before returning to Hamburg and entering the family business, becoming the associate of his brother Hinrich Lorenz in 1770 after his father’s death. After his brother’s death in October 1772, he ran the company alone, also taking over the house in the Catharinenstraße, where Luise Michaelis visited his family and enjoyed their connections with Hamburg society. The family also had a country home outside Hamburg. Deeply involved in Hamburg municipal life, including in the courts and ecclesiastical boards and as well as on military boards. From 14 May 1771 married to Margaretha Amalia, née Bausch, daughter of a merchant who had established a business in St. Petersburg and then moved to Hamburg in 1744. The Bausch family was also deeply involved in Hamburg municipal life. Meyer was a senator in Hamburg from 1800 till his death in 1811. Unfortunately, between August and October 1800, the two eldest sons died in Cadix during an epidemic along with one of the married sisters and her spouse, and on 23 September 1806 his wife died, a suspicion Caroline mentions in her letter to Luise Wiedemann on 30 November 1806. Finally, his eldest daughter died shortly thereafter, on 13 May 1807. The later occupation of Hamburg in 1811 by the French allegedly undermined Meyer’s health as well, and he died on 16 October 1811.
Meyer, Johanna Henriette Rosine, née Schüler (1772–1849): Actress, mimic artist. Debuted on stage in Breslau when she was two years old. From 1775 in Gotha, where her actor parents were engaged at the court theater under Konrad Eckhof and she took music lessons from Georg Benda and dance lessons from August Wilhelm Iffland’s teacher Mereau and continue to perform children’s roles. From 1781 in Berlin (Döbbelin company), where she had lessons in declamation, languages, mime, history, and mythology, performing children’s roles in the ballet till 1785, in which year she also debuted on stage in an adult role and also performed in operas. Married the tenor Friedrich Eunicke (1764–1844) in 1788 and moved to Mainz, where she excelled especially in roles in August von Kotzebue’s plays. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, the couple moved to Bonn, then in 1792 to Amsterdam and in 1794 to Frankfurt, where she became acquainted with the drawings of the “attitudes of Lady Hamilton.” From 1796 in Berlin, where she divorced Eunike in 1797 and in 1801 married the physician Heinrich. Meyer (he objected to her portrayal of the allegedly lewd role of Creusa in Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion), divorcing him three years later. [Note: Although she is traditionally said to have married Heinrich Meyer in 1802, Caroline unequivocally refers to her as the actress “Madam Meyer” in her letter to Wilhelm on 25 May 1801 (letter 318), referring specifically to her earlier residence in Mainz, and similarly in her letter to Wilhelm on 7–12 June 1801 (letter 320).] Withdrew from the stage in 1806 and moved to Stettin, marrying the military physician Hendel, who died seven months later. Moved to Halle and married the young professor Karl Julius Schütz in 1811 (son of Christian Gottfried Schütz) and pursued studies of antiquity with Karl August Böttiger in Dresden, then dedicating herself almost exclusively to mimic portrayals with considerable success, even drawing Goethe’s attention and performing also in Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Russia, and France, and prompting Wilhelm Tischbein to proclaim her better than Lady Hamilton. Unlike Lady Hamilton, however, instead of copying paintings or sculptures she preferred presenting figures from the mythology of antiquity and Madonnas in the Renaissance style in changing dramatic situations, often illuminated on only one side. Separated from Schütz in 1824. (Portrait: frontispiece to the Taschenbuch fürs Theater, Mannheim 1795.)
Meyer, Margaretha Amalia, née Bausch (22 June 1754–23 September 1806): Wife of the merchant Johann Georg Bausch and Engel Emerentia, née Fincke; her father had established a business in St. Petersburg before moving to Hamburg in 1744. Her sister Helene Elisabeth married into a military family in Pomerania, and her brother, Johann Georg Bausch († 1835), was long a Hamburg senator. From 14 May 1771 married to Johann Valentin Meyer, elder half-brother of Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer, who married Caroline’s childhood friend and sister-in-law Friederike Böhmer. Margaretha Amalia Meyer had 11 children with Johann Valentin Meyer. Caroline mentions her ill health in her letter to Luise Wiedemann on 30 November 1806 (letter 419).
Meyer (Mayer), Marianne (Maria Anna) (von Eybenberg) (1770–1812): Berlin author. A baptized Jew and the younger, more beautiful sister of Sara von Grotthuss (née Sara Meyer, widowed Wulf [1763–1828]), Meyer was from 1797 involved in a secret, morganatic marriage with the Austrian envoy Prince Heinrich XIV Reuss, after whose death in 1799 his relatives in Vienna objected to her continuing to bear his name and title; she in her own turn successfully petitioned the emperor Leopold II to receive the title Frau von Eybenberg, and moved to Vienna. She had met Goethe in 1795 in Karlsbad and begun an extensive correspondence with him (he sent the manuscript of Die Wahlverwandtschaften to her for her opinion), eventually contributing to the Goethe-cult in Viennese salons. Her own literary estate, largely portrayals of people she knew in society, was lost.
Michaelis, Adolf (1835–1910): Classical archaeologist, son of Gustav Adolf Michaelis and grandson of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis, hence Caroline’s great-nephew. Born in Kiel, studied philology and archaeology in Leipzig, Berlin, and Kiel, earning his doctorate in 1857. From 1862 professor of archaeology and director of the plaster-cast collection in Greifswald, from 1865 professor in Tübingen, from 1872 in Strassbourg.
Michaelis, Auguste Katharine (Catharina Augusta), née Sympher (8 August [4 February?] 1778–22 May 1857): Native of Harburg, daughter of Friedrich Georg August Sympher (26 February 1748–6 September 1793) and Maria, née Tanke (20 June 1753–13 March 1788); from 8 January 1797 married to Gottfried Philipp Michaelis..
Michaelis, Charlotte Wilhelmine (Lotte), married name Dieterich (17 [27?] October 1766–2 April 1793; Luise Wiedemann dates her birth to 27 October, Erich Schmidt to 17 October 1766): Caroline’s younger sister, who from late 1780 till April 1782 attended the same boarding school in Gotha as Caroline had attended earlier; while there, she met and apparently had a liaison with August von Kotzebue, who described her as follows: “Her name is Lotte, she has black eyes, long eyelashes, looks like an angel, and is not very tall.” Lotte married publishing heir Heinrich Dieterich on 3 June 1792 after considerable opposition from his father, but she then died on 2 April 1793 from complications after giving birth (a scandal followed). Buried in the Weender Landstrasse cemetery in Göttingen near Gottfried August Bürger and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Her epitaph reads: “United hardly twelve moons, she escaped the arms of love, / Leaving behind to her family the image of her charm” (a rather droll story surrounds her epitaph, since strictly speaking it reads “hardly twelve fashions”; see Horst Gravenkamp, “‘Ein Mädchen, kaum zwölf Moden alt’: Lotte Michaelis und Sigmund Freud. Hintergründe eines Lichtenberg-Aphorismus,” Lichtenberg Jahrbuch [1989] 161–75). (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], 74.)
Michaelis, Christian Benedict (1680–1764): Caroline’s paternal grandfather; from 1714 professor of philosophy, thereafter also of theology and Near Eastern languages in Halle; married to Dorothea Hedwig, née Heldberg.
Michaelis, Christian Friedrich (Fritz) (13 May 1754–17 February 1814): Eldest son of Johann David Michaelis with his first wife, hence Caroline’s half-brother. Attended the Gymnasium in Coburg. Studied medicine in Göttingen (also studying languages, including Near Eastern and esp. English, in which he later published medical articles) and Groningen, finishing his degree in Strasbourg in 1776 with the dissertation De angina polyposa seu membranacea (Göttingen 1778; French trans. Paris 1811), in which he advocates the procedure of tracheotomy. Spent time studying in Paris and London, then from 1779 worked as military surgeon among Hessian troops in America during the American Revolution. From 4 June 1784 professor of practical medicine and anatomy in Kassel with the title of Personal Physican to the Landgrave, from 9 December 1785 professor of anatomy in Marburg, acquiring the title of Hofrath. Delivered his inaugural lecture in Marburg on 13 May 1786. From 1794 married to Friederike Sophie Charlotte, née von Breidenbach gen. Breidenstein, a Marburg native. 8 August 1798 acquired the title Hofrath and functioned as the university rector in 1800. From 1803 director of the newly established surgical institute there, from 1806 (or 1808) director of the Medicinal Deputation, and finally from 1813 director of the surgical section in the new University Hospital. Attested in 1804 as a member of the Society of Antiquities in Marburg, influenced perhaps by his father’s scholarly specialization in Göttingen. From 1794 married to the former Frau von Malsburg (Malzburg), (first name unknown), presumably née von Breitenstein. Was known for his work in the regeneration of nerves (Über die Regeneration der Nerven: ein Brief an Herrn Peter Camper [Cassel 1785]), a result of his research in London. Also first to attempt to treat clubfoot by severing the Achilles tendon. Died of what was known as Lazarethfieber, typically an iteration of epidemic typhus. Caroline, Auguste, and, until her death, Therese Böhmer lived with him in Marburg at Reitgasse 14.
Michaelis, Dorothea Hedwig, née Heldberg (1692–1736): Caroline’s paternal grandmother, daughter of Hofrath Anton Georg Heldberg in Celle.
Michaelis, Eduard Konrad (Conrad) († 1831): Son of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis; Caroline’s nephew; he and his brother Adolf lived with Luise And C. R. W. Wiedemann in Kiel after their father’s death in 1811. Eduard eventually entered the military, receiving his training in Hannover; killed in action fighting for the Poles at the battle of Ostrolenka (May 1831) as part of the Polish November uprising against the Russians. (Portrait: by Wilhelm von Harnier; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.)
Michaelis, Emma: Eldest daughter of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis.
Michaelis, Gottfried Philipp (15 August [28 July?] 1768–21 August [20 August?] 1811): Physician in Harburg/Hamburg. Caroline’s younger brother. Studied medicine in Göttingen and, from October 1788, Marburg, receiving his degree on 30 December 1790 in Göttingen. From 8 January 1797 married to Auguste Katharine Sympher (8 August 1778–1857) from Hamburg. Children: Gustav Adolph, Eduard, Emma, Marie, Sophie.
Michaelis, Gustav Adolf (1798–1848): Physician, gynecologist. Caroline’s nephew, son of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis, after whose death in 1811 he went to live with Caroline’s sister Luise (Wiedemann) in Kiel. Studied 1817–20 in Kiel and Göttingen, from 1820 back in Kiel, from 1821 spent a year in Paris for further study together with Victor Aimée Huber, Therese Huber’s son. After returning to Kiel and despite his Habilitation (1823), he was unable to teach as a professor because Kiel at the time was under Danish rule, hence he had to earn his doctorate again. Married Julie Jahn (1806–92); his son was the later archaeologist Adolf Michaelis (1835–1910). Finally confirmed as an assistant to Wiedemann in 1830. First German university professor to test the effects of washing with chlorinated water. The Michaelis rhomboid is named for him. Also investigated puerperal fever in 1847, of which his cousin died in childbed. Committed suicide in 1848; buried in Celle. (Portrait: by Wilhelm von Harnier; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.)
Michaelis, Johann David (27 February 1717–22 August 1791): Caroline’s father. Theologian, scholar of ancient near eastern studies. Married twice: from 1749 to 1759 to Johanna Christiana Friederike Schachtrup, daughter of a merchant from Clausthal; then after her death in 1759 to Louise Philippine Antoinette Schröder, daughter of the senior postmaster in Göttingen, Johann Eberhard Schröder (1704–61) and Anna Clara née Reinboldt (1717–81). From a theological family in Halle, where from 1733 he studied under his father and others at the university. Master’s degree in 1739, after which (1741) he undertook a scholarly journey to Holland and England. After returning to Halle, lectured on biblical studies, Semitic languages, natural history, and Latin authors, accepted an appointment as lecturer in Göttingen in 1745, where he became a representative of theologically moderate historical-critical scholarship in biblical studies. From 1746 associate professor, from 1750 full professor in the philosophical faculty (he never attained his doctorate and was never professor of theology, lecturing on dogmatics and morals only with special permission), lecturing on exegesis and Old and New Testament criticism, Hebrew antiquities, Mosaic law, and languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean, Syriac). Initiated and planned the Danish expedition to Arabia 1761–68, though he himself did not make the journey. His connections with French and Swedish officers enabled him to arrange better treatment for Göttingen during the Seven Years War (his house also avoiding billeting). (Portrait: Eberhard Siegfried Henne [1788]; Sammlung Blanckenhagen; originally published as the frontispiece to Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek 84 [1788], no. 1)
Michaelis, Louise (Luise, Louischen) Friederike (12 September 1770–30 June 1846): Caroline’s younger sister. Although courted by Friedrich Ludewig Bouterwek in Göttingen, she married Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann in Braunschweig on 28 March 28 1796. Her memoirs are an important source of information on the Michaelis family and life in Göttingen at the time. (Portrait Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke.)
Michaelis, Luise Philippine Antoinette, née Schröder (12 June 1739–5 February 1808): Caroline’s mother, from 17 August 1759 second wife of Johann David Michaelis; daughter of the senior postmaster in Göttingen, Johann Eberhard Schröder (1704–61) and Anna Clara née Reinboldt (1717–81). (Portrait: Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke.)
Michaelis, Marie (1805–74): Caroline’s niece, youngest daughter of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis, second wife of Justus Olshausen (1800–82; his first wife was Luise Wiedemann’s daughter, Zoe [Zoë]). After Luise’s death in 1846, the letters and other documents from Luise’s literary estate passed to Marie.
Michaelis, Salomo Heinrich Karl August (1769–1844): Friedrich Schlegel’s publisher who entertained hopes of getting Wilhelm Schlegel’s translation of Shakespeare but who was eventually harshly rejected by Schiller and allegedly went bankrupt. A native of Hameln, he studied in Berlin and Breslau before entering the service of a family in Neustrelitz as a private tutor. From 1795 received the privilege from Duke Karl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz to open a publishing company and bookstore in Neustrelitz, where he published the initial issues of his own Musenalmanach with Michaelis. From 1799 till 1807 Michaelis lived in France. It was never entirely clear why he abandoned his bookselling company. In 1811 became the first professor of German studies in Germany (in Tübingen), though he resigned the appointment in 1817 to enter politics, retiring from public life entirely in 1824.
Michaelis, Sophie: Caroline’s niece, second daughter of Gottfried Philipp Michaelis, after whose death in 1811 she initially lived with Christian Friedrich Michaelis in Marburg.
Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475–1564): Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and writer, initially patronized by the Medici family.
Miller, Johann Martin (1750–1814): Poet, novelist, preacher. Studied theology in Göttingen (masters degree 1775), where in 1772 he became one of the founders of the Göttinger Hainbund group of poets (his nickname being “Minnehold”), publishing pieces in Heinrich Christian Boie’s Musenalmanach. Especially prolific in writing sentimental novels, including the extremely successful Siegwart, eine Klostergeschichte (1776), a quintessential work of the sentimental movement and one of the most popular novels at the time, largely replacing content and poetic substance with a focus on feeling. Taught at the Gymnasium and worked as a vicar in Ulm, from 1783 also preaching at the minster in Ulm (where his father had also preached and where Caroline and Schelling heard him preach in August 1809), from 1804 consistory councilor, from 1810 ecclesiastical councilor and dean in Ulm. He novels included Geschichte Karls von Burgheim und Emiliens von Rosenau (1778). A noted preacher, his sermons were also published. Primarily a moralist as a writer. (Portrait: Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 264.)
Miller, Johann Peter (1725–89): Professor of theology in Göttingen, pedagogue, writer, uncle of the writer Johann Martin Miller. Studied philology, philosophy, and theology in Helmstedt (1745–47) and Göttingen, attaining his doctorate in 1748. From 1751 rector at the Gymnasium in Helmstedt, from 1756 in Halle, and from 1765 professor of dogmatics in Göttingen, where he died of a stroke during a lecture in 1789. Miller tried to mediate between orthodoxy, Pietism, and Enlightenment. Published pedagogical pieces in the spirit of the Enlightenment and established a school along these principles in Göttingen itself (1765). His Historisch-moralische Schilderungen zur Bildung eines edles Herzens in der Schule (5 vols., 1753–64) were part of the basic reading materials for children and young people. On balance a moderate, tolerant, orthodox theologian with an inclination for latitudinarianism and rationalism.
Millin de Grandmaison, Aubin-Louis (1759–1818): Native of Paris, antiquarian and classical archaeologist who had learned German in Strasbourg. For the last twenty-three years of his life, he edited a journal that contributed to scholarly exchange in the field between France and Germany; also carried on a personal correspondence with Karl August Böttiger in Germany.
Miloradovich: Two Russian students by the name of Miloradovich matriculated at the university in Göttingen in October 1782 to study law, “Grégoire” and “Michel de Miloradowitsch.” The latter was presumably Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich (1771–1825), who studied in Königsberg, Göttingen, Strasbourg, and Metz before returning to Russia in 1787 to join the military permanently, later becoming a Russian general prominent during the Napoleonic Wars. A Count Miloradovich seems to have distinguished himself at the Battle of Bautzen in May 1813.
Milton, John (1608–74): English poet and prose polemicist, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), though also for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica (1644). He was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, including Shakespeare, and exercised considerable influence on the literature of the Romantics (Wordsworth, Keats, Mary Shelley, whose novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus [1818]) draws heavily on Paradise Lost). Earlier, however, he profoundly influenced Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock, whose religious epic Der Messias (begun 1748; published in 4 vols. 1751–73) was consciously modeled on (and, indeed, even intended as a rival to) Paradise Lost.
Minor, Jakob (1855–1912): Austrian literary historian and essayist, professor in Milan and Vienna. Publications include an important edition of Friedrich Schlegel’s early writings, Friedrich Schlegel 1794–1802. Seine prosaischen Jugendschriften (Vienna 1882).
Mirabeau, Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, Marquis de Mirabeau (1749–91): French writer, orator, and statesman, a moderate during the French Revolution who favored a constitutional monarchy after the model of Great Britain. A virulent attack of smallpox he suffered as a child left his face quite disfigured (whence Caroline’s reference to his appearance). After an uneven career that included prison time on several occasions (whence the “letters to Sophie” about which Caroline speaks, Lettres originales de Mirabeau: écrites du donjon de Vicennes, pendant les années 1777, 78, 79 et 80: contenant tous les détails sur sa vie privée, ses malheurs, et ses amours avec Sophie Ruffei, marquise de Monnier [Paris 1792]), the French foreign office sent him on a secret mission to the court of Prussia in Berlin, of which he gave a full account in his Histoire secrète de la cour de Berlin, ou correspondance d’un voyageur françois, depuis le 5 Juillet 1786, jusqu’au 19 Janvier 1787 (London 1789). The months he spent in Berlin were significant in Prussian history, for while he was there Frederick the Great died. Mirabeau also made the acquaintance of Jakob Mauvillon (1743–94), whom he found possessed of a great number of facts and statistics with regard to Prussia; these he made use of in a great work on Prussia, De la monarchie prussienne sous Frédéric le Grand (London, 1788); although the haste of preparation accounts for many inaccuracies of detail, the work has great value as a description of the condition of the nation. Agricultural, commercial, and military resources are all surveyed; and a folio volume of charts, maps, and tables is given in illustration of the text. The “letters to Sophie” are addressed to Marie Thérèse Sophie Richard de Ruffey, Mirabeau’s mistress. (Portrait 1789: Joseph Boze.)
Mittermaier, Karl Joseph Anton (1787–1867): Law professor initially in Landshut, 1819–21 in Bonn, from 1821 in Heidelberg; one of the central figures of moderate liberalism in southwest Germany.
Mnioch, Johann Jakob (1765–1804): Writer. After studying in Jena worked as a private house tutor in Halle, also publishing in Christoph Martin Wieland’s Teutscher Merkur in 1788. From 1790 rector of a school near Danzig, where he also met Fichte, who at the time was a teacher in Danzig (till 1793). Mnioch lost his position when the school folded, then in 1796 became a lottery administrator in Warsaw, which at the time was a Prussian possession. There he exercised considerable influence on Zacharias Werner, whom he also introduced to Freemasonry. Although Mnioch did sense a kinship with the Romantics, also publishing in Ludwig Tieck and Wilhelm Schlegel’s Musen-Almanach in 1802, he was less inclined toward the more mystical elements. He carried on correspondence with both Fichte and Tieck. Mnioch was a prolific, free-thinking writer who was clearly influenced by Rousseau and Kant, could write with both seriousness and humor, and who published not only poems, but also essays (e.g., a philosophical piece on the place of worship in a religion of reason, done in the spirit of Kant) and plays.
Moench, Conrad (1744–1805): Pharmacist, chemist, from 1786 professor of botany in Marburg, author of works on local botany. 1792 established a teaching and research laboratory for chemistry and pharmacy in Marburg.
Möhn (Moen), Luise, née La Roche (1759–1832): Second daughter of Sophie von La Roche, younger sister of Maximiliane La Roche, hence aunt of Clemens and Bettina Brentano; married first to the alcoholic Hofrath Christian Joseph Möhn in Koblenz; after their divorce, she lived with Sophie von La Roche in Offenbach; married later to a certain Herr von Hessen.
Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622–73) (known by the stage name Molière): French comic playwright, considered the creator of modern French comedy and to have been a master of both high comedy and farce, though his satires did attract criticisms from moralists and the church (e.g., Tartuffe ou l’imposteur, with Don Juan even being banned from performance).
Möller, C. (dates unknown): Friend of Wilhelm Schlegel’s from their student days in Göttingen (Körner [1930] 2:397), present in Mainz during Caroline’s stay there.
Möller, Heinrich Ferdinand (1745–98): Actor, playwright. Active in the theater from 1760, including in Prague, then from 1770 in Hamburg with the Brunian company, from about 1775 with the Abel Seyler company. In the 1780s director of the court company of the Margrave of Braunschweig-Schwedt and of the court theater in Schwedt. From 1792 in Nürnberg. For twenty years, his Graf von Walltron, oder die Subordination (Frankfurt, Leipzig 1776) was enormously popular throughout Europe, enjoying translations into French, Italian, and Swedish. In 1785 it was the most frequently performed play in Berlin; in Frankfurt, Möller received a curtain call, which previously had been the case only for Voltaire. His work, however, was long criticized for pandering to common public taste.
Möller, Ludwig (born 1771) (Caroline spells it Müller) (dates unknown): Hannoverian legation secretary in Mainz, son of Göttingen theology professor Henning Valentin Möller and stepson of Johann Georg Heinrich Feder, prorector at the university in Göttingen, who, after his first wife, Sophie, née Häublein died in 1772, in 1773 married Ludwig’s mother, Margarethe Dorothea Möller.
Möller, Jakob Nikolaus (1777–1862): Norwegian student in Jena from 1798, not to be confused with the friend from Henrik Steffens’s youth, Malte Müller, but an acquaintance of Steffens nonetheless. Möller was the Schellingian author of “Über die Entstehung der Wärme durch Reibung,” Neue Zeitschrift für speculative Physik 1 (1802), 3:1–66; also Das absolute Prinzip der Ethik (Leipzig 1819). He married one of Ludwig Tieck’s sisters-in-law and converted to Catholicism. Georg Waitz read “Müller” in subsequent occurrences, a reading Caroline’s handwriting can certainly suggest.
Monbarrey, Marie Franzisca Maximilia von (1761–1838): Daughter of Alexandre-Marie-Léonor de Saint-Mauris de Montbarrey; from 6 Oktober 1785 married to Heinrich Ludwig Karl Albrecht von Nassau-Saarbrücken (who died, however, in 1797).
Montagu, Mary Wortley, née Pierrepont (1689–1762): English writer, poet, aristocrat. After secretly marrying Edward Wortley Montagu in 1712, she accompanied him to Constantinople in 1716, where he was to be the British ambassador and where she wrote her posthumously published Turkish Letters. After returning to England she was a prominent member of society, afterward living for over twenty years abroad in France and Italy. Known principally for her letters and for her quarrels with Alexander Pope. (Portrait: frontispiece to vol. 1 of The Works of the Right Honorable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, including her Correspondence, Poems, and Essays, 5 vols. [London 1803].)
Montemayor, Jorge de (1519–61): Portuguese author who wrote in Spanish. Wilhelm Schlegel published parts of his popular prose pastoral Diana in Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie (Berlin 1804). One episode in Diana likely provided material for Shakespeare’s Two Gentleman of Verona.
Anne-Pierre, Marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1739–98): French general, from 1780 maréchal-de-camp, from 1784 member of the Académie Française, from 1791 president of the Constituent Assembly and lieutenant general, serving under Lafayette, from 1792 commander of the Army of the South, taking Savoy in September 1792. Accused of royalist leanings in November 1792 and fled to Switzerland.
Montgelas, Isabelle Ernestine, née Arco (1779–1820): Daughter of the former speaker of the Bavarian states. From 1803 married to Maximilian Joseph von Montgelas in Munich. Known as an intelligent and ambitious woman whose influence on both Montgelas and the king was not insignificant. (Portrait: unknown artist; in Michael Henker, Margot Hamm, Evamaria Brockhoff [ed.], Bayern entsteht. Montgelas und sein Ansbacher Memoire von 1796 [Regensburg 1996], 82, plate 7.)
Montgelas, Maximilian Joseph Baron (Count) von (1759–1838): Bavarian statesman, from 1799 till 1817 minister under the prince elector and later king Maximilian I. From 1777 in Bavarian service, though his membership in the Illuminati brought him disfavor in 1785, during which he fled to Palatinate-Zweibräcken. After the accession of the prince elector Maximilian IV Joseph in Bavaria, he became a privy councilor in 1796 and minister in 1799, having already articulated his concept for a politics of reform in 1796 in his Ansbacher Mémoire, a master plan for modernizing Bavaria essentially influenced by rationalism and the Enlightenment. From 1803 married to Ernestine, née von Arco (1779–1820). His tactical alliance with Napoleon in 1805 brought the elevation of the Bavarian prince elector to the status of king and the acquisition of territory for Bavaria in the Treaty of Pressburg. Montgelas was largely responsible, in part through the Bavarian constitution of 1808, in part through other legislation, for, e.g., the abolishment of serfdom and of torture, for the introduction of compulsory school education, compulsory military service, compulsory vaccination, for the abolition of tolls within the kingdom of Bavaria, and for a new regulation for civil servants, according to which admission to public service was no longer dependent on birth and membership in the Catholic Church, but solely on the quality of education. Even Jewish communities were awarded a secure legal status to a certain extent. (Portrait: by Joseph Hauber, Munich, 1806.)
Moreau, Jean-Victor (1763–1813): Volunteer who rose to the rank of general in the French Revolutionary armies, later conspiring against Napoleon and being exiled to the United States, where he remained until 1813, returning only to fall in battle fighting for the Russians against France. From 1795 commander of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle that undertook the campaign against Germany.
Morgenstern, Johann Simon Karl (1770–1852): Philologist and librarian, native of Magdeburg who coined the term Bildungsroman. Studied in Halle, attaining his doctorate in 1794 and becoming professor of philosophy in 1797, from 1798 in Danzig as professor of rhetoric and poesy, from 1802 in Dorpat in Livonia (contemporary Tartu, Estonia).
Moritz, Karl Philipp (1756–93): Writer, pedagogue, journalist, psychologist, literary critic, professor of art and linguistics. After a difficult childhood in bitter poverty, Moritz eventually became co-rector at a Gymnasium in Berlin (1778). During these years (1780–86) he was part of the circle of Berlin Enlightenment figures, including Moses Mendelssohn and Henriette and Marcus Herz. He began editing the Vossische Zeitung in 1784 and continued publishing works on Enlightenment thinking and pedagogy, having already published a play in 1780. From 1783 published the Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde (till 1793), the first Germany periodical for psychology, in which he also published the initial chapters of his autobiographical novel Anton Reiser. Ein psychologischer Roman (4 parts, 1785–90), his more important work, part autobiography, part realistic novel, part psychological analysis, part sociological case history. In 1786 Moritz journeyed to Italy, where he became acquainted with the German artists in Rome and with Goethe, also writing a number of theoretical writings on aesthetics, especially Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen (Braunschweig 1788), which Goethe excerpted in his Italienische Reise, 2 vols. (1816–17). After staying with Goethe for two months after returning in 1788, he acquired a position in 1789, through the mediation of Duke Karl August of Weimar, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, where his students included Ludwig Tieck, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, and Alexander von Humboldt; he published extensively on aesthetics, mythology, literary topics. He also traveled to England (1782) to various places in Germany, publishing his experiences in Reisen eines Deutschen in England (1783) and Reisen eines Deutschen in Italien (3 vols., 1792–93). (Portrait: 1791, by Karl Franz Jacob Heinrich Schumann; Gleimhaus Halberstadt.)
Möser, Justus (1720–94): Jurist, historian, writer. Studied in Jena from 1740 and in Göttingen from 1742 (law, fine arts). From 1743 in the administrative employment of Osnabrück, later primarily in a legal capacity, in which he exerted considerable influence on the bishopric Osnabrück for the rest of his life, also contributing to the transition from Germanic law to Roman law (the legal system of contemporary Germany is based on his ideas). A prolific writer on politics, history, theater, and literature, he was especially popular as the “Father of Folklore” because of his numerous publications on folklore and customs. In Über die deutsche Sprache und Literatur he published a rejoinder to Friedrich II, who in 1780 had extolled the virtues of the French language over German. In 1766 he founded the Wöchentliche Osnabrückische Intelligenzblätter, from which his daughter Jenny von Voigts published a collection of essays in 1774 with the title Patriotische Phantasien (1774–78), exemplary treatments of various topics in a popular style (e.g., “Harlekin, oder Verteidigung des Grotesk-Komischen”). (Portrait: in Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 349.)
Mounier, Jean-Joseph (1758–1806): From 1779 lawyer, from 1783 judge in Grenoble and married to Marie-Philippine, née Borel. Although in 1789 he was elected representative of the third estate from his hometown and initiated a “declaration of the rights of man,” his support of a constitutional monarchy after the English model eventually forced his resignation and return to Grenoble in 1789 and his flight to Switzerland in 1790. In late 1794 he moved to Dresden, in 1795 to Weimar, where at the behest of Duke Karl August he founded a school for civil servants in Belvedere where he taught international law, history, and philosophy. He returned to France in 1801. In 1802 Napoleon appointed him prefect of the Department Ille-et-Vilaine. He died in 1806 in Paris.
Mounier, Marie-Philippine, née Borel († 25 December 1795 in Weimar): Daughter of a lawyer in Grenoble, from 1783 (or 6 May 1782?) wife of Jean-Joseph Mounier.
Mozart, Constanze, née Weber (1762–1842): From 4 August 1782 wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart following a troubled and complicated courtship (Mozart initially courted her sister) tinged with scandal.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–91): Prolific Austrian composer of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, piano pieces, operas, and choral music. Most of his operas have Italian libretti, including Don Giovanni (1787); his two German opera are singspiels, including Die Zauberflöte (1791), a genre quite popular especially during Caroline’s youth.
Müchler, Karl Friedrich (1764–1847): Prolific Berlin writer and editor of lighter popular literature. Studied law in Halle, from 1785 occupied various professional positions, from 1794 as War Councilor. Composed patriotic (Prussian) military poems and edited several periodicals.
Muilman, Henry (dates unknown): Alderman, banker in Amsterdam whose son, Wilhelm, Wilhelm Schlegel tutored from 1791 till 1795.
Müller, Friedrich von (1779–1849): Statesman, writer. After studying law in Erlangen and Göttingen, Müller entered the service of Duke Karl August in Weimar, where during the Napoleonic Wars he was engaged especially as a diplomat. From 1815 he became chancellor of the legal administration in Weimar, from 1829 privy councilor, from 1835 a member of the territorial parliament. One of the few confidants of the elderly Goethe, so much so that Goethe appointed him as executor of his last will and testament. His conversations with Goethe were published in 1870. (Portrait: by J.Schmeller; Goethe-Nationalmuseum Weimar (1932); Hans Wahl, Anton Kippenberg: Goethe und seine Welt [Leipzig 1932], 207.)
Müller, Johann Gottwerth (1743–1828): Writer, bookseller, publisher; also called “Müller von Itzehoe.” Became acquainted with the publisher D. C. Hechtel in Magdeburg, who published his first pieces (Gedichte der Freundschaft, der Liebe und dem Scherze gesungen [1770–71]). He married Hechtel’s daughter in 1771, the same year he opened his own publishing company and bookstore in Hamburg, moving it to Itzehoe in 1773 and abandoning it in 1783 for economic and health reasons. From 1771 to 1776 published (and largely wrote) the moral weekly Der Deutsche. Primarily an author of comical and satirical novels after the fashion of Henry Fielding, albeit with humor that is often coarse and wit that is often flat, and with an overall portrayal that, while broad, is nonetheless never very deep. His best-known work is the comic novel Siegfried von Lindenberg (1799), which draws from people and circumstances of daily life, particularly from Itzehoe, satirizing the comical behavior of a good-natured but uneducated rural Junker (landowner) who tries to imitate — among his peasants and on his rural estate — the behavior of a grand sovereign. (Portrait: Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 328.)
Müller, Johannes (1752–1809): Swiss historian, statesman. Best known for his monumental history of Switzerland till 1489, Geschichte der Eidgenossenschaft (5 vols., 1786–1808). From 1769 studied theology in Göttingen but was especially influenced in historical studies under August Ludwig Schlözer. In July 1771 he began a book on the history of Switzerland, but his theological studies prevented much progress. In 1772 he passed his theological examination and became a private house tutor in Geneva, eventually abandoning this position. From 1781 professor of history in Kassel. Returned to Geneva in 1783, from 1786 librarian to Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, the Prince Elector and of Archbishop of Mainz (who effected his elevation to nobility in 1791). In October 1792, however, Mainz was taken by the French, and Müller had to find another position. From 1793 he was in the service of the emperor in Vienna, eventually becoming chief librarian of the imperial library in 1800. From 1804 he became historiographer and a member of the Academy at Berlin, but in 1806 became strongly inclined toward Napoleon, by whom he was received in audience (Nov. 1806), and from whom he accepted (end of 1807) the office of secretary of state for the kingdom of Westphalia, exchanging this position early in 1808 for administrative posts. Acknowledged Caroline’s deft (anonymous) review in Athenaeum (1799) 313–16 of his “Fragmente aus den Briefen eines jungen Gelehrten an seinen Freund” (letters to Karl Viktor von Bonstetten). (Portrait: Alfred Hartmann, Gallerie berühmter Schweizer der Neuzeit, vol. 1 [Baden/Aargau 1868], no. 5.)
Müller, Karl Wilhelm (1728–1801): From 1778 mayor of Leipzig. From 1746 studied law in Leipzig, 1752 defended his inaugural dissertation. His publications betray an interest in both the fine arts and the sciences. Published the journal Brittische Bibliothek 1756–67. Provided legal services to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in his dispute with Johann Gottfried Winkler. From 1759 member of the Leipzig town council, from 1771 municipal judge, from 1778 mayor, serving in the latter capacity twelve times and contributing to the establishment of parks surrounding the city (in which the citizenry erected a monument to him in 1819), the construction of the municipal concert hall which later acquired such renown, the renovation of the Nikolai Church, and the establishment of a free school for the children of the poorer citizenry.
Münchgesang, Johanna Dorothea (10 October 1788–20 November 1823): From 17 June 1804 married to Johann Wilhelm Ritter, whose housemaid she had been and with whom she had already been living in an open marriage in Jena.
Münchhausen, Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst (19 December 1779–19 December 1839): Initially a Braunschweig chamberlain, then married the daughter of the writer Julius von Soden, the latter at the time a Prussian emissary in Franconia. Soden convinced Münchhausen to abandon a promising career in the civil service and buy half of the building in which Soden had established the new Würzburg theater, and receive the other half as a dowry. Münchhausen invested considerably in the enterprise before it was sequestered, after which he lived in financially precarious circumstances until Soden’s death in 1831, when the latter’s estate fell to his daughter, Münchhausen’s wife, who died in 1861. Until his own death, Münchhausen lived on the estate and in Bamberg.
Münchhausen, Gerlach Adolph von (1688–1770): Held ministerial positions in Braunschweig-Lüneburg under Prince Elector Georg II, functioning in 1734 as one of the cofounders and initial trustee of the university in Göttingen.
Münchhausen, Karl Friedrich (1720–97): Known as the “Baron of Tall Tales” because of his inclination, following service as a military officer, to publish wondrous, improbable, or impossible tall tales, e.g., Vademecum für lustige Leute beginning in 1781. In 1785 it an English edition appeared, which in its own turn Gottfried August Bürger translated and published in a popular version in Germany.
Mundt, Theodor (1808–61): Journalist, native of Potsdam, wrote for numerous publications and even published novels, one of which prompted his denunciation as part of the liberal movement Junges Deutschland; wrote broadly on contemporary affairs, though also on literature, finally becoming a lecturer in Berlin in 1842, thereafter also teaching in Halle and then again in Berlin, as a professor.
Münter, Friedrich Christian Karl Heinrich (Gotha 1761–1830): Theologian, church historian, scholar of antiquities, Freemason, from 1808 bishop of Seeland (Zealand) in Danish service. Elder brother of Sophie Christiane Friederike Brun. His daughter was allegedly also a victim of the seductions of Karl Friedrich August Grosse.
Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert zu (1766–1839): Diplomat and statesman for Great Britain and the House of Hannover. Attended the university in Göttingen 1784–84, where he made the acquaintance of George III’s three sons, who were also attending the university there. From 1791 administrator in Hannover, from 1793 charged with spiriting Prince August (Duke of Sussex) from Rome back to London after the latter’s secret marriage to Lady Augusta Murray. Georg Ernst Tatter was currently the prince’s companion in Rome. Münster remained with the court at Windsor, accompanying Prince Augustus to Italy in 1794 (after the latter’s second marriage to Lady Murray was annulled), remaining there for five years in various locations. From 1801 Münster was appointed Hannoverian representative in St. Petersburg, where he remained when France occupied Hannover in 1803. Tatter served as his legation secretary in St. Petersburg, becoming Hannover’s chargé d’affaires after Münster’s return.
Murray, Johann Andreas (1740–91): Physician, professor of botany, and from 3 July 1781 till 2 Juli 1782 prorector of the university in Göttingen. Murray, who was born in Stockholm and came from a family of Scottish emigrants in Prussia, studied at the German lycée in Stockholm before studying science (from 1756) in Uppsala (one of his professors was Carl von Linné, who named an east Indian tree after Murray — Murraya exotica — and a beatle — Cassida Murrayi). From 1760 he studied in Göttingen, where he finished his medical degree in 1768. From 1764 associate professor of medicine, lecturing on botany, entomology, the history of medicine, pharmacy, and pharmaceutical pathology. From 1769 full professor of botany and director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, in which he erected hot houses, acquiring exotic plants and organizing the garden according to Linné’s system (it is to these gardens that Caroline refers in letter 30). He also led botanical excursions into the Harz Mountains. Published the first pharmaceutical handbook in Germany that focused on medical applications (Apparatus medicaminum etc., 6 vols., 1776–92).
Murray, Lady Augusta (1768–1830): daughter of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore; from 4 April 1793 (in Rome) first wife of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III;. they remarried on 5 December 1793; the marriage ceremonies were annulled on the basis of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, according to which children of the monarch needed the king’s permission. (Portrait: miniature by Richard Cosway; Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University.)
Musäus, Johann Karl August (1735–87): Pedagogue, from 1762 tutor to the pages at court in Weimar, from 1769 head of the Gymnasium there. Wrote a satiric novel on Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1754) with the title Grandison der Zweite (1760–62), and also a multi-volume collection of fairy tales from both oral and written sources, Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–86). (Portrait: Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 278.)