Albertine of Green

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Albertine von Grün (born October 11, 1749 in Hachenburg ; † May 12, 1792 ibid) was a talented, emotional writer during the Sturm und Drang time. She was best known for her letters to the Darmstadt literary critic Johann Heinrich Merck , the Giessen law professor Julius Höpfner and his wife Marianne, all of whom were friends and acquaintances of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .

Life

Silhouette Albertine von Grün. Draftsman not handed down

Albertine von Grün came from both the paternal and the maternal side of civil servant families. Her father Detmar Heinrich Grün (1714–1791) was a high counts chancellery in Hachenburg and was ennobled around 1779. Her mother Louise Charlotte Katharine Clotz (January 6, 1722 in Butzbach –1752), whose ancestors included councilors in Wetzlar and senior civil servants in Butzbach, married at the age of 23. At the age of 27 she gave birth to her daughter Albertine on the Grünschen Hof in Hachenburg, the family residence.

Grünscher Hof in Hachenburg. Albertine was born here in 1749

Two years later, her mother gave birth to a son who died on the day of the birth. In 1752, the second daughter, Sophie Charlotte Amalie, followed. This became the grandmother of the later Baron August Heinrich von Seckendorff (1807–1885). Albertine's mother died in childbed a few days after the birth of Sophie Charlotte Amalie at the age of twenty. Two years later, the father married Maria Dorothea Böhmer (1736–1761) from Dillenburg. This second marriage gave birth to five children, four of whom survived childhood, including Charlotte, who married Count Ludwig August von Beust, a member of the government in 1779, and Marianne, Albertine's favorite sister.

In her youth Albertine von Grün attended the secondary school in Hachenburg, which was established as a Latin school in 1560 during the Reformation. However, their remarkable level of education can also be traced back to private tuition that civil servant and noble families gave their children. Albertine's life on the Grünschen Hof, which her father did not manage himself, must have been very uniform. That changed when her father was promoted to director of the chancellery in 1765 and was appointed envoy of the Wetterau Grafenkolleg to visit the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Wetzlar. The visit to investigate grievances at the Reich Chamber of Commerce took place from 1767 to 1776. During this phase Albertine von Grün visited her father in Wetzlar and her cousin Marianne in Gießen, who was engaged to Professor Julius Höpfner and who then married him.

Goethe, who was the same age as Albertine von Grün, came to Wetzlar in 1772, where, at the insistence of his father, he enrolled as an intern at the Imperial Court of Justice. One of his colleagues there was Johann Christian Kestner, Charlotte Buff's fiancé . The young Goethe raved about Charlotte and wanted to conquer her for himself, but she rejected him. He dealt with this experience, which deeply disturbed Goethe, in his epistolary novel Die Leiden des Junge Werther , printed in 1774 , which earned him great recognition for his literary achievements across Europe. Albertine von Grün, a friend of Lotte Buff, was also very fascinated by this work, especially since she had to have a sad experience in matters of love. She had fallen in love with Friedrich Maximilian Klinger , who frequented Julius Höpfner's house but did not reciprocate her feelings in the same way. For him, the relationship with Albertine von Grün was just a "love affair", which hurt her very much. (Klinger, who also belonged to the circle of friends of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was the author of the drama Sturm und Drang , the eponymous was for an entire literary movement.) Albertine green learned at that time, the literary critic Johann Heinrich Merck know who was a close friend of Goethe. Other mutual acquaintances and friends of Grüns and Goethes were the married couple Julius and Marianne Höpfner.

Beust's house in Hachenburg. Albertine von Grün lived here from 1779 to 1789

In 1779, Albertine was appointed by Grün's father as a comitial envoy for the Wetterauische and Westphalian counts to the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg. When he left, his father wanted her to move from the Grünschen Hof to her half-sister Charlotte, who was married to the government councilor Ludwig August von Beust, in their apartment on Herrnstrasse. Albertine von Grün only had one small room in what was later to be known as the “Beustsches Haus”, and looking after her half-sister, who was ill, took a lot of energy. Most of her letters to well-known people close to Goethe - which have already been published several times and to whom she owes her recognition and appreciation - she wrote during the time she lived there. In 1789 her father arranged for her to move to Regensburg because he was in need of help. As an obedient daughter, Albertine von Grün submitted to his will. In November 1791 the father died and Albertine von Grün returned to Hachenburg in the Grünschen Hof. A few months later she died of consumption or tuberculosis, which was an incurable disease at the time and from which she had suffered for many years.

Tombstone

Albertine von Grün was buried in the cemetery of St. Bartholomew's Church in the Hachenburg district of Altstadt . The inscription on the preserved tombstone reads: “Here, against a happy resurrection, slumbers the corpse of the Hochwolgeborn Fraulein Albertine von Grün. She was born on the 11th of October 1749 and died on the 12th of May 1792 in the middle of her active, philanthropic life. "

There are two silhouettes of Albertine von Grün. A contemporary described her as follows: "It was a very amiable personality, a spirited, completely Italian face, she herself lively, funny (ie humorous), comfortable to deal with, a soul full of love and kindness." It is not mentioned here that she limped due to a congenital hip problem.

plant

Letters to Johann Heinrich Merck, Julius and Marianne Höpfner and Caroline von Wieger (over 70 letters have survived). Some poems and prose texts (including a Westerwald village story). The first letters were published as early as 1838, and in 1872 there was a detailed reproduction of many letters in the book by the Wiesbaden grammar school director Karl Schwartz: Albertine von Grün. Biographies and collection of letters. In 1986 a lot of letters were re-edited in Albertine von Grün - A Woman's Life Around Young Goethe , which was published by the Hachenburg brewery owner Heinrich Schneider, the Darmstadt Merck employee Fritz Ebner and the psychologist Herta Eisnach.

Quotes from the letters of Albertine von Grün

To Merck: “Hachenburg, December 26th, 1784 ... And now another tragic story about our tolerance! Since the Peace of Westphalia, I believe, Reformed and Lutheran congregations have quietly come and go here in our main church, at least twice every Sunday, one after the other. Because everything is vain and perishable, this church too became so dilapidated that people ran the risk of remaining dead inside. So it had to be rebuilt five years ago. There were two spider brooms in the old church. One of them was stolen from the new church building. Now our clergy argued whether it was the Reformed spider broom or the Lutheran one that was stolen. Our church remains so uncleaned that the poor laypeople soon suffocate in the filth. I offered them a spider broom of a completely different faith, one so tolerant that it wanted to sweep Reformed and Lutheran cobwebs. But how did this poor broom get on! He would soon have been torn by the mob and burned by the clergy ... "

To Merck: “Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar - 1785 Please allow me, dear Mr. War Council, that I may continue my smear to you today. I just have to admit my mistake, that it would have happened the previous post day if I hadn't had to survive the catarr fever and the big Reichstag of pig slaughter since the 26th. You must know that in this anatomy I always have to be a prosector (dissector); because no one can make better sausages, rind stomachs, liver and blood sausages than the obedient servant (but without praising me). Sometimes I have to laugh, what a strange mish-mash in my sphere, from painting to carving, from books to making rinds and so on - and yet (don't take it offense at me) I am equally happy and amused with these things. "

To Julius and Marianne Höpfner: “2. May 1787 I must confess that the heavens have hung a heavy plague on my neck, half-fools. In general, one should drown every female creature who has just a little more need to nourish his spirit than is necessary to provide a kitchen and cellar and to be a hard-working landlady. I am happy and happy with such things, but I need nourishment for my soul for it, and that makes me unhappy that I do not find it as I wish. "

Albertine von Grün's relationship with Johann Heinrich Merck

Schneider / Ebner / Eisnach write about this in their book (see bibliography): “Albertine's relationship with Merck was a friendship based on mutual benevolence and trust, the evidence of which is unfortunately unilateral (since his letters have not survived). Merck visited Albertine in Hachenburg, she visited him in Darmstadt, and she lived in his house. Together with her he went to see Goethe's mother in Frankfurt. ”He gave her“ dear little things ”and drawings of himself and Goethe. Merck showed interest and compassion in Albertine's life and pursuits. She entertained him with all kinds of incidents and incidents in Hachenburg in such a lively, humorous and vivid way that Merck, the dreaded, sharp literary critic, rightly praised her. The letters Albertine wrote to him impressed Merck very much because he kept them carefully. Albertine owes it in particular to these letters that they have not been forgotten.

Albertine von Grün and Goethe

Albertine von Grün never spoke to Goethe personally, as far as this can be determined on the basis of the letters received. But she saw him from a distance in Wetzlar, as the letter to her Darmstadt friend Caroline von Wieger shows: “I, Albertine von Grün, daughter of the sub-delegate von Grün - friend of Lotte - saw him - Goethe - once and he probably saw me only half times, because at that time he was sunk into twilight (sadness), although his sun (meaning Lotte) was shining around him. "When Albertine von Grün received uncertain and actually false news of Goethe's death (he had had an accident, where he almost drowned), she wrote to Marianne Höpfner: “Goethe, good Goethe, I could drive you away from Providence when you're there! You were certainly a good person. If I didn't know you, I certainly believe it, you could not possibly have thought so many sensations if you had not also had a great, noble soul. Where am I, god in heaven! Do not let me get excited or bother me with the most terrible thoughts. I look at the sky with wistful tears, lean on my trembling hand and think that if the sun comes out from under the clouds again today, it cannot be that the great man is gone. The sun comes slowly and sadly, but I have never seen it more beautifully, because it seemed to me that it was coming to comfort me. Never have holier tears been wept than I cry for him. "

Albertine von Grün in the judgment of posterity

Heinrich Gross wrote in 1882 in Germany's female poets and writers about Albertine von Grün: "An original female figure from the time of" Werther ", whose letters to Höpfner, Mrs. Marianne Höpfner and Merck show a spirited, witty and at the same time sensitive girl's spirit."

In 1913, the writer Charlotte Westermann dedicated the following lines to Albertine von Grün in her book Letters of Love from the German Past : “In her letters she held up very clear mirrors to the men she had come close to, but not least to herself; she often saw herself as weird and danced like a leprechaun over her own heart. Her beautiful, southern little face was unveiled and passionate to her friends: she never forgot the poet of "Sturm und Drang", and Maximilian Klinger had long been in Russia and she was forever unreachable, amazed at himself, made him her only lover conjured up in memory. "

German studies professor Adolf Bach (1890–1972) described Albertine von Grün in his 1925 essay as follows: “This is the picture of the Westerwald Fraulein from the Werther era that I wanted to create here, and the story of the human heart that was once so passionately beating, which finally came to rest almost 200 years ago under the simple stone in the Hachenburg cemetery. Truly, this Albertine of green is a touching figure! The beautiful red life still pulsates in your letters today, fresh as on the first day, and the voice that penetrates from you to us through the ages moves our hearts to the same emotion as that of your friends in your time. "

In the Nassau home calendar of 1930 Albertine von Grün was characterized as follows: "In the nature and fate of Albertine von Grün, great emotions of the times, literary currents and outstanding personalities of general German cultural history were reflected as in a living, pure glass."

The city of Hachenburg dedicated a street to Albertine von Grün. In Thomas Sonnenschein's Hagenberg film about the 700-year history of Hachenburg, a sequence of scenes is dedicated to the Albertine von Grün. In the book Meine Albertine von Grün , which Rudi Grabowski published in 2014, 25 people from Hachenburg and the surrounding area described their relationship to Albertine von Grün.

literature

  • Adolf Bach: Albertine von Grün. A Westerwald woman's life in the Werther period. In: Nassauische Heimatblätter, No. 1/2, 1925; also in: Leo Sternberg: Land Nassau. 1927; and in: From Goethe's Rhineland habitat. Rhine. Association for Monument Preservation and Heritage Protection, yearbook 1967/68.
  • Alfred Bock: Albertine von Grün. A love story from the genius period. Verlag der Münchow'schen Hof- und Universitätsdruckerei Otto Kindt, Gießen, undated (around 1925) Digitized
  • Fritz Ebner: Johann Henrich Merck (1741–1791) - A life for freedom and tolerance. E. Merck, Darmstadt, 1991, pp. 140-141.
  • Jens Friedhoff : Hachenburg in the last third of the 18th century. A stroll through the city of the Albertine of Green. In: R. Grabowski: My Albertine von Grün. Pp. 12-14.
  • Heinrich Gloël: Silhouettes from the Reich Chamber Court and Werther city. Wetzlarer Heimatverlag, 1932. (With silhouette of the older Albertine von Grün on plate 50)
  • Rudi Grabowski (Ed.): My Albertine von Grün - 25 people from Hachenburg and the surrounding area meet their Albertine. Self-published by Rudi Grabowski, Hachenburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-046759-2 .
  • Stefan Grathoff: History of the city of Hachenburg. City of Hachenburg, 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-036381-8 , p. 278.
  • Willi H. Grün: Hachenburger was a witness to a love - Albertine von Grün knew Charlotte Buff. In: Westerwälder Zeitung of December 9, 1982
  • Willi H. Grün: Albertine von Grün and Goethe. In: R. Grabowski: My Albertine von Grün. Pp. 47-49.
  • Werner A. Güth: Albertine von Grün - the writer. In: Heimat-Jahrbuch Altenkirchen , 1993, pp. 284–287.
  • Manfred Hofmann: Albertine von Grün (1749–1792) and her Westerwald ancestors. In: Familie und Volk, 7th year, 1958, pp. 20f.
  • Heinrich Schneider: Albertine von Grün - a Hachenburg woman's life from the time of Goethe. In: Heimat-Jahrbuch des Kreis Altenkirchen, 1977.
  • Heinrich Schneider, Fritz Ebner, Herta Eisnach (eds.): Albertine von Grün - A woman's life around the young Goethe. Eduard Roether Verlag, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-7929-0148-X .
  • Karl Schwartz: Albertine von Grün and her friends. Biographies and collection of letters. Ernst Fleischer Verlag, Leipzig 1872 and Riehm Verlag, Basel, undated (after 1872) digitized
  • Bruno M. Struif: Hachenburg - Traces of time of a Westerwald residence city. City of Hachenburg, 1999, ISBN 3-00-005238-0 , pp. 114–121
  • Bruno M. Struif: Albertine von Grün and the silhouettes from the Werther era . In: R. Grabowski: My Albertine von Grün. Pp. 33-43.
  • Karl Wagner: Letters to and from Johann Heinrich Merck. Darmstadt 1838, pp. 246-253.
  • Charlotte Westermann: Letters of love from three centuries of German past. therein: Ludwig Friedrich Julius Höpfner, Anna Maria Thom and Albertine von Grün. Langewiesche-Brandt publishing house, Leipzig 1913, pp. 199–205.

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