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Dorothea Friederike von Schlegel | |
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 Portrait byAnton Graff (c.1790) | |
| Born | Brendel Mendelssohn 24 October 1764 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 3 August 1839(1839-08-03) (aged 74) Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Occupations | Novelist, translator |
| Era | German Enlightenment |
| Notable work | Florentin (1801) |
| Spouses |
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| Children | |
| Parent |
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| Family | Mendelssohn family |
Dorothea Friederike von Schlegel (née Brendel Mendelssohn; 24 October 1764 – 3 August 1839) was a German novelist and translator.
She was born asBrendel Mendelssohn in 1764 inBerlin,[1]oldest daughter of the philosopherMoses Mendelssohn, a leading figure in theGerman Enlightenment (die deutsche Aufklärung). In 1783, she married the merchant and bankerSimon Veit (1754–1819), brother of the physicianDavid Veit (1771–1814). Their son,Philipp Veit, would later become part of a circle of German Christian painters called "the Nazarenes", who influenced the English painters in thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. She met the poet and criticFriedrich von Schlegel in the salon of her friendHenriette Herz in July 1797, after which Dorothea divorced Simon on 11 January 1799.
She obtained custody of her younger son, Philipp, and lived with him in an apartment on Ziegelstraße inJena. This apartment became a salon frequented by Tieck,Schelling, the Schlegel brothers, andNovalis.
In 1801, Schlegel anonymously published Dorothea's novel Florentin. Dorothea and Friedrich lived in Paris from 1802 until 1804, and after her divorce, they married asProtestants. In 1807, she translated "Corinne" byMadame de Staël from French.
In 1808, Friedrich and Dorothea converted toCatholicism. (She may have adopted the name "Dorothea" from a 17th-century Dorothea von Schlegel who composed Catholichymns). They continued to visit the salons ofRahel Levin and Henriette Herz, as well as the constellation which surroundedMadame de Staël. Friedrich died in 1829, after which Dorothea moved toFrankfurt am Main. There, she lived with her son Philipp (also a convert to a medieval style of Catholicism) until she died in 1839.
As the daughter of a member of the German literary establishment,Moses Mendelssohn, Dorothea was surrounded throughout her life by poets, critics, musicians, novelists, and philosophers of Europe.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was her father's closest friend and colleague, and theEmancipation andsecularization of the Jews and Jewish culture was a direct outcome of their work. (Mendelssohn was the model for Nathan der Weise in Lessing's play of the same name.) Dorothea's brother,Joseph, was a friend and sponsor ofAlexander von Humboldt, the naturalist and ethnologist.Felix Mendelssohn, the composer, and his sisterFanny Mendelssohn, also a gifted musician, were her nephew and niece.
Her association with Germaine de Staël was obviously of the greatest importance since Mme de Staël was also the patron and literary companion of Dorothea's second husband, Friedrich Schlegel. The daughter ofJacques Necker,Louis XVI's finance minister, de Staël witnessed the collapse of theBourbons and theFrench Revolution. (See Christopher Herrold's "Mistress to an Age.") It was probably through de Staël's husband, a Swedish Count, that the Schlegels were granted a title ofnobility in theSwedish court.
