• 414. Caroline to Luise Gotter and her daughters in Gotha: Würzburg, 15 May 1806
Würzb[urg] 15 May [1806]
Here my final missive from this place, dear friends, and at that only a hasty, fleeting word of thanks and of unchangeable love. Tomorrow it will be 4 weeks since Schelling departed in order to prepare a new place for us, and in a few days, thank God, I will be able to follow after him as well [1] — to wherever it may be! but it is, as a matter of fact, to Munich, the place where he wanted his new position to be, a position the king has granted him both in person and in writing. [2]
. . . In Munich I will be meeting Madam Wiebeking and her daughters. [3]
Stay very all, all of you — by and by, I will send more news from Munich. Mother and daughters alike, blessed be all of you to me. My regards to Minchen as well.
Caroline Schelling
Notes
[1] Caroline is writing on Thursday, 15 May 1806, Schelling had departed Würzburg on Friday, 18 April 1806. As far as can be determined from letters, Caroline herself departs Würzburg on 20 May 1806, and Schelling meets her in Dachau outside Würzburg on 24 May 1806. Back.
[2] Caroline’s incorporation of the king into her narrative about Schelling’s professional status, while not entirely a misrepresentation, nonetheless does not tell the whole story.
Schelling was indeed to become a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, but not a professor at a Bavarian university. Concerning the disinclination of the Bavarian government (and king) to appoint Schelling to a professorship in Landshut, see Schelling’s letter to Georg Friedrich von Zentner on 19 January 1806 (letter 400d), note 7, and esp. Schelling’s letter to Windischmann on 21 February 1806 (letter 400g), note 5. Back.
[3] Charlotte Wiebeking, née Rousseau, was acquainted with the Gotters from Gotha (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
Translation © 2018 Doug Stott