Johanna Schopenhauer

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Johanna Schopenhauer around 1800
Signature Johanna Schopenhauer.JPG

Johanna Henriette Schopenhauer (born July 9, 1766 in Danzig , † April 16, 1838 in Jena ) was a German writer and salonnière . She was the mother of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the writer Adele Schopenhauer .

Life

Danzig

Parental home and adolescence

Birthplace of Johanna Schopenhauer, reconstruction

The father Christian Heinrich Trosiener was a merchant and councilor in Danzig, the mother Elisabeth was a daughter of the pharmacist Lehmann. Johanna was born in 1766 as their eldest daughter at Heilige-Geist-Gasse 81 (today ul. Św. Ducha 111). There is a reconstructed replica of the house where he was born .

Since 1769, the three-year-old attended the children's school ( École des jeunes dames ) of Marie Henriette Chodowiecki, mother of the engraver Daniel Chodowiecki . Initially also to learn “to sit still”. At the age of six, she received lessons in English, which was so unusual for a girl at that time that she was frequently asked about it. From 1773 she also received private lessons from the theologian Kuschel. The Church of England preacher Richard Jameson became her mentor and confidante.

In 1777, when she was ten, she expressed the wish to go to Daniel Chodowiecki in Berlin and learn to paint, which her father refused. In 1780 she frequented the Russian residence in Danzig, where she received painting lessons from the governor's wife.

Marriage and birth of son Arthur

At the age of 18, Johanna married the 37-year-old merchant Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer in Danzig on May 16, 1785 in the small church of All God's Angels . The marriage was not wanted by her and was concluded at the request of the parents and the husband. It was a conventional toe that was quite common at the time . For Johanna it meant a high social status and offered her the possibility of a good cultural education. The marriage was unsatisfactory for both of them, as she later repeatedly discussed in her literary writings.

In 1787 they both undertook an extensive journey through Western Europe, to Bad Pyrmont, France and England. According to the husband's wish, Johanna was to give birth there so that it could become a citizen of this free country.

The son Arthur was born on February 22nd, 1788 in Danzig.

In 1793 the family left the Free City of Danzig when it was imminent to be conquered by Prussian troops, as Heinrich Floris, as a republican-minded liberal, rejected their rule in the city.

Hamburg

New wall frame, across the street

The family moved to Hamburg , first to the old town (Neuer Weg 76), then in 1796 to an area of ​​merchants and bankers in Neuer Wandrahm 92 . The daughter Adele was born there in 1797 .

In the last few years of his life, her husband suffered from depression , irritability and mental confusion. On April 20, 1805, he fell out of the window of a attic and died, probably as a suicide. The son Arthur later reproached the mother for having been complicit in his death.

The young widow sold the house and rented an apartment with her children at Kohlhöfen 29, from where she was preparing to move to Weimar . Like each of her two children, she had inherited a third of his fortune and thereby gained financial independence.

The Weimar years

Johanna Schopenhauer with her daughter Adele, 1806, painted by Caroline Bardua
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, painted around 1808/1809 by Gerhard von Kügelgen
Memorial plaque for Johanna Schopenhauer's literary salon

At the age of 39, she moved to Weimar in 1806 with her daughter Adele, who was born in 1797 . They did not come at the best time, because Napoleonic troops invaded the small duchy on their way to the Prussian capital Berlin, where they got stuck until they confronted Prussia in October in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt . The Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach was allied with Prussia and Russia against Napoleon. As is well known, Prussia lost this battle, so that a difficult time began for Weimar. Johanna actively supported the people of Weimar, who had to suffer from French billeting, and helped them with the care of the wounded. This gave her a good reputation in Weimar, so that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe later said that the events in Weimar at the time of the battle of Jena and Auerstedt were her baptism of fire .

In the period that followed, Johanna began her weekly tea parties in the literary salon , which quickly became one of the focal points of cultural life. Goethe was a regular guest here and there was such close contact between him and the Schopenhauers that daughter Adele called Goethe “father” all her life.

In general, Johanna played an important role for Goethe in introducing Christiane Vulpius , Goethe's long-time lover and mother of his son August, to Weimar society. Goethe married Christiane in October 1806 at the time of the French occupation. Johanna was the first upper class woman who opened the doors to her tea parties for Christiane. Johanna broke the social spell that had existed until then, for which Goethe was very grateful. On October 24, 1806, Johanna Schopenhauer wrote to her son Arthur from Weimar:

“On Sunday, Goethe got married to his old beloved Vulpius, the mother of his son ... I received her as if I didn't know who she was before. I think if Goethe gives her his name, we can give her a cup of tea. I saw clearly how pleased he was with my demeanor. There were still a few women with me who were formal and stiff at first and then followed my example ... She was indeed very embarrassed, but I soon helped her through. In my situation and with the respect and love that I have earned here in a short time, I can make her social life a lot easier. Goethe wishes it and has confidence in me, and I will certainly deserve it. Tomorrow I want to make my return visit. "

Disparaging remarks by women about Christiane Vulpius prove their conceit and make Goethe's gratitude towards Johanna understandable: Charlotte von Schiller , for example, described Vulpius as “a round nothing” and Bettina von Arnim later called Vulpius “a blood sausage that turned out great”. Goethe then broke off contact with Bettina von Arnim and her husband and later wrote, "I'm very happy that I'm rid of the madmen."

A close confidante of Johanna Schopenhauer during the first years in Weimar became the aesthetician and art scholar Carl Ludwig Fernow , a connoisseur of Italian art and literature, who had lived in Rome for almost ten years and, through Goethe's influence, had become professor of aesthetics in Jena in 1802. In 1804 he became the librarian of the Duchess Anna Amalia in Weimar. With his knowledge of art and literature, Fernow was the ideal conversation partner for Johanna. However, Fernow soon fell ill, and Johanna took him into her house for care in 1807, where he died in December 1808. After Fernow's death, Johanna became friends with a friend of Fernow, the painter Gerhard von Kügelgen . In the following time she wrote a biography of Carl Ludwig Fernow, which appeared in 1810. Originally only intended to pay off Fernow's debts, the success of the book encouraged Johanna to continue her writing. Initially mainly travelogues followed, but after 1819 the focus shifted to novels and writings on art-historical topics. Johanna Schopenhauer's literary popularity was so great after nine years that her son Arthur only briefly commented on his mother in his résumé, which he submitted to the Berlin University at the end of 1819, that she was now "well known" for her writings.

In 1813, Johanna Schopenhauer made friends with Georg Friedrich von Gerstenbergk, a very young member of the government, called Müller-Gerstenbergk , who first moved into the house and then into Johanna's apartment. Her son Arthur did not agree with this relationship at all, so it came to a conflict between mother and son. In May 1814 Arthur finally demanded that Johanna should do without the house friend, but she was not ready to do so. There was a break between mother and son, Arthur moved to Dresden, where he spent the next few years composing his main work The world as will and idea . Johanna stayed behind in Weimar with her daughter Adele and her house friend. After this falling out, Johanna and Arthur were never to meet again in person.

In 1818 Johanna went on a trip to Switzerland with her daughter Adele and family friend Gerstenbergk. In 1819 the trading house Abraham Ludwig Muhl & Co., in which she had invested her entire fortune, ran into financial difficulties. In the subsequent comparison, mother and daughter Schopenhauer lost most of their fortune. Son Arthur, who had previously had his share of his father's inheritance paid off and had only left a third of his fortune with Muhl, offered her financial support, which she refused. Whether she didn't want to lie on her son's pocket or whether her pride stood in her way remains an open question. In any case, Johanna Schopenhauer's will from 1830 proves the poor financial situation in the years after 1819, which resulted from the loss of assets. Her writing became an important source of income. She published an extensive work of travel stories, novels and short stories. The writer Karl von Holtei was one of her frequent guests around 1828 . Together with the writers Sophie von La Roche , Sophie Mereau and Karoline Auguste Fischer , who lived at the same time , she was one of the first well-known authors to earn a living by writing. However, the money was probably only enough for a comparatively modest lifestyle, as can be seen in a letter from Adele to brother Arthur in 1836. Among other things, the word "false wealth" is used.

Bonn and Jena

Johanna Schopenhauer's grave in the Johannisfriedhof in Jena

Since the conditions in Weimar, as can be seen from a letter from Adele, were becoming more and more unfavorable for the Schopenhauers, Johanna agreed, at her daughter's insistence, to move to Bonn. The project was only partially successful at the beginning. Because of the high rents in Bonn, they first moved to Unkel am Rhein , where a wealthy Bonn friend Adeles owned a country house, and only spent the winter months in Bonn until they moved there all year round in 1832. Johanna's health deteriorated, as a result of which her writing activity suffered and her financial situation deteriorated further.

In 1837 her material circumstances became so difficult that she wrote a letter to Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar and described her situation to him. Karl Friedrich and especially his wife, the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna , were known for their patronage, and so the Grand Duke granted Johanna a small honorary pension and invited her to come to Jena. Johanna Schopenhauer then moved with daughter Adele from Bonn to Jena in 1837, where she died in 1838. She was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Jena.

Her novels very much reflect her feelings in her past tyrannical marriage. The typical Johanna Schopenhauer heroine tragically loses her true love and then, for incomprehensible reasons, comes to terms with an unsatisfactory marriage, which was already criticized by contemporary critics. She has no children because the mother-child relationship is irrelevant to the big theme of her work.

Quote

"I've never heard of two geniuses in one family!"

Johanna Schopenhauer's reply to Goethe's prophecy that her son Arthur Schopenhauer will one day become world-famous.

plant

  • Carl Ludwig Fernow's life . Tübingen 1810. ( Google digitized version ) ( pdf )
  • Memories from a trip in 1803, 1804 and 1805 , 3 volumes. Rudolstadt 1813–1817 ( digital edition at the Göttingen digitization center )
  • Novellas, strange and own . Rudolstadt 1816.
  • Journey through England and Scotland . Leipzig 1818. Reprint: Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-941482-47-0 .
  • Excursion to the Rhine and its immediate surroundings in the summer of the first peaceful year . Leipzig 1818 ( online  - Internet Archive ).
  • Gabriele. A novel , 3 volumes. Leipzig 1819-1820.
  • Johann van Eyck and his successors , 2 volumes; Frankfurt am Main 1822 ( Vol. 1 online  - Internet Archive , Vol. 2 online  - Internet Archive ).
  • The aunt. A novel , 2 volumes. Frankfurt am Main 1823.
  • Stories , 8 volumes. Frankfurt am Main 1825–1828.
  • Sidonia. A novel , 3 volumes. Frankfurt am Main 1827-1828.
  • Novellas , 2 volumes. Frankfurt am Main 1830.
  • Excursion to the Lower Rhine , 2 volumes. Leipzig 1831.
  • All writings , 24 volumes. Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main 1830/1831.
    • Volumes 1, 2: Carl Ludwig Fernow's life .
    • Volume 3: Escape to the Rhine
    • Volumes 4, 5: Johann van Eyck and his successors .
    • Volume 6: The four seasons
    • Volumes 7–9: Gabriele .
    • Volumes 10-12: Sidonia .
    • Volumes 13, 14: The Aunt .
    • Volumes 15, 16: Journey through England and Scotland .
    • Volumes 17, 18: Journey through southern France .
    • Volume 19: Josebeth; The fountain guests; The bouquet .
    • Volume 20: The Balcony; Hatred and love .
    • Volume 21: The Favorite; The trip to Flanders; Poor Margareth .
    • Volume 22: Leontine and Natalie; Anton Solario, the plumber .
    • Volume 23: Claire; The snow .
    • Volume 24: The Friends; My great-aunt .
  • New novellas . Frankfurt am Main 1836.
  • The trip to Italy . Frankfurt am Main 1836.
  • Richard Wood . 2 volumes. Leipzig 1837.
  • Estate . 2 volumes, ed. by Adele Schopenhauer, Westermann, Braunschweig 1939 ( online  - Internet Archive ); Reprint: youth life & hiking pictures . Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2009 and ISBN 978-3-86741-180-6 and ISBN 978-3-86741-181-3 .
  • Letters to Karl von Holtei . Leipzig 1870.

Current issues

  • Excursion to the Rhine and its immediate surroundings. In the summer of the first peaceful year . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1830. New edition: Belser, Stuttgart 1988; ISBN 3-628-44658-9 .
  • Trip to England ; ed. by Konrad Paul. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1973.

literature

  • Ulrike Bergmann: Johanna Schopenhauer. “Live and be as happy as you can.” Reclam, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-379-00787-0
  • Ulrike Bergmann:  Schopenhauer, Johanna Henriette, née Trosiener. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 470 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Laura Frost : Johanna Schopenhauer. A woman's life from the classical era . Berlin 1905
  • Anke Gilleir: Johanna Schopenhauer and the Weimar Classic. Reflections on the self-positioning of female writing . Germanistic texts and studies, 64. Olms, Hildesheim 2000 ISBN 3-487-11110-1
  • Hans J. Hahn: Johanna Schopenhauer's ' Englandkunde ' , in: Christina Ujma (ed.): Ways to Modernity. Travel literature by writers from the Vormärz. Bielefeld, 2009 ISBN 978-3-89528-728-2 , pp. 135-146
  • Friedrich Kummer:  Schopenhauer, Johanna . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 346-349.
  • Carola Stern : Everything I ask in the world. The life of Johanna Schopenhauer . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-462-03319-0 .
  • Heide Schulz: Advent in Weimar - Jena around 1800, classic and romantic . Hyperion, Simbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-89914-041-5 , therein Chap. 8f., Pp. 63-74
  • Emmy Wolff: The women of Weimar and their literature. The second circle: Johanna Schopenhauer and the daily magazines, in this., Ed .: Generations of women in pictures. Herbig, Berlin 1928, pp. 39–42 (with one picture)

Web links

Commons : Johanna Schopenhauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Johanna Schopenhauer  - Quotes
Wikisource: Johanna Schopenhauer  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ulrike Bergmann:  Schopenhauer, Johanna Henriette, née Trosiener. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 470 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Christian Heinrich Trosiener Gedanopedia, with portraits of the parents (Polish)
  3. ↑ Picture of the birthplace before 1945  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . A turtle can be clearly seen on the top of the house, which is why the house is also called the Turtle House .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de  
  4. ↑ The depiction of her youth goes back exclusively to her memories, which she wrote down in 1837, in an inheritance . 2 volumes, Westermann, Braunschweig 1939 ( digital copies  - Internet Archive ); Reprint: youth life & hiking pictures . European university publisher, Bremen 2009
  5. ↑ a b Johanna Schopenhauer biography at zeno.org, after Johanna Schopenhauer journey through England and Scotland . European University Press, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-941482-47-0 . P. 315 (reprint from 1818 with appendix)
  6. ↑ Domietta Seeliger:  Schopenhauer, Adele. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 473 f. ( Digitized version ).
  7. ^ Goethe and Christiane Vulpius: Meinebibliothek.de
  8. ↑ Johanna Schopenhauer biography at: zeno.org
  9. ↑ augias.net
  10. ↑ Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 281.
  11. ↑ She was loved and revered by the Weimar people as the "angel of the poor, sick and orphans".
  12. ^ Quotation from Johanna Schopenhauer at de.wikiquote.org
personal data
SURNAME Schopenhauer, Johanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schopenhauer, Johanna Henriette (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION German writer and salonier
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1838
PLACE OF DEATH Jena