• 381. Caroline to Luise Wiedemann in Braunschweig: Munich, 8–17 September 1803 [*]
[Munich, 8–17 September 1803]
[Beginning of letter missing.]
|370| . . . is especially unseemly on Loder’s part considering the care and attention Weimar lavished on him for 25 years. [1] It is also peculiar how they avoid mentioning Schelling among those to whom the Bavarian government is offering appointments to lure them away from Jena. [2] —
What you perhaps also do not know is that Hufeland met with Schütz in Würzburg with the same intentions. [3] He made advances to Count von Thürheim from every quarter, acting beforehand as if he had already received offers — which is absolutely not the case insofar as they really have already given up on him again, thereby prompting them at least for the time being to send along after him the promise of an additional allowance of 200 rh. [4]
Martens, by the way, has received an appointment in Jena; Sömmering did not accept, [5] but did recommend a certain Ebel, who has written about the inhabitants of the Swiss mountain ranges. [6] People in Jena will now presumably wait until this whole, fermenting mass has settled down, and then see what is left behind. [7]
|371| In the meantime Geheimrath Zentner, who directs university matters here, wrote to Schelling and urged him to come through Munich if at all possible, since he really does want to get to know him and speak with him in person.
Because we have only been here since late yesterday evening, I cannot yet tell you anything and am in fact using this very hour to write to you while Schelling is with Zentner.
It was extremely interesting for me to be able to see Munich as well, where there are a great many really excellent works of art, which seemed rather peculiar to me for the capital of Bavaria; [8] generally speaking, the season had almost already advanced too far for Switzerland, and we are now traveling much more comfortably. [9] The coachman who drove us here from Augsburg has already been to Italy often, indeed as far as Venice, and is very interested in taking us there as well. Nor is traveling in this area as enormously expensive as in Switzerland.
From Studtgard we went first to Tübingen, where Schelling had not yet presented himself to the old caricatures who call themselves professors there. [10] I got to see all the places where he lived and languished, the Stipendium where he resided and took his meals, the place where he wore the robe of the master’s degree, the Neckar flowing beneath his window with the rafts, and all the old stories he so charmingly relates. [11] I also visited Bebenhausen, where he spent his earliest childhood; his father was a professor at the monastery school there; it sits in the middle of a forest, and the deer come and eat right out of your hand, if you can imagine. [12]
From Tübingen we traveled across the so-called Württemberg Alps to Ulm, [13] where the Danube flows, if not really broadly, then at least deep and fast; [14] then from there to magnificent |372| Augsburg, which is situated on a beautiful plain and which I would like to have gotten to know before its merchants became counts — and from there to Munich, the entire journey on chaussées [15] over which our carriage rolled as if with wings. [16]
This is a completely different world here of the sort I have never seen, albeit not with regard to nature, for Munich, too, is situated on a boundless plain, and the Tyrolean mountain range appears only on one side as a light blue shadow on the horizon, [17] but rather with regard to people, traditional costumes, etc. A single flesh and blood and bone! [18] Wondrously beautiful girls, with golden caps, splendid hair, and then long, silken clothing for the elegant ladies, on the philistine women [19] skirts with a hundred thousand folds, long waists, camisoles with rigid aprons, silver chains, stomachers firmly tied, exposed bosoms, — and what bosoms! Then the farmers’ wives in fur caps and rigid, colorful corsets that seem to fit the women almost like a piece of armor into which they have been inserted. [20]
I have already seen all the different kinds of people together, for today just happens to be a holiday with a processional behind which almost the entire citizenry followed. [21] But I have never encountered such stout devotion; with all their earthy corporeality, these people nonetheless seem to lose all sense of their own bodies when the venerable body approaches. [22] And there is no end to the rosaries, with beads as big as walnuts and with silver crucifixes 1/4 cubit long. In Franconia people take such things a bit less seriously. [23]
10 September
I want to continue writing in this letter even though I am constantly having to pick it up all over again; I will not send it until I know for sure where we will be going next.
Munich is a very pleasant city, quite populous |373| and animated. [24] An expansive park, its beauty wonderfully enhanced by the Isar River, is situated before one of the gates and is something completely different from the barren Thiergarten outside Berlin. [25] The art gallery has a wealth of highly noteworthy works of German art. [26] I attended the theater yesterday evening, where one at least had the pleasure of hearing an excellent singer, Madame Cannabich. Schelling is being received with particular glory, and we could probably remain here for a long while and with considerable agrément. [27]
One more word about Tübingen. Authenrieth, pour trancher le mot, [28] is an extremely coarse fellow. We paid a visit there and found only his wife at home, who was, however, quite pleased insofar as Schelling did once pay her the cour a bit. [29] I believe Philipp experienced the same thing when he was in Studtgard; in a word, she knew him as well.
Yet even though this was on the very first day, Authenrieth did not come to Schelling again even though 4 weeks earlier he was talking incessantly about all the things he wanted to ask him about. Carl, who truly is a dependable young fellow himself, has also remarked that one can hardly imagine anything as crude and uncouth as this gentleman, and then such an odd bird on top of it when you add a certain element of shyness and fear. Kielmeyer, by contrast, was constantly with us, giving us a souper [30] in his botanical garden, which is of not inconsiderable size itself. [31]
The two Hufelands are indeed going to meet in Switzerland. The physician came to Ludwigsburg to visit Hoven just as the latter had gone with us to Murhard, and greatly lamented having also missed Schelling. I do not know what route the Justizrath took, since he did not come by way of Studtgard; he must have gone by way of Frankfurt and perhaps Strasbourg. [32]
|374| Sophie is probably doing quite well, though it is better for her to be alone in Jena than with her sister, since at one time they had such a hard time getting along with each other there. [33]
What should I say about your having bought a house — in the meantime, of course, such a house really does not just grow up around a person like a snail’s shell. [34] Do you not know how Himly is faring in Göttingen? I am very much afraid that the university finances will ultimately also suffer.
Carl is now en route to Vienna. His brown eyes simply sparkle with most joyous radiance at all the good things he experienced this summer, and Schelling is immeasurably fond of him. [35]
16 September
It has now been decided, my dear Luise: Schelling has been appointed to a position in Würzburg under the conditions that he himself chose, one of which, however, I would not have chosen myself, namely, that the trip to Italy be postponed, though he has already secured permission beforehand to take it as soon as he desires. [36] Considering the country’s ambiguous situation, and that, at least the way things stand now, we probably could not have gotten as far as Naples in any case, he preferred to be present at the beginning in Würzburg. [37]
Hence very soon I will again be approximately in your vicinity. [38] From here we are going to Würzburg to make temporary was housing arrangements , and from there back to Swabia, where we will remain with his parents until the university itself opens, approximately at the end of November, when we are then thinking about taking Beate with us.
I cannot tell you with what respect and unequivocal affection our friend has been received here even |375| though this is precisely the state where people have most vehemently smeared and lampooned him. [39] Those in the driver’s seat are in part a quite select group. I myself got to know the Geheimrath Zentner, who on two occasions spent 3–4 hours with us in our room during the evening and with whom I also became good friends.
Because he lives alone here, I have not actually been in his house myself. It was the day before yesterday that Schelling was invited to a dinner at the house of the first minister, Herr von Montgelas, and after the meal they declared how delighted they were that he was not disinclined to enter into Bavarian service etc. [40] Herr von Zentner then accompanied him back to where I was staying that he might announce it to me as well. —
But can you imagine that precisely during these days new proposals have yet again arrived from the Literatur Zeitung despite the fact that they have already announced their elevation to Prussian status. They must have a strong awareness of what it means for them to be transplanted to Halle. [41] On the one hand, they did not demand the sum here that the King of Prussia is said to have granted them; on the other, however, they made the absurd proposition that the government compensate them 6 rh. for every copy fewer that they sell in the future — and yet the current sales figures they are projecting are so high as to exceed all probability and certainly all reality.
In any event, since this would have burdened the government here for an unforeseeable period with a not inconsiderable sum, and since the newspaper itself thereby so utterly divulged its weak position, not even the personal contempt directed at Schütz in any case would have been needed to make the whole thing fail completely. — Perhaps he will try to offer his services again in Jena, where a move is already underway, however, to establish a new Literatur Zeitung. [42] —
They had already essentially given up on Hufeland |376| here because he allegedly made excessive demands, but then Schelling greatly encouraged them to offer him an appointment. [43] . . . Ebel also declined, or so we hear from Jena. They are now considering Rosenmüller in Leipzig. I do not know what may be holding back Wiedemann’s appointment, since it really would be the most likely one. [44] They are not going to be in any hurry to fill positions in Würzburg — Schelling was only provisionally appointed so early.
We would greatly welcome it if you two were to come there as well. Würzburg will undeniably be an infinitely more varied place to live than Jena. You would have the grand medical institutions there. Then there is also a collection of paintings and casts, the variety of religions, a seat for the government, a theater that alternates between Bamberg and Würzburg, the commercial activity, the Mayn River, the vineyards and thus also the grape harvest, and who knows what else! And for me there is, moreover, one sacred piece of ground, one I loathe to see in the possession of others: Auguste rests a half-day’s journey from Würzburg. [45] —
I know as little why you have not received the bust as why Tiek has not even sent it to me yet. Although I have not received a single line from him, things will doubtless turn out fine. I have heard that Ludwig Tiek will be spending the winter in Jena. [46] Steffens is in Giebichenstein, where he is picking up his wife.
I have not been well for two days now, otherwise we would also have toured the Salzburg area from here, which is famous for its splendid natural scenery; indeed, everything was already arranged. Perhaps we will yet make the trip toward the end of our stay here, which will last for several days yet. [47]
For now please relate to Mother everything I write. As soon as things have calmed down a bit, I will write her myself, and I hope she will then become reconciled to my situation.
|377| Please write me something about the situation of our poor fatherland if you happen to know anything the newspapers are not reporting. [48] Address your letter to Bamberg in care of Hofrath Marcus, since we will presumably now be traveling by way of Bamberg. [49]
Schelling’s good and dear parents will be enormously delighted by this turn of events. His mother could not quite come to terms with Italy, since she lost a son there; [50] even recently she wrote: “Godspeed, but only as far as Munich.” — Now we will be only 1 1/2 day’s journey from them. Only 3 from all of you — and I will no longer be embracing my little nieces from such an enormous distance, and indeed would very much like to have them all actually with me. [51] Schelling sends his warmest regards to all of you — he is quite busy here. Munich can also provide considerable entertainment for a person; there are some wonderful things to see here. Stay very well.
Concluded on 17 September
[*] Schelling and Caroline had departed Murrhardt via Stuttgart for Munich on 5 September 1803 and arrived on the evening of 7 September 1803. They departed Munich on 24 September 1803, arrived in Bamberg on 29 September, and were back in Murrhardt on 10 October 1803. Finally, they departed Murrhardt for Würzburg on 31 October 1803, where they resided until the spring of 1806 (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
Although Erich Schmidt (1913), dates the commencement of this letter approximately (i.e., with a question mark) to 8 September, the Catholic liturgical feast and processional Caroline mentions having witnessed in Munich “today,” i.e., on the day she is writing, was the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches is celebrated on 8 September (which in 1803 fell on a Thursday), nine months after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, and is listed as such in various official almanacs (e.g., the Hochfürstl. S. Weimar- und Eisenachischer Hof- und Adreß-Calender auf das Jahr 1803 [Jena]). The festival was, understandably, often associated with the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. Back.
[1] Justus Christian Loder accepted an appointment in Halle after having been in Jena since 1778; the Duchy of Weimar was one of the authorities responsible for the university in Jena (map: Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]; illustration: Matthäus Merian, Halle [1653]):
[2] The territories of Bamberg and Würzburg had passed to Bavaria as a result of geopolitical developments associated with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. See Adalbert Friedrich Marcus’s letter to Schelling on 30 April 1803 (letter 377c), note 3. Back.
[3] An allusion to Christian Gottfried Schütz’s attempt to secure a position in Würzburg by, among other things, offering to bring with him the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung. See Adalbert Friedrich Marcus’s letter to Schelling on 14 June 1803 (letter 380c).
Schütz ended up going to Halle instead of Würzburg, and indeed took the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung with him. In response, Goethe then established the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung in Jena to replace it; see below. Back.
[4] Gottlieb Hufeland did eventually accept an appointment in Würzburg, Christian Gottfried Schütz in Halle. Back.
[5] Caroline mentions Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring as a possible candidate for a position on the medical faculty in Jena in her letter to Luise on 19 June 1803 (letter 380). Back.
[6] Johann Gottfried Ebel, Schilderung der Gebirgsvölker der Schweiz, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1798, 1802).
Caroline and Schelling had originally planned to travel to Italy by way of Switzerland (see Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s letter to Hans Christian Örsted on 22 May 1803 [letter 378b]), and Caroline had earlier showed similar interest in pertinent travelogues of Switzerland (see esp. her letter to Wilhelm Schlegel on 12 March 1801 [letter 293], note 7, with a gallery reference).
It is perhaps no accident that she is aware of Ebel’s recent travelogues. Such publications colored readers’ perceptions and fed the appetite for information and illustrations of Switzerland esp. for those anticipating such a journey.
To open a gallery of a selection of illustrations from Ebel’s two volumes, click on the image below:
[7] Concerning the background to the exodus of certain faculty members from Jena in 1803 and 1804, see supplementary appendix 377c.1. These faculty losses arguably weakened Jena’s reputation over the next several years; one might recall that Fichte had essentially been forced to leave in 1799 as a result of what is known as the atheism dispute. Back.
[8] Munich, as the capital of the Electorate of Bavaria, had acquired not inconsiderable art collections for safekeeping against the French from the Rhenish Palatinate, with which it had been ruled in personal union since 1777. During the wars of the French Revolution and especially amid the geopolitical changes in 1803, the Palatinate essentially ceased to exist.
With several other collections as well as monastery collections acquired after the secularization of 1803, Bavaria thus could boast impressive collections, though Napoleon subsequently removed a not inconsiderable number of valuable works. King Louis 1 of Bavaria (reigned 1825–48) oversaw the construction of what later became the Alte Pinakothek. Caroline would have visited the collections in the earlier gallery in the royal gardens (see below). Back.
[9] Schelling and Caroline seem originally to have anticipated traveling to Rome by way of Switzerland; see Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s letter to Hans Christian Örsted on 22 May 1803 (letter 378b). Back.
[10] Tübingen is situated ca. 40 km southwest of Stuttgart (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
Here Tübingen and the Neckar River (Gustav Schwab, Romantische Wanderung durch die Sächsische Schweiz, Das malerische und romantische Deutschland: In zehn Sektionen, 1 Schwaben [Leipzig 1847], plate following p. 114; also in Eduard Duller, Deutschland und das deutsche Volk [Leipzig 1845], vol. 1, 131):
[11] The state-sponsored preparatory school in Tübingen, otherwise known as the Tübinger Stift, essentially an elite Protestant theological seminary founded in 1536 for preparing Württemberg’s pastors, theologians, teachers, and ecclesiastical administrators. Hegel, Hölderlin, and Schelling all attended this institution, which is housed in a former Augustinian monastery in Tübingen, here the Seminarium at the far left in the following illustration (Katasterplan der Stadt Tübingen, aufgenommen vom Geometer Conrad Kohler im März 1819, Lithograph; Stadtarchiv Tübingen D30/K234):
Here the Tübingen Stift in 1802, the year before Caroline visited (illustration by Johann Christian Partzschefeldt, reprod. in Christina Melk, Tübinger Ansichten und Maler im 19. Jahrhundert [Tübingen 1986]; Tübinger Kataloge Nr. 27, Stadtmuseum Tübingen, Inventarnummer: 3163):
The rafts to which Caroline refers were not pleasure rafts or boats as is the case today, but rather lumber rafts (rafts of lumber) being transported downstream (early postcard, Tübingen; lumber rafting ceased at the end of the nineteenth century):
[12] Although Schelling was born in 1775 in Leonberg just outside Stuttgart, where his father was a pastor, the family moved to Bebenhausen in 1777, his father remaining there as a teacher at the boarding school housed in the former monastery until becoming dean in Schorndorf in 1791.
Bebenhausen is situated just 6 km north of Tübingen (Sr. Sanson, Le Cercle de Souabe subdivisé en touts les Estats [sic] qui le composent [Paris 1681]; illustration of Bebenhausen in 1822 from Sylvan: ein Jahrbuch für Forstmänner, Jäger u. Jagdfreunde für d. Jahr 1822, illustration following p. 114):
Here Bebenhausen in an undated postcard:
And in an illustration on an early postcard that, like Caroline, similarly takes note of the proximity of deer around the monastery complex:
[13] What are more commonly known as the Swabian Alps are a mountain range extending approximately 200 km northeast-southwest largely through what is today Baden Württemberg, though parts extend into Switzerland and Bavaria. The famous Hohenzollern Castle is situated on one of its peaks.
Here an aerial view on an early postcard showing the town of Nürtingen, where both Schelling and Hölderlin attended the Latin school, with the Swabian Alps in the distance, along with a map showing Schelling and Caroline’s itinerary with Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[14] The Danube River flows directly past Ulm and originally also contributed to the moat surrounding the old town (Antike Ansicht von Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, printed by M. Merian [Frankfurt 1643]; Eduard Duller, Die Donauländer nebst Wanderungen etc., 3rd ed. [Leipzig 1847], plate following p. 8):
[15] Fr., “causeway, paved roadway,” in eighteenth-century Germany generally a stone carriageway of some sort that was considerably better and faster than dirt roads. See esp. Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter on 16 April 1795 (letter 149), note 4, with remarks on German roads at large at the time, including southern Germany. Back.
[16] Augsburg and Munich were indeed connected by direct postal routes (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[17] Caroline is referring to the mountainous landscape that begins south of Munich and rises into the Tyrolean Alps proper (she refers to this landscape again after moving to Munich in 1806; see her letter to Luise Gotter on 28 November 1806 [letter 418]), extending approximately southward past Lake Starberg (Wurmsee on the map) down to the Zugspitze, Wetterstein, and Karwendel formations in the Bavarian Alps, then on to Innsbruck and, further south, to the Brenner Pass, through which travelers especially from Germany crossed over into Italy ([Johann Michael von] Söltl, München mit seinen Umgebungen historisch, topographisch, statistisch, 2nd ed. [Munich 1838], frontispiece):
Caroline and Schelling visit Schliersee, just southeast of Munich, in 1808 (Wandkarte der Alpen…unter der Leitung des Vinzeux von Haardt [Vienna 1882]; Bibliothèque nationale de France; département Cartes et plans; Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[18] Biblical allusions, e.g., Gen 2:23 (“bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”), Gen. 29:14 (“Surely you are my bone and my flesh!”). Back.
[19] I.e., common citizens. Back.
[20] Caroline’s more general than specific description here allows perhaps a sampling at least of the more traditional Bavarian national costumes ca. 1800 if not of the “elegant” and “Philistine” women’s fashion (engraving by G.N. Renner & Schuster, Nürnberg, ca. 1800, illustration no. 37 in P.E. Rattelmüller, Dirndl, Janker, Lederhosen: Künstler entdecken die oberbayerischen Trachten [Munich 1970]):
[21] See the editorial note above; the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches is celebrated on 8 September ([1] illustration of representative religious processional by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Kupfersammlung zu J[ohann] B[ernhard] Basedows Elementarwerke für die Jugend und ihre Freunde: Erste Lieferung in 53 Tafeln. Zweyte Lieferung in 47 Tafeln von L bis XCVI [Leipzig, Dessau, Berlin 1774], plate 84c; [2] satirical illustration from anonymous Bildergalerie katholischer Misbräuche: Von Obermayr [Frankfurt Leipzig 1784], 211):
[22] I.e., the statue of baby Mary, onto which flowers are often strewn by onlookers of the processional. Back.
[23] Würzburg, where Schelling and Caroline were moving and which they had already visited on their journey from Jena to Murrhardt, is located in Franconia. Back.
[24] Munich had over forty thousand inhabitants in 1801. Back.
[25] Munich’s English Garden was conceptualized in 1789 after being suggested by the Massachusetts native Benjamin Thompson von Rumford (1753–1814), at the time a military reformer in Munich, both as a military garden for the enhancement of military life during times of peace (e.g., with agricultural activities), and as a locale accessible to the public.
Several months later, a decision was made to transform the area to the east of the military garden into a public garden, the first of its kind in Europe, the name reflecting its design after the natural English garden style as opposed to the more rigid French style (see Auguste’s remarks demonstrating her preference for the English style in her letter to Cäcilie Gotter on 16 May 1800 [letter 260]). The park was opened to the public in 1792 and expanded in 1799 and 1800.
Here the location of the park with its winding dark-green pathways to the northeast of the town center, the Isar River on its eastern side (Umgebungen von München [1812], color engraving by Carl Schleich and Johann Baptist Seitz after J. von Rickauer):
Here marked on a map from 1837 (H. Widmayr, Plan der Könige Haupt-und Residenz-Stadt München im Jahre 1837 [München 1837]; Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans):
[26] An art gallery had been constructed on the northern side of the royal gardens (Hofgarten) in 1780, in the former arcades just south of the English Garden, and then been made accessible to the public in 1781; here indicated on an 1809 map as K[önigliche] Gemaelde Gallerie (Max-Vorstadt, Stadtviertel [1809]; Bayerisches Landesvermessungsamt München Nr. 558/03; Bayerische Landesbibliothek):
Today it houses the German Museum of the Theater. The edifice is located on what later became the Galleriestrasse (Stadtplan von München, lithograph [1890]):
See the supplementary appendices on the Munich art gallery at the Royal Gardens arcade and on the acquisition of the Düsseldorf gallery. Back.
[27] Agrément, in French in original; here: “approval, pleasure.” — Schelling and Caroline did indeed move to Munich in the spring of 1806, Caroline’s final permanent residence. Back.
[28] Fr., “to speak boldly, to put it plainly.” Back.
[29] I.e., courted her a bit, paid romantic attention to her (Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Das Spatzierengehen [1780]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Uh 4° 47 [162]):
[30] Fr., “evening meal, dinner, supper.” Back.
[31] An uncertain allusion insofar as the present-day botanical garden in Tübingen was not initiated until a year later, 1804, whereas previously the university’s gardens were considerably smaller and located behind the original university aula near the Neckar River or in what are today unknown locations. Caroline is presumably describing an outdoor setting approximate as in the following illustration (Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1813: Der Liebe und Freundschaft gewidmet):
The successor garden, located in the former “Tummel Garden,” could not be started until the end of 1805, when the current lease expired. The resulting garden is today known as the “Alter Botanischer Garten.” Back.
[32] Uncertain allusion, since no Swiss journey is mentioned in Gottlieb Hufeland’s biographical information (though see below), nor is it clear which physician Hufeland is meant, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, who was in Berlin at the time but who had received an offer from the university in Göttingen (he did not accept, remaining with the royal family in Berlin instead), or, more likely, Friedrich Hufeland, who in 1803–4 accompanied a count to France, presumably, if indeed he be meant, by way of Switzerland. The two brothers had known Schelling in Jena and Weimar, the latter Hufeland more recently.
In any event, Gottlieb Hufeland was the cousin of both brothers. That Gottlieb Hufeland’s journey to Switzerland did indeed materialize before he arrived in Würzburg for the winter semester 1803–4, however, is attested by Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 2 April 1808 (letter 432).
Ludwigsburg, where von Hoven lived, is located just outside Stuttgart to the northeast, Murrhardt further to the northeast; Caroline is otherwise referring to the route to Switzerland (Helvetic Republic) by say of Strasbourg rather than Stuttgart (South West Germany and North Italy: The War of the Second Coalition 1798–1801, map 88 in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas [Cambridge 1912]):
[33] Both Sophie Wiedemann and Konradine Luise Wilhelmine Hufeland were Luise Wiedemann’s sisters-in-law. Back.
[34] Luise Wiedemann remarks in her memoirs that in 1804 she and her family, including her and Caroline’s mother, moved into the “Vieweg’s [large] new house,” presumably meaning that they had purchased the Vieweg’s house in Braunschweig and then moved into what was for them, i.e., the Wiedemanns, a large “new” house. Back.
[35] Carl Schelling had just received his doctorate in medicine in Tübingen under Karl Friedrich Kielmeyer and was on his way to Vienna for further training (Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Besetztere und illuminierte Landkarte von Deutschland, from the Kupfersammlung zu J[ohann] B[ernhard] Basedows Elementarwerke für die Jugend und ihre Freunde: Erste Lieferung in 53 Tafeln. Zweyte Lieferung in 47 Tafeln von L bis XCVI [Leipzig, Dessau, Berlin 1774], plate xlv):
[36] Ten days later, on 27 September 1803, Christian Friedrich Schnurrer wrote to H. E. G. Paulus from Tübingen (Schelling im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen. Ergänzungsband. Melchior Meyr über Schelling, ed. Xavier Tilliette [Torino 1981], 43):
So those in Würzburg — or rather Feder did not yet even know that things had worked out quite well for Schelling. On 19 September, Schelling had already sent news here from Munich that things had worked out for him in Würzburg and that they had agreed to all his conditions. And on Sunday the Schwäbische Chronik published an article from the Bamberger Zeitung, actually a letter posted from Würzburg itself on 18 September announcing with great pomp that Schelling had indeed been won for Würzburg. Schelling will now doubtless not waste a minute taking possession of his new position that he might commence his lectures at the beginning of the new semester.
The notice in the Schwäbischer Merkur read as follows (Schwäbischer Merkur [1803] 191 [Sunday, 25 September 1803], 891):
Franconia. Professor Schelling, from Württemberg, previously a professor in Jena, has been appointed professor in Würzburg. This was reported by the Bamberger Zeitung in an article from Würzburg on 18 September in the following words: “The renowned philosopher of nature Schelling has received and accepted an appointment as teacher of philosophy at our academy. He will be arriving here soon and during the coming semester will begin lecturing on transcendental philosophy and the philosophy of nature. — With Schelling and his system, a new, brilliant epoch will commence at our school of higher learning; the study of philosophy, aesthetics, physics, and medicine will receive a beneficent transformation, and what recently was yet an object of satire will soon be our pride and jewel.”
Schnurrer continues:
He was here about four weeks ago, with his wife, of course, and from here they traveled on to Munich by way of Ulm and Augsburg. As I anticipated, his behavior toward me was quite cordial. I am certain — and told him so — that had he ended up with us here in Tübingen in 1799 he would not have become as polemical as he has hitherto shown himself to be. How he will comport himself from now on remains to be seen.
Wilhelm Schlegel had written Goethe on the same day as Caroline’s letter here, 17 September, wondering whether Schelling would perhaps soon be returning to Jena, to which Goethe replied that, unfortunately, such was not the case as far as he knew (Schelling im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen. Ergänzungsband. Melchior Meyr über Schelling, ed. Xavier Tilliette [Torino 1981], 42). Back.
[37] Regrettably, Schelling and Caroline’s journey to Italy never materialized. Back.
[38] A relative statement, since Würzburg is still almost 300 km from Braunschweig as the crow flies; here a map showing Braunschweig (Brunswick), Jena (Caroline’s earlier residence), Würzburg, and Stuttgart (William R. Shepherd, “Central Europe about 1786,” in idem, Historical Atlas [New York 1923]):
[39] E.g., in Würzburg, which was now a Bavarian territory, Franz Berg, the theologian who authored the Encomium for the Most Recent Philosophy implicating Schelling in Auguste’s death; the piece itself was commissioned by Georg Karl Ignaz von Fechenbach. Neither was Franz Oberthür in Würzburg particularly interested in making Schelling’s life easy there. Xavier Tilliette, Schelling (Paris 1999), 120–21, refers to these three as the “Würzburg antennae” of the even more resolute and insidious “clerical clique in Munich” itself:
But the most tenacious and venomous of them all, in effect the leader, was, in Munich, the director of the secondary school, Kajetan Weiller, with his no less duplicitous and hypocritical acolyte Jakob Salat. These two will devote their existence to opposing Schelling. . . . Their polemical, sneaky, cunning writings exhibited all the bile that is capable of entering into the souls of the devout. Unfortunately they enjoyed the support of public opinion and to a certain extent also that of the authorities. Back.
[40] Taschenbuch für Frauenzimmer von Bildung auf das Jahr 1799; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung:
[41] Christian Gottfried Schütz had received an appointment in Halle, in Prussian territory, and was taking the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung with him. See Schelling’s letter to Hegel on 31 August 1803 (letter 380g), note 6.
The Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung continued without interruption to be published in Halle till 1849. Back.
[42] Goethe was indeed doing just that; the new Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung appeared in January 1804, and both Schelling and Caroline would eventually contributed literary reviews. See the section on Caroline’s literary reviews, volume 2. The Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung continued to be published until 1841. Back.
[43] Gottlieb Hufeland did accept an appointment in Würzburg. See Schelling’s letter to Hegel on 31 August 1803 (letter 380g) concerning Schelling’s initial views on this appointment. Back.
[44] See the second paragraph in Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 19 June 1803 (letter 380) concerning the possibility of Luise’s husband receiving an appointment to the medical faculty in either Jena or Würzburg. Neither materialized. Back.
[45] Auguste was buried in the tiny village of Bocklet, ca. 50 km north-northeast of Würzburg ([1] C. F. Hammer, Charte von Fränken…nach ihrer jezigen neuerlichen Eintheilung [Nürnberg 1811]; Bibliothèque nationale de France; [2] Taschenbuch auf das Jahr 1802: Der Liebe und Freundschaft gewidmet; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[46] He did not, though he may have passed through Jena while visiting Weimar to see his brother, Friedrich Tieck, who was not entirely satisfied with his professional position there and had essentially fallen out with Goethe.
Ludwig Tieck had hitherto been in Ziebingen and Madlitz (see Caroline’s letter to Julie Gotter on 15 June 1802 [letter 362], note 6), though in the early summer of 1803 his friend Wilhelm von Burgsdorf had suggested escaping what may have become a tedious existence at these isolated locales and journeying instead to Dresden, Bohemia, and Franconia.
Sophie Bernhardi had similarly suggested a meeting in Dresden in connection with her plans to flee Berlin and her husband, August Ferdinand Bernhardi (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
Tieck, Burgsdorff, and a new acquaintance continued the journey that eventually provided the basis for Tieck’s Eine Sommerreise, published in his Gesammelte Novellen (Breslau 1838), 5:161–65. One of the locales they visited was Bocklet; for that passage, which includes a reflection on Auguste’s grave, see Caroline’s letter to Auguste on 21 October 1799 (letter 250), note 5.
Concerning Tieck’s whereabouts during this period, see Roger Paulin, Ludwig Tieck: A Literary Biography (Oxford 1986), 161—64. Back.
[47] Caroline is presumably referring to the area of the Electorate of Salzburg that had been created for Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in December 1802, who had had to cede his duchy to France after the Treaty of Lunéville.
It was dissolved after the Austrian defeat at Austerlitz and as part of the terms of the Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December 1805, after which Ferdinand — notably for Caroline and Schelling — received the Electorate of Würzburg, prompting Schelling and Caroline to move to Munich, in Bavaria, during the spring of 1806. The electorate’s borders were located ca. 150 km from Munich (at map center, E. of Salzburg; William R. Shepherd, “Germany and Italy in 1803,” Historical Atlas [New York 1923]):
Schelling and Caroline do not seem to have made such a trip during this visit; they departed Munich about a week later, on 24 September 1803. Back.
[48] I.e., the state of Hannover. See supplementary appendix 379.1. Back.
[49] Caroline recounts this return journey to Murrhardt by way of Landshut, Regensburg, Nürnberg, and Bamberg in her letter to Luise Gotter on 4 January 1804 (letter 382), esp. note 7 there. Back.
[50] See the editorial note Auguste’s letter to Schelling on 4/5 June 1800 (letter 261). Back.
[51] Luise’s two children were Emma and Minna Wiedemann. Back.
Translation © 2017 Doug Stott