Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius (Weimar, 1 June 1765 – Weimar, 6 June 1816) was the mistress and wife of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In 1788, when a young woman of Weimar, Goethe addressed to her the Römische Elegiens, an epithalamium. They lived together quasi-maritally from 1788 till their marriage in 1806, and afterward till her death in 1816, to his own satisfaction, but to the scandal of the ladies of Weimar and the vexation of Bettina von Arnim-Brentano. Friedrich Schiller's wife Charlotte von Lengefeld wrote of Goethe after Christiane's death, "The poor man wept bitterly. It grieves me that he should shed tears for such objects."[1]
Christiane was the sister of Christian August Vulpius; she became the dearest woman in the life of Goethe, having replaced Frau von Stein. Goethe married her the day after she saved his life by physically resisting French soldiers who had invaded his house. Christine Vulpius and Goethe produced a son, Karl August von Goethe (25 December 1789 – 28 October 1830), and whose wife, Ottilie von Pogwisch (31 October 1796 – 26 October 1872), cared for Goethe until he died in 1832. They had three children: Walther, Freiherr von Goethe (9 April 1818 – 15 April 1885), Wolfgang, Freiherr von Goethe (18 September 1820 – 20 January 1883) and Alma von Goethe (29 October 1827 – 29 September 1844).
References
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
- ^ Damm, Sigrid, Christiane und Goethe: Eine Recherche (Frankfurt: Insel, 1998), quoted in Karin Barton, "Goethe über alles," Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer, 2001), pp. 630-637.
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