Christine Reinhard

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Christina (Christine) Friederica Reinhard , née Reimarus, (* February 22, 1771 in Hamburg , † February 19, 1815 in Paris ) was the wife of Karl Friedrich Reinhard and a chronicler .

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Christine Reimarus was a daughter of Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and his second wife Sophie . Her parents, who nicknamed her “Stinchen”, attached great importance to a comprehensive education for their daughters. In the family home on the Fuhlentwiete in Hamburg, a regular “the table” took place, which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Joachim Heinrich Campe also attended and which Sophie and her step-sister Hannchen, who was ten years older, were present as small children. The conversations of the enlightened people, who regarded civil equality and tolerance as important and were optimistic about being able to make progress, had a lasting impact on them. Together with her parents, she was euphoric about the French Revolution , which she saw as a new era of emancipation and freedom.

Christine Reimarus met Karl Friedrich Reinhard during a meeting in her parents' house in 1795. Reinhard had lived in Paris as a diplomat for a long time and stayed in Hamburg as the French envoy. Both married in October 1796. Christina Reinhard loved her husband because of his personality, but especially because of his political ideas, to which she completely agreed. Over the next two decades, she traveled with her husband on his diplomatic trips through most of Europe. In doing so, she herself fulfilled important representative official duties. In 1797, a few months after the birth of her first son, she accompanied her husband on his journey as the French envoy to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . During her time in Florence , odes and songs of praise were written about her. In 1799, rising anti-French forces forced Christine Reinhard and her husband, who had recently taken over the office of head of government, to flee at night. During the crossing to Toulon on July 23, 1799, the exhausted son died, who was buried in the sea in the presence of his mother.

The couple went to Paris, where Karl Friedrich Reinhard took over the post of transitional foreign minister in July 1799, which he held until November 7th of the same year. Christine Reinhard documented the political successes, the reign and wars of Napoléon Bonaparte . She accompanied her husband to Switzerland as a diplomat on behalf of the French emperor in 1800 and returned to Hamburg in 1802. Here she had a daughter and a son. In 1806 the family traveled to the Principality of Moldova and a year later fled to France via Russia. The couple lived in Kassel from 1808 to 1813 . In the royal seat of the Kingdom of Westphalia they took on joint diplomatic tasks for the last time.

After the failed Russian campaign and the withdrawal of French troops, Christine and Karl Friedrich Reinhard fled to Paris in November 1813. This is where Christine Reinhard, whom Johann Wolfgang Goethe assessed as a good mother, “well-read, politically and enthusiastically”, died after a strong fever. Her burial took place on February 22, 1815 in the Père Lachaise cemetery .

Reinhard's granddaughter Marie Maximilienne Antoinette Louise von Wimpffen published Christine Reinhard's extensive letters in French for printing 85 years after her death. Une femme de diplomate. Lettres de madame Reinhard à sa mère 1798–1815 is still considered an impressive read.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Reinhard, Christine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reinhard, Christine Friederica; Reinhard, Christina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomatic wife and chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1815
Place of death Paris