Susette Borkenstein Gontard

Susette Gontard (* about February 9, 1769 in Hamburg, born in Borken stone, † June 22, 1802 in Frankfurt am Main ), daughter of Hinrich Borken stone, came from a Hamburg merchant family and was the great love of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, which they called " Diotima " immortalized in his poetry and in his novel Hyperion.

Susette (or, as she wrote her name itself, Suzette ) married on July 9, 1786 in the house of the Reformed church in the King's Road in Altona ( today Hamburg) five years older than Frankfurt banker Jakob Friedrich Gontard and gave birth to four children (Henry, Henriette Helene Amalie ). In January 1796 Hölderlin resigned his position as a private teacher or " Hofmeister " in the House of White Stag Gontard on. In September 1798 Hölderlin left the house after a dispute broke out with the husband because of his relationship with Susette. At least until May 1800 existed between Hölderlin and Susette still epistolary contacts, and there was (rare ) meetings, of which Jakob Friedrich Gontard was to know nothing.

The news of the disease ( measles, tuberculosis ) Susettes Hölderlin might have led to the departure of his private tutor in Bordeaux in May 1802. Soon afterwards, probably in early July 1802 he must have experienced in Stuttgart from her death. In the poem fragment " When from afar ," he can say the deceased lover: "thinking / To which is still hilarious, matter / Because the entzükende day anschien us / The one with confession or hands Druk / uplift, the us vereinet. Oh! woe is me! / They were beautiful days. But / Twilight Sad followed after. "

Hölderlin's letters to Susette Gontard are not preserved, but probably are some (probably not all) survived by her to him in the secret compartment of his suitcase letters. In one of the last surviving letters (perhaps dated 5 March 1800), she writes: "I can write no more, Farewell! Farewell! You are imperishable in me! and stay as long as I stay. - "