Susette Gontard (''née'' Borkenstein; 1769 – 1802), dubbed Diotima by the German poet

Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...

after

Diotima of Mantinea Diotima of Mantinea (; el, Διοτίμα; la, Diotīma) is the name or pseudonym of an ancient Greek character in Plato's dialogue '' Symposium'', possibly an actual historical figure, indicated as having lived circa 440 B.C. Her ideas and doc ...

, was the inspiration for Hölderlin's novel '' Hyperion'', published in 1797–1799. She was the wife of Hölderlin's employer, the

Frankfurt 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 ...

banker Jakob Friedrich Gontard. It is generally believed that the poet's fatal passion for her contributed to his descent into insanity and ultimate death. Hölderlin and Gontard exchanged a large body of letters, which was preserved and has been published in many editions.

References

1769 births 1802 deaths 18th-century German writers German letter writers Women letter writers 18th-century German women writers 18th-century German women {{Germany-writer-stub