Bettina von Arnim | |
|---|---|
 Bettina von Arnim as drawn byLudwig Emil Grimm during the first decade of the 19th century | |
| Born | Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano (1785-04-04)4 April 1785 |
| Died | 20 January 1859(1859-01-20) (aged 73) |
| Resting place | Wiepersdorf |
| Pen name | Beans Beor |
| Occupation | Writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual artist |
| Language | German |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Spouse | Ludwig Achim von Arnim |
| Children | Gisela von Arnim |
| Relatives | Sophie von La Roche (grandmother) Clemens Brentano (brother) Christian Brentano (brother) Franz Brentano (nephew) Lujo Brentano (nephew) Herman Grimm (son-in-law) |
Bettina von Arnim (bornElisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano; 4 April 1785 – 20 January 1859)[1] was a German writer, composer, and novelist.
Bettina (orBettine) 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'szeitgeist and the crux of many creative relationships of canonical artistic figures. Best known for the company she kept, she numbered among her closest friendsGoethe,Beethoven,Schleiermacher, andPückler and tried to foster artistic agreement among them. Many leading composers of the time, includingFelix and Fanny Mendelssohn,Robert and Clara Schumann,Franz Liszt,Johanna Kinkel, andJohannes 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 writersClemens Brentano andAchim von Arnim: the first was her brother, the second her husband. Her daughterGisela von Arnim became a prominent writer as well. Her nephews, via her brotherChristian, wereFranz andLujo Brentano.
Bettina von Arnim was born atFrankfurt am Main, into the largeBrentano family of Italian merchants. Her motherMaximiliane 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, andSingspiele. 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 'thekobold' by her brothers and sisters, a nickname that she maintained later on in Berlin society.
After being educated at anUrsulines convent school inFritzlar from 1794 to 1797, Bettina lived for a while with her grandmother atOffenbach am Main and from 1803 to 1806 with her brother-in-law,Friedrich von Savigny, the famous jurist, atMarburg.[2] She formed a friendship withKaroline 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 philologistGeorg Friedrich Creuzer.[3] In 1807 atWeimar 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 wifeAntonie. It was at this time she metBeethoven.[4] She later claimed to have been instrumental in arranging the first meeting of Beethoven and Goethe atTeplitz 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 marriedAchim von Arnim, the renownedRomantic poet and member of the notableArnim family. The couple settled first at theWiepersdorf castle, and then inBerlin.[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 gardenerHermann von Pückler-Muskau, she published her bookGoethe'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 toMinna 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 inBerlin, aged 73, surrounded by her children. Her grave is in the Wiepersdorf churchyard.[6]
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During the years of 1806 to 1808, von Arnim helped gather thefolk songs that made upDes Knaben Wunderhorn, the collaborative work of her brother and her future husband,Achim von Arnim. Some of the songs were later put to music by a number of composers, among themGustav Mahler. The collection became a touchstone of the Romantic musical and poetic style. From 1808 to 1809 she studied voice, composition, and piano inMunich under Peter von Winter and Sebastian Bopp. She published her first song under the pseudonymBeans Beor, which she occasionally used later as well.[8] Bettina sang briefly in the Berliner Singakademie and composed settings ofHellenistic poems byAmalia 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 inWerke und Briefe. Von Arnim was the first composer to set the poetHölderlin's work to music.
She was amuse to the progressives ofPrussia, linked to thesocialist movement[citation needed] and an advocate for the oppressedJewish community. She published two politically dissident works but evaded chastisement because of her friendship with theKing 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 directorGaspare Spontini, under duress at the time.[9]
The German-American settlement ofBettina in the state ofTexas was founded in 1847, and named by its progressive, idealistic founders after Bettina von Arnim. Located near the juncture of Elm Creek and theLlano River, it lasted only a year. No trace of the Bettina community survives, though two of its three founders subsequently became prominent:Gustav Schleicher, later a U.S. congressman and namesake ofSchleicher County, and Dr.Ferdinand Ludwig Herff, who in 1854 became the first surgeon to useanesthesia in Texas.[17] The community's third founder wasHermann Spiess.
Part of von Arnim's design for a colossal statue of Goethe, executed in marble by the sculptorCarl Johann Steinhäuser (1813–1878), was displayed in the museum atWeimar in 1911.[2]
The chamber operaBettina byFriedrich Schenker, which was premiered in Berlin in 1987, deals with her friendship toKaroline von Günderrode.
Her relationship with Goethe featured inMilan Kundera's 1990 novelImmortality.[18]
From 1991 until 31 December 2001, her portrait was on the German 5-Deutsche Mark bill.
Her friendship withRobert Schumann featured inAndrew Crumey's 2004 novelMobius Dick. She is also mentioned in Crumey's 2023 novelBeethoven's Assassins.
In 2006, the German government turnedKünstlerhaus 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.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arnim, Elisabeth (Bettina) von".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 630.
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