• 310. Caroline to Wilhelm Schlegel in Berlin: Braunschweig, 20 April 1801
Braunschweig, 20 April [1801] [*]
|103| My dear Schlegel, I am back here again; everything has gone well up to this point, and we intend to depart tomorrow.
My diminutive sister-in-law along with her little boy traveled with me as far as Celle. Philipp could not leave for even a single day. In Celle we found Mother, Luise, and Emma, and the entire assembly paid a visit to the Dahmes’ house and was quite |104| a crowd. [1]
I found Mother in an acceptable condition and am now happy to know she is living in changed circumstances and is in such good hands. One quite charming intermezzo was when the two children met. I will relate more to you in person about Adolph. Canoness Schläger had also arrived, so we took her along with us on our journey here as far as her convent, Wienhausen, where we lingered for another hour.
Celle was everywhere full of Hannoverian troops, which are essentially being locked up in certain cities. [2] Estimates are that the food alone required for the Prussians will cost the country 250,000 rh. a month. [3] Under the present circumstances, no one claims to fear any longer that the occupation will have certain consequences.
The suspension of communication between the Hannoverian government and England does not seem to be successfully implemented, [4] everyone is going there, Dahme tells me, who is himself a member of the provincial states, which have now been convoked. Although there were not yet any Prussians in Harburg, they have since doubtless arrived.
Here everyone is talking about Schulenburg’s arrogance in Hannover, which may, however, not be true; in Celle I did not hear anything about it, though things do seem as if even best friends are ashamed to write to each other. [5] Nieper did not write a single line. [6] Tatter did not go with the prince, and people were feeling so sorry for him because he was now no longer able to dine at a princely table. [7]
I do not recall whether in my last letter I entertained you with the rumors that the Prussians would not be coming etc. Although these rumors had spread throughout the entire country, they have in the meantime certainly been adequately refuted by events themselves. In Hamburg and in all the places that are the actual settings of these events, absolutely nothing could be believed except the newspapers, though even the |105| impartial Correspondent must allow its reports to be influenced to a certain measure by the Danes. [8]
I arrived here in the evening the day before yesterday. Yesterday I went ahead and got almost everything packed and paid some visits (Madame de Nuys was not at home). The weather is good. But I cannot begin to tell you how fatigued I am from all the talking, doing, and going;. I have also basically lost all presence of mind. I will rest up during the journey. [9]
This evening I will once again see Mademoiselle Serigny in Adolph and Clara, but then Degligny only in that horrible play in which the father, out of sheer egoism, refuses to marry off his daughter. [10] The French theater here is indisputably better now than that in Hamburg. [11] The Vaudeville players from Bordeaux had unfortunately already departed. Although the German theater in Hamburg is so full one cannot breathe, it is beneath all criticism, since it is allegedly even worse than the one in Altona.
There is not much worth seeing anywhere, though I do wish Mademoiselle Serigny were giving her benefit performance today, the Fausse Agnès, which will instead be performed a week from now; [12] it in all likelihood will be something truly fine and delectable. — But how annoying, when even the Boeotians themselves complain about the lack of taste in Boeotia. [13]
As far as Jena is concerned, I wanted to relate to you that Loder is trying with all his might to get Himly to come, [14] that he wrote to the duke concerning the matter, but that the latter has been extremely out of sorts since his ugly adventure in Berlin and does not want to hear anything about Jena. [15] Goethe may well also be a bit ashamed in the name of His Excellency; he immediately went to his country estate, something he has never before done and which was surely not really his intention. [16]
Kilian tried to settle in Jena, but Gruner (I know not exactly how) managed to get a suspension order against him, which Loder, however, is countering. [17] What splendid things!
Madam Niethammer’s eldest brother |106| disgracefully killed himself with 7 stab wounds, all because of a failed marriage prospect. [18] —
Yesterday evening I dined with Winkelmann at the Wiedemanns’; what a dreadful, ridiculous fellow. You would not believe the lies this character is spreading here about all the people whose feet he kissed there [in Jena]. He had every intention of cozying up to me, but I turned him away quite dryly and then also contradicted several of the rather absurd assertions he made, albeit not concerning Jena, making him turn red and get all hot under the collar, [19] none of which, however, prevented him from pushing himself on me as a companion to accompany me home. He is doubtless a good-for-nothing and a veritable societal plague. —
Madam Paulus has indeed gone to Bamberg, and to Franconia in general, for the summer. [20]
You now probably know better than I whether I will still be seeing Tiek, since you have written me absolutely nothing specific regarding the time frame. [21] Nor about when I can have money paid out to me in Leipzig. [22]
Listen, the kerchief is so otherworldly that I kept it for myself with Luise’s blessing and gave her a green English beaver hat I had received as a gift in Haarburg, promising her also that you would bring her some little something, which I will yet specify for you. [23] But dear heart, you will not be coming too late, will you? By all appearances you seem to have made yourself quite comfortably at home there now. [24] I will not rest easily until you are there.
After dinner
The Rooses were here; she is extremely dejected. If Roose had received an appointment in Jena, he surely would have been pleased to accept it.
Stay well, my dear friend; write me soon in Jena, I have to get this letter off now.
I am enclosing a letter from Madam Gotter. [25]
Notes
[*] This letter is Caroline’s final before departing for Jena. She had not been in Jena since 5 May 1800, when she departed with Auguste. (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[1] Iris: Ein Taschenbuch für 1804; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung:
Georg Christophe Dahme, whom Caroline had also known from Clausthal, was pastor at the municipal Church of St. Mary in Celle and presumably lived in the nearby parsonage. Here (1) the church (2) the market and town hall in Celle in the 1840s (August Wilhelm Dankworth, Celle Stadtkirche [1840]; J. Riegel after J. F. Lange Marktplatz & Rathaus zu Celle [ca. 1845]):
[2] Concerning the sequestering of Hannoverian troops in certain towns, see the pertinent section in supplementary appendix 310.1.
The background and events associated with the Prussian occupation of Hannover during 1801 mentioned by Caroline in this paragraph are an intricate political, military, and diplomatic story complicated not least by the assassination of one of the major players, the Russian czar, Paul I, in the midst of the crisis. Caroline seems remarkably well informed concerning a situation that was in almost daily flux, something similarly applying to her letters during her journey to Harburg, Altona, and Hamburg between 29 March and 18 April 1801.
Readers interested in the political, military, and diplomatic subtleties, and not least also the timeline of these events, are encouraged to refer to the lengthy but clearly presented and, especially with respect to Caroline’s letters, illuminating discussion by the American historian Guy Stanton Ford, “Hanover and Prussia: 1795–1803; A Study in Neutrality,” Studies in History, Economics and Public Law 18, no. 3 (New York 1903): 4–316; here chap. 7, “The Prussian Occupation of Hanover in 1801,” and chap. 8, “Prussian Occupation of Hanover (continued) — The Evacuation,” 192–268, complete text in supplementary appendix 310.1 mentioned at the beginning of this note.
See also the supplementary appendices on the military background to the situation of Hannover in the early spring of 1801 (supplementary appendix 304.1) and the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 (supplementary appendix 306.1).
Concerning the locales involved in these developments and mentioned in Caroline’s letter, see W. R. Shepherd, Historical Map of Central Europe about 1786 (1926) and Saxony: Historical Map of Central Europe about 1786, from William Shepherd, Historical Atlas (1923–26):
The Electorate of Hannover, part of the circle of Lower Saxony within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, had not been directly involved in the wars following the French Revolution and had after 1795 been separated by a line of demarcation stipulated in the Treaty of Basel ensuring the neutrality of Westphalia, Upper and Lower Saxony, Franconia, the Upper Palatinate, Hessen-Kassel, and Hessen-Darmstadt.
The tensions between Hannover and Prussia during the entire following decade, however, especially given Hannover’s connections with Great Britain, which did not follow the Treaty of Lunéville (9 February 1801), put Hannover in an awkward and dangerous position, and Napoleon was already thinking about the end of Hannover as an independent entity within the empire, not least through the manipulated involvement of Prussia. On three separate occasions between 1796 and 801, Napoleon demanded that Friedrich Wilhelm III occupy Hannover for various transgression against the Treaty of Basel and as a buffer against recalcitrant Great Britain.
Because of its own involvement in the northern Maritime League that included Russia on Prussia’s eastern borders, and because Russia under Paul I was threatening to occupy Hannover itself, Prussia finally decided the best course would be to occupy the electorate. General von Kleist led the occupying force, with Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Schulenburg- Kehnert, whom Caroline mentions here, functioning as administrative governor.
Concerning Caroline’s immediate comments in this letter, see C. H. Gifford, History of the Wars Occasioned by the French Revolution from the Commencement of Hostilities in 1792 to the End of the Year 1816, 2 vols. (London 1817), 1:305–6:
A declaration was issued, on the 30th of March [1801] by the King of Prussia, to the royal and electoral college of Hanover, in which, after an enumeration of events which be alleged sufficiently proved that the court of London had no inclination to desist from her inadmissible demands [concerning the Maritime League], and accept the proposed means of amicable conciliation, he said, that he was compelled, in conformity to the obligations he had contracted, to take the most efficacious measures in support of the convention, attacked, and to retaliate for the hostile proceedings against it.
For this purpose, he would not only shut the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ems, but likewise take possession of the states belonging to his majesty the King of England, as Elector of Brunswick Lunenburgh, situated in Germany. The King of Prussia accordingly demanded, and expected from the electoral college of privy-counsellors at Hanover, that they would submit to this disposition without delay or reply; and that they would voluntarily obey the orders which should be given, relative to the occupation of the electorate by the Prussian troops, and likewise relative to the electoral countries.
What his Prussian majesty principally demanded, was, that the Hanoverian corps, which had hitherto occupied part of the northern line of demarcation, should be disarmed and disbanded, with a proportional part of the other troops. He also required, that the generals and other officers should engage, in writing, not to serve against his majesty the King of Prussia; but, on the contrary, to follow strictly his orders, until the present affair should be brought to a conclusion.
For the troops that should continue to be embodied, he appointed particular stations. All the other places were to be delivered up to the Prussian troops. The Prussian troops to be subsisted at the expence of the electoral territory, commencing from the end of the month of April. In case of a voluntary submission, his majesty was disposed, and ready to promise solemnly, not only to the nobility, but to the burgesses and all the inhabitants of the electorate, the complete enjoyment of tranquillity, and the security of their property; but, on the contrary, should the government and the general officers attempt to impede the execution of the measures taken, and oppose the entrance of the Prussian troops, his majesty would be obliged, though against his inclination, to revoke his promises, and to treat the electoral states in a hostile manner.
To these conditions, by a convention, concluded on the 3d of April, 1801, the regency of Hanover consented, only expressing their hopes that the number of Prussian troops would be diminished, as much as possible, to ease the country and the inhabitants. The Prussian troops entered the territory of Hanover, and were posted chiefly on the banks of the Elbe and the Weser. An embargo was laid on the British shipping; but a number of vessels that had taken on board their cargoes of grain were suffered to depart, and sail for England. The firmness and moderation of the Prussian king formed a striking contrast with the capricious rage of his ally the Emperor of Russia. Never was war carried on, by any power, with greater dignity and decorum. Back.
[3] See also the pertinent section on this provisioning in supplementary appendix 310.1. Back.
[4] See also the pertinent section on this isolation of the Regency in Hannover from the crown in supplementary appendix 310.1. Back.
[5] See Guy Stanton Ford, “Hanover and Prussia: 1795–1803” (cited above), 238fn3:
So bitter was the feeling against the Prussians that von Schulenburg was socially ostracised in Hanover, and persons such as [Hannoverian diplomat Ludwig Karl Konrad Georg] von Ompteda [1767–1854], who had known him in Berlin and felt inclined to show him ordinary civilities, were treated as abettors of invasion. Schulenburg represented to the Regency that faction in Berlin which stood for a temporary occupation and exploitation of Hanover under the pretext of indemnity for English seizures of Prussian vessels. Von Helbig, the Saxon envoy, writing in 1803 on the unpopularity of von Schulenburg and Frederick William’s dislike and fear of him, adds, “He combines an excellent intellect with inordinate ambition and an evil heart.” Schulenburg was back in Berlin by April 19. Back.
[6] Georg Heinrich Nieper was married to Caroline’s sister-in-law from her first marriage, the former Lotte Böhmer. Back.
[7] See Caroline’s letter to Wilhelm on 4–5 April 1801 (letter 304), note 13. It is still unclear whether Caroline realized Tatter was already in Petersburg. Back.
[8] The Hamburger Correspondent — short for Staats- und gelehrte Zeitung des Hamburgischen unpartheyischen Correspondenten — was a respected Hamburg newspaper that was essentially independent of political parties.
“Till the beginning of the French Revolution, the Hamburger Correspondent was almost the only gazette in Germany which derived its information respecting foreign countries from original correspondence” (Encyclopaedia Americana [1832], vol. 9, page 259).
Hamburg, however, was not part of the Hannoverian Electorate, but rather one of the free imperial cities. See C. H. Gifford, History of the Wars Occasioned by the French Revolution, 306:
About the same time, a Body of Danish troops, to the number of 15,000, under the command of’ Prince Charles, Landgrave of Hesse, a field-marshal in the Danish service, and father-in-law to the Prince-royal of Denmark, there called the Crown Prince, took possession of Hamburgh, in order, as was declared, by a notification published at the exchange of Hamburgh, April 3, to stop the British navigation and trade on the Elbe. An embargo had already, on the 29th of March, been laid on the British ships at Copenhagen, and the other ports of Denmark.
When the intentions of Prince Charles of Hesse were announced to the senate of Hamburgh, March 28, it sent deputies, on the 29th, to his highness, at Penneburg, a town of Holstein, about fifteen English miles from Hamburgh, to make the strongest representations against a measure so violent and unexpected. The prince, without hesitation, declared his intention to summon the city to surrender to his troops next morning, and even to use force in case of resistance.
At the same time, the deputies received the most satisfactory assurances that no fears ought to be entertained for the independence of the city of Hamburgh, or the property of individuals; and farther, that his highness would be satisfied with the possession of the gates and walls, without requiring any troops to be quartered in the city.
The senate assembled in the night, unanimously resolved, that it was better to yield to force, than to expose the city to greater force in consequence of any resistance. On the morning of the 23d, the gate, called the Millenthor [Millernthor], and a part of the fortifications, were immediately given up to a corps of Danish troops, and without the least interruption of the public tranquillity.
[Here the Millernthor in 1700 (J. Gustav Gallois, Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg [Hamburg 1867], plate following p. 354):
The British consul at Hamburgh, considering the critical situation of affairs, had given repeated information and advice to the captains of British vessels in the Elbe to accelerate their departure. Some took the warning; others, not easily believing that any thing seriously hostile was to be apprehended from the Danes or Prussians, were not in haste, and were accordingly detained.
The Danes evacuated Hamburg, however, in mid-May after the Battle of Copenhagen (2 April 1801) and subsequent developments following that defeat. Back.
[9] I.e., during her journey to Jena (“Le coche de voyage du dix-huitiéme siécle,” in anonymous, “La locomotion terrestre: Les ancients coutures de voyage,” La nature: Revue des sciences etc. 16 [1888], premier semestre, no. 768 [18 February 1888], 177–79, here 177):
[10] Adolphe et Clara, ou les deux prisonniers. Comédie en un acte et en prose, mêlée d’ariettes (Paris 1799), singspiel by Nicolas d’Alayrac (frontispiece [1799] and one of Clara’s arias [airs], from the Journal d’airs choisis avec accompagnement de Harpe [Paris n.d.]):
Concerning Caroline’s earlier attendance at performances of these two actors in Braunschweig, see her letter to Wilhelm on 26–27 March 1801 (letter 303). Back.
[11] Concerning the French theater in Hamburg, see Caroline’s letter to Wilhelm on 10 April 1801 (letter 305), note 5. Back.
[12] Philippe Néricault Destouches, La fausse Agnès ou Le poète campagnard. Comédie en prose en 3 actes (Paris 1736) (frontispiece in an 1811 edition of Destouches’s Oeuvres dramatiques):
[13] See Caroline’s use of this metaphor earlier in her letter to Wilhelm on 14 April 1801 (letter 307), note 18. Back.
[14] I.e., to fill the professorial position vacated when Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland accepted an appointment in Berlin. Goethe was opposed to Himly’s appointment, and very soon Schelling was lobbying for the appointment of Carl Eschenmayer, apparently with Goethe’s support. Schelling may have discussed the situation with Goethe during the latter’s visit to Jena on 5 May 1801 (which Caroline mentions in her letter to Wilhelm on 5 May 1801 [letter 313]). See esp. Caroline’s letter to Wilhelm on 26–27 March 1801 (letter 303), note 22 (there also text of Schelling’s letter to Eschenmayer on 8 May 1801). Back.
[15] Duke Karl August had earlier dispatched Wilhelm von Wolzogen to Petersburg to try to secure the hand of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, the daughter of Paul I, for his son, Karl Friedrich.
Wolzogen returned to Weimar and then accompanied Karl August to Berlin for a visit to the Prussian court, leaving Weimar on 24 January 1801. In Berlin they saw Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, also a daughter of Paul I and as such possibly Karl August’s son’s future sister-in-law.
On 1 March 1801 Karl August wrote to Goethe that he was planning to be back in Weimar on the 16 or 18 March but was suffering from a sore throat and might also be held up by certain plans associated with the the king of Prussia.
On 9 March he wrote again to Goethe, remarking again that he would likely be delayed not least by a vein that had not healed after a round of bloodletting.
After Paul I was assassinated on 24 March 1801, Karl August dispatched Wolzogen yet again to Petersburg to assess the status of the (new) court’s view of his son’s betrothal to Maria Pavlona. Wolzogen reported success and also attended the coronation of the new czar, Alexander I. Karl August himself returned to Weimar on 27 March 1801.
During the Berlin visit, however, the following incident occurred (Heinrich Düntzer, Goethe und Karl August. Studien zu Goethes Leben, 2nd ed., 3 vols. in 1 [Leipzig 1888], 492–96, here 494–95):
The duke’s return trip had been repeatedly postponed because of his unwellness; he had suffered a sudden bout of vomiting during which the shawl of the hereditary princess of Mecklenburg [i.e., his future daughter-in-law’s sister, and the czar’s daughter] had been soiled. Ill rumors circulated concerning this incident, and Karl August did not return to Weimar until 27 March 1801.
Concerning the “ill rumors,” see the earlier edition of Düntzer’s book (Goethe und Karl August während der ersten fünfzehn Jahre ihrer Verbindung. Studien zu Goethes Leben [Leipzig 1861], 362–63):
Schiller’s wife related on 21 March 1801 [Charlotte Schiller to Schiller, Charlotte von Schiller und ihre Freunde 1:286] that Karl August’s companion, Wolzogen, would not be returning until 25 March because the duke was sick. The latter had allegedly had such a sudden bout of vomiting that the shawl of the hereditary princess of Mecklenburg had been soiled, which had greatly embarrassed him. According to legend, this incident occurred in the Berlin theater after the duke had drunk too much.
([1] Heinrich Schneider, Die Burschenschaft Germania zu Jena [Jena 1897], 203, and then four additional illustrations of student activities from R. Fick, ed., Auf Deutschlands hohen Schulen: Eine illustrierte kulturgeschichtliche Darstellung deutschen Hochschul- und Studentenwesens [Berlin, Leipzig 1900], 73; [2] French theater: C. Schäffer and C. Hartmann, Die Königlichen Theater in Berlin: Statistischer Rückblick auf die künstlerische Thätigkeit und die Personal-Verhältniss währen des Zeitraums vom 5. December 1786 bis 31. December 1885 [Berlin 1886], 276):
Karl Ludwig von Knebel’s bitter remarks to Caroline Herder demonstrate the sorts of increasingly lurid rumors the duke’s illness generated (25 March 1801, from Ilmenau):
Word has it that our prince came down with a nauseous illness [in Berlin] that the French may have presented to him because of his hatred toward their name. Those are works and deeds that cannot but be reckoned among the secret things! Back.
[16] On 22 June 1798, Goethe, influenced not least by Schiller’s earlier purchase of a garden house in Jena, purchased the feudal estae Oberrossla located ca. 13 km northeast of Weimar — albeit without even having seen it beforehand — and just 5 km northeast of that of Christoph Martin Wieland in Ossmanstedt and 3 km west of Apolda (here as “Nd.,” Nieder- and “Ob.,” Oberrossla; Ludwig Ravenstein, Atlas des Deutschen Reichs [Leipzig 1883], map V:
He thereby became a feudatory of Duke Karl August. This purchase was prompted not only by a desire to have a rural refuge from town life in Weimar, but also to provide a permanent refuge for Christiane Vulpius in the case of his death.
During the time Caroline is here writing, Goethe had, after vexing problems (also legal) with his current tenant, dismissed the latter in April 1801 and decided to administer the estate himself; see Caroline Herder to Karl Ludwig von Knebel on 15 April 1801 (Zur deutschen Literatur und Geschichte. Ungedruckte Briefe aus Knebels Nachlass, ed. Heinrich Düntzer, 2 vols. [Nürnberg 1858], 2:8):
Goethe bought Rossla at an inflated price of 14000 Rthlr., with a house and stalls in miserable condition, everything dilapidated, and in an inferior area. He then paid in 6000 Rthlr. for repairs. . . . He brought a lawsuit before the royal court against his tenant, who never gave him a proper lease these entire two years, and although Goethe won the suit and evicted the tenant, his expenses and vexation were great indeed. Now word has it that he intends to administer the estate himself.
Goethe had already met with a prospective tenant in Rossla in October 1800, Immanuel Reimann from Buttstädt, then met with him there on 31 March 1801 to discuss some landscaping and also to finalize the tenancy. After taking over the tenancy in late 1801, Reimann then bought the estate outright in May 1803.
That is, Goethe seems not to have “withdrawn” to his estate as Caroline here implies, going there instead on business. Goethe’s diary records that he went out to Oberrossla from Weimar on 25 March 1801, not least after personnel problems with the Weimar theater (Goethe had also been extremely ill during January 1801). He returned to Weimar on 14 April, but then returned to Oberrossla on 22 April, returning to Weimar again on 30 April (Weimarer Ausgabe 3:3:10–12).
There seem to be no illustrations of the estate house Oberrossla from this period. The house itself burned down in 1858, and its foundation walls used for construction of the inn “Zum Schlosshof,” beneath which the vegetable and milk cellar are still preserved; here on early twentieth-century postcards:
See in general also Leo Anderlind, “Goethe’s Beziehungen zur Land- und Forstwirthschaft,” Wissenschaftliche Beilage der Leipziger Zeitung 98 (Thursday, 24 August 1899), 413–16. Back.
[17] Loder later influenced university hiring yet again when Himly, who eventually got the position vacated by Hufeland, moved to Göttingen. Loder then manipulated university politics such that Ludwig Friedrich Froriep, whom Loder had essentially been grooming for such a position and who at the time was doing research in Paris, was quickly confirmed as professor extraordinarius (1803) (Wiebke von Häfen, Ludwig Friedrich von Froriep (1779–1847): Ein Weimarer Verleger zwischen Ämtern, Geschäften und Politik, Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Thüringen Kleine Reihe Band 19 [Cologne 2007], 58). Back.
[18] This unfortunate bit of news is confirmed by the Handbuch der in Jena seit beinahe 500 Jahren dahingeschiedenen Gelehrten, Künstler, Studenten und andern bemerkenswerthen Personen theils aus den Kirchenbüchern, theils aus andern Hülfsquellen gezogen etc., ed. Johann Christian Jacob Spangenberg (Jena 1819), 65, for 9 April:
Christoph Friedrich Sebastian von Eckardt, Dr. Jur. u[nd] royal court attorney, only son from the first marriage of Privy Hofrath Dr. jur. Johann Ludwig von Eckardt in Jena, stabbed himself to death [on 9 April] in 1801.
A noticed appeared shortly after Eckardt’s death concerning outstanding debts he may have left behind (Der Reichs-Anzeiger, oder Allgemeines Intelligenz-Blatt zum Behuf der Justiz, der Polizey und der bürgerlichen Gewerbe im Teutschen Reiche, wie auch öffentlichen Unterhaltung der Leser über gemeinnützige Gegenstände aller Art [1801], vol. 1, 1434):
To all creditors of von Eckardt: All those having claims on the deceased court attorney Doctor Christoph Friedrich Sebastian von Eckardt are herewith summoned to demonstrate same to the court of the prorector [of the university] within two months of today, sub poena praeclusionis, and to submit the notes of credit they may already possess at the same time in written form. Jena, 18 April 1801. Back.
[19] Illustration from Retif (or Restif) de la Bretonne, Les contemporaines; ou, Avantures des plus jolies femmes de l’âge présent, 42 vols. in 12 (Leipsick 1780–85), vol. 7 [1780], 170:
[20] Dorothea Veit mentions in a letter to Schleiermacher on 16 April 1801 (letter 308a) that Karoline Paulus had already left Jena. Karoline Paulus had gone to Bocklet during the summer of 1800 because of a protracted illness (see Dorothea’s and Friedrich Schlegel’s letter to Wilhelm Schlegel on 21 December 1800 [letter 277a], note 1), and was doing so again for the coming summer (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
“Franconia in general,” as Caroline puts it here, was to include Bocklet again, a circumstance that roundly vexes Caroline later.
Concerning the Paulus family’s spa visits to Franconia, see Dorothea’s letter to Schleiermacher on 28 July 1800 (letter 265i), note 2. Back.
[21] That is, whether Caroline would arrive in Jena in time for Ludwig Tieck’s anticipated visit there. See Schelling’s letter to Wilhelm on 20 April 1801 (letter 309a), note 10. Tieck did not make the visit after all. Back.
[22] Uncertain allusion. Back.
[23] Concerning this kerchief request, see Caroline’s letter to Wilhelm on 1–2 March 1801 (letter 293), in which she first makes the request, and esp. note 31 there. She mentioned the request yet again in her letter to him on 5 April 1801 (letter 304) (see note 17 there).
Beaver pelt hats were worn by both men (usually as a top hat) and women; here two illustrations from Journal des Dames et des Modes (1802), plates 428, 469 (cordial communication from Sabine Schierhoff):
[24] Wilhelm had been in Berlin since late February 1801, did not return to Jena until 11 August 1801, and had indeed made himself at home in Berlin, returning there in early November 1801 and not leaving again until May 1804 with Madame de Staël.
Here the Berlin promenade Unter den Linden ca. 1800 ([1] Adolf Streckfuss and Leo Fernbach, 500 Jahre Berliner Geschichte: Vom Fischerdorf zur Weltstadt, Geschichte und Sage [Berlin 1900], 401; [2] Genealogischer Kalender auf das Gemeinjahr 1769, Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
See the supplementary appendix on Wilhelm’s residences in Berlin 1801–4. Back.
[25] Letter not extant, though it seems to have involved plans for Cäcilie Gotter’s further training in Weimar; see Caroline’s letter to Wilhelm on 5 May 1801 (letter 313). Back.
Translation © 2015 Doug Stott