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Rahel Varnhagen von Ense
[née Levin] (1771-1833)
Rahel Varnhagen von Ense
was born in 1771 in Berlin, the daughter of businessman Markus Levin and
his wife Chaia; she died there in 1833.
At a time when school education for girls was not available in Germany,
Rahel emerged, from the perspective of her contemporaries, as the most
cultured woman of Europe. Her salon became a "republic of the free mind
and spirit, assembled in the home of an unassuming young girl of the
bourgeoisie."
In her first salon, women and men, nobility and commoners, Germans and
foreigners, Christians and Jews, gathered freely. Among her famous
guests were the Humboldts, Schlegel and Schleiermacher, the Prince of
Ligne and Prince Louis Ferdinand.
Her second salon was frequented, for example, by Eduard Gans, Ludwig
Boerne, and Heinrich Heine.
"Rahel Levin, later Rahel Varnhagen, founded one of the most famous
salons in Berlin. Those with status and a name gathered here. Princes
and philosophers, poets and musicians, society ladies and daughters of
the bourgeoisie. they quarreled, criticized, applauded, recited, and
discussed. Sarcastic or refined, profound or witty, but always in
openness and tolerance. Whoever could speak declared his opinion:
about the French Revolution or the rights of women, about the new
literature and about love, about the art of acting and about romantic
affairs, about Napoleon and about Hegel.
"Rahel Levin, through her salon, lived a masterpiece of European
intellectual history. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, musical prodigy and
composer of the Wedding March, was later just one of her many famous
guests from all of Europe. Goethe, whom she met in Karlsbad in Bohemia
(...), praised not only her 'exceptional mind': 'She is what I should
like to call a beautiful soul.'"
(Information from the Journal of Politics for Germany. A magazine of
the Office of Press and Information of the German federal government,
August/September 1995, page 11.)
Rahel maintained, in addition, an extended correspondence with friends
throughout her life, which her husband published in book form after her
death.
Associated links:
Varnhagen Gesellschaft
Rahel Varnhagen Kolleg
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