Rahel Antonie Friederike Varnhagen () (née Levin, later Robert; 19 May 1771 – 7 March 1833)
was a German writer who hosted one of the most prominent
salons in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She is the subject of a celebrated
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
, ''
Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess'' (1957), written by
Hannah Arendt. Arendt cherished Varnhagen as her "closest friend, though she ha
been dead for some hundred years". The
asteroid 100029 Varnhagen is
named in her honour.
Life and works
Rahel Antonie Friederike Levin was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. Her father, a wealthy jeweller, was a strong-willed man who ruled his family despotically. She became close friends with
Dorothea
Dorothea (also spelled Dorothée, Dorotea or other variants) is a female given name from Greek (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift". It may refer to:
People
* Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war cr ...
and
Henriette, daughters of the philosopher
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or ' ...
. Through them she got to know
Henriette Herz, with whom she would become intimately associated throughout her life, moving in the same intellectual spheres. Together with Herz and her cousin,
Sara Grotthuis née Meyer, she hosted one of the famous Berlin salons of the 1800s. Her home became the meeting place for artists, poets and intellectuals such as
Schlegel
Schlegel is a German occupational surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Anthony Schlegel (born 1981), former American football linebacker
* August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845), German poet, older brother of Friedrich
* Brad Schlege ...
,
Schelling Schelling is a surname. Notable persons with that name include:
* Caroline Schelling (1763–1809), German intellectual
* Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher
* Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858–1945), American educato ...
,
Steffens,
Schack,
Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional ...
,
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
and
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...
,
Motte Fouqué, Baron
Brückmann,
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Early life
Tieck was born in B ...
,
Jean Paul
Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.
Life and work
Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountain ...
, and
Friedrich Gentz. During a visit to
Carlsbad in 1795 she was introduced to
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
, whom she met again in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
in 1815.
After 1806, she lived in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, Frankfurt am Main,
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, and
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. This period was one of misfortune for
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
;
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
was reduced to a small kingdom and its king was in exile. Secret societies were formed in every part of the country with the object of throwing off the tyranny of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
. Levin herself belonged to one of these societies.
In 1814, she married the biographer
Karl August Varnhagen von Ense
Karl August Varnhagen von Ense (21 February 1785 in Düsseldorf – 10 October 1858 in Berlin) was a German biographer, diplomat and soldier.
Life and career
He was born in Düsseldorf, the younger brother of Rosa Maria Varnhagen, a noted poet, ...
in Berlin, after having
converted to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
— this also made her sister-in-law to the poet
Rosa Maria Assing
Rosa Maria Antonetta Paulina Assing (née Varnhagen; 28 May 1783, Düsseldorf – 22 January 1840, Hamburg) was a German lyric poet, prose-writer, educator, translator, and silhouette artist. She was the elder sister of Karl August Varnhagen, ...
. At the time of their marriage, her husband, who had fought in the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n army against the
French, belonged to the Prussian
diplomatic corps
The diplomatic corps (french: corps diplomatique) is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body.
The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission ( ...
, and their house in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
became a meeting place for Prussian delegates to the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
. In 1815, she accompanied her husband to Vienna and then to
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
in 1816, where he became a Prussian representative. She returned to Berlin in 1819, when her husband retired from his diplomatic position.
Though never the author of a major book, Rahel Varnhagen is remembered for the intensity and variety of her correspondence. Six thousand letters have survived, out of an estimated ten thousand written by her in the course of her lifetime. A few of her essays were published in ''Das Morgenblatt'', ''Das Schweizerische Museum,'' and ''Der Gesellschafter;'' in 1830, her ''Denkblätter einer Berlinerin'' was published in Berlin. Her husband, Karl August, edited and published her correspondence in the 20 years after her death. Her correspondence with
David Veit and with Karl August was published in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, in 1861 and 1874–1875 respectively.
Rahel Varnhagen died in Berlin in 1833. Her grave is located in the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I Berlin-Kreuzberg. Her husband published two memorial volumes after her death containing selections from her work: ''Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens für ihre Freunde'' (Rahel, a Memorial Book for her Friends; 3 vols., 1834; new ed., 1903) and ''Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahels Umgang'' (Gallery of Portraits from Rahel's Circle; 2 vols., 1836).
Relations with Judaism
According to the ''
Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906), "Rahel always showed the greatest interest in her former
co-religionists, endeavouring by word and deed to better their position, especially during the
anti-Semitic outburst in Germany in 1819. On the day of her funeral Varnhagen sent a considerable sum of money to the Jewish poor of Berlin."
Amos Elon wrote about Rahel Varnhagen in his 2002 book ''
The Pity of It All: A History of the Jews in Germany, 1743-1933'':
Rahel's husband published an account of her deathbed scene, which
Amos Elon described as "stylized and possibly overdramatised", including her alleged last words:
The poet
Ludwig Robert was her brother and she corresponded extensively with him. Her sister Rosa was married to
Karel Asser.
Ludmilla Assing
Rosa Ludmilla Assing (22 February 1821 in Hamburg – 25 March 1880 in Florence) was a German writer, who also wrote under the pseudonyms ''Achim Lothar'' and ''Talora''.
Life
Ludmilla Assing was the second daughter of author Rosa Maria Varn ...
and
Ottilie Assing
Ottilie Davida Assing (11 February 1819 – 21 August 1884) was a 19th-century German-American feminist, freethinker, and abolitionist.
Early life and education
Born in Hamburg, she was the eldest daughter of poet Rosa Maria Varnhagen, raised ...
were her nieces-in-law.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
External links
Official website of the Varnhagen Society, Cologne(in German)
Annotated bibliographic entry for Hannah Arendt's ''Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess'' from the Center for Cultural Judaism(in Italian and German)
Rahel_Varnhagen:_The_Salon_Life,_Video_Lecture_by_Dr._Henry_Abramson.html" ;"title="Henry Abramson">Rahel Varnhagen: The Salon Life, Video Lecture by Dr. Henry Abramson
">Henry Abramson">Rahel Varnhagen: The Salon Life, Video Lecture by Dr. Henry Abramson
br>
Website of Prof. Deborah Hertz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varnhagen, Rahel
1771 births
1833 deaths
Varnhagen family, Rahel
Writers from Berlin
Age of Enlightenment
Romanticism
German women writers
19th-century women writers
19th-century German writers
18th-century German Jews
Converts to Christianity from Judaism
German salon-holders
Burials at Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I, Berlin
People of the Haskalah
Jewish women writers
Women letter writers