Christiane Vulpius


Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius was the mistress and wife of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Biography

Christiane Vulpius spent her childhood in Luthergasse, one of the oldest parts of Weimar. Her paternal ancestors had been academics for several generations. On her mother's side she came from a family of artisans. Her father Johann Friedrich Vulpius, archivist in Weimar, d. H. Copyist, had studied law for a few semesters, but had dropped out of college. His position was poorly paid, the family lived in very difficult circumstances, especially since her father did everything to enable his oldest son Christian August to study. Christiane was forced to work as a maid in a small Weimar cleaning workshop owned by Caroline Bertuch in a house leased by her brother Friedrich Justin Bertuch, a well-known a publisher and patron of the arts. This was more necessary since Christiane's father was released early fired because of an irregularity; howeber, she was she was not a proper worker, but was one of the "unemployed middle class girls" employed there. Of her six siblings, her brother Christian August later became known as the author of entertainment novels.
Due to various requests for help and applications, Goethe knew the situation of the family. On 13 July 1788, he met Christiane Vulpius himself in the Park an der Ilm, where she handed him a petition on behalf of her brother Christian August. In fact, Goethe later campaigned for his future brother-in-law several times.
That summer, a passionate love affair developed quickly between Goethe and Christiane Vulpius. The following year, on 25 December 1789, their first child, Julius August Walther, was born. Four other children followed, all of whom died very early: a son —either stillborn or died inmediately after birth—, Caroline, Carl and Catharina. The happy life and love in this "marriage of conscience" inspired Goethe to his cheerful and erotic poems, beginning with the Roman Elegies —who not only reflect Goethe's Italian Journey from 1786 to 1788, but also his relationship with Christiane— and ended with the poem "Found".
Goethe received not only Christiane in her house but also her half-sister Ernestine and her aunt Juliane; the areas of activity of the two women remained entirely confined to the house and garden. The Weimar court and society rejected the illegitimate and improper relationship, so that, on the Duke's advice, Goethe had to leave his house —known as the "House of the Women" — in the center of Weimar and temporarily move to the Jägerhaus on Marienstraße. The victory of the Napoleonic troops after the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt on 14 October 1806 hit Weimar hard. When the city was looted by French soldiers, the "House of the Women" was also threatened; however, Christiane vigorously opposed invading soldiers and was able to stop the looting until Goethe received official protection from the French commander. A few days later, on 19 October 1806, Goethe and Christiane were finally married in the sacristy of the Jakobskirche.
Even after her marriage, Christiane was only reluctantly and hesitantly accepted by the Weimar Society as "secretary of Goethe". To change his wife's social rejection, Goethe asked the wealthy widow Johanna Schopenhauer to break the barrier with an official invitation to tea. She did so with the remark: "If Goethe gives her his name, we will probably be able to give her a cup of tea."
Christiane's letters to her husband show a natural and common sense, but also her educational gaps. Joyful, practical and energetic, she took care of the extensive household: for example, she regulated after the death of Goethe's mother, Katharina Elisabeth Goethe, in Frankfurt am Main all the inheritance matters. She enjoyed attending social gatherings, dancing and frequenting theater performances in Weimar, but also in other places such as Bad Lauchstädt, where the Weimar theater company performed throughout the summer. She wasn't averse to a innocent flirts. The correspondence with Goethe shows that he also tolerated occasional "making eyes" from his wife. Christiane had an aesthetic feeling and ability to differentiate and was sometimes able to advise Goethe. So Goethe admitted that he could not and would not continue the theater business in Bad Lauchstädt without her. These were, of course, parts of their correspondance that were hidden from many, even to close acquaintances. However, it was not entirely hidden from posterity, which is shown, among other things, by one of the Weimar court sculptors Carl Gottlieb Weisser, who made a bust of Christiane during 1811-12; a bronze copy was placed the pavilion of the spa gardens of Bad Lauchstädt specially built for this purpose.
With increasing age, Christiane's health —who like her husband and their son August was probably overly fond of alcohol consumption—, fluctuated. In 1815 she suffered a stroke. The following year, she had kidney failure with a severe pain. After a week of painful suffering, she died on 6 June 1816. The funeral, in which Goethe didn't take part, took place in the Jacobsfriedhof in Weimar. Friedrich Schiller's wife Charlotte von Lengefeld wrote of Goethe after Christiane's death, "The poor man wept bitterly. It grieves me that he should shed tears for such objects." Her grave, lost for a long time, was only found again in 1888 and provided with a proper grave slab, in which was inscribed Goethe's farewell verses: "You try, oh sun, in vain, / To shine through the dark clouds! / All the gain of my life / Is to cry for her loss."

Descendants

Christiane Vulpius and Goethe only surviving son, Julius August Walther von Goethe, became chamberlain to the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and died while on a visit to Rome. He married Ottilie von Pogwisch, a highly accomplished woman. She later cared for Goethe until he died in 1832. Julius August and Ottilie had three children: Walther Wolfgang, Freiherr von Goethe, known as a composer of operettas and songs; Wolfgang Maximilian, Freiherr von Goethe, a jurist and poet; and Alma von Goethe.

Legacy

Until the mid-20th century, the figure of Christiane Vulpius was hardly studied. Instead, numerous derogatory remarks from contemporaries are handed down later. In 1916 Hans Gerhard Gräf published the correspondence between Goethe and his wife, and Etta Federn was one of the first who seriously investigated about her, writing a biography about her. In 1949 Wolfgang Vulpius wrote a biography about her who was re-edited in 1957. Further sources on her life were investigated by Sigrid Damm in the context of her biography about Christiane published in 1997.

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