Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy, painting by Eduard Magnus

Cécile Charlotte Sophie Mendelssohn Bartholdy, b. Jeanrenaud (born October 10, 1817 in Lyon ; † September 25, 1853 in Frankfurt am Main ) was the wife of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the mother of the historian Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1838–1897) and the chemist Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880 ).

Life

Cécile Jeanrenaud was the younger daughter of August Jeanrenaud (1788–1819) and Elisabeth Wilhelmine Jeanrenaud nee. Souchay de la Duboissière (1796–1871) and a granddaughter of the Frankfurt cloth merchant Cornelius Carl Souchay . Her father came from Neuchâtel and had been a preacher at the French Reformed Church in Frankfurt am Main since 1810 . There he was the successor of Jean-Daniel Souchay de la Duboissière, the grandfather of his wife Elisabeth ("Lilli"), whom he married in 1814. The Souchays were an influential Huguenot family in the Free City of Frankfurt , where the Reformed had only been on an equal footing with the Lutherans since 1806.

Because her father was in poor health, the family moved to Lyon in 1817, where Cécile was born. A year later the family returned to Frankfurt. Her father died of consumption in 1819 . Since then, his twenty-two-year- old widow lived with her four children in the Souchay's house in Alte Mainzer Gasse at Fahrtor .

Mendelssohn Bartholdy met Cécile Jeanrenaud in Frankfurt in 1836 when he was leading the Cäcilien Choir there on behalf of the sick Johann Nepomuk Schelble . The couple got engaged on September 9, 1836 in the house of the Jeanrenauds. On March 28, 1837, the wedding took place in the French Reformed Church. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy developed a close connection to his wife's family over the years.

The couple had five children together, all of whom were born in Leipzig , Mendelssohn Bartholdy's main place of work:

  • Carl Wolfgang Paul (February 7, 1838 - February 23, 1897)
  • Marie Helene Pauline (October 2, 1839 - October 28, 1897)
  • Paul Felix Abraham (January 18, 1841 - February 17, 1880)
  • Felix August Eduard (May 1, 1843 - February 16, 1851)
  • Lili Fanny Henriette Elisabeth (September 19, 1845 - October 15, 1910)

After the death of her husband, Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy fell ill. She moved with her five children to Berlin to live with her husband's relatives.

Jeanrenaud family grave in Frankfurt's main cemetery

Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died on September 25, 1853 while staying in Frankfurt. She was buried in the family grave of the Jeanrenauds and Souchays in the main cemetery. Her grave cross bears the French inscription Elle n'est pas ici on the reverse ; pourquoi chercher parmi les morts ceux, qui sont vivants. From then on, her sons lived in the house of Céciles 'brother-in-law, the banker Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , and their daughters grew up with Céciles' mother in Frankfurt.

In 2004, the Frankfurt Mendelssohn Society had the weathered grave of Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy renovated. For the ceremonial handover of the renewed grave on May 22, 2005, her husband's music was played.

Contemporary reports particularly highlight their grace and beauty. Her nephew Sebastian Hensel characterized her with the words: "She was not brilliantly witty, not deeply learned, not very talented, but her company was so pleasantly calm, as refreshing as the pure heavenly air or the fresh spring water", and Eduard Devrient described her in his memoirs, which appeared 20 years after her death: “Cecilie was one of those sweet female appearances, whose quiet and childlike spirit, whose mere closeness, must have a beneficial and calming effect on every man. A slim figure, the facial features of striking beauty ... "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralph Larry Todd: Mendelssohn: A Life in Music Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-511043-9 , p. 324.
  2. ↑ “She is not here. What are you looking for the living among the dead. "( Lk 24,5  LUT )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Cécile
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Cécile Charlotte Sophie; Jeanrenaud, Cécile (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1853
Place of death Frankfurt am Main