Henriette Herz

Julie Henriette Herz ( born September 5, 1764 in Berlin, † October 22, 1847 in Berlin, nee de Lemos ) was a writer and one of the leading Berlin Salonnièren the early Romantic period. She was married to the doctor and writer Marcus Herz.

Life

Henriette Herz was born into a Jewish family whose ancestors had fled from Portugal paternal before the Inquisition. Her parents were Benjamin de Lemos (1711-1789), a renowned doctor and director of the Jewish Hospital in Berlin, and Esther de Charleville (1742-1817), daughter of a Jewish doctor. Henriette was very well trained, especially in different languages. At the age of 12 she was betrothed heart with the older doctor Marcus and married two years later. Marcus Herz, who had devoted full of enlightenment and especially his teacher Kant, held in her house lectures on the philosophy and led to scientific discussion groups and philosophical themes. Henriette, whose focus was more of the Literary, quickly gathered a circle of young literature of interested men and women around, where rank or title made ​​no difference.

Henriette Herz as a writer is hardly significant, but the grounds and guidance of a renowned literary salons (1780-1803) made ​​Henriette Herz pioneering work. First received her husband superscript guests from politics and culture, while Henriette in an adjoining room a woman wreath held that founded a Tugendbund for " care of Friendship" and dealt mainly with the Sturm und Drang works of Goethe. Thus, the foundation was laid for the Goethe cult. From these two circles, the leading Berliner Salon, mentioned in the recent literature also double salon developed, in Spandau Street near St. Mary's Church (center). In the famous Salon wrong besides politicians, scientists and artists important writers and philosophers such as Johann Gottfried Schadow, who later became his wife Marianne Devidels met here. The brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, Clemens Brentano's wife Sophie Mereau -Brentano, Jean Paul Ludwig Borne, Rahel Levin ( Varnhagen later ) and Friedrich Schleiermacher. Friedrich Schlegel met here Dorothea Veit, the oldest daughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who later became his wife. Different literary trends, epochs and social circles came together and it was Henriette Herz ' merit, contacts and friendships have also established between many German and French scholars, artists and scientists.

1803, her husband died. Then they had to severely restrict and others, such as the circle around Rahel Varnhagen connect their feasts. From 1813 she taught only destitute children, her fame made ​​, but could not. Henriette Herz let himself baptized in 1817 and converted to the Protestant faith. She was buried in the cemetery II of Jerusalem Municipality and New Church. The tomb is located in the Dept. 1 A cross on a design by Schinkel from black painted cast iron adorns the grave.

Honors

Her grave was declared an honorary tomb of the State of Berlin.

Henriette Herz learned a late ceremony in 1999: at the decision of the Berlin House of Representatives received a hitherto nameless place near the Hackescher Markt, the name Henriette Heart Square, the ceremonial naming took place on 7 April 2000.