Jena from the Southeast with the Saale River
(H. Schwerdt and Z. Ziegler, Meyers Reisebücher: Thüringen, 2nd ed. [Hildburghausen 1871], plate following p. 106.)
Jena, 1785
Jena ca. 1785. Caroline writes a few days after her arrival in July 1796:
“The fresh air dispelled my headache. Schlegel was afraid the rock cliffs at the entrance to the town might frighten me off. But I only paid attention to what is good and pleasant about the place and have already become quite good friends with this romantic valley.”
(Johann Ernst Basillus Wiedeburg, Beschreibung der Stadt Jena nach ihrer Topographisch- Politisch- und Akademischen Verfassung [Jena 1785], fold-out illustration Tab. 2.)
The Griesbach House in Jena
House of the theologian Johann Jakob Griesbach, where Schiller lived from 13 April 1795 till 3 Dezember 1799. Caroline writes in July 1796, just after arriving in Jena:
“We went to see the Schillers after our meal the day before yesterday, since it was no longer possible that same evening. Everything was just as I had imagined it would be—except that I found Schiller to be more handsome, and his little boy is marvelous. We were on our way to see them when someone met us with the news that she had just given birth to a second little boy fifteen minutes earlier.”
(Illustrations: Griesbach house, from Schiller in Jena: eine Festgabe zum 26.Mai 1889 aus dem deutschen Seminar, ed. Berthold Litzmann [Jena 1889], plate following p. 112; portraits: from Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 310 and 311.)
Leutrastrasse 5 in Jena (1909)
Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel moved into this house in Jena in the autumn of 1796, in the right rear edifice at Leutragasse 5 (the number 5 was assigned in 1887). The house, built in the late 17th century, became the central gathering place for the Jena circle.
(Stadtplan von Jena, 1909; Thüringen Städtische Museen Jena: Stadtmuseum und Kunstsammlung.)
Leutrastrasse 5, Jena
In October 1796, Caroline, Wilhelm, Auguste, and possibly also Friedrich Schlegel likely moved into the right rear wing of this building at Leutragasse 5 in Jena. After Friedrich returned from Berlin with Dorothea Veit in the autumn of 1799, Dorothea describes their residence as a “beautiful apartment…each person has his own, small, nicely furnished quarters in the same house; we are each of us alone, or we visit one another.” She continues:
“We live in a kind of rear edifice, all the windows look out onto the courtyard. I myself live downstairs, one flight up Caroline, then Wilhelm, and finally, in the uppermost story, Friedrich.”
(Illustration: frontispiece to Eduard Helmke, Bericht über die Orthopaedisch-gymnastische Heilanstalt in Jena [Leipzig 1863].)
Rear garden at Leutragasse 5, 1863
On 7 July 1801, Caroline’s house guest Julie Gotter writes to her mother back in Gotha:
“I was unable to continue my letter the day before yesterday because we went for a walk and then out into the garden, where we had our evening meal.”
Julie speaks on several occasions of spending time in the rear garden at the Schlegel’s residence in Jena. This pleasant and expansive area was later built up with houses.
Leutragasse 5 entry and courtyard
The entry from the street to Leutrastrasse 5. the windows of Caroline’s apartment are on the left. Note the presence of a house in the back where previously the garden stood; see the next image for more documentation of how the garden was subsequently built over.
(Source: Early postcard; editor’s private collection.
Leutrastrasse 5 courtyard, 1932
The entry and courtyard of Caroline’s residence in Jena at Leutragrasse 5, here in a 1932 photo (Caroline’s windows to the left). This angle allows a view of the other rear edifice to the right (to the left in the earlier engraving), where the family of Gottlieb Hufeland lived, and of the buildings built behind the house since the earlier engraving was done.
(Photo: Stadtmuseum Jena; by permission.)
The Market Square, just around the corner from their new apartment in Jena, as Caroline and Auguste would have known it.
(Gustav Heinrich Schneider, Die Burschenschaft Germania zu Jena [Jena 1897], 87.)
Weimar in 1829
Caroline and Wilhelm — and, later, Caroline and Schelling —made numerous visits to Weimar between her arrival in Jena in 1796 and departure with Schelling in 1803.
(Neue Bildergalerie f.d. Jugend, vol. 1, 5th ed. [Gotha 1829], plate 2.)
Herder’s House in Weimar
Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel had tea with Johann Gottfried Herder in Weimar on Sunday, 18 December 1796, the day before dining with Goethe. Herder’s residence was (and still is) located next to the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Weimar.
Caroline recounts the visit:
“But the person who absolutely charmed me and almost made me fall in love, that would be Herder. We went there for tea, to which Wieland had also been summoned and whom I allegedly encountered in an extraordinarily good mood; and indeed, he came up with some very funny remarks, grumbling on about, among other things, pigs, for whose creation he simply could never forgive our dear Lord — and which in a severe fit of displeasure he called anti-graces … I had imagined Madam Herder as being smaller, gentler, more feminine. In any event, those failed expectations were certainly compensated by her husband. His Courland accent is already enough to steal your heart, and then the simultaneous ease and dignity in his whole being, the witty grace in everything he says — and he says not a word one is not glad to hear — it has been a long time since a person has pleased me as much as this, and even now it seems to me that in my zeal I have expressed myself quite confusedly in that regard.”
(Illustration: 19th-century copper engraving.)
Jena, Paradise, ca. 1900
Dorothea Veit writes in a letter to Schleiermacher in November 1799:
“Yesterday afternoon I was in Paradise (that’s what they call a certain promenade here) with the Schlegels, Caroline, Schelling, Hardenberg, and one of his brothers…and who should suddenly appear coming down the hill? none other than his old Divine Excellency, Goethe himself…Wilhelm introduces me to him, he pays me a very nice compliment…and is cordial and charming, and all ease and attentiveness toward his devoted lady servant…But since Wilhelm could not really get any conversation going, I thought to myself: well the devil take modesty, if he is bored then I have irrevocably lost my opportunity! So I immediately asked him something about the rushing currents in the Saale River, he responded with an explanation, and thus we continued on in a lively manner.”
(Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
Goethe’s House in Weimar
Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel dined at midday with Goethe in Weimar on 19 December 1796. Caroline recounts:
“At midday the next day, we were at Göthe’s, Herder as well, and I sat next to him and Knebel, except that my head was always turned toward only one side. Göthe gave a most charming diner, very nice, without extravagance, serving everything himself, and so adroitly that he always found time in between to describe some beautiful picture or other for us in words … When the sweet wine was being served for dessert, Schlegel recited an epigram aloud that Klopstock had recently composed in reference to Göthe, allegedly because Göthe ‘despised’ the German language, and so we all made a toast, though not at all to deride Klopstock; quite the contrary, Göthe spoke as uprightly and properly about Klopstock as was appropriate … Everything I did see suited its owner perfectly — he has organized his surroundings with precisely the same artistic sensibility he brings to everything, excepting his current love affair, if his connection with Mademoiselle Vulpius is to be called such.”
(Illustration of Goethe’s house on an early postcard.)
Xenien Satire
The Xenien, epigrams in the form of a classical distich that concluded Schiller’s Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1797, were a collection of satirical, biting, sometimes overtly cruel epigrams composed by Schiller and Goethe against literary enemies in response to what they considered the uncomprehending and hostile reaction to Schiller’s periodical Die Horen during 1795.
A commentary was required because many of the epigrams were addressed to or were about persons not immediately identifiable, a feature that did, of course, make for considerable suspense and second-guessing — including on Caroline’s part, who in several letters deftly identifies many of the targets.
It is difficult to imagine the excitement and indignation (accompanied, moreover, by numerous published responses) these epigrams provoked, epigrams leaving scholars guessing into the late nineteenth century and even beyond concerning their intended targets
Caroline had cleverly secured page proofs and was sending individual epigrams out to people before the collection was actually published. Whereas Schiller was vexed, Goethe responded, “All hail to our lady-friend that she copies and distributes our poems, and that she takes more thought of our proof-sheets than we do ourselves! Such faith, verily, was rarely met with in Israel!”
The satirical illustration here depicts a procession of burlesque figures trying unsuccessfully to enter the town gates of Jena. The Harlequin figure at the front carries a banner announcing the gang of Schiller and Goethe following behind, with Goethe and Schiller themselves at center (Goethe holding the Thierkreis banner [animal kingdom] and Schiller the bottle and whip) while their followers try to “overturn” the column representing “Propriety, Morality, Justice.”
(Illustration from Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], following p. 288.)
The Rau Valley, just north of Jena
A waterfall scene in the Rau Valley, a forested and popular excursion area just north of Jena. Friedrich Schlegel writes to Auguste from Berlin in August of 1797:
“You wrote me a great deal about rocks, Rau Valleys, and clear brooks. There is nothing at all like that here. Instead we have dust clouds, marble palaces made of sandstone, long, broad streets, and filthy water. I almost prefer your little Paradies to the gargantuan Tiergarten, where one can so easily get lost in all the dark paths.”
(Illustration from Jacob Roux, Die Gegenden um Jena, no. 1 [Jena, Weimar 1806], plate 4.)
Friedrich von Hardenberg, Julie von Charpentier
Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) and his fiancée Julie von Charpentier alongside an illustration of a glass-bell Harmonika (harmonium), a musical instrument whose tones were produced by glass bells, attested in several different varieties since the eighteenth century.
Caroline responds in November 1798 to Hardenberg concerning the “illness of your poor lady friend,” whose name she did not yet know:
“Your patient is surely none other than your Harmonika.”
The “patient” was Hardenberg’s (second) fiancée, Julie von Charpentier, who seems to have been a virtuoso on this iteration of the instrument. Caroline responds to another of Hardenberg’s letters concerning the “harmony of the spheres”:
“Please understand that it is difficult to predict exactly from your own statements whether, when you begin a piece of work, it is to become a book, or, when you love, whether it is the harmony of the spheres or a Harmonika.”
That is, whether the reference is to what Hardenberg had called the “mysterious pulse beats in many earlier writings, demonstrating a point of contact with the invisible world” (letter of 20 January) or Julie von Charpentier herself.
(Illustration of the Harmonika: from C. A. von Meyer zu Kronow, “Harmonica,” Journal von und für Deutschland [1784] vol. 2, no. 7 [July–December] [July], 1–4, unpaginated illustration following title [age; portraits: of Hardenberg: by Franz Gareis; of Julie von Charpentier: by Dora Stock.)
Weimar Royal Theater, 1798
Caroline attended numerous performances at this theater during her stay in Jena.
(Illustration from Adolph Döbler, Lauchstädt und Weimar: Eine theaterbaugeschichtliche Studie [Berlin 1908], illustration following p. 64.)
Theater Performance 1777
Caroline writes in December 1796:
“On the first evening [17 December 1796], we went to the theater . . . We attended with Everyman’s cicerone, namely, our dear [Karl August] Bötticher, and his good wife, who is as sweet as she is ceremonious, and who rolls her eyes until the whites show and clasps her hands and cries out “Beautiful! Beautiful!”
(Schauplatz der Natur und der Künste, vol. 5 [Vienna 1777], plate 30.)
Theater Foyer 1798
Caroline writes about the theater renovation and about activities following the premiere of Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Camp on 14 October 1798:
“An architect and decorator from Studtgart was engaged for the task, and within 13 weeks columns, galleries, balconies, and curtains were constructed and all sorts of things adorned, painted, and gilded, but genuinely with taste….After the performance, Fichte forced 4 glasses of champagne on me; I must not forget to report that to you.”
The Parisian foyer in this illustration afforded the opportunity for more overt social connections of the sort likely not the case in Weimar.
(Louis Binet, Foyer du Théâtre Montansier, repr. in Arthur Pougin, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque du théâtre et des arts qui s’y rattachent: Poétique, musique, danse, pantomime, décor, costume, machinerie, acrobatisme [Paris 1885], 391.)
August Wilhelm Iffland as Pygmalion
To the left and right a list of plays the actor August Wilhelm Iffland performed in Weimar beginning on 24 April 1798 (24, 25, 27, 30 April and 1, 3, 4 May 1798), including Pygmalion on 27 April and 1 May 1798.
Caroline writes to a friend in April 1798:
“Iffland will be performing in Weimar first on the 24th and then 6 days in succession, all of which we will be spending there.”
Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel saw all six performances by Iffland at the Weimar theater and also attended several breakfasts Goethe gave in honor of the artist.
(Illustration: portrait of Iffland as Pygmalion in 1800 by Anton Graff; Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg; theater program: C. A. H. Burkhardt, Das Repertoire des Weimarischen Theaters unter Goethes Leitung. 1791–1817 [Hamburg, Leipzig 1891], 28.)
Fichte House in Jena
After “forcing 4 glasses of champagne” on Caroline in the Weimar theater in October 1798, Johann Gottlieb Fichte writes to his wife, Johanne Fichte, in October 1799 from Berlin:
“As far as Schelling and Madam Schlegel are concerned, be extremely careful and on your guard! I entreat you for the sake of our love. I have already been informed by someone else, and such that I must ask you to be very discreet in the matter. Schelling is making a bad name for himself, which makes me very sorry….The greatest ill is that in such matters the actors think no one notices anything, since, indeed, no one says anything to them about it until it becomes a full-blown public scandal. Why does the husband [i.e., Wilhelm Schlegel] not put an end to all this?”
Johanne Fichte responds:
“Today I happened to meet Madam Schlegel, with Schelling (they walk together every day)….I could tell that both of them were in an extremely ill mood. It would frankly be a very good thing if you could take the opportunity to speak with Schelling directly from the heart, since all this gossip about him is also doing damage to him….I am being very cautious with them, and indeed with everyone here, of that you can be assured, my dear Fichte.”
(Fichte-house: 1984 photo by translator-editor; portraits: Fichte: frontispiece to Ludwig Noack, Johann Gottlieb Fichte nach seinem Leben, Lohen und Wirken [Leipzig 1862]; Madam Fichte: frontispiece from Achtundvierzig Briefe von Johann Gottlieb Fichte und seinen Verwandten, ed. Moritz Weinhold [Leipzig 1862].)
Jena, former town moat and promenade
Here an illustration of the promenade along the former moat along the town walls in Jena ca. 1791. The painter Louise Seidler, who was confirmed with Auguste in late 1799, relates a comical incident during their catechism classes:
“The residence of the venerable superintendent who was to prepare us for the holy sacrament was located directly across from the former town moat [Graben], where the dear street urchins were wont to engage in their cheerful games. Especially during the winter, when parts of the moat were frozen solid, there was no end to the sliding. It was with secret envy that I watched all this fun that my grandmother had hitherto strictly forbidden me; I would have given my very life to try out my skill on the smooth ice. But I was just too ashamed — until one day Auguste Böhmer, to whom I had confided both my profound longing and my reservations, facilely dispensed with the latter through one joke or other. So I tried my hand at what I had never before dared to do, and rushed out to the slippery iceway; unfortunately, unpracticed as I indeed was, I fell flat onto the ice, tall and gangly, with my Bible, hymnal, and catechism books flying everywhere. When I finally scrambled back onto my feet, blushed with embarrassment, I saw to my horror the grave teacher standing at his window, in rapt astonishment, both hands clasped over his head.
(Illustration from Jena und Weimar von alter zu neuer Zeit [Jena 1908], following p. 64.)
House of the Publisher Friedrich Frommann
The house of the publisher Friedrich Frommann in 1970, where Caroline, Wilhelm Schlegel, Schelling, Goethe, and essentially everyone associated with the cultural and university community in Jena regularly spent memorable evenings of conviviality and cultural exchange.
Schelling writes to Friedrich Frommann from Munich in January of 1809:
“The description of your winter life in Jena in the letter from Madame Frommann almost aroused our old yearning for the quiet, happy life that one unfortunately encounters less frequently here….her reminder of earlier, more cheerful days gladdened us both exceedingly; if only we were together again, there should be no lack of pranks and fun or even more at least from my side.”
(Photo reproduced by permission, Stadtmuseum Jena.)
Belvedere Castle and J. W. Ritter’s Experiments
Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s experiments with animal magnetism always provided exciting news among the Romantics in Jena. In early 1799 he was working in the Weimar Belvedere Caste, the royal summer residence situated on a hill ca. 4 km south of Weimar.
Henrik Steffens quipped that “Ritter’s primary contribution to the development of physics at that time consisted especially in having used frogs’ legs as electroscopes,” a line of experimentation he pursued “so broadly that it eventually almost became unbearable.”
Ritter was familiar with Aloysi Galvani, De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius (Mutinae 1792), from which this plate (plate 2) is taken.
Caroline writes in February 1799:
“What can I relate to you about Ritter? He is living in Belvedere and is always sending frogs over here, of which there is a surplus there and a lack here. He occasionally accompanies them himself, though I have not yet seen him, and the others have assured me that he would neither be able nor want to speak three words with me.”
(Belvedere (illustration by Fritz Reichenbecher, in Wilhelm Bode, Damals in Weimar [Weimar 1912], 32.)
Thekla Wallenstein and Max Piccolomini
Auguste, not quite thirteen years old, writes to Cäcilie Gotter in February 1799 after attending the Weimar performance Schiller’s historical play Die Piccolomini with Caroline and Wilhelm:
“You probably already know that recently in Weimar The Piccolomini, the first part of Schiller’s Wallenstein [i.e., apart from the prologue], was performed. We drove over there. The play is extremely interesting, it portrays the separation of the two Piccolominis because of Wallenstein, and his public defection from [the] emperor. Schiller gave the affection of the young Piccolomini a different motivation than in history; he loves Wallenstein’s daughter, Thekla, who receives an extremely charming portrayal….Even in general, there is as much stimulus for the eye as for the mind, the sets were quite splendid, and the costumes too. Wallenstei’s Death will probably also be performed soon. That should really be something! People will be unable to leave the theater out of sheer excitement.”
The role of Max Piccolomini was performed by Johann Heinrich Vohs, that of Thekla by Caroline Jagemann. Schiller himself remarked in the Allgemeine Lxteratur-Zeitung in March 1799 that
“Thekla von Friedland was portrayed delicately and with considerable grace by Demoiselle Jagemann. A noble simplicity characterized both her acting and her diction, both of which she was able to elevate to the level of tragic dignity when necessary.”
(Illustrations: Arthur Freiherr von Ramberg and Friedrich Pecht, Schiller-galerie: Charaktere aus Schiller’s Werken [Leipzig 1859], no pagination.)
The Professors’ Club in Jena
The club for professors at the university in Jena was held in the university-owned tavern (with its own house beer) on Johannesstrasse, just one street over from the Schlegels’ residence on Leutragasse.
Caroline writes to Auguste in November 1799:
“The first club gathering was yesterday. We did not pay at all this time and will probably hardly attend even once. There was dancing until 1:00, and Madam Hufeland was once again in her accustomed element.”
An introduction to Jena for prospective students published anonymously in 1798, Zeichnung der Universität Jena für Jünglinge welche diese Akademie besuchen wollen (Leipzig 1798), 84–85, remarks:
“The Rose — an inn and tavern belonging to the university where one encounters regular customers. The university added a beautiful hall along with a whole array of rooms to the Rose where concerts and balls are held….Here the professors’ club is also held. The usual balls are held in this hall, though as far as participation is concerned a non-resident cannot determine whether he is being betrayed or sold. For the ladies are engaged for these balls a whole three months in advance.”
(Early postcard.)
Driesnitz
Driesnitz (Triesnitz), originally a rural area on the southern edge of the village of Winzerla, southwest of Jena proper, and in the eighteenth century a popular excursion locale for “academic Jena.” Caroline mentions it several times in her letters. A contemporary visitor recounts:
“On the hilltop platform, all the beautiful people of Jena and the surrounding area sit around in a colorful circle, the profound, reflective professor with his students, the speculating merchant, the employee with his brooding office countenance, the easy-going, gawking farmer, the carefree fellow, upright as well as saucy beauties, virtuous housewives, venerable grandmothers, everyone all mixed up together and enjoying the lilt of life and this charming tradition.”
Wilhelm Schlegel writes to Johann Diederich Griess in May 1799:
“Yesterday Stakelberg gave a grand, well-attended diné on the Driesnitz, which was very nice indeed — as it were, the first spring excursion. All sorts of people gathered together there, the Hufelands, Pauluses, Loders, Fichtes, Frommanns, and — Kotzebues! I have now both seen and spoken with this wooden idol, who appears inestimably common, lame, and Philistine.”
(Christian Gotthilf Immanuel Oehme, In der Trießnitz um 1780; Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.)
Friederike Unzelmann as Maria Stuart
Friederike Unzelmann, one of the most popular and successful actress during the period (and a love interest of Wilhelm Schlegel) came to Weimar during the autumn of 1801 for eight successive guest performances. Wilhelm and Caroline, accompanied by Schelling and others, came over to Weimar for a lengthier stay for these performances, seeing her perform, among other roles, in Schiller’s Maria Stuart on 21 September 1801.
To the left the performances as listed in the Weimar theater repertoire for September 1801, though Friederike Unzelmann did not perform in Schiller’s Wallensteins Lager.
(C. A. H. Burkhardt, Das Repertoire des Weimarischen Theaters unter Goethes Leitung. 1791–1817 [Hamburg, Leipzig 1891], 41; first illustration: Vienna, Austrian National Library, Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung, Porträtsammlung, Inventar-Nr. PORT_00015190_01, engraving after Heinrich Anton Dähling, presumably from the series Kostüme auf dem königlichen Nationaltheater (Berlin 1802–12); second illustration: Nationale Forchungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur in Weimar; reproduced in Eike Middell, Friedrich Schiller, 2nd ed. [Leipzig 1982], 333.)
Scene from Schiller’s “Lay of the Bell”
Scene from “Das Lied von der Glocke,” which concluded Schiller’s Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1800. Caroline writes to Auguste on 21 October 1799:
“But yesterday we almost fell off our chairs laughing at a poem by Schiller himself, the ‘Lied von der Glocke’; it is quite à la Voss, à la Tiek, à la devil, or at least enough so to end up with the devil.
(Illustration: after a drawing by Schiller’s sister Christophine, from Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 314.)
Wilhelm Schlegel’s satirical “Celebratory Song of German Actresses at Kotzebue’s Return”
In 1801 Wilhelm Schlegel published an immensely popular satire against one of the Romantics’ most resolute (and deft) opponents, the successful Berlin playwright August von Kotzebue. Wilhelm’s piece was in part also a belated response to Kotzebue’s own pointedly anti-Romantic satire, The Hyperborean Ass, which had been performed during the Leipzig book fair in the autumn of 1799.
The refrain after each stanza in the “celebratory song of German actresses at Kotzebue’s return [from Siberia]” (“Festgesang deutscher Schauspielerinnen bei Kotzebue’s Rückkehr”) became quite popular among the children of Jena after the play’s appearance. This “celebratory song” appears after the two-act play in Ehrenpforte und Triumphbogen (Wilhelm Schlegel, Sämmtliche Werke 2:327–29). The first stanza (of eight) reads approximately:
“Dearest, dearest Kotzebue! No rest we’ve had since they from us / Did take you ‘way, O you, you, you. / Until you now to us returned, / How sad we’ve been, alas, how spurned, / For so in love with you, and true / We’ve been, but now we welcome you, / Our Kotzebue! our Kotzebue! / Bubu — bubu — bubu — bu!”
Puss in Boots, Auguste, and Ludwig Tieck
When Auguste, away on a journey with the Tischbein family in November 1799, finds out that she has missed some of the evening readings by Ludwig Tieck in the Jena circle around Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel, she despairs. Caroline reassures her:
“He intends to read everything yet again when you come; what a reading machine he is, and absolutely indefatigable with it. Only do not worry, the little cat will still purr plenty just for you.”
The allusion is to Tieck’s version of the fairy tale “Puss in Boots,” his play-within-a-play Der gestiefelte Kater from 1797. When Tieck initially arrived in Jena and Auguste saw him enter the room, she is alleged to have quipped, “What? You come in through the door? I would sooner expect you to come striding in like your cat, across the rooftops.”
(Illustration of Puss in Boots: frontispiece to Der gestiefelte Kater, ein Kindermärchen in drey Akten mit Zwischenspielen, einem Prologe und Epiloge von Peter Leberecht, special edition [Berlin 1797]; citation: Rudolf Köpke, Ludwig Tieck: Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des Dichters, 2 vols. [Leipzig 1855], 1:249–50; portraits: of Auguste: by J. F. A. Tischbein, in vol. 2 of Erich Schmidt’s edition of Caroline’s letters [1913]; of Tieck: from Gustav Könnecke, Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Nationallitteratur, 2nd ed. [Marburg 1895], 351.)
Dornburg on the Saale River; insert: The King in Thule
Julie Gotter, staying with Caroline in Jena, writes home to her mother on 29 June 1801:
“but then yesterday we took an even more pleasant excursion to Dornburg…Several old castles are situated directly on the precipice of a steep cliff along which the Saale River flows in several bends. Although the town itself is situated up on the cliff, the inn in which we stopped is situated at its base, and the river itself flows by directly in front of the room in which we were…Our recollection of Goethe’s romance “The King in Thule” [in which a king treasures the golden goblet his deceased wife gave him, then casts it into the sea as he dies] prompted us to cast, if not a golden goblet, then at least a drinking glass into the waters — for which, of course, we immediately had to pay the tavern keeper. But our merriment was certainly worth it.”
(Dornburg illustration: Ludwig Bechstein, Thüringen, Das malerische und romantische Deutschland: In zehn Sektionen 3, 2nd ed. [Leipzig 1847], plate following p. 102; insert of King in Thule: Goethe’s Works, vol. 1, trans. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen [Philadelphia 1885], 66.)
Costums for Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion
Friedrich Tieck’s renderings of the characters in Wilhelm Schlegel’s play Ion, whose premiere Caroline and Schelling attended in Weimar on 2 January 1802. She writes two days later:
“Upon returning yesterday morning, 3 January, from the performance of Ion, full of joy and anxious to write to you, I found your insufferable, unjust letter of 29 December waiting for me. I was absolutely inconsolable at having been so content and having been thinking of nothing but you, then only to find myself so disharmoniously annoyed by your unseemliness. . . . If you ever treat me this way again, I will not write another letter and will also not come [to Berlin in the spring]. . . .”
Instead of recounting — at length — the performance in Weimar to Wilhelm directly, she instead addresses the rest of her letter to Sophie Bernhardi, Ludwig and Friedrich Tieck’s sister, with whom Caroline suspected Wilhelm was having an affair; Wilhem was iving at the time with the Bernhardi family in Berlin.
“To Sophie Bernhardi
Since rumor has it that the author of Ion lives in your vicinity, my dear Madam Bernhardi, it occurred to me that it would perhaps not be uninteresting to you to hear something about the premiere of that play in Weimar. . . . You can have your brother [Friedrich Tieck] describe the costumes for you. They so closely resembled the drawings with which he is familiar that it seemed one was seeing pictures that had come to life. Not even a single pleat or fold was different. Ion was as comely as his own rendering.”
A lengthy, tedious, and decidedly testy — but semi-anonymous — exchange of reviews and counters took place in the Zeitung für die elegance Welt between Caroline and Schelling on the one hand, and Wilhelm on the other.
(Goethe, “Weimarisches Hoftheater: . . . Colorirte Darstellungen der antiken Costumes im Ion, wie sie auf dem Hoftheater in Weimar erschienen,” Journal des Luxus und der Moden 14 (1802) (March), 136–48.)
Asverus House in Jena, ca. 1757
In late May 1802, Caroline moved out of the house at Leutragasse 5, where she had lived since the autumn of 1796, and into a house at what later became Lutherplatz 3.
In this illustration, the larger building to the left of the two smaller buildings is the inn Zum Schwarzen Bär. The two buildings to the right include the house (likely the taller one) in which Caroline’s final apartment in Jena was located.
(Prospect der Fürstl:Residenz und berühmten Universitaet Stadt Iena,wie diese von Norden sich praesentiret; SLUB/Deutsche Fotothek.)
Asverus-house view toward Kunitz
“The view from the upstairs rooms, especially out the back, is as pleasant as might be imaginable, taking in the entire valley from Kunitz all the way to Dornburg.”
Here the Asverus-house’s location in the northeast corner of Jena next to the inn Zum Schwarzen Bären (“a” in the illustration) from the north, showing the open panorama to the left (northeast) up the Saale River about which Caroline speaks, though the houses are positioned differently than in the previous view; Kunitz is identified at the far left. See also next image.
(Illustration: Prospect der Fürstl:Residenz und berühmten Universitaet Stadt Iena,wie diese von Norden sich praesentiret. herausgegeben von Albrecht Carl Seutter Kajsrl. Geogr. in Augspurg; Foto: 2007/2009; Aufn.-Nr.: df_dk_0001633Datensatz [color]; Foto: 2007/2009 Aufn.-Nr.: df_dk_0001633Datensatz [color); Eigentümer: SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek].)
View of Kunitz and the Saale River Valley
Here a view of Kunitz up the Saale River of which Caroline speaks (early postcard).
Asverus-Haus at Lutherplatz 3 in Jena
The Asverus-Haus at what later became Lutherplatz 3 in Jena, the building at the right next to the hotel Zum Schwarzen Bär, from late May 1802 till her departure in June 1803 Caroline’s third and final residence in Jena.
She writes to Wilhelm Schlegel during the lease negotiations:
“It is an extremely amiable place, the view from the upstairs rooms, especially out the back, is as pleasant as might be imaginable, taking in the entire valley from Kunitz all the way to Dornburg, though the rooms are small . . . In any event, I will take it for only a year.” And later: “My beloved friend, I have the house. And the view is as beautiful as that in Doctor Luther’s, in fact more beautiful, being more Catholic than Lutheran. You will be dwelling high enough so that the children cannot annoy you and the smells [from the tanner’s workshop below] cannot reach you. Asverus has assured me that they never had any problems with that. In the front you have 2 rooms and 1 chamber, and in the back a room and chamber completely at your disposition situated in a kind of 5th story which is a bit like a mansarde, but, heaven knows, right pretty, so do not imagine that it is some sort of attic room.”
(Photo of tea-cup illustration: © Städtische Museen Jena, Stadtmuseum Inv. Nr. SMJ 1151[P8].)
Bottom left: swatch of pressed, brownish-gray striped English casimir. Right: casimir overcoat for autumnal walks.
Carolline writes to Julie Gotter on 17 October 1802 after the latter had just returned to Gotha with her family amid inclement weather:
“I was just so relieved to hear of your successful transit, since the frightfully stormy weather genuinely had made me a bit uncertain. In any event, things here have calmed down again, and I have just returned home from a long walk after having become completely outfitted for these autumnal drives myself now, for what did I find on my return from Weimar but an exquisite topcoat of the finest casimir fumée de Londres [the color “London smoke”].
(Left: Journal für Fabrik, Manufaktur, Handlung, Kunst und Mode (1800) 18 (January–July 1800), plate following p. 258; right: Journal für Fabrik, Manufaktur, Handlung, Kunst und Mode (1800) 18 (January–July 1800), plate following p. 258; cordial communication from Sabine Schierhoff.)
Asverus House, Jena
Circled at lower right: Caroline’s final residence in Jena, likely the taller house on the left in this town view from 1748. The large building to the right is the inn Zum schwarzen Bär.
(Johann Christoph Müller, Beschreibung: Abbildung der Fürstlichen Saechsischen weltberühmten Universitaets-Stadt Jena, wie solche von Nordt-Ost anzusehen [Gera, 1748]; Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, Johann Christoph Adelung Kartensammlung, Signatur/Inventar-Nr.: SLUB/KS B2424.)