381b. Schelling to his Father and Mother in Murrhardt: Bamberg, 30 September 1803 [*]
Bamberg, 30 September 1803
Dearest parents!
I arrived here yesterday evening after having departed Munich on the 24th, where I was showered with courtesies. I also saw Röschlaub, whom I afterward picked up in Landshut and brought along here, where he has business. [1] I have already see Count von Thürheim and will be receiving my decree and formal appointment today: I will be receiving a salary of 1200 Gulden (though I asked too little —I could just as easily have received 15–1800), 300 Gulden travel expenses, and (the most important thing) free housing in a canon’s residence in Würzburg. [2]
Hence I am well provided in every possible way; my relationships with the most important people both in Munich and here have gotten off to an excellent start. I hope to be with you there within a week. —
My appointment has provided a significant triumph for the good cause. You cannot imagine what all has been attempted against me in this sense. I am sending you the page from the newspaper here in which my appointment has been announced; hence you can now announce it as well in various ways there, including in the Swabian newspapers, albeit (of course) only in the general sense that I have received and accepted an appointment as full public professor of the philosophy of nature with a handsome salary and other significant perquisites. [3]
Hoven is also receiving an appointment; he will be receiving as much as I as well as accommodations in the same house.
I encountered news of Carl’s disputation here. [4] — The prospects for him here have become considerably more definite and attractive.
I hear that a new appointment is to be sent to me from Jena; but that can do no more now than improve my situation in Würzburg. [5]
Did you, as I hope, receive my letters from Munich?
Do not write to me here, since I will be there with you sooner.
Your,
Fr.
P.S. The page from the newspaper here has been misplaced; I will send it next time if I cannot find it now.
We are both absolutely counting on Beate, as I already wrote and would like to reiterate here. [6]
Notes
[*] Sources: Plitt 1:483–84; Fuhrmans 3:24–25.
Schelling and Caroline had departed Murrhardt via Stuttgart for Munich on 5 September 1803 and arrived on the evening of 7 September 1803. As Schelling here remarks, they departed Munich on 24 September 1803, made stops in Landshut (see below), Regensburg, and Nuremberg (see Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter on 4 January 1804 [letter 382]), arrived in Bamberg on 29 September, then journeyed on for a brief visit in Würzburg.
They were back in Murrhardt on 10 October 1803, then departed Murrhardt for Würzburg on 31 October 1803, where they lived until the spring of 1806 (Historical Map of Central Europe about 1786 (1926), from William Shepherd, Historical Atlas [1926]):
[1] Röschlaub had earlier received an appointment as full professor at the clinic at the new university in Landshut, northeast of Munich, where he was also director of the medical school (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[2] See the supplementary appendix on the Schellings’ residence in Würzburg. Back.
[3] Such had indeed already happened on Sunday, 25 September 1803. See Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381), note 36. Back.
[4] Carl Schelling had just received his doctorate in medicine in Tübingen. Back.
[5] I.e., by increasing his professional leverage. Back.
[6] Schelling’s sister, Beate, returned to Würzburg with Caroline and Schelling, where she then spent several months with them. Back.
Translation © 2017 Doug Stott