Wilhelmine von Zenge

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Wilhelmine von Zenge

Wilhelmine von Zenge (born August 20, 1780 in Berlin , † April 25, 1852 in Leipzig ) was Heinrich von Kleist's fiancée .

Life

Grave site Wilhelmine Krug, b. von Zenge, at the old Johannisfriedhof in Leipzig
Wilhelmine von Zenge, unknown artist around 1800

Wilhelmine Charlotte von Zenge was the eldest daughter of Charlotte Margerete von Wulffen and August Wilhelm Hartmann von Zenge , who came to Frankfurt an der Oder at the beginning of February 1799 as site commander, was promoted to major general and was given command of the 24th infantry regiment there.

Wilhelmine visited the secular monastery for noble ladies in the Lindow monastery near Neuruppin . The family lived in the Nonnenwinkel in Frankfurt a few steps from the Marienkirche . Five orphans of Major Joachim Friedrich von Kleist lived in the next house , and their aunt Auguste Helene von Massow ran the household. People visited each other, took walks together and made music together.

After Heinrich von Kleist quit his military service and studied at the Frankfurt Viadrina , he enthusiastically reported in the Zen house about the lectures of Professor Christian Ernst Wünsch . Kleist offered Wilhelmine his help to eliminate her spelling weakness. A little later Kleist confessed his love to her and asked for her hand. After initial hesitation, Wilhelmine agreed and in the early summer of 1800 the so-called "unofficial engagement" took place on the condition that Kleist had to seek an office before marriage so that he could support a family.

However, one of the guests at the Zenge house was Wilhelm Traugott Krug, an extraordinary professor of philosophy and theology who was appointed to the Viadrina in 1801 . Krug took a liking to Wilhelmine “because of her gentle disposition”. Wilhelmine then described Krug's relationship with Kleist in her letter of June 16, 1803. She wrote to him, "that the distant one is only in my heart as a sublime means by which the benevolent Creator wanted to effect my ennoblement." And confessed her love to Krug.

The engagement between Krug and Zenge took place at Christmas 1803, and on January 8, 1804 the couple married in St. Mary's Church in Frankfurt. August Otto Krug was born in March 1805 as the first of six children in the family. The family soon moved to Königsberg , where Krug succeeded Immanuel Kant . Here Wilhelmine met Heinrich von Kleist again, who from May 1805 worked as a dietician (civil servant in the preparatory service without a fixed salary) in Königsberg. From 1809 Krug taught as a professor in Leipzig .

Wilhelmine died after ten years of widowhood in her apartment in the Leipzig Naundörfchen No. 1015 and was buried two days later in her husband's grave in the old Johannisfriedhof in Leipzig.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. "Another mystery of Kleist research solved." , in: Leipziger Volkszeitung from 10./11. December 2011, Volume 118, No. 287, p. 19.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Zenge, Wilhelmine of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jug, Wilhelmine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Fiancee Heinrich von Kleist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1852
Place of death Leipzig