Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, born Catharina Elisabeth Textor, (19 February 1731 – 13 September 1808) was the mother of German playwright and poet

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 ...

and his sister

Cornelia Schlosser Cornelia Friederica Christiana Schlosser (née Goethe; 7 December 1750 – 8 June 1777) was the sister and only sibling of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who survived to adulthood. Life Cornelia Goethe, 15 months younger than her brother Johann Wo ...

. She was also known by the nickname Frau Aja and the title Frau Rat.

Biography

Catharina Elisabeth was born to Johann Wolfgang Textor (1693–1771) and Anna Margaretha Lindheimer (1711–1783) on 19 February 1731. Johann Wolfgang was a wealthy lawyer involved with

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 it ...

politics. She married

Johann Caspar Goethe Johann Caspar Goethe (29 July 1710 – 25 May 1782) was a wealthy German jurist and royal councillor to the Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire. His son, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is considered one of the greatest German poets and authors of all ti ...

, on 20 August 1748, after which she moved into his house on Großer Hirschgraben. Three months later, she became pregnant aged 18, and her son Johann Wolfgang was born at the house on 28 August 1749. Goethe was soon pregnant again, and gave birth to her second child, Cornelia, on 7 December 1750. 5 more children followed, but none survived to adulthood. After the death of Georg Adolf in 1761, the Goethes did not try for any more children; each birth posed a great risk to both the mother and child. Catharina Elisabeth's role in the Goethe household primarily involved looking after her children; the Goethes had a servant, a cook and two maids who did most of the household tasks. Catharina Elisabeth was a pietist and did not often attend church, preferring the

conventicle A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly, and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level ''conventicle'' is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word church, and points to Jesus' promise in M ...

of the pietists instead. Goethe Familie J

In 1774, Johann Wolfgang published ''

The Sorrows of Young Werther ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (; german: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the '' Sturm und Drang'' period in Ge ...

'', which brought him great fame, and thus many guests came to visit the Goethe household. Catharina Elisabeth revelled in caring for these guests. In 1775, Goethe moved to

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, but the Goethe House in Frankfurt still remained a popular spot to visit, with guests wanting to meet the mother of the famed playwright. Many of these guests became correspondents of Catharina Elisabeth, such as

Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (24 October 173910 April 1807), was a German princess and composer. She became the duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, by marriage, and was also regent of the states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to ...

and

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

. Johann Caspar became ill in 1780, and died in 1782, after which Catharina Elisabeth occupied their house alone. She sold the house in 1795 and moved into an apartment on Frankfurt's Roßmark, in which she lived until her death on 13 September 1808. Goethe was buried at the Textor family grave in the in Frankfurt.

Legacy

She is the heroine of

's ''Dies Buch gehört dem König'' (1843), and is one of the central figures of

Karl Gutzkow Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow ( in Berlin – in Sachsenhausen) was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century. Life Gutzkow was born of an extremely poor family, not proletarian, but of the lowest and most meni ...

's play ''Der Königsleutnant''. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of her death, a marble statue was erected of Catharina Elisabeth in the

Palmengarten The Palmengarten is one of three botanical gardens in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is located in the Westend-Süd district. It covers a surface of 22 hectares. It is a major tourist attraction. History Like many public sites in Frankfurt ...

, showing her playing with the young Johann Wolfgang. In 1876, the first secondary school for girls in Frankfurt, the Elisabethenschule was named after Catharina Elisabeth.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goethe, Catharina Elisabeth 1731 births 1808 deaths German letter writers Women letter writers German women writers 18th-century women writers People from Frankfurt Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Burials at St Peter's Cemetery, Frankfurt