Katharina Sibylla Schücking (''née'' Busch; 26 January 1791,

Ahlen Ahlen (; Westphalian: ''Aulen'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 30 km southeast of Münster. Ahlen is part of the District of Warendorf and is economically the most important town in that district. Ahlen is part of the larger ...

2 November 1831, Ludmillenhof,

Sögel Sögel is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Sögel is most known for the Clemenswerth Palace, a hunting lodge built 1737-1749 by Johann Conrad Schlaun for Elector Clemens August. Personalities Born in Söge ...

, near

Meppen Meppen (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Möppen'') is a town in and the seat of the Emsland district of Lower Saxony, Germany, at the confluence of the Ems (river), Ems, Hase, and Nordradde rivers and the Dortmund–Ems Canal (DEK). The name stems from t ...

) was a German poet from

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

Life

She was the eldest of Elisabeth Busch (''née'' Elverfeldt)'s twelve children with her husband,

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

Ignatz Anton Busch (a ''Stadtrichter'' and ''Landrichter''). She grew up in

Dülmen Dülmen () is a town in the district of Coesfeld (district), Coesfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Dülmen is situated in the south part of the Münsterland area, between the Lippe (river), Lippe river to the south, the Baumberge ...

and was educated at Agnetenberg abbey. She spent 1807 to 1809 in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

, where her literary talent was recognised and encouraged by Anton Matthias Sprickmann and where she also joined the circle of

Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin Princess Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin (also known as Amalia Samuilovna Golitsyna or in Russian as Амалия Самуиловна Голицына; 28 August 1748 – 17 April 1806) was a German salonist. She was the daughter of the Prussian Fie ...

. She returned to Dülmen in 1809. She first published her poetry in 1810, in

Friedrich Raßmann Friedrich Raßmann (3 May 1772 - 9 April 1831) was a prolific German writer, editor and producer of newspapers and journals. He can also plausibly be seen as an anthologist, an encyclopaedist and a bibliographer. Life Provenance and early years ...

's ''Mimigardia''. She had asked for the poems to be published anonymously, but the publisher did not respect her wishes and her name and residence were appended to them. This led to her being scorned and ridiculed but did not do permanent damage to her reputation as a poet – in 1813 she first met

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (; 10 January 179724 May 1848), was a 19th-century German poet, novelist, and composer of Classical music. She was ...

, becoming a close friend and thinking of her as her "poetic idol". Droste later dedicated her poem ''Catharine Schücking'' to her. Schücking later wrote under the pseudonym "Pauline zu Cl." In 1813, she married Paulus Modestus Schücking. The couple had six children: Christoph Bernhard Levin Matthias (1814–1883); Peter August Gerhard (1816–1817); Anton Matthias Franz Alfred (1818–1898); Ida Josephina Theophania Desideria (1821–1883); Modesta Paulina Nicolaia Roswitha (1825–1896); and Prosper Ludwig (1828–1887). In 1815, the Schücking family moved to Sögel, leaving Katharina socially and geographically isolated and bringing her writing to a standstill.

Works

Letters

* Briefe an Anton Mathias Sprickmann, in: Groß, 1885, Bd. 1, S. 216f. * Briefe an Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, in: K. Schulte Kemminghausen: Ein schicksalhafter Brief. Zum 150. Geburtstag Levin Schückings, in: ''Westf. Nachrichten,'' Nr. 206 vom 5. September 1964.

Sources

* K. Weber: ''Katharina Schücking. Ein Erziehungs- und Lebensbild aus dem Anfang des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts''. Diss. Münster 1918 andschr.(ULB Münster). * Levin Schücking: ''Lebenserinnerungen''. 2 Bde. Breslau 1886 – zahlr. Erwähnungen in der Literatur über Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, z.B. in Darstellungen von Elise von Hohenhausen und Elise Rüdiger.

External links

Glossary and bibliography of Westphalian authors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schucking 1791 births 1831 deaths 19th-century German writers 19th-century German women writers German women poets People from Ahlen 19th-century poets