Charlotte Pistorius (5 November 1777 – 14 September 1850)
was a German poet and letter-writer. She belonged to the circle of friends around
Ernst Moritz Arndt
Ernst Moritz Arndt (26 December 1769 – 29 January 1860) was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Swe ...
, and corresponded with him and other notable writers, including
Friedrich Schleiermacher. She took care of family members, and supported education for the lower classes of the population.
Life
Born Charlotte Helene Henriette Pritzbuer in (now part of
Sundhagen), she was the daughter of Theodor Pritzbuer (1731-1819), the local pastor,
and his third wife, Helena Dorothea Margarete von Hellström, who died in 1816. In 1787, the family moved to the small town of
Garz on the island of
Rügen
Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...
, where her father became pastor at the
St.-Petri-Kirche. Charlotte Pritzbuer, inspired by her parental home, acquired an extensive education, mainly as an autodidact.
On 3 September 1797, she married Johann Philipp Pistorius (1767-1823), the second son of pastor
Hermann Andreas Pistorius Hermann Andreas Pistorius (8 April 1730 – 10 November 1798) was a German Protestant-Lutheran theologian and clergyman, philosopher, reviewer, translator and writer. During his lifetime he was regarded as "the most learned man on Rügen".
Early l ...
,
who was an administrative assistant to her sick father. After the death of her father-in-law in 1798, her brother-in-law
Christian Pistorius (1765-1823) moved in with the young couple. Since 1807 her husband had suffered from a lung disease, from which he died in 1823. The marriage had remained childless. Her brother-in-law died the same year, leaving her alone in the vicarage. From 1825 to 1826 she kept the household of the widowed professor
Karl Schildener
Karl Schildener (26 August 1777 – 28 December 1843) was a German lawyer, legal historian and university lecturer.
Life and achievements
Schildener was born on 26 August 1777 in Greifswald in what was then Swedish Pomerania. His father was t ...
in
Greifswald
Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...
, but then returned to Garz. She devoted herself to charitable causes, such as further education for the lower classes of the population. In 1833 she took in her brother-in-law Karl Pistorius and cared for him until his death in 1844.
Charlotte Pistorius maintained an extensive correspondence. She had known the influential historian Ernst Moritz Arndt since her youth, and they later became friends.
Arndt dedicated several poems to her. Correspondence between them has been published in several editions of his letters. As early as 1796 and 1797 she corresponded with
Ehrenfried von Willich, who later became a friend of theologian
Friedrich Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher met her in 1804 during his visit to Rügen
on the occasion of Willich's wedding.
She corresponded with him for over ten years,
discussing subjects such as literature - including the works of the author
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
- and religion. She was friends with
Charlotte von Kathen, who had already been in correspondence with Arndt and Schleiermacher. Through , the mayor of Stralsund, she was inspired to conduct her own studies on the history of Rügen. She sent essays and drawings to the , which were partly used in the . In addition she wrote a biography of her father. She left a collection of unpublished poems and poetry drafts.
Pistorius died in Garz at age 72.
Further reading
*
Erich Gülzow
Erich Gülzow (29 March 1888 – 16 August 1954) was a German local historian, philologist and publisher. He wrote books on the history of Vorpommern and Rügen island. Through his publications on Ernst Moritz Arndt he became known beyond the bor ...
: ''Heimatbriefe Ernst Moritz Arndts.'' In: Rügisch-Pommerscher Geschichtsverein (ed.): ''Pommersche Jahrbücher'' 3rd supplementary volume, Julius Abel, Greifswald 1919, pp. 3f.
* Otto R. Gervais: 'E. M. Arndt und Charlotte Pistorius', ''Unser Pommerland'', vol. XIX, no. 4 (1934), pp. 134–139.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pistorius, Charlotte
German women poets
People from Vorpommern-Rügen
Women letter writers
19th-century German poets
1777 births
1850 deaths
19th-century German women writers