Susanne Bohl

Susanne Bohl (born January 4, 1738 in Lobeda as Susanne Eberhardt ; † August 29, 1806 there ) was a German occasional poet from Goethe's time.

Live and act

As the daughter of an instrument maker and head of a church box , Susanne Eberhardt received a good education. On November 10, 1755, she married the mayor of Lobeda, tax collector and tax auditor Johann Justin Bohl, who was born in Eisenach in 1727. The marriage had seven children, of whom only two daughters survived the mother.

As the mayor's wife, she wrote casual poems. In 1775 she went public for the first time and quite boldly for her time, conveying her congratulations in verse to Duke Carl August of Weimar on his marriage and taking office .

She read apparently regularly by Christoph Martin Wieland laid Germans Mercury . A poem published under the title Clouds and Women aroused her displeasure as a woman. She felt called to protect women and wrote a reply under the title Men and Wind , which Wieland also published in the Teutscher Merkur and made it known suddenly. Goethe is said to have said of her later that she had “a delicate poetic talent”.

More poems followed. Most of them were either printed unsigned and can no longer be assigned or they refer directly to Weimar court events, such as the birth of the later Grand Duke Carl Friedrich in 1783.

Susanne Bohl attracted many literary friends with her intellect, her lovable character and her culinary art. She ran a small literary circle in her apartment or the associated garden pavilion, today's address "Jena-Lobeda, Im Winkel 2", whose friends felt safe and stimulated here. Goethe puts it in such a way that “your house has long been a bright spot in the Saale valley”.

In August 1784, literary history was written in the garden house of their property in Lobeda. The Jena professor Christian Gottfried Schütz , the Weimar writer Christoph Martin Wieland and the publisher Friedrich Justin Bertuch met . They decided to publish the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung , which first appeared on January 1, 1785. Between 1785 and 1803, this newspaper was the German-language literary review organ with the highest circulation.

Goethe and Major von Knebel first visited Susanne Bohl in 1784. After his trip to Italy from 1786–1788, he visited the mayor more often. Schiller's Lotte became friends with her and Susanne Bohl was often a guest in Weimar or in Jena with Goethe or Knebel.

After 1785 Susanne Bohl became impoverished through family events such as the death of her son-in-law Löber in 1785, who left a widow with seven children, the death of the eldest son Georg Gottlob in 1794 and the death of her husband at the age of 68. She still had patrons like Goethe, Knebel and Herder . Goethe in particular moved Bohl's affairs a lot and he obtained material and financial help several times with success from the Weimar court.

In 1948 the street Kirchberg in Lobeda was renamed Susanne-Bohl-Straße.

literature

• Herbert Koch: Johanna Susanna Bohl, a poet of the Goethe circle. In: Wiss. Journal of the FSU Jena. Jg. 4, 1954/55, pp. 515-529.