Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine von Grotthuis

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Sara Grotthuis , d. i .: Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine Baroness von Grotthuis , or Grotthuss, vorm. Sara Wulff , b. Sara Meyer (* 1763 in Berlin ; † December 11, 1828 there ) was, alongside Henriette Herz , Rahel Varnhagen von Ense and Sophie Sander, one of the most famous Berlin salonnières of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Life

Sara Grotthuis was born in 1763 as the eldest daughter of the Jewish banker Aaron Moses Meyer and his wife Rösel, daughter of Benjamin Veitel Ephraim, who in turn was the son of Veitel Heine Ephraim , mint Jew of Frederick II. She was a cousin Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, b. Levin.

The well-known Jewish scholar and enlightener Moses Mendelssohn , a close friend of the family, was included in Sara's education and upbringing. So also in the case of a pen friendship between the young Sara and a Hamburg merchant's son of the same age, who sent her Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther .

At the age of 15, in 1778, Mendelssohn married the young Sara, with the consent of her Orthodox parents, to the older Jewish businessman Liebmann Wulff. The marriage was unhappy and the young Sara fell into great despair. After Liebmann Wulff's death in 1787, Sara initially moved back to her parents and was baptized the following year.

In 1797 she married the Livonian baron Ferdinand Dietrich von Grotthuis , landowner and officer in the Prussian army.

As a result of the lost war against Napoleon in 1806 , the Grotthuis couple lost their entire Livonian possessions and became impoverished. From then on , the couple lived in Oranienburg , where Baron Grotthuis took a job as a postman. On December 11th, 1828, the widow Grotthuis died in poor circumstances.

Literary salon

Even the young Sara withdrew from the family reading hours in order to devour Werther who had been sent to her by a young admirer. After reading the book, which impressed her deeply, she sent the book back to the honored one with innumerable notes and glowing letters, which, however, were intercepted by her father. Moses Mendelssohn - a close friend of the family - was brought in, rejected the author of that novel as a moron and finally threw Werther out the window. It was Lessing , also a friend of the Meyer and Mendelssohn family and at the same time an admirer of Goethe, who gave the young girl a new edition of the book.

The talented Sara, who was educated by Lessing, Herder and Goethe, ran one of the most important salons in the Prussian capital around 1800, alongside Henriette Herz, Rahel Levin and Sophie Sander. Her guests included not only diplomats, writers and actors, but also members of the Prussian aristocracy, such as the brother of King Prince Louis Ferdinand .

The importance of her salon was primarily due to her friendly relationship with Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which she had in the spa baths earlier than any other Berlin salon and before the Goethe cult staged by the brothers August Wilhelm Schlegel and Friedrich Schlegel from Karlsbad .

Grotthuis and Goethe exchanged letters for years. Goethe sent her many unpublished manuscripts for lectures in her salon. Grotthuis, for its part, put Goethe in touch with some important acquaintances, including Prince Karl Joseph von Ligne (1735–1814). During the ongoing Goethe cult in Berlin around the turn of the century, this close connection to the great poet prince distinguished the Sara Grotthuis salon from all others. Goethe sent the Grotthuis actors, such as the then famous actor couple Amalie Wolff-Malcolmi (1783–1851) and Pius Alexander Wolff (1782–1828), whose repertoire included his latest works and which they were to perform in front of an audience in the girlfriend's salon .

Goethe wrote to Sara Grotthuis: “ Finally, I don't want to forget to draw your attention to a little work by me, Pandora. It is a somewhat abstruse little work that has to be highlighted by oral presentation. Mr. Wolff and his wife will take pleasure in entertaining you with them for an evening . "

In addition to Goethe, Lessing and Herder, whom they both knew through their connection to Moses Mendelssohn, and the Prince of Ligne were close friends. Rahel Varnhagen's critical husband, Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, wrote about Sara Grotthuis, not without envy: “ In her youth she heard flattery from Lessing, later from Herder, then Frau von Genlis, the Prince of Ligne and Goethe stood with her friendly intercourse. "

The salon of Sara Grotthuis ended - like the first salon of her cousin Rahel Levin - with the Prussian defeat at Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 and the resulting impoverishment of the Grotthuis family.

literature

  • Detlef Gaus: Sociability and sociable. Education, bourgeoisie and educated bourgeois culture around 1800. Verlag J. B. Metzler, Weimar, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-45203-4
  • Petra Wilhelmy-Dollinger: The Berlin salons. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-11-016414-0

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gaus, Detlef; Socializing and sociable. Education, bourgeoisie and educated middle class culture around 1800. Stuttgart, Weimar 1998, pp. 135–136.
  2. ^ Gaus, Detlef; Socializing and sociable. Education, bourgeoisie and educated bourgeois culture around 1800. Verlag JB Metzler, Weimar, Stuttgart 1998, p. 135.
  3. ↑ since September 27, 1814 married to Karl August Varnhagen von Ense
  4. ^ Gaus, Detlef; Stuttgart, Weimar, 1998.
  5. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Sara Grotthuis; quoted from: Wilhelmy-Dollinger, Berlin 2000, p. 78.
  6. ^ Wilhelmy-Dollinger, Petra; The Berlin salons. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, p. 77.
personal data
SURNAME Grotthuis, Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grotthuis, Sara; Grotthuis, Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine Baronin von (full name); Wulff, Sara; Meyer, Sara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German salonnière
DATE OF BIRTH 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1828
Place of death Berlin