Ludovica of the Bordes
Ludovica Freifrau von des Bordes (born January 10, 1787 in Frankfurt am Main , † November 19, 1854 in Würzburg ) was the eighth child of the Frankfurt merchant Peter Anton Brentano (from the line of Brentano di Tremezzo) and his second wife Maximiliane von La Roche .
She was born and baptized as Maria Ludovica Katharina Brentano of La Roche . Ludovica usually called herself Lulu and was most recently the mistress of Wasserlos Castle near Alzenau .
Life
Ludovica Brentano was born the fourteenth child of Peter Anton Brentano . She was the eighth child of her mother, Maximiliane von La Roche , who was admired by the young Goethe . Since her father was married three times, she had a total of eleven biological siblings and eight half-siblings.
She lost her mother at the age of six and her father at the age of ten and became an orphan. Along with her sisters Bettina , Gunda and Meline she entered the convent of the Ursulines of Fritzlar , where she received a strict upbringing and a befitting education.
On July 22, 1805, at the age of 18, she married the banker Carl Jordis, a Frankfurt citizen whose ancestors came from Neuss and Krefeld / Linn under the name Jordans. During the Napoleonic Wars and turmoil, Jordis acted very skillfully and became the court banker for King Jerome , Napoleon's youngest brother , in Kassel . Lulu took refuge in cleaning and consumption. Jordis set up trading houses in Cassel and Paris and bought Schönfeld Castle near Cassel, where masked balls and receptions were now held. In February 1809 King Jerome visited the castle and immediately bought it from Jordis. For the sale of this property, among other things, King Jerome raised the Jordis to the nobility. Since then he has carried the title Carl von Jordis (also: Carl von Jordans). The marriage was not a happy one because Jordis was not very strict about marital fidelity. In 1812, Carl von Jordis and Lulu moved to Paris. Lulu had a drawing room here. She was rich and beautiful, but also sociable and witty. As a Catholic, she contemplates divorce, which only came about in 1824 through a dispensation from the Pope in Rome. After the divorce, von Jordis lived in Mainz , then in Berlin .
In 1827 Lulu married her second husband, Richard Peter von Rosier des Bordes from Brussels. Ludovica had no children of her own, but had an adopted daughter, Maria Julia Magdalena, called Meline (* July 22, 1817), whom Lulu adopted in 1838. Des Bordes died in Paris in 1831 . As a widow, Lulu retired to the castle in Wasserlos near Alzenau , which she had bought on February 22, 1845. There she moved into the castle with daughter Meline, son-in-law Moritz Graf zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda and their three grandchildren.
During this time she also kept in close contact with her brothers in Frankfurt, Clemens Brentano and Georg Brentano . Lulu supported Georg financially and mentally in his project with the creation of a landscape park, today's Brentanopark in Rödelheim . In addition, she worked as a patron in the small but affluent Catholic community of Frankfurt , which was at the time Protestant , by financing a Catholic community in Rödelheim including a pastor. She also bought a house, set up a school for 60 Catholic children and appointed a teacher.
Like her brother Clemens Brentano , Ludovica also wrote some fairy tales, children's songs and spiritual songs, which were also published as a book. She also supported the Brothers Grimm financially and enriched their book Children's and Household Tales with a self-composed contribution.
During a stay in Würzburg, Ludovica fell ill with an inflammation of the stomach. She died of pleurisy on November 19, 1854 at half past ten in Würzburg in the second home of the son-in-law's family on Hofstrasse . She was buried in the Brentano family crypt in the old town cemetery in Aschaffenburg .
In her honor a memorial was erected in Wasserlos in March 2002. It has the shape of a round tower, in which Lulu looks out of an open lattice window and recites something from her songbook to the two children standing below.
Foundation, endowment
Ludovica des Bordes established a foundation in her name in the amount of 2000 guilders to build a new church in Wasserlos. She donated the same amount for the benefit of the poor in the community, which was, however, almost worthless due to the inflation in 1923 and thus dissolved.
The castle is now owned by the Aschaffenburg district and has been converted into the Wasserlos district hospital .
Works
- Children's songs , G. Joseph Manz, Regensburg, 1853.
- Children's songs , (larger edition), G. Joseph Manz, Regensburg, 1854.
- Spiritual songs , G. Joseph Manz, Regensburg, 1853.
literature
- Adalbert Elschenbroich: Bordes, Ludovika Katharina Maria Freifrau des, née Brentano. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 461 f. ( Digitized version ).
- City of Alzenau (ed.): Alzenauer contributions to local history. Volume 1, Ludovica Freifrau von des Bordes, née Brentano von La Roche. Alzenau, print: Steiner, 2002, ISSN 1610-4897
Web links
- Literature by and about Ludovica des Bordes in the catalog of the German National Library
- On the work of the Baroness in relation to her foundations ( Memento from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Family grave site of the Brentanos in the Aschaffenburg old town cemetery
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bordes, Ludovica des |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brentano, Ludovica |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German patroness and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 10, 1787 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Frankfurt am Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 19, 1854 |
| Place of death | Wurzburg |