Ottilie von Goethe

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Ottilie von Goethe, chalk drawing by H. Müller after a pencil drawing by H. Junker.

Ottilie Wilhelmine Ernestine Henriette von Goethe (born Freiin von Pogwisch ; born October 31, 1796 in Danzig ; †  October 26, 1872 in Weimar ) was the daughter-in-law of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .

Life

Ottilie von Goethe, drawing by an unknown artist.
Grave site at the historical cemetery in Weimar

Her father, Wilhelm Julius Baron von Pogwisch (1760–1836), came from the Holstein nobility, her mother, Henriette Ulrike Ottilie von Pogwisch (1776–1851), was born Countess Henckel von Donnersmarck .

After the early separation of her parents, Ottilie's childhood was marked by numerous changes of location: Lausitz, Triesdorf , Ansbach, Ludwigslust and Dessau were the names of the stations that Henriette von Pogwisch sought out in search of a suitable position as a lady-in-waiting. When Ottilie finally arrived in Weimar with her mother and her younger sister Ulrike in 1806 , this place was still completely under the influence of the war days.

One of the few fixed points in Ottilie von Pogwisch's life was the relationship with Adele Schopenhauer , who was almost the same age and who also lived in Weimar with her mother Johanna . Since Adele and Ottilie were born in Gdansk and grew up without a father, they soon developed an intense friendship that only ended with Adele's death.

After much hesitation through the acquaintance with Ferdinand Heinke , Ottilie von Pogwisch finally gave in to August von Goethe's persistent wooing after she had found out about Heinke's engagement. She married him on June 17, 1817 and moved in with him in the attic of the Goethe House on Frauenplan . With him she had the children Walther Wolfgang von Goethe (1818–1885), Wolfgang Maximilian von Goethe (1820–1883) and Alma Sedina Henriette Cornelia von Goethe (1827–1844). But the marriage was unhappy: August's alcohol problems and Ottilie's love affairs put a strain on the relationship, which was also entirely under the impression of the imposing father-in-law.

For 15 years she was the poet's closest roommate. The witty daughter-in-law quickly developed into an attraction for the international crowd of old Goethe. In 1829 she founded the magazine Chaos , in which numerous famous contemporaries were represented in addition to Goethe and friends from Weimar. Her sister Ulrike lived with Ottilie under Goethe's roof for ten years. August died in Italy in 1830. After August's death, Ottilie continued to live with her father-in-law, whom she helped, among other things, with the development of Faust (Part 2). Although she occasionally felt overwhelmed by Goethe, he, whom she affectionately called "father", was one of the few stable figures in her life. Goethe died in 1832. The will of her father-in-law made a second marriage financially impossible for Ottilie.

After her death, the writer Gustav Kühne declared Ottilie to be Goethe's ideal daughter, the model of the “eternal feminine” of the second part of Faust; she is “a genius in feeling”. Nevertheless, Ottilie von Goethe is one of the most controversial women of her time. Her restlessness, energy and unconventionality made her a sought-after, but also despised woman, who had to endure numerous slanders, especially after Goethe's death. Especially after the birth of her illegitimate daughter Anna Sibylla (February 15-20, 1835), whose father was the British Captain Story, the rumors increased and finally culminated in the claim that she had killed her eldest daughter Alma.

After Goethe's death, years of changing stays followed. In addition to Weimar and Italy, she often stayed in Vienna, where she frequented Karl von Holtei , Franz Grillparzer , Ludwig August Frankl von Hochwart , Eduard von Bauernfeld , Eduard von Feuchtersleben and Franz von Schober . A deeper bond developed here with the renowned doctor Romeo Seligmann .

Although she no longer felt at home in Weimar, Ottilie von Goethe returned to the city in 1870 and spent the last two years of her life in the Goethe House. In 1872 she died of a heart condition. She was buried in the family grave of the Goethe family at the historical cemetery in Weimar near the prince's crypt .

Signature of Ottilie von Goethe.

Publications

  • From Ottilie von Goethe's estate , 2 volumes. Weimar 1912–1913. Edited by Wolfgang von Oettingen.
  • Experiences and Confessions , 1832–1857. Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1923. Edited by Heinrich Hubert Houben
  • Diaries and letters from and to Ottilie v. Goethe , 5 volumes. Bergland-Verlag, Vienna 1962–1979

literature

  • Bernhard Gajek:  Goethe, Ottilie Wilhelmine Ernestine Henriette von, née von Pogwisch. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 575 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Max Hecker : Ferdinand Heinke in Weimar . In: Goethe Yearbook . 47, 1927, pp. 251-306
  • Karsten Hein: Ottilie von Goethe (1796–1872). Biography and literary relationships of Goethe's daughter-in-law (= European university publications. Series 1: German Language and Literature , Volume 1782). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2001, ISBN 3-631-37438-0 (dissertation University of Düsseldorf 2000, 398 pages).
  • Karsten Hein: Ottilie von Goethe. Insights into the house on Frauenplan . In: Andreas Remmel, Paul Remmel (Ed.): Goethe-Blätter. Series of publications by the Goethe Society Siegburg e. V. Volume IV. Bernstein, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809762-4-4 .
  • Ulrich Janetzki (Ed.): Ottilie von Goethe, Goethe's daughter-in-law. A portrait . Ullstein, Frankfurt 1982, ISBN 3-548-30138-X .
  • Carmen Kahn-Wallerstein: The woman from another planet. Goethe's daughter-in-law. A. Francke, Bern 1948
  • Elisabeth Mangold: Ottilie von Goethe . Böhlau, Cologne 1965
  • Ruth Rahmeyer: Ottilie von Goethe. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch , Volume 2875). Extended new edition, Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-458-34575-2 .
  • Christina Ujma: Longing for Italy - Ottilie von Goethe between Weimar, Vienna and Rome, in: Margaret C. Ives (Hrsg.) Women Writers of the Age of Goethe (= Occasional papers in German studies , Vol. 9). University of Lancaster 1997, pp. 81-121, ISBN 1-86220-034-3 .
  • Emmy Wolff: "Chaos," in dies., Ed .: Generations of women in pictures. Herbig, Berlin 1928, pp. 42-46

Web links

Commons : Ottilie von Goethe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruth Rahmeyer: Ottilie von Goethe. A biography . Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 19
  2. ↑ Ruth Rahmeyer: Ottilie von Goethe. A biography . Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 243
personal data
SURNAME Goethe, Ottilie von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goethe, Ottilie Wilhelmine Ernestine Henriette von (full name); Pogwisch, baroness of (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter-in-law of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1872
Place of death Weimar