Sophie Brentano

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Sophie Brentano , actually Marie Sophie Therese Brentano , (born August 15, 1776 in Ehrenbreitstein ; † September 19, 1800 on the estate of Christoph Martin Wieland in Oßmannstedt ) was the eldest daughter of the wealthy Frankfurt / Lombard merchant and electorate councilor Peter Anton Brentano and his second wife Maximiliane von La Roche (1756–1793), a friend of Goethe.

youth

Sophie lost an eye at the age of four, but was always admired as a very beautiful girl, and she was also the favorite sister of her brother Clemens Brentano . After the early death of their mother, Sophie and her brother Clemens were raised by their aunt Luise in Koblenz for a few years . This happened without much sympathy from the aunt, and both later complained very much about this time. Back in Frankfurt, the eldest daughter took care of her numerous sisters like Kunigunde (called Gunda), Catharina Elisabetha (called Bettina), Maria Catharine (called Lulu) and Magdalena (called Meline). Her sister Bettina Brentano and her brother Clemens Brentano in particular achieved fame and recognition.

Time at Gut Oßmannstedt

She had a special relationship with her grandmother Sophie von La Roche , who took her several times to visit her former fiancé Christoph Martin Wieland in Weimar and on his estate in Oßmannstedt between Weimar and Apolda . At her request, he had also raised the grandmother's real son. Sophie soon got to know a select group of scientists and artists. So were u. a. the Duchess Anna Amalie , Goethe , the married couple Maria Karoline and Johann Gottfried Herder , Jean Paul , Heinrich von Kleist and the publisher Georg Göschen were often present. Wieland, who was over 64 years old, soon developed a close friendship with 23-year-old Sophie. The correspondence between the two has been preserved and published. Sophie spent her last summer at Gut Oßmannstedt, where she unexpectedly died at the age of 24.

tomb

Her memory was so important to the Wieland couple that she was buried next to the couple at Gut Oßmannstedt. A monument erected in 1807 still reminds visitors of Sophie Brentano today. The inscription on the stone reads: Love and friendship embraced the kindred souls in life, and their mortals are covered by this common stone . Here, too, the relevance of Sophie Brentano for the poet Wieland becomes clear. The platonic background cannot be overlooked, as it is - especially with regard to Sophie Brentano - an idealistic love.

The tomb was designed as a sturdy three-sided obelisk that rests on a wider base. On each surface there is the name, the dates of life and a symbol of three people. In addition to Sophie Brentano, these are Anna Dorothea Wieland and Christoph Martin Wieland. This obelisk represents one of the early surviving tombs of this form in Germany, which were built as part of the garden design. Arno Schmidt described this tomb as one of our national shrines to which everyone should go on a pilgrimage once in a lifetime. 2003 has Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Culture of Jan Philipp Reemtsma allows with extensive funds remediation.

literature

  • Helga Döhn: Sophie Brentano: 1776-1800, a picture of life based on letters in the Savigny estate and other sources in: Studies on the book and library system , Vol. 4 (1986), pp. [46] -70
  • Otto Drude (Ed.): Letters and Encounters / Christoph Martin Wieland; Sophie Brentano. Weinheim, Acta humaniora, 1989
  • Henner Reitmeier: Two bent flowers of romanticism. About Sophie Brentano and Karoline von Günderrode , in: Die Brücke No. 166, May – August 2014, pp. 68–70

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sascha Winter: Gravestone and garden art around 1800. In: Grabkultur in Deutschland. Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-496-02824-6 , p. 59
  2. ↑ This view can also be read online
personal data
SURNAME Brentano, Sophie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sister of Clemens Brentano
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Ehrenbreitstein
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1800
Place of death Oßmannstedt