Tales of Love and Folly: An Introduction to August von Kotzebue's Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht

Abstract

Tales of Love and Folly:An Introduction to August von Kotzebue's Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht George S. Williamson SPECIAL SECTION: August von Kotzebue, Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht Transcribed, edited, and with an introduction by George S. Williamson • GEORGE S. WILLIAMSON: Tales of Love and Folly: An Introduction to August von Kotzebue’s Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht • Notes on the Following Text: Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht by August von Kotzebue • AUGUST VON KOTZEBUE: Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht Not very long ago, the playwright and polemicist August von Kotzebue (1761–1819) was considered beneath the consideration of serious scholars of German literature. If he was remembered, it was as an antipode to Goethe, an exponent of Trivialliteratur, or as the unfortunate though perhaps deserved victim of the student nationalist Carl Ludwig Sand. Despite his enormous literary output and his influence on the cultural lives of his contemporaries, a recent history of German literature mentions Kotzebue not a single time.1 In recent years this tide has turned, as scholars have discovered the importance of Kotzebue for postcolonial studies, the Baltic Enlightenment, the cultural politics of the Napoleonic era, and debates regarding the meaning and function of literature.2 The 200th anniversary of Kotzebue's assassination brought forth a number of remembrances that were quite favorable to him, certainly more sympathetic than most of what was written in the immediate aftermath of that event. Despite the growing interest in Kotzebue's literary and polemical output, barriers exist to a closer study of his life, with most biographers still relying on the accounts in his literary memoir and in the autobiographical pieces that were published after his death.3 The Kotzebue Nachlass, held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, is extensive but fragmentary, and there has been no concerted attempt to collect and publish Kotzebue's personal papers and correspondence, which, in any case, are strewn across archives and libraries throughout Germany and beyond.4 With that said, one key source on Kotzebue's life has remained largely unexplored, despite lying more or less in plain view for many years—namely, the manuscript Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht (My relations with the fair sex) which forms part of the Kotzebue Nachlass in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and is published here for the first time. The manuscript consists of twenty-six pages, written in what looks to be Kotzebue's hand on thin, somewhat transparent paper. Although the manuscript is undated, its opening line indicates that Kotzebue was 56 when he wrote it, placing its origin around 1817. This also means that it was written in the same time period that Kotzebue penned two other autobiographical texts, Betrachtungen über mich selbst (Reflections on myself) and Woher [End Page 257] kommt es daß ich so viele Feinde haben? (Why is it that I have so many enemies?), which were published posthumously in 1821, as well as a third text, Meine verschiedenen Bestimmungen im bürgerlichen Leben (My various positions in civil life), which was initially suppressed by censors and only published in 1922.5 A quick perusal of Mein Umgang suggests the likely reason it was not published. The manuscript contains details of Kotzebue's amorous liaisons that might have been embarrassing to his surviving family members, as well as to the individuals it mentions by name or, if those persons were no longer alive, their descendants.6 Two centuries later, such considerations are far outweighed by this text's value as a historical document. For Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht sheds unique light on Kotzebue's views and behaviors concerning love, courtship, and sexual morality, all major themes of his literary oeuvre. At the same time, "Mein Umgang" is itself a literary text, with multiple narrative and argumentative agendas, some of them working at cross-purposes with each other. ________ Mein Umgang mit dem schönen Geschlecht can be divided into two fairly distinct sections. The first describes Kotzebue's various infatuations and love affairs with girls and women from the time he was a small child growing up in Weimar, through his university years...