Helmina von Chézy

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Helmina von Chézy (drawing by Wilhelm Hensel )
Helmina von Chézy
Letter to the editor from Chézys in a supplement to the Dresdner Abend-Zeitung , 1824

Helmina von Chézy , also Helmine v. Chezy, b. v. Klenk, also Sylvandra, origin. Wilhelmine Christiane de Chézy , (born January 26, 1783 in Berlin , † January 28, 1856 in Geneva ) was a German journalist, poet and librettist .

Life

Helmina von Chézy was a daughter of the poet Caroline Louise von Klencke and the Prussian officer Karl Friedrich von Klencke. Her maternal grandmother was the poet Anna Louisa Karsch . When Helmina von Chézy was born, her parents were divorced and her grandmother raised her for a time. At the age of 14, Chézy made her debut as a writer in 1797.

In 1799 she married the Freiherr Gustav von Hastfer, but this marriage was divorced the following year. After the death of her mother in 1801, she went to Paris . There she worked as a correspondent for various German newspapers. In the years 1803 to 1807 she published the magazine Französische Miszellen on her own responsibility . Since she wrote very critically about the political events, she repeatedly had problems with the censorship.

Through Friedrich Schlegel , with whose wife Dorothea she was a close friend in Paris, she met the orientalist Antoine-Léonard de Chézy and married him in 1805. With him she had two sons: the later writer Wilhelm Theodor von Chézy and the painter Max von Chézy . In 1810, together with Adelbert von Chamisso , she translated August Wilhelm Schlegel's lectures from French into German. She had brief affairs with Chamisso and Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall - probably her third son Leopold (* / † 1811) from Hammer - and remained in correspondence with both of them throughout their lives.

Since her marriage to Chézy was also unhappy, she separated from him in 1810 and returned to Germany. Here she lived alternately in Heidelberg , Frankfurt am Main , Aschaffenburg and Amorbach ; from 1812 she lived in Darmstadt .

During and after the Wars of Liberation , she worked in the hospitals of Cologne and Namur ( Wallonia ). When Chézy publicly criticized the prevailing conditions there in 1816, she was charged with defamation of the disability examination committee . The Berlin Superior Court under the chairmanship of ETA Hoffmann acquitted her of this offense.

From 1817 Chézy lived in Dresden , where he also became a member of the Dresden Liederkreis and wrote the libretto for Carl Maria von Weber's “Great heroic-romantic opera” Euryanthe . Some of her poems were also set to music ( Oh, how is it possible then , / That I can leave you, / I love you from the bottom of my heart, / believe me) . Franz Schubert wrote the incidental music for her drama Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus , which failed at the first performance at the Theater an der Wien on December 20, 1823 and only saw a second performance, but was also played at the Isartortheater in Munich in 1824 (but with stage music by Philipp Jakob Röth ). Until a few years ago it was considered lost. The poem contained therein The full moon shines on Bergeshöh'n (in Schubert's setting separately with piano accompaniment known as the Romance of the Axa ) was also composed by Charles Ives . In her poetry, Chézy remained attached to the romantic school.

Shortly before the first performance of Euryanthe and Rosamunde , she moved to Vienna in August 1823. In 1826 Chézy got involved again for social issues, this time for the saltworks workers of the Salzkammergut. The sons separated from her for the first time around 1828/1829, Max went to Paris to study with his father, Wilhelm studied in Munich, and she followed him a little later. With the death of her husband (1832), the security of the annual basic provision was gone, and it was only with great difficulty that she could get hold of the academic and private estate of Chézy and a small pension from Paris. She settled again in Munich, this time with Max, who also moved to Heidelberg with her in 1843. On the other hand, it soon came to a final falling out with Wilhelm, who lived with his family in Baden-Baden. Max's death in 1846 shook her so much that afterwards she hardly found leisure to write, but around 1848 in Strasbourg she wanted to persuade a Georg Herwegh to renounce violence and revolutionary means in order to introduce democracy in Germany.

Again and again she tried to revive her contacts with the editorial staff of the Morgenblatt in order to be able to work again as an author or correspondent, which possibly failed because her son Wilhelm had worked there successfully for many years. Apparently, their requests were swarmed with rather flimsy reasons and a reference to their lack of accessibility, and so she felt compelled to list her places of residence in previous years, which has not yet been used for biographical appraisals.

In 1852 she settled in Geneva in the false hope of escaping the impending blindness through well-known doctors. The Tiedge Foundation for Saxon and Prussian writers and artists in need, male and female, provided Helmina von Chézy with a small pension. She was still able to dictate her memoirs to her grandniece Bertha Borngräber, who had rushed to take care of her, from 1853 to 1855, the manuscript of which she sent to Karl August Varnhagen von Ense in Berlin for editorial review .

Helmina von Chézy died on January 28, 1856 at the age of 73 in Geneva.

On October 30, 1823, Karl Ludwig Costenoble wrote in his diary:

" Weber talked about Chezy's greed and ended his remarks with the words: 'She is a good, pleasant poet, but an obnoxious woman.'"

Works

  • History of the virtuous Euryanthe of Savoy . Leipzig 1804. Libretto
  • Life and Romantic Poems of Karschin's Daughter (1805)
  • Life and art in Paris since Napoleon I Weimar 1805, 1807 (2 volumes)
  • Memories from my life until 1811 online
  • Poems by Karschin's granddaughter (2 volumes, Aschaffenburg 1812)
  • Flowers wrapped in the laurels of Germany's rescuers. In memory of the declamatory (1813)
  • The silver lock in the letter. Play based on Calderón's 'Urania' (1815)
  • Paintings from Heidelberg, Mannheim, Schwetzingen, the Odenwalde and the Neckarthale. A guide for travelers and friends in this area (1816)
  • New exquisite writings from Karschin's granddaughter . Heidelberg 1817 ( Volume 1  - Internet Archive / Volume 2  - Internet Archive )
  • Emma's exams. (Story, Heidelberg 1817)
  • Emma and Eginhard. (Printed in 1817)
  • Flowers of love on the coffin of the transfigured Lodoiska Freyin von Oelsen (1818)
  • Old Scottish Romances (as editor, 1818)
  • Auricles. A gift of flowers from German hands. With autobiography. (1818)
  • Iduna. Writings of German women dedicated to women. (Co-editor as part of an "Association of German Writers", 2 volumes, 1820)
  • The three white roses (in Urania , 1821)
  • Stories and short stories . Leipzig 1822 (2 volumes)
    • Siegfried and Wallburg ; The sample ; The encounter , Ernst von Felseck , Rosalba , picture magic , boldness, love and luck , the wonderful cure
    • Love is stronger than death , The soul mass , The rescue , The ancestral images , Achilles and Swanelind , The voluntary slave , the negotiator of herself , Count Lukanor
  • Euryanthe. Great Romantic Opera (1824)
  • The miracle spring. A Dramatic Trifle (1824)
  • Esslair in Vienna (1824)
  • Hour flowers . (Collection of short stories and short stories, 4 volumes, Vienna 1824–27)
  • Youth history. Life and views of a paper collar, told by himself. (1829)
  • Novella wreath of German poets. First wreath from contributions by H. v. C., Elise von Hohenhausen , S. May, Henriette von Montenglaut wound by C. Niedmann. (1829)
  • Hearts on pilgrimage routes . (History, Sulzbach 1833)
  • Norika. New detailed handbook for alpine hikers and travelers through the highlands of Austria whether the Enns , Salzburg , the Gastein , the Kammergüter , Lilienfeld , Mariazell , St. Florian and the upper Steyermark (1833)
  • Traditions and outlines from Napoleon's days , part 2–4, in: Der Freihafen 3, Heft 3 and 4 and Der Freihafen 4, Heft I, 1840/41.
  • Unforgotten. Memories from the life of H. v. C. Told by herself. Leipzig 1858 (2 volumes) zeno.org

literature

  • Karin Baumgartner: The travel handbook as a female commissioned work in the pre-March period: Helmina von Chézy's paintings of Heidelberg (1816) and Norika (1833). In: Christina Ujma: Paths to Modernity. Travel literature by writers from the Vormärz. Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-728-2
  • Hyacinth Holland :  Chézy, Wilhelmine von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 119-122.
  • Irina Hundt: "If I were level-headed, I would not be Helmina." Helmina von Chézy (1783–1856) - portrait of a poet and publicist. In: Forum Vormärz research, yearbook 1996 authors of Vormärz , ed. by H. Brandes, D. Kopp. Bielefeld 1997, pp. 43-79
  • Irina Hundt, Till Gerrit Waidelich: “In the hospitable Mendelsohn home” Memories of Helmina von Chézy's Mendelssohn salon. In: Schubert: Perspektiven , 5 (2005), pp. 92-100
  • Fritz Martini:  Chézy, Wilhelmine von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 202 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Eva Münz: Helmina von Chézy. A German writer and an annoying woman . United PC Verlag, Neckenmarkt 2012, ISBN 978-3-85040-752-6 .
  • Oswald Panagl: Little admired and much scolded. Helmina von Chézy as lyricist for Carl Maria von Weber (Euryanthe) and Franz Schubert (Rosamunde). In: The 'Schaubühne' in the epoch of Freischütz […], Anif 2009, pp. 423–435
  • Chezy, Helmina v. . In: Sophie Pataky (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German women of the pen . Volume 1. Verlag Carl Pataky, Berlin 1898, p. 126 ( digitized version ).
  • Bénédicte Savoy (ed.): Helmina von Chézy. Life and art in Paris since Napoleon I. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004628-0
  • Carola Stern : I want to have wings. The life of Dorothea Schlegel . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2003, ISBN 3-499-13368-7 , pp. 181-195
  • Till Gerrit Waidelich: “Who pulled an opera subject straight out of their coat pocket?” Helmina von Chézy's failed libretto projects for Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . In: Mendelssohn Studies 12 (2001), pp. 149–177
  • Till Gerrit Waidelich: “ Your hands are so tied by Weber's deception”. Helmina von Chézy's struggle for copyrights to her Euryanthe libretto in her correspondence and draft letters. In: Weberiana 18 (2008), pp. 33-68
  • Gerrit Waidelich. The supposedly lost Rosamunde. On the sources of Helmina von Chézy's drama and Franz Schubert's related incidental music (part 1). In: Meinhard Saremba (Ed.): Sullivan Journal . Magazine of the German Sullivan Society V., No. 11 (June 2014), pp. 63–72. ISSN  2190-0647 .
  • Gerrit Waidelich: “not the merit of the Englishmen who came to Vienna in 867”? - Legends and facts about Sullivan's and Grove's viewing of the “dusty” performance material of Schubert's Rosamunde music (Part II). In: Sullivan Journal . Magazine of the German Sullivan Society V., No. 13 (July 2015), pp. 18–32. ISSN  2190-0647 .

Web links

Wikisource: Helmina von Chézy  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chézy had moved into an apartment in Baden near Vienna , Beethovengasse 10, in 1823 and worked there on the libretto of the drama Rosamunde, which premiered in December of that year . With a view to the upcoming world premiere of Euryanthe , she must have met Carl Maria von Weber there, whose visit to Beethoven, who was just a few steps away, is historically documented. - Kurt Drescher (Ed.): Forays in and around Baden - taking into account a lot of historical data . Drescher, Baden 1982, OBV .
  2. ↑ Acting. (…) In Theater an der Wien on December 20th (…). In:  Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode , No. 2/1824, January 3, 1824, p. 19 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wzz.
  3. ↑ Helmina von Chézy:  Explanation and thanks. In:  Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode , No. 6/1824, January 13, 1824, p. 50 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wzz.
  4. ↑ Probably in 1851, she wrote to the editors of the Morgenblatt from Vevey (Switzerland) on April 26th : “Sorry if I find it strange that frequent changes in my stay are mentioned to me as an obstacle to notification. I was in Munich from 1837, from 1842 in Baden, from 1843 in Heidelberg, from 1848 to 1850 in Baden, from 1850 until now here on Lake Geneva, and 1 month in Bern where the local post office sent me my letters on time, so absolutely Like a pin in a load of hay, Helmina is as little in Switzerland as elsewhere, a letter to the address I gave would have known how to find me. ”For resume and quotation see: TG Waidelich: Zu Leben and work of the Chézy . In: Rosamunde, Drama in five acts by Helmina von Chézy , pp. 9–16.
  5. ↑ Varnhagen as well as the museum director Karl Constantin Kraukling in Dresden, who the Borngräber also submitted the text to after Chézy's death, did not propose changes. Two years later, the work came to press under the title "Unforgotten" at Brockhaus in Leipzig, published by Borngräber.
  6. ^ Carl Ludwig Costenoble: From the Burgtheater . Vienna 1889, Volume 1, p. 275.
  7. ^ Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Karola Ludwig, Angela Wöffen: Lexicon of German-speaking women writers 1800–1945. dtv Munich, 1986. ISBN 3-423-03282-0 . P. 52ff
personal data
SURNAME Chézy, Helmina von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klencke, Wilhelmine Christiane von (name at birth); Sylvandra (pseudonym); Hastfer, Wilhelmina von (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet and librettist
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1856
Place of death Geneva