Christiane und Goethe: Eine Recherche , and: Behalte mich ja lieb! Christianes und Goethes Ehebriefe (review)

Abstract

Goethe Yearbook 295 WUUams's conclusion offers an exceUent reception history, with special emphasis on Britain. Nevertheless, we finish our reading dissatisfied , and there is reason to conclude that the basic problem derives from WUUams's decision to subordUiate Goethe's Ufe and person to his work, subdivided into genres. What a dtfferent, upbeat story WiUiams might have told, had he ended his Life of Goethe, as Goethe himself did, with Faust: Part II. In conclusion, however, yet another reversal is requüed. With aU its flaws, including the (Usted and unUsted) errata, and just because of its informative detail, this is a book we'U find it necessary to own. It is indispensable as a tight compendium of biographical and Uterary facts. George Mason University Irmgard Wagner Sigrid Damm, Christiane und Goethe: Eine Recherche. Frankfurt /Main, Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1998. 540 pp. —, ed., Behalte mich ja Heb! Christianes und Goethes Ehebriefe. Frankfurt/Main, Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1998. 116 pp. The older Goethe scholarship devoted absurd amounts of attention to the women Ui the poet's Ufe, with the notable exception of Christiane von Goethe, née Christiana Vulpius—the now standard misspeUing of her name typifies the neglect. Yet she was the one with whom he maintained the longest continuous relationship (28 years) and whom he actuaUy married. Sigrid Damm's substantial "Recherche" takes a giant step toward rectifying this scandalous unbalance. For those with limited tüne or Uiterest for the topic, the Nachwort to her selection from Goethe's and Christiane's correspondence effectively summarizes her sensitive, thoughtful and convincing démystification of Goethe's relationship with his wife. But it is worth the additional time to read the fuUer version Ui the "Recherche" and to foUow Damm in her leisurely analysis of the letters and other materials packed with detaUs of theü daUy Ufe and punctuated with provocative questions. The book mounts a convincing case for a Christiane quite dtfferent from the frowsy, alcoholic sourpuss cattUy described by Goethe's friends—Charlotte von Stein, Charlotte von Schüler, Bettina von Arnim, Riemer among others—and enemies. (But his mother adored her, as she would, Damm suggests, have loved anyone who took proper care of her spoUed son.) Christiane emerges as the capable manager of a complex and hospitable household—during her tüne as Goethe's UveUi mistress she was universaUy referred to Ui WeUnar as "die von Goeth'sche Haushälterin." She supervised and trained servants, shared Ui the labors of the household, managed finances, arranged to rent land for the various gardens Ui which she hersetf raised much of theü food, managed repeated quarterings of soldiers on the household, coUected and shipped books, materials and food for the many months of the year that Goethe spent working m Jena, forwarded his correspondence Ui both düections, ran interference for him with unwelcome visitors and 296 Book Reviews even official demands, mediated between him and various of his actors on several occasions and kept an eye on the troupe for several summers in Bad Lauchstädt. No one has ever contested that she was an effective housekeeper, at least for much of the tune they were together, but the degree to which she shared Ui some of Goethe's more official capacities teUs a new story. Yet this is not just a book about Christiane. Damm tries rather to evoke the detaüs of daUy Ufe from which to distUl the story of the relationship between Christiane and Goethe. Since the primary evidence must be drawn from theü correspondence, the narrative is necessarily focused on the times they spent apart. And indeed, after the middle of the 1790s Goethe spent much of each year m Jena, apparently for a variety of reasons: to be with Schüler, to be m the Uvely inteUectual environment at the university there, to escape the noisy Kegelbahn next door in WeUnar, to escape the annoying distraction of the court and its feuds (and its resentment of his common-law marriage) and apparently above aU, Damm suggests, to escape the demands of the physical personal life embodied in Christiane. The high-strung artist was unable to reconcUe the inteUectual and...