Dorothea Schlegel
Dorothea Schlegel, born in 1763 in Berlin, Germany, was a prominent literary figure and the eldest daughter of the influential Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Initially named Brendel, she married Simon Veit in 1783, but their relationship lacked intellectual engagement. In the 1790s, she became active in literary salons, where she met poet Friedrich Schlegel, beginning a transformative affair that led to her divorce in 1799. Following her marriage to Friedrich in 1804, she embraced a literary path, writing poetry and fiction, and translating significant works, including the memoirs of historical figures. The couple’s life was marked by financial difficulties and relocations, including moves to Paris, Cologne, and Vienna, where they converted to Catholicism. After Friedrich’s death in 1829, Dorothea returned to Frankfurt, where she lived with her youngest son until her own death in 1839. She is remembered for her contributions to literature and her role within the Romantic movement.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Dorothea Schlegel
Writer
- Born: October 24, 1763
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
- Died: August 3, 1839
- Place of death: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Biography
Dorothea Schlegel was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1763. She was the eldest daughter of one of Germany’s first Jewish philosophers, Moses Mendelssohn, who gave her the name Brendel, by which she was known until her thirties. In 1783, she married Jewish banker Simon Veit, in keeping with custom and family expectations rather than out of love, and the two had four children, two of whom died in infancy. She was not intellectually stimulated in her relationship with her husband and in the 1790’s began frequenting the literary salons of her friends Henriette Herz and Rahel Levin; in these circles in September, 1797, she met poet and literary critic Friedrich Schlegel, with whom she fell in love and began an affair. She divorced Veit in 1799 and was allowed to keep her youngest son after promising she would not remarry or raise the boy as a Christian.
Friedrich Schlegel returned to his home in Jena in September, 1799, and Dorothea followed one month later. She was devoted to Friederich, and he in return passionately encouraged her to pursue her writing interests. She learned Italian so she could read Dante and she began writing poetry, but Friedrich, a Romantic writer, steered her toward fiction writing. Therefore, just two months after arriving in Jena, Dorothea Schlegel was engrossed in writing the novel Florentin, the first—and as it would turn out, only—part of which was published anonymously by Friedrich Schlegel in 1801.
Financial struggles befell the couple around 1801, and Dorothea began work on her first major translation, Geschichte der Jungfrau von Orleans, a German-language version of the anonymous Mémoires concernant la Pucelle d’Orleans. The couple were together in Paris by November,1802, and when Friedrich’s journal effort, Europa, failed, Dorothea translated the memoirs of French King Henry IV’s first wife as Geschichte der Margaretha von Valois.
Dorothea Schlegel converted to Protestantism, and on April 6, 1804, she and Frederick married, shortly thereafter moving to Cologne so that Friedrich could seek a professorial position at a newly reopened university, leaving her youngest son with his father during the time away. In Cologne the couple converted to Catholicism in 1808. Dorothea Schlegel continued to translate various works, and after moving on from such endeavors around 1808, she remained prolific in her letter writing. Giving up his hopes for professorial work, Friedrich Schlegel sought work in Vienna, and Dorothea soon followed. By April 1816, the couple were in Frankfurt am Main, where Friedrich had become a councilor. When he lost his job two years later, Dorothea offered and proceeded to move to Rome to live with her sons, thus lessening her husband’s financial burdens while he tried to build his career. The Schlegels reunited in Vienna in 1820. Friedrich Schlegel died in Dresden in January, 1829, during a lecture tour. Dorothea Schlegel moved back to Frankfurt am Main the next year and for the remaining ten years of her life lived with her youngest son, Philipp. She died in 1839.