Pauline Gotter (29 December 1786 – 31 December 1854) was the second wife of

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him b ...

and a friend of Louise Seidler and Sylvie von Cigars.

Life

Angelica Pauline Amalie Gotter was born on 29 December 1786. Her parents were the playwright, Privy Councilor ("

Geheimrat ''Geheimrat'' was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic r ...

") and archivist

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter (3 September 1746 – 18 March 1797) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography He was born at Gotha. He started out studying law, but early on was influenced to write for the theatre. After the completion of his univer ...

and Louise Gotter (née Stiege). Her mother was a close friend of

Caroline Schlegel Caroline Schelling, née Michaelis, widowed Böhmer, divorced Schlegel (2 September 1763 – 7 September 1809), was a noted German intellectual. She was one of the so-called '' Universitätsmamsellen'', a group of five academically active women d ...

(née Michaelis), while her father had been close friends with

Johann Wolfgang von 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 t ...

since his youth. Pauline Gotter had two sisters and knew Goethe and Caroline Schlegel from childhood on. In her youth she was friends with Sylvie von Ziegesar and the painter Louise Seidler. Together with her friends, she had access to Jena's most elevated intellectual circles, which at that time comprised such creative minds as

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in ...

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...

, brothers

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 ...

, brothers Friedrich and

August Wilhelm Schlegel August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...

, Friedrich Tieck,

Clemens Brentano Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano (also Klemens; pseudonym: Clemens Maria Brentano ; ; 9 September 1778 – 28 July 1842) was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz ...

, Voß, Paulus, Niethammer,

Zacharias Werner Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner (November 18, 1768 – January 17, 1823) was a German poet, dramatist, and preacher. As a dramatist, he is known mainly for inaugurating the era of the so-called "tragedies of fate". Biography Werner was born at ...

and others. Pauline Gotter loved her mother's friends. Caroline Schlegel was an intelligent woman who had sided with the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, and as a result was nearly arrested for treason. Her daughter, who was almost the same age as Pauline Gotter, was the first love of the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, a rising star in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

's intellectual world, and a passionate follower of

. When she fell sick with dysentery in 1800, he tried desperately to find some means by which to stave off her death. Pauline Gotter and her family were forced to stand by as accusations were made of Schelling and rumors were spread. "Schelling," said

Dorothea Veit Dorothea Friederike von Schlegel (; 24 October 1764 – 3 August 1839) was a German novelist and translator. Life She was born as Brendel Mendelssohn in 1764 in Berlin.In older literature and on her gravestone one finds the date 1763, but this i ...

, "had a hand in it." Jena's literary magazine, the ''Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung,'' reported, "He cares for her 'flawlessly' and kills her 'honestly.'" Rumors, accusations, and gossip didn't die down, and

and his wife Caroline divorced in 1803 at Goethe's behest. Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling married her two months later. They left Jena together in 1804 and moved to

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

, where Schelling received a teaching position at the university, and Caroline Schelling stood faithfully by her new husband's side. In 1806 Pauline Gotter stayed with her friend Sylvie von Ziegesar in Karlsbad, where Goethe courted Ziegesar and dedicated some of his poems to her. Her friend Louise Seidler also enjoyed the favor of the German prince of poets, who instructed her to paint a portrait of him. On 7 September 1809, Caroline Schelling (formerly Schlegel) died suddenly. Pauline Gotter and her family were very distraught at her death. They wrote letters and paid visits to Schelling in an effort to console him, but he became progressively more withdrawn and expressed growing criticism of science and of the church. This increasingly intimate correspondence lead to his engagement with Pauline Gotter. On 11 June 1812, Pauline Gotter married Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, who was eleven years her senior, and who was elevated to the nobility and invited to join to the Academy of Science in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

in the same year. On 17 December 1813 their first child was born. Five more followed. One of their daughters was named Caroline, in honor of Friedrich's first wife. Pauline Schelling took charge of running the house and raising the children. Her letters possessed a natural, spirited grace, though they lacked the intellectual significance of his first wife's writings. She was in this respect no substitute for Caroline in Friedrich's eyes, and he grew unpersonable and withdrew rapidly into incoherent writings on mythology and irritated responses to Hegel as he ascended to scholarly fame. Pauline Schelling died on 31 December 1854, four months after her husband.

References

External links

* Brief mention of Pauline Gotter in
Correspondence with her friend Louise Seidler
(in German)
Meeting with Goethe in 1806 in Karlsbad
(in German)

(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gotter, Pauline 1786 births 1854 deaths Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

Life

References

Further reading

External links