Charlotte's parents were Hofmarschall Johann Wilhelm Christian :de:Schardt |von Schardt and Koncordia Elisabeth Irving of Drum. While her father was a wasteful eccentric, her mother who had had Scottish ancestors was said to be very quiet and dutiful. Her parents moved to Weimar when Charlotte was yet a little child and she was prepared for working as a lady-in-waiting. Her education included literature, art, singing and dancing. They said that Charlotte was unobtrusive, witty, graceful and dutiful like her mother was. There were four things she spent most of her time on:
Society
Taking cures
Literature/Theater/Art
Animals
Profession and family
In 1758 Charlotte became a lady-in-waiting to Anna Amalia, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach whom she served until the Duchess's death in 1807. On 17 May 1764 Charlotte married Freiherr Gottlob Ernst Josias Friedrich von Stein. This was not a marriage out of love, but for social and political interests. Often Charlotte remained alone in Weimar, as her husband had to travel a lot, serving the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in Jena. From 1764 to 1773 she gave birth to seven children. The four daughters died, three boys survived. After her seventh child was born she had to take several cures as she was physically exhausted. She was also the aunt of Amalia von Helvig, who became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Charlotte and Goethe
In 1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charlotte von Stein met in Weimar. It was the beginning of a deep friendship which lasted for twelve years. During this time she had a strong influence on Goethe's work and life. Goethe took into his house her eleven-year-old son Fritz, in May 1783, and took over the boy's education to her satisfaction. This period of her life might have been the happiest since she was in the center of social life and attention and met many famous personalities, e.g. Friedrich Schiller, Karl Ludwig Knebel, and Johann Georg Zimmermann. She frequently corresponded with Schiller's wife Charlotte.
In the eyes of her contemporaries
Knebel has given an outstanding depiction of von Stein's nature:
Loneliness and death
In 1786 the deep friendship between Charlotte and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ended with his sudden departure to Italy without even telling her he wanted to go. Not until after 1800 did their relationship begin to normalize and even then it never became as close as before. After her husband had died in 1793 Charlotte retired from society and became more and more lonely. In 1794 she wrote the drama Dido— a literary self-portrait that also depicted her disappointment about Goethe's behavior. It reflected the years from 1770 to 1790 and the situation in Weimar at that time. As depicted by Virgil, Dido was forsaken by her lover Aeneas who set off for Italy - an obvious parallel to von Stein herself and Goethe. Charlotte von Stein died on 6 January 1827 in the age of 85.
Afterlife
The German poet Peter Hacks presented his play "Gespräch im Hause Stein über den abwesenden Herrn von Goethe" in 1974. This monodrama became a worldwide success and is seen as a subtle analysis of the fate of Charlotte von Stein.
