• 445. Caroline to Beate Gross in Gaisburg: Maulbronn, August 1809
[Maulbronn, August 1809]
|563| Despite the bad weather, [1] we are doing quite well here, my dear Beate, and at the same time are thinking fondly of our brief stay in Stuttgard and the extraordinarily cordial reception you and your husband gave us. [2] Fritz’s eye has almost completely recovered. [3] If the weather cooperates, we will be roaming all about the countryside here while your parents are away. [4] I must say that I found both your father and your mother virtually unchanged since the last time I saw them, and may heaven also long keep them thus. [5] They are halfway counting on seeing you and Adolph in Ludwigsburg. [6] [Errands, requests.]
Tell Karl that the bust is becoming whiter by the day, [7] and that he should still write about war and peace and that all of you should come here soon!
Caroline [8]
Notes
[1] Caroline mentions the unfavorable weather in her letter to Meta Liebeskind on 28 August 1809 (letter 444) (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 XVI a:
[2] Caroline and Schelling, who departed Munich on 18 August 1809, had to travel through Stuttgart to get to Maulbronn; the implication here is almost certainly that they stayed over with Beate and her husband in Gaisburg before continuing on.
On the map below, Joseph Friedrich Schelling’s earlier parishes in Schorndorf and Murrhardt are also shown (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 2nd ed. [New York 1921], 143):
Beate and her husband lived not in Stuttgart proper, but in Gaisburg on the eastern side of town (Stutgart, mit dero Gegend auf 2 Stund. 81 G. Bodenehr fecit et excudit; Recens emendavit, auxit atque divisit R. H. Stuttgardiae [1716–50]; illustration: Gaisburg in 1916 [postcard]):
Schelling’s brother Karl Schelling did live in Stuttgart. Back.
[3] Uncertain allusion, though Schelling had been ill from late June till at least early-August with, initially, catarrhal fever, and then a persistent cough. See Caroline’s letter to Pauline Gotter on 7 August 1809 (letter 442) and to Philipp Michaelis on 16 August 1809 (letter 443); also Schelling’s letters on 7 August to Carl Joseph Windischmann and Martin Wagner. Back.
[4] Clemens Kohl, Ein Mann und eine Frau bei einem Spaziergang (1795); Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. A1: 1394; Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, from the Reise nach Paris; National Gallery of Art:
Schelling’s father was intending to be in Stuttgart for a church synod, but not until the end of September (see Schelling’s letter to Karl Schelling on 25 May 1809 [letter 441b], note 4); were the Schellings planning to come to Stuttgart (and Ludwigsburg? see below) earlier together? Back.
[5] Caroline and Schelling had last seen Schelling’s parents in Murrhardt on 31 October 1803 ([1] Leipziger Taschenbuch für die erwachsenere Jugend männlichen Geschlechts zum Nutzen und Vergnügen auf das Jahr 1791; [2] (Taschenbuch für Hæusliche und Gesellschaftliche Freuden auf das Jahr 1802; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[6] Ludwigsburg is located 17 km north of Stuttgart (William R. Shepherd, “Wurtemberg,” Historical Atlas, 2nd ed. [New York 1921], 143; illustration: frontispiece to Beschreibung des Oberamts Ludwigsburg, ed. Königlich statistisch-topographisches Bureau [Stuttgart 1859]):
[7] Presumably a reference to Friedrich Tieck’s bust of Schelling; see Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 21 February 1809 (letter 439), note 3. Schelling was intending to secure a copy for his parents; see his letter to Karl Schelling on 25 May 1809 (letter 441b). Back.
[8] This present letter is the final extant letter from Caroline’s hand (Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Chodowiecki’s Illustrationen zu den deutschen Klassikern, ed. Paul Landau [Berlin 1914], plate 30):
Translation © 2018 Doug Stott