Dorothea Fuhrken

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dorothea Fuhrken , née Haren , (* around 1722 in Neustadtgödens ; † February 20, 1775 in Neuchâtel ) was a German poet.

Life

Dorothea Fuhrken was a daughter of Wiembcke Haren, who ran a small business called “Kleinen Winkel Kräuterwaren”. The father belonged to the "minor burghers and merchants", also worked as a boatman and had knowledge of the construction of dikes and sluices. Her mother named Eberhardine Sophie Cadovius (* 1686 in Woquard ) was a daughter of the pastor Nicolaus Gorlef Cadovius.

Fuhrken spent childhood and youth in her birthplace and probably attended the “Statts School” there. As an Evangelical Lutheran student, she studied together with Mennonites and Reformed people in the only school in town. Pastor Günther Tieffenbruch, who was well known to her family, may have given her private lessons. The pastor owned a large library that Fuhrken probably used for further training. She received additional lessons in Latin, Greek and Hebrew from a "Studiosus".

In 1740 Fuhrken married the Oldenburg merchant Jacob Fuhrkeb, who came from the long-established Naucke (Nanco) Fuhrken merchant family. During her prime as a poet, she wanted to separate from her husband. For this she allegedly wrote a "supplication" in verse and sent it to Frederick the Great and was then able to divorce her husband. In 1754 she married the Knyphusener bailiff Anton Toepken in Asel . From 1761 he worked as a castle judge at the high counts castle and appeal court in Varel . In 1767/68 the couple moved to Neuchâtel. After her death in 1775, Fuhrken was buried in Varel. Anton Toepken lived until 1787 and was buried in Zetel .

Works

Fuhrken came from a simple East Frisian family and thus from circles in which communication was usually only in Low German. It is therefore noteworthy that she wrote her poems, which are probably not completely preserved, in good standard German. In 1802 the magazine Pallas published a comment that “at that time, among her acquaintances in East Friesland and on the border, she was a peculiarity of her gender and her area”.

Fuhrkens wrote her famous poems during her marriage to Jacob Fuhrken. There are five printed occasional poems, a poetic letter and a handwritten occasional poem. In addition, there is an incomplete “sample” of a funeral poem. Since she announced a volume of poetry, it can be assumed that she wrote more poems. The poems show that she saw herself as an individualistic, aspiring, dissenting, doubting to desperate person.

Honors

The German Society of Göttingen made Fuhrken an honorary member in 1750. The University of Göttingen awarded her the title of “ Kayserlich crowned poet ”, making her one of only a few German women to receive this award. Princess Wilhelmine (1678-1770) was crowned on January 28, 1751 in Varel Castle . On February 8, 1751, extensive reports about this event appeared in the Oldenburger Anzeiger and on April 15, 1751 in the “Göttingische Zeitung von Gelehrten Dinge”.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Fuhrken, Dorothea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haren, Dorothea (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadtgödens
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1775
Place of death Neuchâtel