Caroline de la Motte-Fouqué

Caroline de la Motte Fouqué comes from the noble family von Briest, of the Mark Brandenburg. Her father Philipp Friedrich August Wilhelm von Briest (1849–1822) and his first wife Caroline Wilhelmine, née von Zinnow (1752–1800), employ private tutors and a French governess for the education and upbringing of their daughter at their estate. The daughter is born in Berlin on October 7th, 1774, and baptized on October 15th, 1774, with the name Caroline Philippine. Her further education takes place alternately within aristocratic social circles of Brandenburg and Berlin. During her first marriage (terminated in 1799), to the officer Rochus von Rochow (1770–1799), three children are conceived: Gustav (1792–1847), Theodor (1794–1854) and Klara (1796–1865). In 1803 she marries the author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777–1843), and, in the same year, their daughter Marie Luise Caroline (1803–1864) is born. In the following period, Caroline de la Motte Fouqué’s first publications come out, and she receives literary inspiration from her dealings with such contemporary authors as Adelbert von Chamisso, Karl August Varnhagen, Rahel Levin, E.T.A. Hoffmann and many more. The couple lives alternately in Nennhausen and Berlin until 1813, mediating between the cultures of the province and capital, between advanced and popular literature. The span of the literary genres explored by Caroline de la Motte Fouqué and her authorial habitus reach from the impassioned author of fairy tales (“Drei Mährchen”, 1806), through the writer of romantic novels (“Die Frau des Falkensteins”, 1810) and historical narratives (“Die Spanier und der Freiwillige in Paris. Eine Geschichte aus dem heiligen Kriege”, 1814), to the educational author (“Briefe über Zweck und Richtung weiblicher Bildung”, 1811, “Briefe über die griechische Mythologie für Frauen”, 1812, and “Die früheste Geschichte der Welt”, 1818). With Amalie von Helvig, she publishes a “Taschenbuch der Sagen und Legenden” in 1812 and 1813. Illness and death on her father’s estate in Nennhausen interrupt her literary career during a still productive phase. During her last years of life, she still publishes further works: the novel “Resignation” (1829), a “Geschichte der Moden” (1829/1830) and, as editor, “Der Blick auf Gesinnung und Streben in den Jahren 1774–1778. Aus einem Briefwechsel dreier Offiziere des Potsdammer Garnison” (1830). She also works on new novellas, which are only published posthumously. After her death, she is buried in the park of Nennhausen Palace.

Caroline de la Motte Fouqué’s letters preserved in the Jagiellonian Library document her developing political consciousness and set an example for the arduous constitution of an engaged female discourse. Similarly to her historical and social novels, the author’s letters also illustrate a linking between historical documentation and the private sphere, between facts and fiction. Her letters are, thereby, exemplary for the historical-romantic narrative of her time.

(trans. Pedro Kauffmann Amaral)