Caroline von Wolzogen

Caroline of Wolzogen ( born Lengefeld; born February 3, 1763 in Rudolstadt, † January 11, 1847 in Jena) was the sister of Friedrich Schiller, author of the novel " Agnes of lilies ."

Life

Caroline of Lengefeld was a daughter of the Oberland huntsman of Lengefeld at the court of the Prince of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt and his wife Louise of Lengefeld, born of Wurmb, in Thuringia. There she grew up with her ​​younger sister Charlotte. Only sixteen years old, she was engaged to the later Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt Privy Legation Councillor and Chancellor Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Freiherr von Beulwitz, and in 1784 she married him.

The interest of the sisters in the literary life of its time was very early awakened. Close links existed as of the Duchess Anna Amalia Musenhof of Saxe -Weimar- Eisenach, Weimar, to Lavater and Caroline of Dacheröden ( Wilhelm von Humboldt's later wife ) as well as to Friedrich Schiller, with which the family was a close friend, and Charlotte in 1790 married. With his sister Caroline Schiller Association until his death in an intense friendship, sponsored by the common literary interests relationship.

After her marriage was divorced with of Beulwitz in 1794, Caroline of Lengefeld married in the same year the counselor of legation William of Wolzogen ( 1762-1809 ), the eldest son of Schiller patroness of Bauerbacher days Henriette of Wolzogen. Her husband William was appointed chamberlain and in 1803 in Weimar, Saxe- Weimar 1796 to the Privy Council at the Goethe page. Since 1797 Caroline was in Weimar at home and took significant influence on the intellectual and social life of the city. Her home was a haven for writers and philosophers: Except of Schiller, they were often visited by Goethe, Wieland, Fichte, Schelling, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. Caroline as a possible co-author of the story " The Palace of Truth" in Wieland's fairy tale collection Dschinnistan.

After several tragedies - the death of Schiller (1805 ), her husband (1809 ), her sister and her only son, Adolf ( 1825) - Caroline retired from Wolzogen from the social life of Weimar. From 1825 she lived in Jena, leading up to her death in 1847, a lone, marked by fanatical religious life.

Literary work

Scripture Risch Caroline of Wolzogen stepped out mainly by two works: the novel " Agnes of Lilies", the 1796/97 in Schiller's journal " The Hours " was released, and in 1830 published biography "of Schiller's life. Posted from memories of family, his own letters and the news of his friend grains ".

The novel " Agnes of Lilies" is the story of a sensitive and all that is beautiful compared to open-minded enthusiastic girl in the real world, however strange and misunderstood feels and feels to an ideal man who united all the virtues in themselves, attracted. The novel is written in first-person form, as a fictional autobiography, and not with the superior knowledge of an adult, her life in retrospect recording woman, but from the perspective of a naive and " natural" young woman and has a whole series of structural failures and narrative inconsistencies. The mentality and the virtues and values ​​canon but which characterize the novel, hit the zeitgeist of the turn of the 18th to the 19th century. 1802 published the novel in a French translation.

In the contemporary readership and also in the literary criticism of the published anonymously and heavily inspired by the widely read in Germany sentimental letter novels Samuel Richardson's novel approval was prevalent. As a template for the male lead character in " Agnes of lilies ", which combines in an ideal form of all the virtues in themselves, served Sir Grandison from Richardson's epistolary novel "The History of Sir Charles Grandison ." Friedrich Schlegel even suspected Goethe as a writer, because the novel reveals echoes of " Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship ". Others wrote to the Roman Friedrich Schiller. But with the Romantics, the novel was rejected, he finally fell into oblivion, because subject and transported mentality are very time-bound. Disappointed wrote Caroline of Wolzogen then still stories and novels, one of which ( " Cordelia ") was published later in 1840, but this came at a relatively low resonance.

" Agnes of Lilies" is largely forgotten despite occasional revisions and has regained only in Schiller 2005, a limited interest, but it is a novel that many in ideal-typical way - with the intellectual zeitgeist of the time - even with its weaknesses 1800 with his ( pietistic ) enthusiasm and sensitivity, and his enthusiasm for psychological issues ( " empirical psychology " ) reflects.

For the author Caroline of Wolzogen can be stated with Jochen Golz (see literature): " What's down to us to life traces Carolines in artistic texts and life testimonies, nevertheless has considerable value for an unobstructed view of the classical culture and its history. "

Works (selection)

• The Leukadische rock (Acting), 1792
• Agnes von Lilien (novel), Berlin 1798
• Stories, 2 volumes, 1826
• Schiller's life. Posted from memories of family, his own letters and the news of his friend grains, Stuttgart 1830
• Cordelia (novel), 1840