Racine, Jean (1639–99): French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of seventeenth-century France (along with Molière and Corneille). Educated at Port-Royal, where he was profoundly influenced by the Jansensist doctrines but was early drawn to the theater, his first dramatic attempts being imitations of Corneille. With Andromaque (1667), a tragedy after Euripides, Racine came to rival Corneille as France’s leading tragic dramatist, and he soon came to enjoy the backing of Louis XIV despite intrigues in the theater against him. Many of his plays are classics in French literature, also essentially following the classic features of an observance of the unities and a concentration on the exposition of character and spiritual conflicts; these plays include Britannicus (1669), Bérénice (1670), Bajazet (1672), Mithridate (1673), Iphigénie en Aulide (1674), and Phèdre (1677). After vehement attacks on Phèdre, he gave up the theater, married, and was appointed official historiographer by Louis XIV, also accompanying the king on journeys. During this period, he was persuaded to write the Esther (1689) (which Wilhelm Schlegel discusses in his review of plays by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter) and Athalie (1691), plays which differ from his earlier work in their biblical subjects, the use of a chorus, and in the length of Esther, which has three acts instead of five.
Racknitz, Joseph Friedrich Baron von (1744–1818): Art historian, mineralogist. After a period of military service, Racknitz entered service at the Saxon court in Dresden in 1769, during which time he also studied the theory and history of art, botany, mineralogy, and mechanical theory. From 1790 administrative custodian of the royal castles, art collections, and gardens, from 1800 of the royal opera and theater. Published in both art history and mineralogy. His mineral and insect collections, which the Saxon state museum purchased in 1805, are still part of the museum in the Dresden Zwinger. Racknitz was also involved in exposing the deception behind a machine (the Schachtürke) that could allegedly play chess (1789).
Rambach, August Jakob (1777–1851): Son of the senior Hamburg pastor Johann Jakob Rambach, brother of the Hamburg physician Johann Jakob Rambach, Jr. From 1796 studied theology in Halle, took exams in Hamburg in 1799, from 1802 became diakonus in Hamburg, though only twenty five years old. From 1818 successor to his father as senior pastor at St. Michael’s in Hamburg.
Rambach, Friedrich Eberhard (1767–1826): Classical philologist, writer. From 1791 teacher and later prorector at the Friedrichwerder Gymnasium in Berlin, where he was a prolific author of stories and novels, in part under the pseudonym Ottokar Sturm and H. Lenz, as well as comedies and historical dramas, but also pedagogical and philological works. From 1803 professor of classical philology in Dorpat, where he later also taught public finance and functioned as rector of the university. In 1795–98 he co-edited the Berliner Archiv der Zeit und ihres Geschmacks, in 1798–1801 editor of the Jahrbücher der Preussischen Monarchie. His works include the popular horror novel Die eiserne Maske. Eine schottische Geschichte (1792).
Rambach, Johann Jacob (1772–1812): Hamburg physician, son of the senior Hamburg pastor by the same name, brother of the later senior pastor August Jakob Rambach. Studied medicine in Halle, then returned to Hamburg in 1793. Extremely active in medicine on behalf of the city of Hamburg itself.
Ramdohr, Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von (1757–1822): Jurist, diplomat, writer, and apparently one of Caroline’s very early suitors. From 1775 studied law and classical philology (under Christian Gottlob Heyne) in Göttingen, then 1778–87 was a legal administrator in Hannover. He was himself quite skilled in drawing, oils, and pastels, and was known especially for his works on art history and philosophy, including Ueber Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom (3 vols., 1787), the result of his own art studies in Rome. From 1787/88 he worked in the court of appeals in Celle. He was the first to write a guide to the art collection of Count Brabeck in Söder near Hildesheim (1792). From 1797 married to Juliane, née von dem Bussche. From 1806 transferred to Prussian service, from 1810 second Prussian envoy to the Vatican, from 1816 special envoy to the court in Naples, during which time he contributed articles on art news to Cotta’s Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser. (Portrait: 1813, by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein.)
Although he also wrote plays, his main work was Charis oder Ueber das Schöne und die Schönheit in den nachbildenden Künsten, 2 vols., (Leipzig 1793), which Schiller thought useful as a practical or empirical guide but useless as philosophy; Goethe was no less kind in his assessment, the result being Ramdohr’s inclusion in the Xenien (no. 119; Musenalmanach für das Jahr 1797 [1797] 197–302, here 228):
119. Charis. Be this the wife of the artist Vulcan? She speaks about the trade As befits the commoner's noble half.His Venus Urania. Über die Natur der Liebe. Über ihre Veredlung und Verschönerung, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1798) was similarly mocked in Athenaeum (1799) 333:
Anyone who can prove he has read the entirety of Herr von Ramdohr’s Urania without any other motive save that of the advancement of aesthetics will receive as a prize the aesthetic essays of Herr [Wilhelm] von Humboldt. Anyone who while not finishing the book has nonetheless read at least half of it will receive twenty as yet unpublished poems by [Friedrich von] Matthison.
Ramdohr fared even worse in the Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders by Ludwig Tieck and Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder (1797), for whom Ramdohr’s writings epitomize the entire artistic sensibility they opposed. Dorothea Veit also wrote a criticism of some of his stories in Athenaeum 1800. What became known as the “Ramdohr dispute” derived from an article he published in 1809 (Zeitung für die elegante Welt, 17–21 January) in which he criticized Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Kreuz im Gebirge, and with it the entire Romantic sensibility.
Ramdohr, Juliane, née von dem Bussche, widowed von Oberg (1752–1807): From 1797 wife of Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von Ramdohr.
Ramler (Rammler), Karl (Carl) Wilhelm (1725–98): Writer, translator, journalist. Studied theology in Halle in 1742–44 at the behest of his father, transferring to Berlin in 1745 to study medicine, where he met Johann Wilhelm Ludwig. Gleim, who found him a position as a private house tutor in 1746 near Werneuchen (Ramler left after a few months). From 1747 again in Berlin, from 1748–90 taught at the military cadet institute, 1786–96 co-director (with Johann Jakob Engel) of the royal theater. Published poetry in various journals, translated Latin and Greek writers, and co-edited a journal. His odes, modeled on the ancients, provided a model for many of his contemporaries. (Portrait alongside his muse: in Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 229.)
Rantzau, Count Christian Detlef (1763–1847): Daughters who were acquaintances of the Wiedemanns in Kiel: Louise Anna (called Nancy) (1798–1843); Louise Sophie (1799–1852); and Fanny (1803–23).
Raphael (1483–1520): Italian painter of the Italian High Renaissance. (Portrait: Almanach aus Rom für Künstler und Freunde der bildenden Kunst 1 [Leipzig 1810].)
Rapp, Jean, Count de (27 April 1772–8 November 1821): French general, a native of Colmar. He distinguished himself in campaigns in both Germany and Egypt, and after the battle of Marengo became aide-de-camp to Napoleon. His services at Austerlitz procured for him a generalship of division. He became the chief commander at Danzig after its capitulation on 25 May 1807 and new status as a free city, albeit with a French governor (Gottlieb Hufeland was appointed chief mayor in 1808), and though he later opposed Napoleon’s Russian expedition, he accompanied Napoleon throughout the whole of it. His obstinate defense of Danzig for nearly a year (until November 1813) against a powerful Russian army gained for him considerable renown, and his considerate treatment of the inhabitants during the siege was warmly appreciated by them. Sent to Russia as a prisoner of war after the capitulation of Danzig, not returning to France until 1814. In 1815 he was in command of the army of the Rhine, and fought several actions against the allies. After Waterloo he was received by Louis XVIII, after which he held various offices at court.
Rathje, Georg Heinrich (dates unknown): Actor, from Hannover, initially with the Nouseul theater company, then with that of Karl Friedrich Abt, also wrote plays himself (one in particular, Unglück prüft Tugend [some sources read Treue], created a mild scandal with allegations of plagiarism after its performance in May 1797 in Salzburg, where he was apparently a member of the royal theater.
Constant de Rebecque, Samuel (1729–1800): French writer, father of Benjamin Constant (the latter a companion of Germaine de Staël). Most successful and popular work was the novel Camille, ou Lettres de deux Filles de ce siècle, traduites de l’anglais sur les originaux, 2 vols. (Paris 1785); a lively epistolary novel set in England and purporting to be translated from the English. Constant began writing late in life after a military career; he became a close friend of Voltaire and turned to writing much through his encouragement. Influenced by Samuel Richardson and allegedly based on a true story, Camille gives an idealized portrayal of the role of women who, led always by their feelings, can entertain no “artificial heart.” Men, on the other hand, are capable of conducting their love affairs with wickedness and intrigue.
Rebmann, Andreas Georg Friedrich (1768–1824): Journalist. Studied law and political science in Erlangen and Jena. Dismissed from his position as procurator in Erlangen as an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution and advocate of human rights, turning instead to political journalism, being forced to take flight to avoid prosecution several times beginning in 1792. Edited various political journals in Dresden, Erfurt, Altona, and Paris. After the annexation of the Rhineland by France, in 1797 he became a criminal court judge in Mainz, from 1810 president of the court in Trier. After Napoleon’s fall he entered Palatinate Bavarian service.
Recamier, Jeanne-Françoise (Juliette), née Bernard (1777–1849): Esp. during the time of Napoleon and the Restoration a famous salonière in Paris and closest friend of Madame de Staël. Had married a rich but older Parisian banker in 1791, though from 1819 lived in a convent in Paris that kept select rooms for women in financial distress. She continued her salon there and was esp. close to Chateaubriand. Eventually lost her sight but is universally remembered as a woman of considerable beauty and charm. (1802 portrait by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard.)
Recke, Elisa(beth) Charlotte Konstantia, Countess von der, née von Medem (1756[4?]–1831[3?]): Writer from Courland (originally in western Latvia). Enjoyed a sound education as a young girl but was married at 15 (1771) to thirty-two-year-old Baron Georg Peter Magnus von der Recke; the marriage went badly and ended in divorce in 1781. She thereafter traveled widely in Germany, Italy, Russia, and Switzerland, being forced to return to Germany at the accession of Paul I of Russia after receiving an estate from his mother Katharine II. From 1797 she lived in Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden, especially on the estate of her sister in Lödichau. From 1819 she lived permanently in Dresden with the writer Christoph August Tiedge, with whom she had also lived earlier. She wrote devotional songs and poems as well as travelogues and published her diaries. Acquired some renown in 1787 for her account exposing the charlatan Alessandro Conte di Cagliostro (the Gross-Cophta in Goethe’s play by the same name who was involved in the scandal of the “queen’s necklace” in Paris through which the innocent Marie Antoinette was discredited), with whom she had had personal experience at the court at Mitau (Jelgava, Latvia), where his sister lived as the wife of the last duke of Courland. (Portrait by Anton Graff, 1797.)
Recke, Ernst Ludwig Valentin (13 July 1757–12 August 1779): Cathedral canon and scholastic in Minden, royal Waldeck Squire of the Chase. In this latter capacity, Recke published respected pieces on Mount Brocken in the Harz Mountains. He then studied law in Göttingen, where he succumbed to what was known as “nervous fever” on 8 August 1779. His funeral in Göttingen was attended not only by his friends, including several sons of Braunschweig and Hannoverian ministers, but also by several other notables of the aristocracy, the rector of the university, and all the professors, docents, students, and many respected citizens of Göttingen — and by Caroline herself. Caroline, recounting the funeral in a letter in French, uses the orthography “de Reck.”
Recke, Georg von der (1739–95): Landowner in Neuenberg, Courland, from 1771 husband of Elisa von der Recke, née Medem; they separated in 1781.
Reden, Claus (Nicolaus) Friedrich von (1736–91 Clausthal): 1769–91 Hannoverian mining superintendent and cofounder of the mining academy in Clausthal (1775). Member-at-large of the Göttingen Society of Science. From 18 July 1770 husband of Louise Rebecca Baroness von Minigerode, heiress at Büttelborn. His estate, the Wasserschloss Wendlinghausen, long remained in possession of the family.
Reden, Louise Rebecca von, née von Minnigerode (1752–1816): From 18 July 1770 wife of Claus Friedrich von Reden in Clausthal.
Rehberg, August Wilhelm (1757–1836): Hannover native, administrator, and political writer who during the early 1790s published trenchant criticism of the tenets of the French Revolution. Rehberg’s opinions were published in his reviews in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1790–93) and his Untersuchungen über die Französische Revolution nebst kritischen Nachrichten von den merkwürdigsten Schriften welche darüber in Frankreich erschienen sind, 2 vols. (Hannover, Osnabrück 1793), where he engaged concepts from Edmund Burke in criticizing the tenets of the Revolution and even its notion of equality. Along with his close friend from university days, Ernst Brandes (e.g., Politische Betrachtungen über die französische Revolution [Jena 1790] and Ueber einige bisherige Folgen der Französischen Revolution in Rücksicht auf Deutschland [Hannover 1792]), he became one of the leading German reform conservatives. Friends with the family of Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel in Hannover. Married Philippine Karoline Maria, née Höpfner (born 1775) in April 1800, a daughter of the famous jurist Ludwig Julius Friedrich Höpfner (1743–97) in Giessen, a lady friend from Goethe’s youth, whose letters she unfortunately burned.
Rehberg, Caroline (died 1806): Daughter of August Wilhelm Rehberg in Hannover, variously involved with Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel, esp. the latter when he was fifteen years old.
Rehberg, Philippine Karoline Maria, née Höpfner (born 1775): Daughter of the famous jurist Ludwig Julius Friedrich Höpfner (1743–97) in Giessen, a lady friend from Goethe’s youth, whose letters she unfortunately burned. From April 1800 married to August Wilhelm Rehberg in Hannover.
Rehkopf, Christiane Brigitte, née Weller (1743—16 February 1828): From 18 July 1763 wife of Johann Friedrich Rehkopf (1733–89), who from 1778 was a high consistory councilor and church superintendent in Dresden.
Reichard, Christiane Amalie Dorothea, née Seidler (10 October 1763–21 July 1805): Writer, daughter of Weimar consistory councilor J. W. Seidler, sister of Christiane and Dorothea Seidler (Friedrich Jacobs’s first and second wives; he married Christiane in 1792, then, after her death in late 1812, her younger sister, Dorothea, in 1817), sister-in-law (through her other sister, Anna Caroline Seidler) of Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, and aunt of the painter Luise Seidler, the latter of whom speaks about Amalie’s striking beauty; from 3 February 1786 wife of Heinrich August Ottokar Reichard in Gotha. Till 1784 worked as a governess to Princess Louise of Saxony-Weimar at the Weimar court. See Friedrich Jacobs, Personalien (Leipzig 1840) 41, 64:
It was around this time . . . that Amalie Seidler entered our social circles, immediately drawing everyone’s attention both through the beauty of her figure as well as through the grace surrounding her, the serenity of her entire being, her demure amiability, her words, expressions, and movements—and all of it in such natural harmony that it would be difficult or even impossible to specify but a single feature through which she was so pleasing. Men surrounded her with adoring attention wherever she appeared, women sought her company without jealousy, simultaneously trying to emulate her. Although they may indeed have managed to imitate her manner of dressing, they could never match the magic of her overall being. Although she married according to the wishes of her family rather than her own inclinations, she still managed to preserve an immaculate reputation despite the plethora of young men courting her. Her mere proximity demanded respect; next to her, even the most brash men were like Sophron’s [fifth-century Syracusan writer of mimes] lover: becoming modest, wishing much, hoping little, and daring nothing. . . . |64| My beloved sister-in-law, Amalie, died during the summer of 1805 after a long and painful illness, mourned by all who had known and loved her. I have never found another of her sex equal to her in grace and amiability.
Concerning Jacobs’s remarks that “she married according to the wishes of her family rather than her own inclinations,” see Reichard (her later husband), Selbstbiographie 184 (text in supplementary appendix Amalie Reichard).
Reichard, Heinrich August Ottokar (8 March 1751 Gotha–17 October 1828 Gotha): Writer, theater director, librarian, from 1801 war minister in Gotha, from 1786 husband of Amalie née Seidler. As a boy became enamored with the Greek and Latin classics, especially under the impression of the Seven Years War, but was widely read otherwise as well. After studying law 1767–71 in Göttingen, Leipzig, and Jena, in 1775 he became co-director with Conrad Eckhof of the court theater in Gotha (till 1779), where 1780–1814 he also oversaw the private ducal library of Ernst Ludwig II of Saxony-Gotha and began a prolific publishing career of his own, becoming friends with Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter and others and also acting in Gotter’s amateur theater organization (from 1773), which in its own turn prepared the way for Abel Seyler’s theater company (a castle fire in Weimar had prompted some actors to move to Gotha) and the establishment later of a court theater in Gotha, which Reichard helped initiate (the company was dissolved in 1779 at the behest of the duke because of internal quarrels and jealousy, about which Caroline herself speaks). Best known in connection with political writings, travel handbooks, and theater periodicals, including the Theater Kalender (1775–99) and the Theater-Journal für Deutschland (1777–84). The French Revolution prompted him, along with Kotzebue and Schiller, to publish various patriotic flyers; he published the Revolutions-Almanach till 1798. His autobiography is a useful source of information about the period. (Portrait: from the collection of the family Göchhausen-Reichard; courtesy of Rudolf W. L. Jacobs, Archiv der schleswig-thüringischen Familie Jacobs.)
Reichardt, Friederike (Riecke) (1790–1869): Daughter of Johann Friedrich and Johanna Reichardt in Berlin. Later married the geologist and geographer Karl von Raumer (1783–1865).
Reichardt, Johann Friedrich (Caroline also spells it Reichard) (1752–1814): Composer, writer, editor, from 1776 married to Bernhardine Juliane, née Benda, (1752–1783) (daughter of Georg Benda), from 1783 married to Johanna, née Alberti, daughter of the Hamburg pastor Julius Gustav Alberti. 1775–94 royal Prussian orchestra director in Potsdam under Friedrich II (the Great). A musical prodigy from Königsberg who toured in 1779–81 with his father, after which he studied law and philosophy in Königsberg at Kant’s behest. Widely traveled (Italy, Vienna, Paris, London), then, under the influence of Weimar classicism, from the late 1780s, a composer and advocate of German Lieder and singspiels, frequently putting poems by Goethe (whom he met in 1786), Schiller, and Herder to music, though he fell out with Goethe 1795–1801 because of his pro-revolutionary views, which also prompted his dismissal from Prussian service in 1794 by Friedrich Wilhelm II (he was pardoned in 1796). Published the controversial journal Deutschland (Friedrich Schlegel published in it) in four volumes during 1796 (Johann Friedrich Unger published it in Berlin). After a time in Hamburg editing the journal Frankreich, he withdrew to his estate in Giebichenstein near Halle, which thereafter became a gathering place for young artists of early Romanticism, including Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck; during this time he was also a director of salt mines in Halle, in which capacity he often traveled to Berlin to oversee the performances of his compositions. A trip to Paris in 1803 dampened his enthusiasm for the revolution, and he became an opponent of Napoleon. From 1806 in Danzig after fleeing Napoleonic troops, who plundered his estate; from 1808 court theater conductor for King Jérôme Bonaparte in Kassel (he remained there only nine months), traveling to Vienna that year as well, where he met Haydn and Beethoven. Also composed church and chamber music, symphonies, operas, and stage music and was a prolific music critic. (Portrait: engraving after Anton Graff.)
Reichardt, Johanna, née Alberti (1755–1827): Daughter of Julius Gustav Alberti (1723–72), pastor and writer in Hamburg, and Dorothee Charlotte Offeney (1733–1809); from 1783 wife of Johann Friedrich Reichardt (second marriage for each). Their daughter Johanna married Henrik Steffens in 1803. (Portrait: by Franz Gareis 1798; repr. in Franz Neubert, Goethe und sein Kreis [Leizpig 1919], 145.)
Reichardt, Johanne Dorothee Elisabeth (Hanna) (1784–1855): Daughter of Johann Friedrich Reichardt; from 4 September 1803 wife of Henrik Steffens.
Reichardt, Louise (Luise) (1779 in Berlin–1826): Daughter of Johann Friedrich Reichardt, anticipated bride of Friedrich August Eschen, then of Franz Gareis, both of whom died before the wedding; she apparently also had feelings for Achim von Arnim. Established a vocal studio in Hamburg, also known as a composer of lieder.
Reil, Johann Christian (1759–1813): Physician in Halle, colleague of Henrik Steffens there; specialist in brain and nerve studies. Died of typhus while serving in the military.
Reimarus, Christine, married name Reinhard (1771–1815): Daughter of Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and Sophie, née Hennings. Despite the ardent wish of Justus Erich Bollmann to marry her, after his release from prison in the Lafayette affair her parents forbade her from seeing him. She eventually married Karl Friedrich Reinhard, though the two former lovers did see each other once more in Paris in 1815. (Portrait: frontispiece to Une femme de diplomate: Lettres de Madame Reinhard à sa mère, 1798–1815, trans. Baronne de Wimpffen, née Reinhard [Paris 1900].)
Reimarus, Hermann Samuel (1694–1768): Follower of the philosophy of Christian Wolff and representative of Deism, advocated a natural religion of reason over against the superstitious posture of positive religion of revelation; severely criticized biblical writings, e.g., insisting that the creation of the world itself was the only true miracle, whereas everything else proceeded according to natural law. His apology on behalf of natural religion over against biblical faith in supernatural revelation and miracles (“Apologie oder Schutzschrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes”) was published by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (a friend of the family), prompting what is known as the “fragment dispute,” which profoundly influenced what later became known as the “quest” for the historical Jesus. (Portrait: in Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 233.)
Reimarus, Johann Albert Heinrich (1729–1814): Hamburg physician, from 8 June 1770 married to Sophie, née Hennings (1742–1817). Reimarus was the son of Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1778), the latter a proponent of Deism and one of the pioneers of the modern scholarly discipline of biblical criticism. Sophie Reimarus and her husband later passed on to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, with whom they were acquainted, parts of an earlier version of a piece Hermann Samuel Reimarus had written for a group of friends (rather than for publication) in which he defended natural religion against the assumptions of biblically based faith and the latter’s adherence to supernatural revelation and miracles. Lessing’s publication of fragments of this piece in 1774–77, without naming the author, generated what became known as the “fragment dispute,” perhaps the most significant theological dispute in eighteenth-century Germany and the most important between the Enlightenment and orthodox Lutheran theology.
Reimarus, Sophie, née Hennings (1742–1817): Hamburg salon hostess, from 8 June 1770 wife of the Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus (1729–1814). She published poems, hosted a popular cultural salon in Hamburg, and corresponded with a number of Enlightenment figures at the time.
Reimer, Georg Andreas (1776–1842): Publisher in Berlin and Leipzig. From 1795 in Berlin with the company of G.A. Lange, from 1800 with the Realschulbuchhandlung there, which he took over in 1801 as a long-term lease and then acquired outright in 1822. One of the most talented and successful publishers in Berlin, his house similarly functioning as one of the social centers there and his art collection being reckoned as one of the city’s best. Published Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), Ludwig Tieck, both Schlegel brothers, Jean Paul, Heinrich von Kleist, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Wilhelm on Humboldt, the Grimm brothers, to name but a few. Trenchantly opposed to the French occupation, also publishing a periodical to that purpose at the beginning of the Wars of Liberation. (ADB) (Portrait: Zweihundert deutsche Männer in Bildnissen und Lebensbeschreibungen, ed. Ludwig Bechstein [Leipzig 1854], unpaginated [alphabetical] entry on Georg Andreas Reimer.)
Reiner, Gregor (bapitzed: Leonhard) (1756–1807): Catholic philosopher, Premonstratensian. From 1779 taught philosophy in the Steingaden monastery, from 1781 practical and theoretical philosophy in Ingolstadt in the spirit of the Enlightenment philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754), but lost his position in 1785 as a result of the persecution of Illuminati. From 1789 back in Steingaden as professor of philosophy and mathematics, also becoming interested in Kantian philosophy (was one of the first scholars to advocate Kant’s philosophy in Bavaraia). From 1799 again in Ingolstadt, thereafter in 1800 to Landshut, where the university was transferred and where he held the chair for practical philosophy and universal history but also taught aesthetics and metaphysics as a follower of Kant.
Reinbold, Johann Arnold Wilhelm (†January 1793): Caroline’s mother’s maternal uncle (Caroline’s maternal grandmother was Anna Clara Schröder, née Reinbold[t] [1717–81]), hence Caroline’s great-uncle. Officially from 1785 bailiff in Katlenburg; Luise Wiedemann, Erinnerungen 15, recounts that he was there when she returned from boarding school in Gotha in the summer of 1786. Previously bailiff in Bokeloh near Hannover. Married to Sara, née Werlhof.
Reinbold, Sara, née Werlhof (dates unknown): Wife of Caroline’s great uncle, Johann Arnold Wilhelm Reinbold, in Katlenburg.
Reinhard, Franz Volkmar (1753–1812): Theologian, high court chaplain in Dresden, Friedrich von Hardenberg’s (Novalis) brother-in-law. Studied theology in Wittenberg, passing his Habilitation in 1777 for philosophy and philology. From 1780 professor of philosophy, from 1782 also of philosophy in Wittenberg, from 1790/91 university rector, from 1792 high court chaplain in Dresden and member of the Saxon high consistory. 1782–87 published anonymous reviews in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung and the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek. From 1794 married to Ernestine von Charpentier (born 1776), daughter of the Freiberg mineraologist and sister of Friedrich von Hardenberg’s (Novalis) later fiancée, Julie von Charpentier (Charpentier’s youngest daughter). One of the most significant preachers during the Enlightenment (his most important publications were actually his sermons) and an early representative of supranaturalism over against Kant, advocating the acceptance of the truth of revelation in limiting any absolute faith in reason and purporting to have found an internal contradiction in Kant’s philosophy involving cognition. As a follower of Hermann Samuel Reimarus he engaged in research on the life of Jesus. In an effort to secure a patron, Fichte had dedicated the second edition of his Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung (1793) to Reinhard, though later, in his Appellation an das Publikum, he implied that Reinhard was among the allegedly enlightened theologians calling for his dismissal. (Portrait from Wilhelm Hennings,Deutscher Ehren-Tempel: Bearbeitet von einer Gesellschaft von Gelehrten, ed. Wilhelm Hennings, vol. 10 [Gotha 1829], plate preceding p. 63.)
Reinhard, Karl von (1769–1840): Writer (the “von” likely derives from his honorary membership in the order of St. Joachim). Studied in his hometown of Helmstedt, working thereafter as a private tutor for the son of Count Stolberg-Wernigerode, during which time he also became acquainted with members of the Halberstädter poet’s circle around Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim. From 1792 lecturer in Göttingen, having been drawn there by the circle of poets around Gottfried August Bürger. He published several editions of the latter’s work (Bürger died in 1794) along with a collection of documents defending Bürger with regard to his marriage to Elise Bürger, née Hahn. After 1806 freelance writer, essayist, and translator in Ratzeburg, Hamburg, Berlin, and Zossen. Edited the Göttinger Musenalmanach after Bürger’s death (1795–1804 excepting 1803).
Reinhard, Karl Friedrich, Count von (1761–1837): Diplomat in French service (Talleyrand: “Tübingen’s gift to France”), writer, husband of Christine, née Reimarus. Born in Schorndorff, studied theology and philology in Tübingen, from 1787 private house tutor in Bordeaux, from 1791 secretary in the French foreign ministry in Paris, from 1792 embassy secretary in London, from 1793 in Naples, from 1795 French envoy to Hamburg, from 1798 in Florence, in 1799 Foreign Minister in France for thirteen days as Talleyrand’s successor, then envoy in Switzerland, from 1801 in Milan, from 1802 in Hamburg, though his criticism of Napoleon prompted his transfer in 1806 to Iassy (Rumania), where he and his family were arrested when the Russians entered in 1806 (afterward released on orders of the czar). Returned to France and lived on his estate until Napoleon appointed him envoy to the Westphalian court of Jérôme in Kassel (1808–13) and made him first a baron (1808), then a count (1813). Held administration posts after the Restoration as well, including in Dresden. Carried on a correspondence with Goethe, whom he had met in Karlsbad in 1807, as well as Schiller, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, and Friedrich Schlegel. (Portrait: Ernst Beutler and Anton Kippenberg, Goethe und seine Welt [Leipzig 1932], 173.)
Reinhold, Karl Leonhard (1757–1823): Philosopher. A native of Vienna, Reinhold entered the Jesuit order in 1772, then changed to the Barnabites in 1774, with whom he studied philosophy and theology, becoming professor of philosophy at the Barnabite college in 1778. Ordained priest in 1780, from 1781 member of the Freemasons in Vienna. Fled the Viennese monastery in 1783 and moved to Leipzig, then to Weimar, converting to Protestantism under Johann Gottfried Herder’s tutelage. Became acquainted with Christoph Martin Wieland and began contributing to the latter’s Der Teutsche Merkur (becoming co-editor in 1784), including Briefe über die Kantische Philosophie (1786), which contributed to the popularizing of Kant’s philosophy. Married Wieland’s daughter Sophie Katharina Susanne in 1785 and entered Saxon-Weimar service. From 1787 associate professor of philosophy in Jena, from 1791 full professor, his popularity, advocacy, and continued development of Kantian philosophy helping to turn Jena into a center of German philosophy (his students included Friedrich von Hardenberg [Novalis] and Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer) and preparing the way for both Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Schelling with his attempt to unify Kant’s theoretical and practical critiques of reason through the fundamental principle of consciousness. In 1794 he accepted a position in Kiel, where he remained the rest of his life. Fichte was his successor in Jena. Ultimately established his own philosophy on the basis of a critique of language (as such one of the precursors of the “linguistic turn” in philosophy). (Portrait: Frontispiece to Ernst Reinhold, Karl Leonhard Reinhold’s Leben und literarisches Wirken [Jena 1825].)
Reiske, Ernestine Christine, née Müller (1735–98): Classical philologist, wife and steadfast scholarly partner of Johann Jakob Reiske and editor of his posthumous works. Her husband’s Libanii Sophistae Orationes Et Declamationes (Altenburg 1791–97) seems to have been largely her work. (Portrait: by J. D. Philipp, neé. Sysang, in Oratorvm Graecorvm, Qvorvm Princeps Est Demosthenes, Qvae Svpersvnt Monvmenta Ingenii, vol. 1, Partem priorem dimidiam Demostenis tenens [Leipzig 1779], first page of preface.)
Reiske, Johann Jakob (1716–74): Classical philologist, Arabic scholar, husband of the philologist Ernestine Christine Reiske. Studied philology and Near Eastern languages in Leipzig and Leiden, earning his doctorate in 1746. From 1748 professor of Arabic in Leipzig, from 1758 rector of the Nicolai School in Leipzig. Published numerous editions of Greek and Byzantine texts from manuscripts as well as of Plutarch and others and translations; many of his conjectures and corrections were confirmed by later manuscript evidence. One of the greatest classical philologists despite living largely in poverty and without recognition. (Portrait: Johann Carl Müller, Biographien jetzt lebender Gelehrten und gelehrter Künstler nebst ihren Silhouetten en Bou-Magie [Leipzig 1779].)
Reni, Guido (1575–1642): Italian painter of the high Baroque period. A native of Calvenzano near Bologna, trained there from age of nine and later in Rome. He early received a commission for an altarpiece in St. Peter’s basilica, the Crucifixion of St. Peter, and eventually became one of the premier painters during the papacy of Paul V, enjoying Borgehese patronage, for whom he did his most famous fresco, Aurora and the Hours. Reni became the most sought-after painter in Bologna after Annibale Carracci’s death, establishing his own studio. His work, including both religious and mythological scenes, is praised for its elegant lighting, composition, and color, and, especially later in his life, its flowing, airy quality.
Rétif (Restif) de la Bretonne, Nicolas-Edme (1734–1806): French novelist. From the peasant class, apprenticed to a printer in Auxerre, then moved to Paris. Perhaps best known for his realistic, melodramatic, often libertine romances characterized by a naturalistic, coarse, sometimes even obscene style (“quite unfit for general perusal,” so Brittanica; “the Voltaire of the chambermaids,” so La Harpe) but also by considerable powers of observation drawn from his own, colorful life. His works were sometimes didactic in nature with an edifying purpose (e.g., Le Paysan perverti [1773] about a peasant corrupted by the influences of city life) and are often of value in having preserved many features of the lower, uneducated peasant classes, and of the situation of lower-class women during the eighteenth century and of city life. (Portrait: frontispiece to Monsieur Nicolas ou le Cœur humain dévoilé: Mémoires intimes de Restif de la Bretonne, vol. 14 [Paris 1883].)
[Retz,] Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal of Retz (1613–79): French cleric, activist during the Fronde, the civil war in France 1648–53.
Retzer, Josef Friedrich von (1754–1824): Prolific writer, editor, linguist, philosopher, literary censor for the imperial court in Vienna.
Reubel, Josef (Joseph) (27 February 1779– 9 November 1852): Born in Nördlingen in Swabia but attended the Gymnasium in Munich. Studied initially in Salzburg, then Königsberg (Kant), then Munich, where he studied anatomy and at the military school of surgery. Moved to Bamberg to study under Andreas Röschlaub, Adalbert Marcus, and Ignaz Döllinger through the summer semester 1799, at which time he moved to Jena, attending anatomical lectures by Justus Loder as well as Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, Johann Christian Starck, and, significantly, Schelling. Returned to Bamberg in 1801 after working for a time at the Julius Hospital and clinical institute in Würzburg. Received his medical, surgical, and philosophical doctorate in Bamberg in September 1801, his theses providing fodder for Franz Berg’s satire against medical theory influenced by Schelling’s philosophy of nature. From 1801–2 private lecturer in medicine in Bamberg. Petitioned in Munich for a position in Landshut, but his marriage (to Karoline von Ezenried [31 August 1771–24 September 1828]) interrupted his academic career, requiring his presence at an estate near Munich until 1811. From 1811 general practitioner in Munich, later also as a physician to the poor, including during a typhus epidemic in 1814. From 1818 personal physician to the family of Prince von Oettingen-Wallerstein, who founded the The Homeopathic Hospital in Munich. From 1822 returned to Munich, where he worked as a general practitioner , from 1826 lectured at the university there, including on syphilis, and became professor of physiology and semiotics in 1832, of anthropology and psychology in 1840, as well as of the literary history of medicine. Lectured on homeopathy between 1848 and 1850. Co-director of the homeopathic hospital in Munich. Celebrated his golden jubilee (“Dr. Jubil.”) in 1851. At the time considered one of the leading physiologists and physicians in Germany. (Biography: see esp. Almanach der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 1 [1828] 129–31.)
Reubell, Jean-François (1747–1807): From Colmar, from 1789 deputy in the Estates General, eventually attorney general for the Upper Rhine, from 1792 deputy to the Constituent Assembly from the Upper Rhine, advocate of the annexation of the German territories west of the Rhine.
Reuss, Heinrich XIV (Reuss) zu Greiz (1749–12 February 1799): Austrian ambassador in Prussia, frequented the Berlin salon of Sara von Grotthuss, where he made the acquaintance of her sister, Maria Anna Mayer (Meyer), whom he secretly married in Königsbrück in 1797 (a morganatic marriage). After his death in 1799, Emperor Franz II elevated her to the “Frau von Eybenberg.”
Reuss, Jeremias David (1750–1837): Studied in Tübingen, earning his doctorate at eighteen. Thereafter librarian in Tübingen, then from 1782 in Göttingen, from 1785 professor of legal history there, also publishing in intellectual and scholarly history; from 1799 husband of Marianne Heyne, daughter of his superior at the library in Göttingen; after Christian Gottlob Heyne’s death, Reuss directed the library until his own death. (Portrait: 1792, by Heinrich Christian Schwenterley.)
Reuss-Schleitz, Heinrich LXII of (31 May 1785–9 June 1854): Eldest son of Heinrich XLII of Reuss-Schleitz, whom he succeeded upon the latter’s death on 17 April 1818. From 1804 to 1806 attended the universities in Würzburg and Erlangen, where Friedrich Majer accompanied him, residing then in Dresden till 1809. Known especially for his efforts to improve the educational system in his principality. Because he never married, his brother, Heinrich LXVII, succeeded him. (Portrait: “Galerie der deutschen Bundesfürsten XXX,” Das Pfennig-Magazin für Verbreitung gemeinnütziger Kenntnisse [1837] 241 [11 November 1837], 353.)
Reventlow, Count Friedrich Karl (1754 [55?]–1828): Kiel University trustee, member of an older noble family in Schleswig-Holstein. Studied in Göttingen 1769–73, where he associated with members of the Göttinger Hainbund poets. Afterward in Danish service. From 1779 married to Juliana, née Schimmelmann (1762–1816). Their estate at Emkendorf was the center of what became known as the Emkendorf Circle, a literary salon begun in 1783 at their estate and frequented by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Heinrich Christian Boie, Matthias Claudius, Johann Caspar Lavater, Johann Heinrich Voss, and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Indeed, Emkendorf estate was often call “Weimar of the North.”
Richardson, Samuel (1689–1761): English writer, printer, and publisher, best known for his three epistolary novels Pamela. Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740); Clarissa. Or the History of a Young Lady (1748); and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Although his novels, variously extolling virtue and its maintenance in difficult situations, were immensely popular both in England and on the Continent (even being adapted to the stage), some readers, especially in England, while praising their morality and realism, complained about impropriety and indecency (Pamela, Clarissa) or doubtful morality and tedious length (Grandison). That said, Richardson is generally acknowledged as one of the founders of the modern novel and as one of the chief popularizers of the epistolary fictional form. (Portrait: from the 1750s by Mason Chamberlin.)
Richter, August Gottlob (1742–1812): Respected surgeon and professor in Göttingen. 1760–64 studied medicine in Göttingen, thereafter traveling to Strasbourg, Paris, London, Oxford, Leiden, Amsterdam, and Groningen for further study. From 1766 associate professor, from 1771 full professor of medicine, from 1780 city physician, from 1782 Hofrath in Göttingen. Lectured on surgery, ophthalmology, osteopathology, obstetrics, and general pathology. Tried to unite the disciplines of surgery (“barbars) and (university-based) medicine. From 1770 married to Henriette Elisabeth, née Hoop (1752–1831); his daughter Charlotte Louise Augusta married Justus Christian Loder in 1792.
Richter, Caroline, née Meyer (1777–1860): Daughter of the royal Prussian professor of medicine J. A. Meyer in Berlin. From 27 May 1801 wife of Jean Paul (Friedrich Richter), the latter of whom had, however, been engaged in 1799 to a young noble lady at the court in Hildburghausen. By all accounts, the marriage seems to have been a happy one.
(Jean Paul) Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich (1763–1825): Writer. From 1781 studied theology in Leipzig, but preferred literary studies; financial problems prompted him to break off his studies and return home to Hof to live with his mother. 1787–89 worked as a private tutor, 1790–94 as a schoolmaster at a school he himself founded. After less success with his initial novels, his fortune began to change with Die unsichtbare Loge (1793), until with Hesperus (1795) he became virtually a literary celebrity, writing under the pen name of Jean Paul. Over the next few years he produced several more well-received and widely read novels. He moved to Leipzig in 1797 and a year later to Weimar. Though Herder was fond of him, Goethe and Schiller were considerably less so, having objections to his writing. He married Caroline Meyer in 1801, whom he had met in Berlin, and they lived in several towns before settling for good in Bayreuth in 1804. He published prolifically, including many ambitious works such as Titan (1800–1803) and a treatise on aesthetics, Vorschule der Aesthetik (1804). His novels can seem structurally awkward and even eccentric at times, and his narrative flow is seldom straightforward; his fertile imagination and humor were early recognized as characteristic of his literary disposition, and he was one of the most widely read authors at the time. (Portrait: 1798, by Heinrich Pfenninger; Gleimhaus Halberstadt.)
Riemenschneider, Tilman (1460–1531): One of the most important wood and stone carvers in German; resided in Würzburg, where he was also mayor in 1520–21. Imprisoned, tortured, and deprived of most of his fortune after having taken the (unsuccessful) side of the peasants during the Peasants’ War in 1525.
Riemer, Friedrich Wilhelm (1774–1845): Although a talented philologist and specialist in ancient languages, his lack of funds to support himself precluded an academic career. Initially became a private tutor in the family of Alexander von Humboldt, then from 1803 a tutor to Goethe’s son, August, in Weimar, where from 1812 he was also schoolmaster, from 1814 librarian at the Latin grammar school. He helped edit the final edition of Goethe’s works during Goethe’s lifetime, and after Goethe’s death in 1832 participated in the publication of various parts of Goethe’s literary estate, esp. of a personal nature, such as letters and the recollections of others.
Riepenhausen, Ernst Ludwig (1762–1840): Artist and copper engraver in Göttingen who illustrated numerous scholarly works for Göttingen professors; acquired more widespread renown for his engravings after William Hogarth. Father of Franz and Johannes Riepenhausen, who also appear in Caroline’s correspondence.
Riepenhausen, (Friedrich) Franz (1786–1831) and Johannes (Christian) (1788–1860): Natives of Göttingen, both were painters and copper engravers who spent considerable time in Italy studying the pre-Raphaelite masters. Studied first with their father, though primarily by studying his collection of copper engravings, an activity they shared with Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, who was a student in Göttingen at the time. After Wilhelm Tischbein came to Göttingen to do the engravings for Christian Gottlob Heyne’s edition of Homer, they became so enthusiastic that they decided to do something similar with a painting described by Pausanias before going to Cassel to study, during which time they also competed for the annual prize offered by the Goethe’s Weimarer Friends of the Arts. A short stay in Dresden acquainted them with the new Romantic art of Philipp Otto Runge, Caspar David Friedrich, and Friedrich Tieck; they were so inspired they converted to Catholicism in 1804, Friedrich taking the name Franz and Christian the name Johannes (Rumohr also converted). From 1805 both lived in Rome, where they lived in the same house as Rumohr and Friedrich Tieck, who took care of practical matters to the point that the two brothers never got around to serious study, and Rumohr began to complain, though they also complained about his indecision and failure to get anything written. Rumohr left Rome for southern Italy in the spring and returned to Germany in the fall. Together, the two brothers did, however, create a great many historical paintings, contour drawings for literary works (e.g., to Ludwig Tieck’s Genoveva in fourteen plates, 1806), and etchings. Their best-known work on art history was Geschichte der Malerei in Italian (1810). Caroline refers to them as “mischievous and villainous good-for-nothings.” (Portraits by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein [1813]; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.)
Ritter, Johann Wilhelm (1776–1810): Physicist. A native of Silesia, Ritter apprenticed to an apothecary at fourteen, also reading textbooks on chemistry and conducting his own experiments. Although he matriculated in Jena in 1796 to study science, he did not pursue any organized course of study, preferring instead to conduct experiments and pursue private studies in his room, finally developing a special interest in galvanism and delivering a paper in October 1797 to the Society of Natural Science in Jena that although well received was initially rejected by the publisher as making claims that were too audacious. In 1798 he published the results of his experiments in electrochemistry as Beweis, dass ein beständiger Galvanismus den Lebensprozess in dem Thierreiche begleite, maintaining that galvanism, as the production of electricity through the contact of various metals or other substances, can be observed both in the organic and inorganic realms of nature. He soon acquired a certain reputation in Thuringia but was often at odds with the professors of science at the university. Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) and others were enthusiastic about Ritter’s findings, and he became acquainted with the circle of Romantics in Jena, though Steffens and Schelling remained skeptical. From 17 June 1804 married to his housemaid, Johanna Dorothea, née Münchgesang (10 October 1788–20 November 1823), with whom he had already been living in an open marriage in Jena. In 1805 he received a position with the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich, where he was a colleague of Schelling and initially lived in the same building complex. His inclination to mysticism and his research into various questionable phenomena, including the divining rod and the medium Francesco Campetti (documented in this present edition), damaged his reputation as a scientist. Ritter is, however, viewed as one of the founders of modern electrochemistry; he anticipated many later discoveries even if he was not always aware of the significance of his own results, though he did discover ultraviolet rays in 1802. His unorthodox, imprecise writing style—some of which he shares with writings on the philosophy of nature and other Romantic writings—also contributed to his later lack of recognition. On balance, Ritter was the Romantic most concerned with reconciling empiricism with speculation. (Portrait: unknown artist.)
Robert, Karl Wilhelm (1740–1803): Professor in Marburg, formerly of theology, then of law. Having become uncomfortable in the department of theology because of his deist leanings and interest in Kantian philosophy, he studied privately to earn his doctorate in law and was from 1766 professor of natural law in Marburg. Also active in Marburg’s Masonic lodge. From 1797 upper appeals court judge in Kassel.
Robert (also Robert-Tornow; originally Markus/Liep Levin), Ernst Friedrich Ludwig (1778–1832): Writer, brother of Rahel Levin. Although destined for a commercial career, he was inspired by Goethe and others and by his sister’s Berlin salon, publishing then in Adelbert von Chamisso and Varnhagen von Ense’s almanachs in 1804, 1805, and 1806 (see Caroline’s review of the 1805 almanach in volume 2 of her literary reviews in this edition). Studied under Fichte, Henrik Steffens, and Friedrich August Wolff, but devoted himself to the theater, also writing libretti, journalistic pieces, theater criticism, poetry, and satire. Converted to Christianity in 1819 so he could marrry Friederike Primavesi, neé Braun, living thereafter in Dresden, Paris, and Berlin.
Robert-Tornow, Markus (Marcus) Theodor, orig. Mordechai Levin (1772–1826): Banker in Berlin, brother of Rahel Levin. Converted to Christianity in 1812.
Robespierre, Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de (1758–94): Influential and notorious participant in the French Revolution, a leader in the Jacobin Club (1791–92), leader of the radical Montagnards, demanding the death of the king in 1793 and being elected member of the second Committee of Public Safety in 1793, after which he was responsible for much of the Reign of Terror. Died under the guillotine. (Portrait: frontispiece to C. Whittingham, The History of Robespierre, Political and Personal: Containing, His Principles, Actions, and Designs, in the Jacobin Club, Commune of Paris, Constituent Assembly, and the Convention. The Whole Comprehends Interesting Particulars Respecting His Commencing Politician, Establishing His Tyranny, and Falling the Victim of National Vengeance [London 1794].)
Robinson, Henry Crabb (1775–1867): An English solicitor and barrister who wrote for The Times, was otherwise acquainted with various English writers, and who also travelled extensively in Germany when he was younger and later helped popularize German culture in England. Robinson spent five years in Germany, from which he returned with, among other things, a manuscript based on Schelling’s lectures on the philosophy of art in Jena during the winter semester 1802–3. Robinson matriculated at the university there on 20 October 1802, then heard “the modern Plato read for a whole hour his new metaphysical Theory of Aesthetic or the Philosophy of Art,” and was later even invited to dinner with Schelling on 2 December 1802. He later saw Schelling again in Bamberg during the autumn of 1804 and in Karlsbad in late Auguste 1829. (Portrait: frontispiece from Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson [London 1869].)
Rochambeau, Jean-Baptist Donatien, Comte de (1725–1807): From 1780 commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force that aided the Continental Army.
Rochlitz, Johann Friedrich (1769–1842): Writer, playwright, composer, music journalist in Leipzig.
Rodde, Mattheus (Matthäus) (1754–1825), from 1803 Baron von Rodde: Merchant, senator, from 1792 husband of Dorothea Schlözer, from 1806 mayor of Lübeck. Some scholars have taken his later financial troubles to have been the model for the family demise described in Thomas Mann’s novel Buddenbrooks: Verfall einer Familie, 2 vols. (1901). (Portrait: unknown portraitist.)
Röderer, Johann Georg (1726–63): Professor of medicine at Göttingen and personal physician to the king of England. One of his daughters, Caroline Friederike, married August Ludwig von Schlözer; the other, Wilhelmine Dorothea Victoria, married Justus Christian von Loder. (Portrait: by H. Wilhelm Dietz; Voit Sammlung, in the SUB Göttingen.)
Rodney, George Brydges (1719–92): British admiral. Active during the American Revolutionary War especially in the Caribbean, where in April 1782, at the Battle of the Saints, he defeated the French under François Joseph Paul de Grasse, arriving then back in England in August to enormous acclaim. (Portrait: 1782 by Thomas Gainsborough, after the Battle of the Saintes. On sail slips: the French fleur-de-lis from the captured Ville De Paris.)
Romano, Giulio (Pippi de’ Gianuzzi) (ca. 1499–1546): Italian painter and architect, initiator of the Mannerist style (Renaissance mannerism as opposed to high Renaissance style; with elements of intellectual sophistication, artificiality, and a florid style), pupil of Raphael in Rome.
Romberg, Andreas (1767–1821) and Bernhard (1767–1841): Cousins from a widely musical family; Andreas was a violinist, Bernhard a cellist. Both were composers, and both toured Europe giving concerts giving concerts together (sometimes incorrectly known as the “Romberg Brothers”). From 1800 till 1802 the two cousins lived together in Paris. Bernhard’s text for violoncello is still considered an instructional standard, and Andreas’s compositions anticipate Romanticism in music. Bernhard eventually settled in Hamburg, Andreas in Gotha.
Roose, Betti, née Eckardt (1778–1808): Actress, native of Hamburg, daughter of the actor Siegfried Gotthilf Eckardt, called Koch, from whom she was carefully trained. Debuted in 1788 in Riga, in 1794 in Mannheim, then performed in Hannover, Hamburg, and Bremen. When her father followed August von Kotzebue to Vienna in 1798, she followed. Performed in both heroic and naive roles and became extremely popular. From 1799 married to the Viennese actor Friedrich Roose. Died at the age of 30 in childbirth.
Roose, Sophie Henriette, née Abich: Wife of Theodor Georg August Roose, who died in 1803. In 1810 she married Karl Gustav Himly after the latter’s first wife had died that same year; Sophie Roose had, however, become wealthy as Roose’s widow and continued (according to Luise Wiedemann) to control that part of her own finances.
Roose (Rose), Theodor Georg August (13 or 14 February 1771–21 March 1803): Native of Braunschweig, where he was professor of anatomy and secretary of the health council. Originally studied in Göttingen, earning his medical doctorate in 1793. One of the most respected physiologists and legal physicians of his age, in 1802 he turned down an otherwise excellent appointment in Kiel to remain in Braunschweig, for which he was made a Ducal-Braunschweig Hofrath. His widow, Sophie Henriette, married Karl Gustav Himly in 1810 after the latter’s first wife died. (Portrait: frontispiece to Jahrbuch der Staatsarzneikunde 3 [1810].)
Roppelt, Franz (1750–1 March 1811): Bavarian artillery captain; participated in France’s war against the Austrians in 1805 as the leader of an Bavarian artillery battery of 12 pieces (two 12-pound and eight 6-pound cannons, along with two seven-pound howitzers), and in the war against Prussia in 1806 and 1807 as the leader of a mobile artillery battery. In the War of the Fourth Coalition fought under the command of Count Spreti in the First Army Division of Deroy. Died in Munich. His wife seems to have assisted Caroline in preparing for her move to Munich from Würzburg.
Roschi, Elisabeth (Liese) (1758–1830): from ca. 1789 a maidservant in the Forster and Huber families (Therese Huber Briefe 1:825).
Röschlaub, Andreas (1768–1835): Physician, adherent of the philosophy of nature, one of the most influential (and controversial) representatives of Romantic medicine. Born near Bamberg, Röschlaub attended the Gymnasium there from 1779 to 1786, thereafter studying theology at the university there before transferring to Würzburg to study medicine in 1787, returning to Bamberg and receiving his medical degree in 1795 and becoming associate professor of medicine in 1796, adjunct professor in 1797, full professor of pathology in 1798, also receiving a position as second hospital physician at the general hospital there. He had already gotten to know the physician Adalbert Friedrich Marcus as a student, who as head of the Bamberg General Hospital made a concerted effort to improve conditions. The two physicians together were largely responsible for Bamberg’s considerable medical reputation during this period. From 1802 full professor at the clinic at the new university in Landshut, where he was also hospital physician and director of the medical school. Retired in 1824, became full professor again when the university was displaced to Munich in 1826, where he remained the rest of his life. Röschlaub was initially a fanatical adherent of the Brunonian system and translator of Brown’s works, at the time one of the most popular medical theories in Germany and one with which he had already dealt in his own dissertation; he developed it further in various publications and with reference to both Schelling and Fichte, though especially in his Untersuchungen über die Pathogenie (2 vols., 1798–1800) and in his own journal, the Magazin zur Vervollkommnung der Heilkunde (1799–1809), his fundamental premise being that the maintenance of life depends not only on the inner life principle (“irritability”), but also on external circumstances, and that the organism itself is capable of responding actively (“incitability”) to external stimuli. Advocated a closer connection between physiology and pathology, between medical theory and therapy. He even posited thirty axioms allegedly enabling any physician to cure any illness that was still in a curable stage. Although his ideas were enormously popular for a time, they were also criticized, one of his most vocal critics being Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland; in 1804 he and Schelling began taking a different fundamental view of medicine, leading to a public break between the two in 1805. He gradually turned away from this system and became an adherent of the philosophy of nature, articulating his position in, e.g., his Lehrbuch der besonderen Nosologie, Jatreusiologie und Jaterie (1807–10). Later in life, however, he turned away from this system as well and toward stringently rational, empirical medicine, also declaring the entire enterprise of “Brunonian system” to have been a sham. (Portrait: by Ferdinand Piloty the Elder.)
Röschlaub, Karoline (Caroline), née Stern, widowed Haas (1778–?): Originally from Wallhausen bei Kreuznach. First married to Johann Christoph Haas, on 9 December 1801 married Andreas Röschlaub in the Bamberg Orphanage.
Rose (full name: Rosette Abbt) (unknown dates): Caroline and Wilhelm’s maidservant in Jena. After Auguste’s death, she met them in Gotha on their way to Braunschweig, remained with Caroline in Braunschweig even after Wilhelm moved to Berlin in February 1801, and returned to Jena with Caroline in April 1801. Her recollection of the condition of the apartment and household items in the house at Leutragasse 5 in Jena played a role in Caroline’s determination of which and how many items Friedrich Schlegel and Dorothea Veit allegedly damaged while Caroline and Wilhelm were away from May/June 1800 to April 1801. Rose was, at least according to Caroline, wholly unable to cook. A certain Herr Moser is said to have been her love interest toward the end of 1801, then Johann Ludwig Geist (Goethe’s secretary) in 1802 and early 1803, who made her acquaintance in Lauchstädt in June 1802, whither she had accompanied Caroline and Schelling for the opening of the theater. On 22 May 1803, she married a certain Herr Wenzel, a building contractor in Jena.
Rosenmüller, Johann Christian (1771–1820): Physician and anatomist, studied initially in Leipzig, then switched to medicine in Erlangen, attaining his doctorate in 1797 and then settling in Leipzig as a general physician. From 1802 professor extraordinarius of anatomy and surgery in Leipzig, from 1804 as full professor.
Rothenhahn (Rothenhahn, Rotenhahn), Dorette (Dorothea) Henriette, née von Lichtenstein (13 April 1765–27 [28?] November 1837): From 15 September 1785 married to the royal Bamberg equerry and privy counselor Friedrich Christoph Philipp von Rothenhahn († 14 November 1798).
Rougemont, Georges de (1758–1824): Former student of Christian Gottlob Heyne in Göttingen, Swiss attorney general in Neuchâtel who had a country home in nearby Saint-Aubin; Therese Forster and her children stayed with him and his wife, Charlotte d’Ostervald, from mid-January till May 1793.
Rousseau, Jacques (Jacob) Auguste (1729–11 July 1809): From 1750 tutor of Duke Ernst II, the hereditary prince in Gotha; from 2 June 1767 married to Sara Dorothea Schläger, from 1786 successor of his father-in-law Julius Carl Schläger as director of the numismatic collection in Gotha. In 1792, his daughter Auguste Johanne Louise Rousseau married Friedrich Schlichtegroll (1750–1822), director of the numismatic collection in Gotha until 1807.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712–78): Swiss philosopher, novelist. Advocated the notion that human beings are originally virtuous, free, and happy, and have been corrupted from this state by the various institutions of society, whence also his advocacy of returning to nature as far as possible to enable people to reacquire this original goodness and his general advocacy of rustic simplicity over against the complexities of modern society. He develops these views in various treatises and illustrates many of them in novels as well. Considerably influenced French and European literature, preparing the way for the French Revolution and anticipating the development of the Storm and Stress movement in Germany as well as Romanticism.
Rousseau, Karl Julius (1780 Gotha–1846 Ansbach): Son of Jacques Auguste Rousseau in Gotha. Jurist, brother of Auguste (Dorette) Schlichtegroll, née Rousseau and Charlotte Wiebeking, née Rousseau, hence brother-in-law of Karl Friedrich Wiebeking, who likely secured a position for him in Munich; from 1807 Bavarian chancery official for bridge building in Munich.
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577–1640): Flemish painter, decorated the Luxembourg palace for Marie de Medici, painted in the Baroque style landscapes, portraits, and historical and sacred themes, often emphasizing bold colors and sensuality.
Rückert, Joseph (1771–1813): Professor of the history of philosophy in Würzburg. Initially studied in Jena under Karl Leonhard Reinhold but was then disappointed with Fichte, and, indeed, with the general squabbling among academics. Rückert, who suffered from chronic financial problems, was one of the lesser-known faculty members to switched from Jena to Würzburg in 1803–4, not least for financial reasons (chronically low faculty pay in Jena), though he lost his position there in 1809.
Rudloff, Ernst August: student from Hannover, matriculated at the university in Göttingen in October 1785; likely the son of Wilhelm August Rudloff.
Rudloff (Ruthlof), Wilhelm August (1747–1823): Estate owner and administrator in Hannover. Studied from 1764 in Göttingen, attaining his law doctorate and becoming a private lecturer there in 1767, later a law professor in Bützow and from 1773 administrator in Hannover.
Rudolf (Rudolph), Gottfried (dates unknown): Manservant in the Schiller household. Attended Schiller during the latter’s final days, during which Schiller was heard to speak passages from his play Demetrius. After Schiller’s death in 1805, he worked for the publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta. In March 1806 he entered service in the chancellery of the hereditary princess of Weimar and was still living in Weimar in that capacity in 1826.
Rudolphi, Caroline Christiane Louise (1753–1811): Pedagogue writer, poet. Largely self-educated in Potsdam outside Berlin, promoted by Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who set several of her poems to music and published her first collection of poetry. From 1778 a governess in Trollenhagen, from 1783 established her own educational institute in Trittau, from 1784 in Billwerder and Hamm (near Hamburg), where her school for girls became quite well known. She was friends with Elise Reimarus and part of the Hamburg circle around the Sieveking and Reimarus families. From 1803 in Heidelberg, where her salon guests included Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano and his wife, Sophie Mereau, as well as Ludwig Tieck.
Ruhl, Johann Christian (1764–1842): Court sculptor in Cassel, professor at the Academy of Formative Arts there. Studied under Samuel Nahl. Also did sketches for Gottfried August Bürger’s Lenore and James Macpherson’s Ossian.
Rulffs (Rulfs), August Friedrich (1736–1800): Merchant in Bremen, later civil official in Mainz, where he worked on behalf of the poor. As foster father, saved a young Georg Joachim Göschen from difficult financial circumstances in Bremen (Göschen later said that Rulffs’s portrait was a sacred relic for him), later accused of having conspired with the French in Mainz, in which capacity he is mentioned in the play The Mainz Clubbists in Königstein; Göschen apparently had a hand in his release.
Rumohr, Carl Friedrich von (1785–1843): Art historian, writer, gastrosopher. Born near Dresden, grew up on his family’s estate house near Lübeck, one of the most popular salons because of his parents’ hospitable personalities. As a child, Rumohr was prodigiously inquisitive and once wanted to run away from home because he was so bored with the private house tutor. Had a memorable visit to the art collection in Söder in 1800 (the same year as Caroline), later mentioning many of the same painters Caroline mentions (Ruisdael, Coreggio, Raphael). Came into a sizable inheritance after the death of his father in 1803. He studied languages and history in Göttingen 1802–4, where he also took drawing lessons from Johann Dominik Fiorillo and began a long acquaintance with the Riepenhausen family. He converted to Catholicism in 1804 under the influence of the Romantics, establishing contact with the circle around Clemens Brentano and journeying to Italy twice to develop his acquaintance with art history and aesthetics, the results of which he later published in his Italienische Forschungen (vols. 1 and 2 [1827]; vol. 3 [1831]), sometimes viewed as the work that established the discipline of source-critical art historiography. Was in Munich in August 1807 for study, where he also made the acquaintance of Schelling and Caroline. A profound connoisseur of Italian art, he also purchased many of the works to be housed in the newly established Prussian museums in Berlin. Patronized the Nazarenes in Rome as well as Hamburg landscape painters and wrote a well-received book on cooking, Geist der Kochkunst (1822) (still in print today; Eng. trans. The Essence of Cookery [London 1993]), in which he addressed issues relating to cooking techniques and foodstuffs, also encouraging German housewives to preserve the unpretentious German cuisine. He also wrote novellas, travelogues, books on etiquette, and an autobiographical novel (Ludwig Tieck’s critical comments on which alienated the two men). (Portrait: by Friedrich Carl Gröger.)
Christine Catharine Ernestine (called Kitty) (27 January 1780–1830): Sister of Carl Friedrich von Rumohr. Mistress of Kitty Hill. Like her sister Fritze, she was a conventual in the convent at Uetersen. She inherited a country house — Kitty Hill — from the estate Trenthorst. (Portrait: anonymous, Bliestorfer Geschichte online presence.)
Rumohr, Friederike Ulrika von (called Fritze) (1 October 1773–3 August 1837): Sister of Carl Friedrich von Rumohr. From 1795 conventual in the convent at Uetersen, though she lived largely with her brother on his estate Rothenhausen. She moved to Jena from Lübeck in 1808 when Johanna Frommann’s mother, together with her widowed daughter, Sophie Bohn, and unmarried youngest daughter, Betty Wesselhöft, moved to Jena. (Portrait: anonymous, Bliestorfer Geschichte online presence.)
Runge, Philipp Otto (1777–1810): Painter. From 1795 worked in his brother’s business in Hamburg, who also introduced him to a literary and artistic circle there. Although he read the ancients as well as Goethe and Schiller, it was the work of Ludwig Tieck that made an especially lasting impression on his artistic sensibility. From 1797 he studied drawing, then from 1799 at the art academy in Copenhagen. In 1801 he traveled to Greifswald, where he met Caspar David Friedrich, a distant relative, and thence to Dresden. Although he entered a piece in the 1801 competition of the Weimar Friends of the Art, the criticism it received prompted him to abandon classicistic composition and move toward a new, more mystical portrayal of nature (influenced by, among others, Henrik Steffens and Tieck, the latter of whom introduced Runge to the writings of the mystic Jacob Böhme). In 1802/03 he conceived a cycle of paintings called The Times of the Day, which was to be viewed in a special building to the accompaniment of music and poetry. Although he painted two versions of Morning, the other times were rendered only as drawings. In Dresden he also painted in oils. In 1803 he returned to Hamburg, where he produced several portraits in oil. The Times of the Day appeared as etchings in 1805 and 1807 (Caroline seems to have been familiar with them), impressing even Goethe, with whom Runge corresponded and who was also impressed by Runge’s work in chromaticism and his theory of colors (see Runge’s Farb[en]kugel [The color sphere]). Runge met Clemens Brentano in 1809, who wanted him to provide illustrations for his work Romanze vom Rosenkranz. (Self-portrait: frontispiece to Gedanken und Erörterungen über die Kunst und das Leben, ed. by “his brother,” vol. 1 [Hamburg 1840].)
Ruprecht, Carl Friedrich Günther (1730–1816): In 1748 became an apprentice in the Göttingen publishing company that today bears the name Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; after the death of Abraham Vandenhoeck in 1750, who had founded the company in 1735 in conjunction with the opening of the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Ruprecht directed the company together with Vandenhoeck’s widow, Anna, who died on 5 March 1787, after which Ruprecht inherited the company and directed it until his own death in 1816. When Anne Vandenhoeck died, Ruprecht was already fifty-seven years old and still single. On his way to the Leipzig Book Fair in 1787, however, he stayed overnight in Weimar, where he met and fell instantly in love with Dorothea Heinze, daughter of the (from 1770) director of the Duke Wilhelm Ernst Gymnasium there, Johann Michael Heinze (1717–90). The very next morning, Ruprecht asked Heinze for the hand of his thirty-three-year-old daughter, then married her on 31 July 1787. A year later a daughter, Marianne, was born, and two years later his son and successor as head of the publishing firm, Carl.
Ruprecht, Dorothea, née Heinze: Daughter of the rector of the Gymnasium in Weimar, from 31 July 1787 wife of Carl Friedrich Guenther Ruprecht, heir to the publishing company that eventually became Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and is still in existence today.
Rüsau, Johann Georg (Riga 1751–Hamburg 19 March 1804), his wife Elisabeth, née Päthau (Pätau), († 15 August 1803) and their five children († 15 August 1803): Born in Riga to a goldsmith who failed to make his fortune there, Johann Georg Rüsau lived from 1771 in Hamburg. Although he studied theology in Erlangen hoping to pull himself out of the grinding poverty afflicting his family, he was able to make only a paltry living through tutoring after returning to Hamburg, where he still had to live with his family for the next ten years. He met his future wife at a girls’ school in Hamburg where he gave religious instruction. After she took over the school in 1785, he continued to work there and eventually married her, albeit allegedly more for the sake of financial security than love, though she seems to have loved him. He opened a parallel boys’ school, which initially did well before failing, apparently also because of his difficult and sometimes lazy personality. That notwithstanding, he was apparently still plagued not only by anxiety at the continued prospect of poverty, but also by severe depression and miserliness. After closing the boys’ school, he engaged in two unsuccessful business ventures in Hamburg, apparently losing considerable money. His condition seems to have worsened to the point of despair, though accounts disagree concerning the extent to which mental illness was a factor. In any event, during the early morning hours of 15 August 1803, after manipulating his landlady into being away for the night, he murdered his wife and children (she had borne him ten, of whom five had survived), then tried to drown himself in Hamburg’s Alster Lake. Unfortunately the lake level was too low, so he tried to commit suicide through stabbing; that, too, failing, he was found that morning by Hamburg policemen, tried, and executed by the wheel “from top to bottom” (a late form of medieval torture-execution reserved in Hamburg at the time for those who murdered family members) on 19 March 1804. (Portrait: Copper engraving; Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Hamburgensien: Portraits, Portraitsammlung, Signatur P23: R78.)
Russia, Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of (1786–1859): Third daughter of Paul I of Russia. From 3 August 1804 married to Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1783–1853), son of Duke Karl August of Weimar. Maria was particularly devoted to supporting the arts in Weimar once she was in Weimar. She was herself an excellent pianist and long owned the best grand piano in town, which she also placed at others’ disposal for public concerts. When Johann Nepomuk Hummel became Grand Ducal Concert Master in 1819, she generously supported his efforts through funding from her own private assets. (Portrait: Vladimir Borovikovsky.]
Ruysdael (Ruisdael, Ruijsdael), Jacob van (1628–82): Dutch landscape painter. The nephew of Salomon van Ruysdael, with whom he studied and who was also a landscape painter. Especially noted as a painter of trees, paying careful to the rendering of foliage and rich greenery; although he also painted coastal scenes and seascapes, he is probably best known for his renderings of forests glades. Focused less on providing a pictorial record of the scene before him than on careful composition, subtle contrasting between clouds, plants, tree forms, and the play of light; especially noted for his rendering of clouds over the landscapes.