Wilhelmine Herzlieb

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Christiane Friederike Wilhelmine Herzlieb; Painting by Louise Seidler

Christiane Friederike Wilhelmine Herzlieb (* May 22, 1789 in Züllichau / Sulechów ; † July 10, 1865 in Görlitz ; also called Minna or Minchen) was an orphan in Züllichau in the former Neumark Brandenburg, the foster daughter of the publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann . It later caught the attention of Goethe, among other things . Parts of Goethe research therefore regard her as a model for the Ottilie in Goethe's elective affinities .

Life

Her father was superintendent in Züllichau. She was an orphan when she was a child and moved to Jena with the family of the publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann , who had taken her in as a foster daughter in Züllichau .

In 1807 she met 58-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Jena , who wrote several sonnets to her. The still very young woman was evidently not fully aware of the importance of this affection, especially since others from Goethe's environment, such as Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer and Zacharias Werner , loved her literarily.

The marriage of convenience concluded in 1821 with the unloved lawyer Professor Karl Wilhelm Walch in Jena was fateful. The young woman fell into misery as a result of the emotional stresses, and finally fell into mental derangement, and died after several decades in a mental hospital in Görlitz . She was buried in the municipal cemetery in Görlitz.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Knerger.de: The grave of Wilhelmine Herzlieb
personal data
SURNAME Dearest, Wilhelmine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goethe's Minchen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Züllichau
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1865
Place of death Goerlitz