Elisabeth of Plotho

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Elisabeth Freiin und Edle von Plotho (born October 26, 1853 in Zorien , † February 4, 1952 in Lindau (Bodensee) ), married Elisabeth (Baroness) von Ardenne , was the model for Theodor Fontane's fictional character Effi Briest , who published the same name in 1894 Society novel represents the protagonist. Friedrich Spielhagen created another literary processing of the material with the novel "Zum Zeitvertreib".

Life

Elisabeth Freiin von Plotho was born in 1853 as the youngest of five children of the landlord Felix von Plotho (1822–1864) on Gut Zorien near Parey on the Elbe. Born from Welling. After her father's death, "Else", as she was soon called, grew up very casually until she was fifteen. As a teenager, she got to know the five years her senior Rittmeister Armand Léon von Ardenne (1848-1919), who served with the Zieten Hussars in Rathenow and often came to Gut Zorien with his comrades. Von Ardenne was musically educated and gave small concerts to which Elisabeth was usually summoned by her mother. Elisabeth is said to have initially shown little interest in the young man and rejected his first marriage proposal.

Their indifferent attitude changed during the Franco-Prussian War , in the course of which Ardenne was wounded. Else von Plotho and Léon von Ardenne got engaged on February 7, 1871. After a two-year engagement period, the 19-year-old and the 24-year-old married on January 1, 1873 in Zorien. After the marriage, the couple moved to the Lützowufer near the Berlin Zoological Garden .

In the summer of 1881 the couple settled in Düsseldorf because Ardenne had been transferred to the Düsseldorf Hussars . There Elisabeth and her husband made connections to the artists' association Malkasten , which also included the magistrate Emil Hartwich (1843–1886), who was considered a talented painter. Hartwich, whose marriage was unhappy, made friends with Elisabeth, who was ten years his junior, with whom he shared many similarities, such as a passion for the theater, and with whose husband he was very close. They maintained an intensive correspondence that did not break off when Ardenne was transferred back to the War Ministry in Berlin on October 1, 1884, taking his wife and their two children with them.

Hartwich occasionally paid his respects to the family in Berlin. During one of his visits in the summer of 1886 - Ardenne was in the process of maneuvering at the time - Hartwich and Elisabeth decided to divorce their respective spouses and to marry each other. Over time, however, Ardenne became suspicious and obtained the lively correspondence of the secret lovers from Elisabeth's cassette. Ardenne filed for divorce and used the letters as evidence. He demanded satisfaction from Hartwich and dueled with him on November 27, 1886, which had been discussed a lot in advance by the newspapers. Hartwich suffered serious injuries and is said to have asked his former friend for forgiveness. Four days after the duel he succumbed to his injury on December 1, 1886. Armand von Ardenne was sentenced to two years of imprisonment; however, the term was later reduced to eighteen days.

Elisabeth and Armand von Ardenne's marriage was divorced on March 15, 1887, and the children were given to their father. After the divorce, Elisabeth turned to nursing in Eckwälden and looked after needy and sick people. Her name has been removed from family books and chronicles, if only temporarily. In 1904, her daughter Margot was the first to seek contact with her mother again, while Elisabeth's son Egmont did not meet his mother again until 1909. So it was only after twenty years that they saw their children again. Von Ardenne died at the age of 71 in 1919 as a retired lieutenant general and division commander in Berlin.

Grave of Elisabeth von Plotho
( grave site )
Gravestone of Elisabeth von Plotho, inscription: Elisabeth Baronin von Ardenne, geb. Baroness and Noble von Plotho, b. October 26, 1853, died February 5, 1952, Rev. Joh. 14,13

After the divorce, Elisabeth von Ardenne learned and practiced the profession of nurse. In Lindau on Lake Constance she spent the last third of her life (1918–1952), together with the wealthy factory owner's daughter Daisy Weyersberg (1878–1971), who was not her mentally ill patient, as was previously claimed in her biographies, but her companion.

Elisabeth von Ardenne died in 1952 at the age of 98 in Lindau on Lake Constance. She received an honorary grave of the city of Berlin in the south-west cemetery Stahnsdorf just outside Berlin south of the Teltow Canal . Her tombstone quotes Revelation of John 14:13 as a motto : “And I heard a voice calling out from heaven: Write! Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on; yes, says the Spirit, let them rest from their toil; because their works accompany them. "

Elisabeth von Ardenne was the grandmother of the physicist Manfred von Ardenne . Her grandson Ekkehard was in the 9th Infantry Regiment in Potsdam in 1938/39 with the rank of first lieutenant of the company commander of the later Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker .

filming

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Else in Lindau, in: Robert Rauh: Fontanes Frauen, be.bra verlag, Berlin 2018, pp. 57–70.
  2. ↑ Richard von Weizsäcker: Four times. Memories, Berlin 1997, p. 76.
personal data
SURNAME Plotho, Elisabeth von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ardenne, Elisabeth of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German woman, role model for Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Break
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1952
Place of death Lindau (Lake Constance)