Luise Mühlbach

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Luise Mühlbach

Luise Mühlbach , pseudonym for Clara Mundt (born January 2, 1814 in Neubrandenburg as Clara Maria Regina Müller , † September 26, 1873 in Berlin ) was a German entertainment writer . Her complete works comprise 250 volumes. Several of her books have been translated into English and especially read in the USA.

Life

Luise Mühlbach was one of the eldest children of the Neubrandenburg lawyer and mayor Friedrich Müller (1784–1830) and his wife Friederika, née. Strübing (1790-1860) born. Hermann Müller-Strübing was her brother. She received a careful and varied upbringing. She described episodes from her childhood and youth in Neubrandenburg and Penzlin in not always plausible autobiographical memoirs , which her daughter Thea Ebersberger published as a collection in 1902. In it it goes u. a. around the "theater count" Karl von Hahn and his daughter, the writer Ida Hahn-Hahn . According to her own statement, Luise's turn to literature and her desire to become a writer herself were significantly promoted by the encounter with Ida Hahn-Hahn.

Luise Mühlbach sent her first literary attempts to the writer Theodor Mundt (1808–1861), entered into correspondence with him, later got to know him personally and married him on June 18, 1839 in Neubrandenburg. Two daughters come from marriage. The politically liberal committed couple took an active part in the revolution of 1848.

Portrait of old age with autograph Klara Mundt L. Mühlbach .

“Sociability was her [Luise Mühlbach] element of life and she could not cope without it to a large extent, preferably in her own house. It often brought together members of the stage and art, litterates and intellectual aristocrats at small dinners. ” Luise Mühlbach therefore had a salon in Berlin since the 1840s. a. Ludmilla Assing , Elisa Countess von Ahlefeldt , Berthold Auerbach , Theodor Döring , Duke Ernst von Sachsen-Coburg , Prince Georg of Prussia , Adolf Glaßbrenner , Karl Gutzkow , Fanny Lewald , Prince Pückler-Muskau , the doctor and writer Max Ring , Adolf Stahr and Feodor Wehl belonged. After the death of her husband in 1861, Luise Mühlbach undertook numerous trips that took her to the Orient. In November 1869 she took part in the inauguration of the Suez Canal at the invitation of the Khedive of Egypt Ismail Pasha , and in the winter of 1870/71 she stayed again in Egypt. She reported on her travels in detailed series of articles for German-language daily newspapers.

Luise Mühlbach wrote novellas, travelogues and historical and social novels, which were characterized by a particularly adventurous plot. Her subjects included the criticism of the toe-toe , divorce law and the social question . She dedicated a three-volume novel (1849) to Aphra Behn, the first English professional writer . After Luise Mühlbach had written primarily women's novels and social novels in Vormärz that deal critically with the social realities of her present and took up the emancipation ideas of Young Germany , the focus of her extraordinarily productive work after 1850 was on the field of historical novels and memoirs. On the basis of authentic sources, life testimonies and anecdotal material, she preferred to deal with images of the life and time of individual personalities or epochs from the 18th and 19th centuries, etc. a. King Friedrich II of Prussia, Emperor Joseph II, Napoleon I, Archduke Johann or Muhammad Ali Pascha, King of Egypt. “Those wild excesses of an unbridled imagination” , Robert Prutz comments on the paradigm shift in her literary work after 1850, “no longer hurt the reader, the poet no longer looks primarily for scenes of murder, adultery, incest, she is solid, very become solid, but unfortunately also very bourgeois. [...] Since Luise Mühlbach gave up becoming the German George Sand , she has established a factory shop for historical novels which, according to bookseller news, is enjoying great sales. ” In fact, Luise Mühlbach became a favorite author of the reading public with her multi-volume novels . The public reacted all the more astonished when Luise Mühlbach, who “received the most brilliant fees” , “received extraordinary donations from the Khedive” , “gave dinners and suppers of sumptuous abundance” and “ traveled like a princess”, had “nothing” after her death as a burden of debt ” . Apparently Luise Mühlbach had lived far beyond her means; Her entire household effects and estate were auctioned off after her death.

Luise Mühlbach died in Berlin in 1873 at the age of 59 and, like her husband twelve years earlier, was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg . Both graves have not been preserved.

Works (selection)

  • First and last love. Novel. Hammerich, Altona 1838.
  • The pilgrims of the Elbe. Novel. Hammerich, Altona 1838.
  • Fate of women. 2 vols. Hammerich, Altona 1839.
  • Migratory birds. Novellas and sketches. 2 vols. Hammerich, Altona 1840.
  • Luck and money. Novel. 2 vols. Hammerich, Altona 1842
  • Justin. Novel. Fritzsche, Leipzig 1843.
  • After the wedding. Four novellas. Fritzsche, Leipzig 1844.
  • Eve. A novel from the present in Berlin. 2 vols. Morin, Berlin 1844. (Revised in 1859 under the title: Frau Meisterin . 2 vols. Janke, Berlin 1859.)
  • A novel in Berlin. 3 vols. Mylius, Berlin 1846. (Revised in 1860 under the title: Berlin fifteen years ago . 3 vols. Berlin: Janke 1860.)
  • Pen drawings on the journey. Novellas and pictures. Mylius, Berlin 1846.
  • Aphra Behn. Novel. 3 vols.Simion, Berlin 1849.
  • The pupil of society. Novel. 2 vols.Simion, Berlin 1850.
  • Frederick the Great and his court. 3 vols. Janke, Berlin 1853. (Later extended by 3 additional sections in 10 volumes.)
  • Queen Hortense. A Napoleonic image of life. 2 vols. Otto Janke, Berlin 1856 (later title: Hortense Queen of Holland - historical novel from the Napoleonic era. )
  • Emperor Joseph the Second and his court. Historical novel. (3 departments, 12 vols.) Janke, Berlin 1856–1857.
  • Napoleon in Germany. (4 departments, 16 vols.) Berlin: Janke, Berlin 1858–1859
  • Napoleon and Queen Luise . 2 vols. Berlin: Janke, 1858
  • Archduke Johann and his time . (4 departments, 12 vols.) Janke, Berlin 1859–1863.
  • Little novels. 2., rework. Output. 21 vols. Hammerich, Altona 1860–1866.
  • Count von Benjowski. Historical novel. 4 vols. Jena / Leipzig, 1865.
  • Germany in Sturm und Drang. Historical novel. (4 departments, 17 vols.) Costenoble, Jena 1867–1868.
  • From Solferino to Königgrätz. Historical novel from the present. (3 departments, 12 vols.) Janke, Berlin 1869–1870.
  • Emperor Joseph and his Landsknecht. (2 departments, 8 volumes) Dürr Buchhandlung u. Publishing house, Leipzig 1870
  • Mohammed Ali and his house. Historical novel. 4 vols. Costenoble, Jena 1871.
  • Travel letters from Egypt. 2 vols. Costenoble, Jena 1871.
  • The victims of religious fanaticism. Historical novel from the Thirty Years War. (6 books, 3 volumes) Sigmund Bensinger, Prague 1871.
  • Protestant Jesuits. Historical novel. (2 departments, 6 vols.) Günther, Leipzig 1874.
  • Memory sheets from the life of Luise Mühlbach. Collected u. ed. by Thea Ebersberger. H. Schmidt et al. C. Günther, Leipzig 1902. (This also includes letters from Theodor Mundt to Clara Mundt.)

Letters

  • Adolf Kohut (ed.): Unprinted letters Luise Mühlbach from the "great" year 1848 . In: The magazine for national and international literature . Dresden. No. 6, February 2, 1889, pp. 85-87.
  • William H. McClain: Clara Mundt's letters to Hermann Costenoble . In: Archives for the history of the book industry . Volume XXII. Frankfurt am Main 1981, Sp. 918-1250.

literature

  • Herlinde Cayzer: Feminist Awakening: Ida von Hahn-Hahn's 'Countess Faustine' and Luise Mühlbach's 'Aphra Behn' . Univ. Diss. Queensland, Brisbane. 2007. ( full text ; PDF; 2.1 MB)
  • Marinanne Jacob: Mundt, Clara Maria Regina […] . In: German writer lexicon. 1830-1880. M. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, pp. 502-516. (= Goedekes plan for the history of German poetry. Continuation. Vol. V / 2.) - Bibliography
  • Lydia Schieth:  Mühlbach, Luise. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 269 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Cornelia Tönnesen: The Vormärz author Luise Mühlbach. From early socially critical work to historical novels; with an attachment of unknown letters to Gustav Kühne . Ahasvera-Verl., Neuss 1997, ISBN 3-927720-06-2 ( author profiles ; 1)

Remarks

  1. ↑ This huge number, which is widespread in literature, does not name the number of her works, but the number of volumes across all editions. The total number of her works is, of course, much smaller, although Luise Mühlbach's small print in the form of articles for newspapers and magazines (so far) is barely manageable.
  2. ^ Thea Ebersberger: Foreword. In: Memory sheets from the life of Luise Mühlbach. Collected u. ed. by Thea Ebersberger. Schmidt & Köhler, Leipzig 1902, p. XI.
  3. ↑ A more complete overview of guests of the Mundtschen Haus in Petra Wilhelmy: The Berlin Salon in the 19th Century (1780–1914). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 1989, pp. 743-748.
  4. ^ Robert Prutz: The German literature of the present. 1848 to 1858. Leipzig: Voigt & Günther, 1859. Vol. 2, pp. 255–256.
  5. ↑ According to a study by Friedrich Winterscheidt, it took second place behind Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer in a ranking list of contemporary favorite writers for the years 1850–1860 . See Friedrich Winterscheidt: German entertainment literature of the years 1850–1860. Bonn: Bouvier 1970, p. 175.
  6. ^ Karl Gutzkow: Louise Mühlbach and the modern novel industry. In: Ders .: Berlin - Panorama of a residential city. Ed. U. with e. Follow-up by Wolfgang Rasch. Morgenbuch Verl., Berlin 1995. pp. 197–203 (citations p. 197).
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 306.

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personal data
SURNAME Mühlbach, Luise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mundt, Clara; Müller, Clara Maria Regina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Neubrandenburg
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 1873
Place of death Berlin