Dorothea Biehl

Dorothea Biehl

Charlotte Dorothea Biehl (born June 2, 1731 in Copenhagen ; † May 17, 1788 ibid) was a Danish writer and translator.

Early years

Charlotte Dorothea Biel grew up in a conservative upper-class family. Her father Christian Emilius Biehl was the secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts based in Charlottenborg Palace in Copenhagen. The well-read and religious grandfather Hans Brøer recognized the girl's talent early on and gave her lessons. In addition to religious writings, Dorothea's reading material also included books on Danish history and the satirical heroic poem in Peter Paar's Alexandrian verses by Ludvig Holbergthat targeted Danish society. Dorothea was able to read Danish and German texts early on. In order to understand Greek and Latin expressions in Holberg, Dorothea asked for further lessons in Greek and Latin. When she was eight years old, her grandfather died, and Dorothea's situation suddenly changed. Her father forbade her to read for a long time. If she was spotted reading in secret, there would be trouble. She should do more needlework and other domestic activities. Books and the key to the library were taken from her. Nevertheless, she secretly continued to study well into the night. Friends of the family provided them with literature. After Dorothea Biehl's grandmother died in 1746, she had to work as a maid in 1747 . Her refusal to marry the young Lieutenant Peter Ramshard sparked a violent family dispute.

Create

Guest performances by a French court theater troupe in Charlottenborg Palace in 1750, to which Biehl had free admission thanks to her father's position, marked a decisive turning point in her life. She learned French through grammar and dictionary and joined a Danish amateur theater group founded by a noble friend. She started to work as a freelance translator. She translated Italian, German, French and later Spanish texts into Danish. The translation of Miguel de Cervantes' Spanish novel Don Quixote into Danish is considered to be the greatest of her literary achievements in this field .

Cornelius Hoyer: Dorothea Biehl castrates Holberg

After translating works for the royal theater in Copenhagen, she began to write her own plays in 1764. Her first comedy in five acts The kiaerlige man ( The tender man ) referred to Goldoni's comedy The tender woman . It became her most successful piece. It was performed twelve times between 1764 and 1772. It was followed by comedy after comedy. In 1765 alone, her pieces Harklöveren , Den foprelskede Ven and Den cunning Optraeikkerske found their way onto theatrical stages, as well as one-act plays. In total, she wrote twelve comedies, comedies, a tragedy and short stories. Critics compared her work with the most famous playwrights of the time, such as Ludvig Holberg and Philippe Néricault Destouches , with Dorothea Biehl sometimes being classified as a more important author. A cartoon with the title Biehl castrated Holberg testifies to this.

Johan Bülow

Johan Bülow . Painting by Jens Juel

During a visit to the park of Rosenborg Castle , the then forty-year-old Dorothea Biehl met the twenty-year-old guard officer Johan Bülow by chance in 1771. This became a friendship that lasted until the end of her life. Both were interested in Danish history and literature, and both enjoyed writing letters to each other. These letters - there were over a thousand - were not intended for the public. In addition to intimate glimpses into her world of thought, they also contained Biehl's blasphemous descriptions of the sometimes relaxed life at the Danish royal court, some of which she had heard from her father. For example reports about Else Hansen , the most famous of the lovers of King Friedrich V. Later Biehl was persuaded to publish the letters and they flowed into her autobiography from 1787: Mit ubetydelige Levnedsløb ( My insignificant curriculum vitae ). Historians believe that this autobiography does not always take the truth very seriously, but offers a unique insight into the living conditions of the time. When Dorothea Biel became very corpulent in old age and hardly went outside the door, the politician Johan Bülow, who had become rich and influential in the meantime, visited her until the end.

Works

• Charlotte Dorothea Biehl: With ubetydelige Levnedsløb. ( My insignificant curriculum vitae ) (autobiography) Museum Tusculanums Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-87-7289-005-0 (Danish)
• Charlotte Dorothea Biehl: Interiører fra Frederik V's Hof , published by Louis Bobé . (Danish)

literature

• Wilfried Hauke: From Holberg to Biehl. The Danish Enlightenment Drama 1747–1773. (Contributions to Scandinavian Studies) . Peter Lang Verlagsgruppe, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 978-3-631-44374-3 .
• Mette Winge: Skriverjomfruen - en guvernanteroman , 1988 (refers to Dorothea Biehl).
• Biehl, Charlotta Dorothea . In: Dansk Kvindebiografisk leksikon. kvinfo.dk
• Georg Albrecht Mai: The female characters in the dramatic work of Charlotte Dorothea Biehl. Studies on the form of comedy in Denmark in the 18th century . Dissertation, self-published. Kiel 1981.
• Cedergreen Bech (editor): Brev fra Dorothea . Politics publishing house, 1975, ISBN 87-567-2371-7 (Danish)

Web links

Commons : Dorothea Biehl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dorothea Biehl . In: Nordic women literature .
2. ^ Georg Albrecht Mai: The female characters in the dramatic work of Charlotte Dorothea Biehl. Studies on the form of comedy in Denmark in the 18th century . Dissertation, self-published, Kiel 1981. P. 76 f.
3. ↑ Bülow, Johan . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 3 : Brandt – Clavus . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1889, p. 291 (Danish, runeberg.org ).