Catharina Elisabeth Goethe

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Catharina Elisabeth Goethe
Portrait of Georg Oswald May (1776)
Goethe family in shepherd's costume, Catharina Elisabeth far left ( Johann Conrad Seekatz 1762)
Monument to Catharina Elisabeth Goethe in the Frankfurt Palm Garden
Grave at St. Peter's Church

Catharina Elisabeth Goethe (born February 19, 1731 in Frankfurt am Main ; † September 13, 1808 there ; born Textor) was the mother of Johann Wolfgang Goethe . She was also known by her nickname Mrs. Aja and as Mrs. Rat under the title of her husband.

Life

She was the eldest daughter of Johann Wolfgang Textor (1693–1771) and his wife Anna Margaretha Lindheimer (1711–1783), daughter of the lawyer Cornelius Lindheimer (1671–1722). The Textors ( Latinized from Weber ) came from the Hohenlohe region and had been based in Frankfurt for two generations. They were successful lawyers; Johann Wolfgang Textor had, although it was not to the long-established patrician families belonged career as a councilor , alderman and mayor made. Appointed a real imperial council in 1743 , in 1747 he became an imperial, city and court school . This was the highest official post the city had to offer. The city school was head of the city's judiciary for life.

As was customary at the time, his daughter did not receive a comprehensive education, but was appropriately married at an early age. On August 20, 1748, at the age of 17, Catharina Elisabeth married in the Katharinenkirche - married by Johann Philipp Fresenius  - the then 38-year-old real imperial councilor Johann Caspar Goethe . The eldest son, Johann Wolfgang, whom she called her "Hätschelhans", was born on August 28, 1749. In correspondence with Goethe's mother, the Duchess Anna Amalia had constantly adopted this designation. He was followed by six other children, of whom only Cornelia, born in 1750, reached adulthood.

Catharina Elisabeth Goethe is described as a witty and warm-hearted woman. In the more than 400 letters she received, she was funny and self-confident. She cultivated numerous friendships, for example with Bettina von Arnim , and was the center of a hospitable household. The Counts Friedrich and Leopold zu Stolberg called her Frau Aja or Mother Aja, after the mother of the four Haimons children from the folk book of the same name . This nickname stayed with her all her life.

All the sources emphasize their ability to always get the best out of life. Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote about his mother:

From my father I have the stature, the
serious leadership of life,
from my mother the cheerful nature
and desire to make fables.

In 1785 she wrote to her friend Charlotte von Stein : "It is true that I have the grace of God that not a single soul has left me in displeasure - I also know her class, age and gender - I love people very much."

It is said of her death that she took care of every detail for her own funeral feast while she was still on her deathbed. She replied to a maid who brought the invitation to a party: "Just tell the councilor cannot come, she must always die!"

But Catharina Elisabeth's loneliness is also passed down and manifests itself in her famous letter of August 28, 1808 to her young friend Bettina Brentano . In her letters to her own family, on the other hand, she appears as “always good mother, mother-in-law, grandmother in roles”.

She was buried in the family grave of the Textors in the Peterskirchhof . Her grave is now in the school yard of the Liebfrauenschule. On the 100th anniversary of her death, women from Frankfurt donated a marble memorial in the Palmengarten , which shows her in an idealized form as a loving mother with her little son Johann Wolfgang.

In 1876 Frankfurt's first secondary school for girls was named Elisabethenschule in her honor .

literature

  • Ernst Beutler : Goethe - letters from the parental home. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1960 (reissued in 1999 in an expanded form).
  • Eva Demski : "Pleased as a goddess" - Frau Rat Goethe. In: Hans Sarkowicz (ed.): The great Frankfurters. 2nd Edition. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-458-16561-4 , pp. 69-77.
  • Jürgen Fackert (Ed.): Catharina Elisabetha Goethe: Letters to her son Johann Wolfgang, to Christiane and August von Goethe ( Reclams Universal Library . Volume 2786/2789). Reclam, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-15-002786-1 .
  • Wilhelm Flitner :  Goethe, Catharina Elisabeth, nee Textor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 545 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Richard Friedenthal : Goethe - his life and his time. German paperback publishing house, Munich 1980.
  • Dagmar von Gersdorff : Goethe's mother (= Insel-Taschenbuch. Volume 2925). 5th edition. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-458-34625-8 .
  • Doris Hopp, Wolfgang Bunzel: Catharina Elisabeth Goethe. With a contribution by Ulrike Prokop. Free German Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum, Frankfurt am Main 2008.
  • Ulrike Prokop : The friendship between Katharina Elisabeth Goethe and Bettina Brentano - aspects of female tradition. In: Lectures from the Frankfurt women's school. Facets of feminist theory building. Material volume 2. Ed .: Association of Social Science Research and Education for Women - SFBF e. V. Self-published, Frankfurt am Main 1987, DNB 901179582 .

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Catharina Elisabeth Goethe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Katharina Elisabeth Goethe  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Brandes : Goethe . 4th edition. Erich Reiss, Berlin 1922, p. 180 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Sabine Appel : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A portrait. Köln-Weimar-Wien 2009, p. 134 ( preview in Google book search).
  3. ^ Nicolas Boyle: Goethe. The Poet and the Age. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-282981-5 , p. 294 ( preview in Google book search).
  4. ^ Rainer M. Holm-Hadulla : Passion. Goethe's way to creativity. A psychobiography. 3. Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-40669-4 , p. 44, urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2019102722331326196751 ( preview in Google book search).
  5. ↑ Ulrike Prokop : The Illusion of the Great Couple. Volume 1: Female lifestyles in the German educated middle class. 1750-1770. Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-596-27397-8 , p. 261: “When reading Catharina's letter, we feel the loneliness. The loneliness is unmistakable, as is the hint of fear of being forgotten. "
  6. ↑ Ulrike Prokop: The Illusion of the Great Couple. Volume 1. Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-596-27397-8 , p. 261 f.
personal data
SURNAME Goethe, Catharina Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Textor, Catharina Elisabeth (maiden name); Mrs. Aja (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mother of Johann Wolfgang Goethe
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1808
Place of death Frankfurt am Main