Bettina von Arnim

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For the German-born artist, see Bettina von Arnim (artist).

Bettina von Arnim
Ludwig Achim von Arnim
ChildrenGisela von Arnim
RelativesSophie von La Roche (grandmother)
Clemens Brentano (brother)
Christian Brentano (brother)
Franz Brentano (nephew)
Lujo Brentano (nephew)
Herman Grimm (son-in-law)

Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 1785 – 20 January 1859),[1] born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist.

Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual artist, an illustrator, patron of young talent, and a social activist. She was the archetype of the Romantic era's

Pückler and tried to foster artistic agreement among them. Many leading composers of the time, including Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johanna Kinkel, and Johannes Brahms, admired her spirit and talents. As a composer, von Arnim's style was unconventional, molding and melding favorite folk melodies and historical themes with innovative harmonies, phrase lengths, and improvisations that became synonymous with the music of the era. She was closely related to the German writers Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim: the first was her brother, the second her husband. Her daughter Gisela von Arnim became a prominent writer as well. Her nephews, via her brother Christian, were Franz and Lujo Brentano
.

Family and early life

Bettina von Arnim was born at

Frankfurt am Main, into the large Brentano family of Italian merchants. Her mother Maximiliane Brentano died in 1793 at the age of 37. Her grandmother, Sophie von La Roche, was a novelist, and her brother was Clemens Brentano, the great poet known for his lyric poems, libretti, and Singspiele. He was a mentor and protector to her and inspired her to read the poetry of the time, especially Goethe. From an early age Bettina was called 'the kobold
' by her brothers and sisters, a nickname that she maintained later on in Berlin society.

After being educated at an

Friedrich von Savigny, the famous jurist, at Marburg.[2] She formed a friendship with Karoline von Günderrode. The two friends acknowledged only natural impulses, laws, and methods of life, and brooded over the "tyranny" of conventionalities. In 1806, Günderrode committed suicide on account of a passion for the philologist Georg Friedrich Creuzer.[3] In 1807 at Weimar Bettina made the acquaintance of Goethe, for whom she entertained a significant passion, which the poet did not requite, though he entered into correspondence with her. Their friendship came to an abrupt end in 1811, owing to Bettina's behaviour with Goethe's wife.[2]

In 1810, Bettina visited Vienna, staying at the home of her half-brother Franz Brentano and his wife

Beethoven.[4] She later claimed to have been instrumental in arranging the first meeting of Beethoven and Goethe at Teplitz in 1812, and published a letter supposedly written by Beethoven describing how while walking with Goethe, he had refused to step aside for visiting dignitaries while Goethe bowed - an incident that became famous, though the "greatest likelihood is that Bettina made it up".[5]

In 1811, Bettina married

Wiepersdorf castle, and then in Berlin.[6]
They had seven children.

Achim died in 1831, but Bettina maintained an active public life. Her passion for Goethe revived, and in 1835, after lengthy discussions with the writer and landscape gardener

Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, she published her book Goethe's Correspondence with a Child (German: Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde), which purported to be a correspondence between herself and the poet.[2] The book is in large part fictitious. Genuine sonnets of Goethe in it were addressed, not to her, but to Minna Herzlieb. As a work of fiction, the book has been praised.[7]

She continued to write, inspire, and publish until 20 January 1859, when she died in Berlin, aged 73, surrounded by her children. Her grave is in the Wiepersdorf churchyard.[6]

Career

During the years of 1806 to 1808, von Arnim helped gather the

Hellenistic poems by Amalia von Helvig
.

Though domestic duties connected to her 1811 marriage to von Arnim diminished her productivity, several art songs from the period have been recovered and have been published in Werke und Briefe. Von Arnim was the first composer to set the poet Hölderlin's work to music.

She was a

King of Prussia
.

After the 1831 death of her husband, Bettina continued her dedication to the creative community. She published a collection of seven songs in public support of Prussian music director Gaspare Spontini, under duress at the time.

Works

  • Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, 1835[9] (Goethe's correspondence with a child)[10]
  • Die Günderode, 1840 [Miss Günderode] (a fictionalized correspondence with her friend, the poet Karoline von Günderrode (1780–1806))[2]
  • Dies Buch gehört dem König, 1843 (This Book Belongs to the King)[11]
  • Clemens Brentanos Frühlingskranz, aus Jugendbriefen ihm geflochten, wie er selbst schriftlich verlangte, 1844 (Clemens Brentano's Spring Wreath, woven for him from the letters of his youth, as he requested in writing) (genuine letters to and from her brother)[7]
  • Ilius Pamphilius und die Ambrosia, 1848[12]
  • An die aufgelöste Preußische Nationalversammlung, 1849[13]
  • with Gisela von Arnim: Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns, 1840[14]
  • "Tale of the Lucky Purse" (German: Erzählung vom Heckebeutel), a tale that reflects the social sensibilities of the time in regards to the issue of poverty. It was part of her unpublished papers for her Armenbuch (documents of poverty). The tale also reworks the motif of the magical inexhaustible purse found in the European tale of Fortunatus.[15][16]

Letters

  • Bunzel, Wolfgang,ed.: Bettine von Arnim: Letzte Liebe. Das unbekannte Briefbuch. Berlin 2019. Arnim's letters to her friend Julius Döring.
  • Renate Moering, ed., Achim von Arnim – Bettine Brentano verh. von Arnim: Briefwechsel. 3 vols. Complete edition after the original manuscripts with commentary, Reichert, Wiesbaden 2019.
  • Gajek, Enid and Bernhard Gajek, eds., Bettine von Arnim, Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, »Die Leidenschaft ist der Schlüssel zur Welt«. Briefwechsel 1832–1844 (“Passion is the key to the world.” Correspondence 1832–1844), with commentary, Cotta, Stuttgart 2001,
    ISBN 3-7681-9809-X

Legacy

The German-American settlement of

Schleicher County, and Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Herff, who in 1854 became the first surgeon to use anesthesia in Texas.[17] The community's third founder was Hermann Spiess
.

Part of von Arnim's design for a colossal statue of Goethe, executed in marble by the sculptor

Weimar in 1911.[2]

The chamber opera Bettina by Friedrich Schenker, which was premiered in Berlin in 1987, deals with her friendship to Karoline von Günderrode.

Her relationship with Goethe featured in Milan Kundera's 1990 novel Immortality.[18]

From 1991 until 31 December 2001, her portrait was on the German 5-Deutsche Mark bill.

Her friendship with Robert Schumann featured in Andrew Crumey's 2004 novel Mobius Dick. She is also mentioned in Crumey's 2023 novel Beethoven's Assassins.

In 2006, the German government turned

Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, the estate of the von Arnims, into a literary institute.[19][20]
The institute contains a museum devoted to the von Arnims' literary legacy.

References

  1. ^ Kluckhohn, Paul (1955). "Arnim, Bettina von". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. p. 589. (full text online).
  2. ^ a b c d e  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arnim, Elisabeth (Bettina) von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 630.
  3. The American Cyclopædia
    .
  4. ISBN 069102717X
    .
  5. ^ Crumey, Andrew. "When Beethoven Met Goethe". Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Ludwig Achim and Bettina von Arnim". schloss-wiepersdorf.de. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  7. ^
    New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  8. ISBN 978-3-499-50369-6
    .
  9. ^ "Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde". archive.org. 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  10. ^ "Goethe's Correspondence with a Child – English Translation – e-text edition By Bettine von Arnim". www.hedweb.com. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  11. ^ Arnim, Bettina von (1843). "Dies Buch Gehört dem König". archive.org. Berlin: Schröder. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  12. ^ Arnim, Bettina von (1848). "Ilius Pamphilius und die Ambrosia". F. Volckmar (Expedition des von Arnim'schen Verlags). Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  13. ^ "An die aufgelöste preußische Nationalversammlung". www.fh-augsburg.de.
  14. ^ "Das Leben der Hochgraefin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns…". Goodreads. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  15. ^ Brentano-von Arnim, Bettina; Helen G. Morris-Keitel. "Tale of the Lucky Purse". Marvels & Tales 11, no. 1/2 (1997): 127-33. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  16. ^ Koehler, Julie. "When the Inexhaustible Purse Runs Dry: Bettina Von Arnim's "Tale of the Lucky Purse"". Marvels & Tales 33, no. 1 (2019): 64-81. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  17. ^ Richard Zelade. "Lyman Wight's Mormon Colony in Texas - excerpt from "Mormon Trails" chapter in Hill Country travel guide". Retrieved 6 August 2007. Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "Immortality". Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Schloss Wiepersdorf" [Castle Wiepersdorf] (in German). Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  20. ^ "Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf" (in German). Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
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