Elisa von der Recke
Elisabeth Charlotte Constanzia von der Recke (born May 20, 1754 in Schönberg, Courland (Latvian: Skaistkalne, today Bauska parish , Latvia ); † April 13, 1833 in Dresden ) was a Baltic German poet, writer and hymn poet .
Life
Elisa von der Recke was born as the daughter of Count Friedrich von Medem and his wife Louise Dorothea von Korff . After the early death of her mother, Elisa received only a poor education in her grandmother's house. This forbade her to read books. After her father married again in 1767, Elisa lived again in his house, where her stepmother Agnes Elisabeth von Brukken (1718–1784) tried to give her a certain general education.
In 1771 she married the chamberlain Georg Magnus von der Recke in Neuchâtel for reasons of class. The marriage toe was divorced in 1781. She worked as a diplomat for her half-sister, the Duchess Dorothea of Courland . In 1787 von der Reckes wrote news of Cagliostro's notorious stay in Mitau in 1779 and his magical operations , which made them known throughout Europe in one fell swoop. Von der Recke relentlessly reckoned with Cagliostro's amorous advances towards her - while at the same time portraying his impostorful activities. In recognition of this work, Tsarina Katharina the Great turned her lifelong income from the domain estate Pfalzgrafen bei Mitau. This was financially independent of the Recke.
During her life she traveled Europe, in particular to meet the great minds of the time - e. B. Friedrich Nicolai , Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim , Matthias Claudius , Johann Bernhard Basedow , Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Anton Graff , Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein , Immanuel Kant , Johann Georg Hamann , the actor Friedrich Ludwig Schröder , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller - to get to know and to intensify these contacts through long-term correspondence. She maintained friendly relations with the royal courts of Anhalt-Dessau and Augustenburg, which were considered enlightened, and with the Counts of Stolberg and had access to the royal courts in Berlin and Warsaw.
From 1798 she lived almost exclusively in Dresden, from 1804 together with her friend Christoph August Tiedge . She was friends with the Körner family, in which she took over the sponsorship for Theodor , with Anton Graff , August Gottlieb Meißner and many well-known contemporaries throughout Germany as well as in Poland and the Baltic States. At the gatherings there was a religiously sensitive tone, chorales were sung by Johann Gottlieb Naumann .
Elisa von der Recke looked after a total of 13 foster daughters. She is buried in the Inner Neustädter Friedhof in Dresden next to her long-time friend Christoph August Tiedge.
Works
Her work consists mainly of pietistic - sensitive poems, diaries and memoirs. The Evangelical Lutheran hymn book for worship in the city and the Duchy of Magdeburg from 1805 contains 16 hymns written by her.
Selection:
- News of the notorious Cagliostro stay in Mitau in 1779 and its magical operations . Berlin 1787 ( digitized version ). Educational pamphlet about Alessandro Cagliostro , mostly regarded as her main work.
- Johann Lorenz Blessig (Ed.): Life of Count Johann Friedrich von Medem and his correspondence mainly with the Chamberlain von der Recke, his sister , 1792 ( digitized version )
- Families = scenes or developments on the Masquenballe , published around 1794, 1826 ( digitized version )
- About Naumann, the good person and great artist , article in the New German Mercury , 1803
Posthumous editions
- Spiritual songs, prayers and religious reflections . Leipzig 1833; new edition: Teubner, Leipzig 1841.
- Notes and letters from her youth , ed. by Paul Rachel. Volume 1. Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1900.
- Diaries and letters from her wandering years , ed. by Paul Rachel. Volume 2. Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1902.
- Stories from the heart of a Baltic noblewoman. Memories and Letters , ed. by Heinrich Conrad. Lutz, Stuttgart 1918 ( digitized version ).
- Diaries and personal reports , ed. by Christiane Träger. Köhler and Amelang, Leipzig, and Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30196-7 .
See also
literature
- Julius von Eckardt : Recke, Elisa Baronin von der . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 502 f.
- Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 1052-1058 .
- Adelheid Müller: "The Chamberlain von Recke is going to pass Berlin and wishes to know you" or: Prussians are people . In: Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile (Ed.): European views. Brandenburg-Prussia around 1800 in the perception of European travelers and immigrants (= Enlightenment and Europe. Series of publications by the Research Center European Enlightenment eV Volume 17 ). BWV - Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8305-0562-4 , p. 113-140 .
- Adelheid Müller: Longing for Knowledge: Friederike Brun, Elisa von der Recke and the ancient world around 1800 . Reimer, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-496-01471-3 (Dissertation Berlin, Free University, 2010).
- Valérie Leyh, Adelheid Müller, Vera Viehöver (eds.): Elisa von der Recke: Enlightenment contexts and lifeworld perspectives (= Renate Stauf [ed.]: Germanic-Romance monthly . Supplement 90). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6904-0 .
- Johann Friedrich von Recke , Carl Eduard Napiersky : General writers and scholars lexicon of the provinces of Livonia, Esthland and Courland . Volume 5: Supplements, Part 2. Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen and son, Mitau 1861, p. 135f. (Bibliographical supplements to Volume 3, p. 440, of the same work; digitized version )
- Gertrud Maria Rösch: Recke, Charlotte Elisa Constantia von der, née von Medem. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 235 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Sophie Schwarz: Elise von der Recke's travels through Germany 1784–86 . 1786 ( digitized version )
- Gerhart Söhn: Women of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Grupello, Düsseldorf 1998, pp. 64-71
Web links
- Literature by and about Elisa von der Recke in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Elisa von der Recke in the German Digital Library
- Article in Stadtwiki Dresden about Elisa von der Recke
- Works by Elisa von der Recke in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Elisa von der Recke in the Internet Archive
- Carola Hilmes, "Now I am negatively happy". The autobiographical writings and travel diaries of Elisa von der Reckes (PDF; 181 kB)
- The estate is in the Bavarian State Library
- Boris Hoge-Benteler: Letter from Elisa von der Reckes to Wilhelmine von Sagan, Pauline von Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Johanna von Acerenza, May 6, 1814 .
- Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Elisa von der Recke. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
- https://www.bbkl.de/public/index.php/frontend/lexicon/R/Re/recke-elisabeth-charlotte-constanzia-von-der-81432
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elisa von der Recke: Notes and letters from her youth, edited by Paul Rachel, 2nd edition 1902, vol. 1, p. 213.
- ↑ The brothers Christian zu Stolberg-Stolberg and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg were Freemasons and founding members of the Göttingen Hainbund .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Recke, Elisa von der |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Recke, Elisabeth Charlotte Constanzia from the; Recke, Elise von der |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German poet and writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1754 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Schoenberg, Courland |
DATE OF DEATH | April 13, 1833 |
Place of death | Dresden |