Sophie from La Roche

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Marie Sophie von La Roche, painting by Georg Oswald May , around 1776, Gleimhaus Halberstadt
Sophie La Roche, her daughter Maximiliane and her husband Peter Anton Brentano in a family picture, around 1773/74
Stele at the location of their house in Offenbach am Main, which was demolished in 1960
Sophie von La Roche's home in Speyer

Marie Sophie von La Roche b. Gutermann von Gutershofen (born December 6, 1730 in Kaufbeuren ; † February 18, 1807 in Offenbach am Main ) was a German writer and salonnière who wrote in the style of sensitivity during the Enlightenment . She is considered the first financially independent professional writer in Germany. La Roche was the editor and author of the first German women's magazine Pomona .

Life

Marie Sophie was born as the eldest child of the doctor Georg Friedrich Gutermann, who came from Biberach an der Riss , and his wife Regina Barbara, nee. Unold, born in Kaufbeuren. She grew up in a middle-class family and spent her childhood in Lindau and Augsburg . She learned to read at an early age and received - since her education was important to her strictly pietistic and ambitious father - a "girls' education" typical of the time with an emphasis on language, art and literature, music and housekeeping. Despite her request, however, she was not allowed to learn Latin. The Augsburg patrician and later mayor Jakob Wilhelm Benedikt von Langenmantel was one of her father's friends.

After her introduction to society, she became engaged to the Italian Giovanni Ludovico Bianconi in 1747; the marriage failed, however, due to the different denominations and at the insistence of the father. During a stay in Biberach an der Riss in 1750 she got engaged to her cousin, the poet Christoph Martin Wieland , who was almost three years her junior ; Due to the spatial separation through Wieland's studies in Tübingen and Zurich , this relationship also ended.

At the end of 1753 she married the Hofrat Georg Michael Anton Frank Maria La Roche (1720–1788), who worked as an asset manager and private secretary for his adoptive father Friedrich von Stadion-Warthausen , Minister of State of Kurmainz . The family initially lived at the electoral court in Mainz; Of the eight children they shared, five survived childhood: Maximiliane (May 4, 1756– November 19, 1793), Fritz (December 10, 1757 – after 1814), Luise “Lulu” (May 13, 1759–1832, later Luise Möhn) , Carl (January 11, 1766–1839) and Franz Wilhelm (April 16, 1768–1791).

From 1761 to 1768 Sophie von La Roche was a companion and lady-in-waiting with her father-in-law at Schloss Warthausen near Biberach an der Riss (where Sophie and Wieland met again). There was an extensive library here (1400 volumes - 550 works), most of which are now located in the Bohemian Kozel Castle near Pilsen . She wrote the correspondence in the French language cultivated at court and often accompanied the count to his country residence in Bönnigheim . Her husband was appointed by the Count to be the chief bailiff of the Bönnigheim Castle, Sophie followed him there in 1770. Here, on the advice of a pastor friend, she finished her novel, The Story of Fraulein von Sternheim , which she had already begun in Warthausen .

After her husband moved to Koblenz (as a privy councilor in Trier) in 1771, she later ran a literary salon in the Koblenz district of Ehrenbreitstein , which Goethe mentions in poetry and truth (among the visitors were Basedow , Wilhelm Heinse , the brothers Jacobi and Lavater ) . She was friends with Johann Heinrich Jung, called Jung-Stilling , and gave him his second wife, Maria Salome von Saint George.

In 1780 her husband, after having been raised to the nobility only five years earlier, was dismissed by Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus because of his criticism of the nobility and monasticism . The elegant circle of La Roches in Ehrenbreitstein came to a sudden end. The family was taken in by their canon friend Christoph Philipp Willibald von Hohenfeld in Speyer . The house (Maximilianstrasse 99) where she u. a. the poet Friedrich Schiller also visited, still exists in the city and is now a La Roche memorial . During this time, Sophie von La Roche was in close, friendly letters with the blind Viennese composer, pianist and music teacher Maria Theresia von Paradis , whom Sophie von La Roche visited several times in her home in Speyer during her European tour from 1783. Maria Theresia Paradis ran her own school for the blind and a philosophical music salon in Vienna, and through the exchange with Sophie von La Roche, she was always informed about the events and views in the “West”. In 1786, the La Roche couple bought their own property, the so-called barbecue house in Offenbach am Main. Just two years later, Sophie became a widow; As a result of the French occupation of the left bank of the Rhine in 1794, her widow's pension ceased, so that she was forced to secure her livelihood by writing.

Through her daughter Maximiliane, who was married to the businessman and diplomat Peter Anton Brentano , she became the grandmother of Bettina von Arnim and Clemens Brentano . When Maximiliane died in 1793, she took in three girls from their eight underage children.

Sophie von La Roche wrote sensitive novels (such as the 1771 story of Fraulein von Sternheim - initially published anonymously under the name of the "editor" Wieland). With the title Pomona for Teutschland's Daughters , she was one of the first publishers of a German women's magazine (1783/84). The Augspurgische intelligence note writes about this:

“At the beginning of the future year 1783, a monthly will be published for the woman under the title Pomona. A learned woman Frau Geheime Staatsrathin von la Roche, who has long since made a name for herself through her story of Fraulein von Sternheim and Rosalia's letters, and who has distinguished herself as an excellent writer, is the author of this monthly. The prenumeration price is 4  florins. 30 kr. for all year, and the undersigned accepts prenumeration. Certainly, Augsburg's daughters will vie to comply with the wishes of their venerable compatriot and will support a project that will honor the fair sex, and enough to benefit. Six sheets thick, in brochures, with good letters and fine paper, and all other possible advantages which the Pomona will make the most pleasant companion for her friends, will appear uninterrupted at the beginning of each month and will be given out with me. Conrad Heinrich Stage, bookseller at the fruit market Lit. D. No. 70. "

With this philosophical education and awareness-raising magazine, Sophie von La Roche stood in stark contrast to the fashion journals of the time, which mainly focused on the external beauty of the “weaker sex” so that women would be liked as “masculine adornments” in society, which continues to be patriarchal. Due to the success of this novel, Sophie von La Roche is considered Germany's first financially independent writer.

Sophie von La Roche paid tribute to the music publisher and impresario Heinrich Philipp Boßler , with whom La Roche was in close contact, in her women's newspaper Pomona for Teutschlands Daughters .

In the 13th Book of Poetry and Truth, Goethe wrote of Sophie von La Roche: “She was the most wonderful woman, and I can't compare her to any other. Slender and delicately built, taller rather than small, she knew how to maintain a certain elegance up to her advanced years [...] that hovered gracefully between the behavior of a noble lady and a worthy middle-class woman. "

Sophie von La Roche is buried on the outer wall of the St. Pankratius Church in Offenbach-Bürgel . Her death is also mentioned in her former home in Augsburg: "On the 18th of February [February 1807] the famous writer, secret councilor, Sophie von Laroche, bored Gutermann, (born in Augsburg,) died 77 years old in Offenbach."

Others

Since 2010, the city of Offenbach am Main has been awarding the "Sophie von La Roche Prize for Equal Rights for Women" every two years. The prize, endowed with 1,500 euros, honors special commitment and excellent performance in the cultural, social or societal field. In the Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren , a room in the permanent exhibition is dedicated to the writer.

Works

Frontispiece to Fanny and Julia
  • Story of the Miss von Sternheim . Taken from original papers and other reliable sources by a friend of the same. 2 volumes. Edited by Christoph Martin Wieland. Weidmanns Erben und Reich, Leipzig 1771 ( digitized and full text in the German Text Archive, Vol. 1, digitized and full text in the German Text Archive, Vol. 2) (dtv, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-13530-6 ).
  • The stubbornness of love and friendship, an English story, along with a little German love story, from the French. Orell, Geßner, Füßli, Zurich 1772.
  • Rosalia's letters to her friend Mariane von St **. 3 volumes. Richter, Altenburg 1780–1781.
  • Pomona for Germany's daughters. Enderes, Speyer 1783–1784.
  • Letters to Lina, a book for young women who want to educate their hearts and minds. Volume 1: Lina as a girl. Weiß and Brede, Mannheim 1785; Gräff, Leipzig 1788.
  • Recent moral narratives. Richter, Altenburg 1786.
  • Diary of a trip through Switzerland. Richter, Altenburg 1787.
  • Journal of a trip through France. Richter, Altenburg 1787.
  • Diary of a trip through Holland and England. Weiß and Brede, Offenbach 1788.
  • Story of Miss Lony and The Beautiful Bund. C. W. Ettinger, Gotha 1789.
  • Letters about Mannheim. Orell, Geßner, Füßli, Zurich 1791.
  • Description of the life of Friderika Baldinger, written by herself. Edited and accompanied by a preface by Sophie Wittwe von La Roche. Carl Ludwig Brede, Offenbach 1791.
  • Rosalie and Cleberg in the country. Weiß and Brede, Offenbach 1791.
  • Memories from my third trip to Switzerland. Weiß and Brede, Offenbach 1793.
  • Letters to Lina as a mother. 2 volumes. Gräff, Leipzig 1795–1797.
  • Nice picture of resignation, a story. Gräff, Leipzig 1796.
  • Apparitions at Lake Oneida, with coppers. 3 volumes. Gräff, Leipzig 1798.
  • My desk. 2 volumes. Gräff, Leipzig 1799.
  • Journey from Offenbach to Weimar and Schönebeck in 1799. Gräff, Leipzig 1800 (also as silhouettes of secluded hours in Offenbach, Weimar and Schönebeck in 1799 ).
  • Fanny and Julia, or the girlfriends. Gräff, Leipzig 1801.
  • Love huts. 2 volumes. Gräff, Leipzig 1804.
  • Autumn days. Gräff, Leipzig 1805.
  • Melusin's summer evenings. Edited by Christoph Martin Wieland. Societäts-Buch- und Kunsthandlung, Halle 1806 ( digitized version ).
  • Morals of the beautiful Parisian world. Sophie von Laroche and the Monument du Costume. With the 24 engravings and the complete text of the first two episodes of the French original, translated into German for the first time. Edited by Erdmut Jost. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2011, ISBN 978-3-89812-831-5 .

literature

  • Gabriela Stoicea: “When History Meets Literature: Jonathan Israel, Sophie von La Roche, and the Problem of Gender.” The Radical Enlightenment in Germany: A Cultural Perspective, edited by Carl Niekerk, Brill, 2018, pp. 211-37.
  • Armin Strohmeyr : "She was the most wonderful woman ...". The life of Sophie von La Roche . Konstanz 2019, ISBN 978-3-87800-126-3 .
  • Helga Meise (Ed.): Sophie von La Roche et le savoir de son temps. Epure, Reims 2014, ISBN 978-2-91527-176-8 .
  • Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Gudrun Loster-Schneider (Eds.): “Oh, how I wished for enough money to found a professorship”. Sophie von La Roche (1730–1807) in the literary and cultural-political field of enlightenment and sensitivity. Francke, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-7720-8296-2 .
  • Melanie Oehlmann: Sophie from La Roche. Woman and author in the Age of Enlightenment. How novels and stories become women's schools. Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-6660-8 .
  • Jürgen Eichenauer (Ed.): "My freedom to live according to my character". Sophie of La Roche (1730-1807). Sensitivity writer. VDG, Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-89739-572-5 ( Offenbacher Studies. Volume 2).
  • Erdmut Jost: Paths to female happiness. Sophie von La Roches travel journals 1784 to 1786 (= Kaufbeurer series of publications. Volume 7). With an essay by Monika Nenon and a research bibliography on travel literature Sophie von La Roches by Tobias Fuchs. Bauer-Verlag, Thalhofen 2007, ISBN 978-3-934509-68-9 .
  • Franz-Josef Körner: Sophie's labyrinth. Historical Kaufbeurer novel. A book about four centuries, three famous women, about love and the eternal questions of life. Bauer, Thalhofen 2008, ISBN 978-3-941013-00-1 .
  • Jeannine Meighörner: Sophie von La Roche. "What I think as a woman". Germany's first bestselling author. Sutton, Erfurt 2006, ISBN 3-86680-062-2 .
  • Helga Meise (Ed.): Sophie von La Roche - Reading Book (= Edition Klassikerinnen ). Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 2006, ISBN 3-89741-111-3 (selected works, including excerpts from the correspondence with Wieland).
  • Armin Strohmeyr: Sophie von La Roche. A biography. Reclam, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-379-00835-4 .
  • Klaus Haag, Jürgen Vordestemann (ed.): My dear green room. The writer Sophie von La Roche during her time in Speyer (1780–1886). Marsilius-Verlag, Speyer 2005, ISBN 3-929242-36-2 .
  • Peter Pago: The sensitive novel of the Enlightenment. Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's “Life of the Swedish Countess von G ***” and Sopie von La Roches “Story of Fraulein von Sternheim”. A comparative study (= Forum German Literature. Volume 1). Meidenbauer Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-89975-452-2 .
  • Renate Feyl : The profane hours of happiness. Novel. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-13128-2 .
  • Helen Mary Lowry: “Travel, should I travel! See England! ”A study in eighteenth-century travel accounts. Sophie von La Roche, Johanna Schopenhauer and others. Dissertation. Queen's University, Kingston Ontario 1998 ( full text; PDF; 16.7 MB ).
  • Hanns-Peter Mederer: novelist Sophie von La Roche - a daughter of Kaufbeuren. In: The beautiful Allgäu. 9, 1993, ZDB -ID 1356928-4 , pp. 40-42.
  • Ingrid Wiede-Behrendt: teacher of the beautiful, the true, the good. Literature and women's education in the late 18th century using the example of Sophie von La Roche (= European university publications. 1, 997). Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-8204-0961-0 (also: University of Bochum , Diss.phil., 1986/1987).
  • Bernd Heidenreich : Sophie von LaRoche - a work biography (= Frankfurt university writings on language theory and literary aesthetics. Volume 5). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1986, ISBN 3-8204-8959-2 (also: Diss. Phil.).
  • Luise Bardenhewer: Sophie von la Roche. Between nationalism and sensitivity. In: Emmy Wolff (Ed.): Generations of women in pictures. Herbig, Berlin 1928, pp. 29-33;
  • Günter Häntzschel:  La Roche, Sophie von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 640 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Erich Schmidt:  La Roche, Sophie von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 717-721.
  • Ludmilla Assing : Sophie von La Roche, Wieland's friend. Berlin 1859 ( scan in Google book search)

Web links

Wikisource: Sophie von La Roche  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Sophie von La Roche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Sophie von La Roche  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Köhler-Lutterbeck, Monika Siedentopf: Lexicon of 1000 women. Dietz publishing house. Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-8012-0276-3 , p. 198.
  2. ↑ a b c Christa Berge, Helga Ilgenfritz: Kaufbeurer Frauenlexikon. Holzheu-Verlag, Mering 2011, ISBN 978-3-938330-12-8 , pp. 65-68.
  3. ↑ a b c Juliane Ziegler: Role models: An independent woman. In: chrismon plus . January 2015, p. 29.
  4. ^ Wolfgang Zorn : Bavarian Swabia in the history of the Munich Academy of Sciences. In: Land und Volk, Herrschaft und Staat in the history and historical research of Bavaria. Karl Alexander von Müller on his 80th birthday (= journal for Bavarian national history . Volume 27). Beck, Munich 1964, pp. 286–301, here: pp. 288, 292 ( digitized version at the Munich digitization center ; excerpts from Google Books ).
  5. ^ Klaus Günzel : The Brentanos. In: Zeit Online . September 24, 1993, accessed March 11, 2019, p. 2.
  6. ^ Short biography Sophie von La Roche by Rebecca Holcomb.
  7. ^ Matthias Nowack: Hohenfeldsches Haus - "Memorial room, collector's paradise, Stöberstube!" On: speyer.de , accessed on April 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ Augspurgical Intelligence = Zettel (AIZ), No. 48, December 2nd. 1782, p. 197.
  9. ↑ Hans Schneider: The music publisher Heinrich Philipp Bossler 1744-1812. With bibliographic overviews and an appendix by Mariane Kirchgeßner and Boßler. Self-published by Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1985, ISBN 3-7952-0500-X , p. 8, 69 .
  10. ↑ Augspurgischer Intelligence = Zettel (AIZ), No. 51, February 28, 1807, p. 3.
  11. ^ Sophie von La Roche Prize for strong commitment in the interests of women. ( Memento from August 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) On: offenbach.de , accessed on May 5, 2016.
  12. ↑ permanent exhibition. In: Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  13. ↑ A short poem by Lavater about her is attached.
personal data
SURNAME La Roche, Sophie von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gutermann von Gutershofen, Sophie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and salonnière
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaufbeuren
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1807
Place of death Offenbach am Main