Catharina Elisabeth Ludovica Magdalena (Brentano) von Arnim (1785 - 1859)

Born 4 Apr 1785 in Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Main, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Ancestors

Wife of Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim — married 24 Feb 1811 in Berlin, Brandenburg, Preußen

Descendants

Died 20 Jan 1859 at age 73 in Berlin, Brandenburg, Preußen, Deutscher Bund

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Germany Project WikiTree [send private message]

Bettina (Brentano) von Arnim is managed by the Germany Project. Join: Germany Project Discuss: germany

Biography

Bettina (Brentano) von Arnim is Notable.

Bettina von Arnim (born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, also Bettine) was a German writer and composer and an important representative of German Romanticism.

Bettina was born on 4 Apr 1785 in Frankfurt am Main. She was the seventh of twelve children of merchant Peter Anton Brentano and his second wife Maximiliana, née La Roche.^[1][2]

Bettina's mother died in 1793. The daughter was therefore educated at the Ursulinenschule Fritzlar from 1794 to 1796. After her father's death in 1797, she lived with her grandmother Sophie La Roche in Offenbach am Main, and later in Frankfurt am Main. Her sister Kunigunde was married to the legal scholar Friedrich Karl von Savigny and lived in Marburg, where Bettina stayed with them for some time. In 1810 she followed the Savignys to Berlin and Prague.^[3]

From 1808 to 1809 she studied voice, composition, and piano in Munich under Peter von Winter and Sebastian Bopp. She published her first song under the pseudonym Beans Beor, which she occasionally used later as well. Bettina sang briefly in the Berliner Singakademie and composed settings of Hellenistic poems by Amalie von Helvig.^[4]

In 1810 Bettina became engaged to Achim von Arnim, and they married on 24 Feb 1811 in Berlin.^[5][6] The couple lived mostly apart – while Bettina lived in Berlin, Achim managed the Wiepersdorf estate. They had seven children:^[3]

• Johann Freimund (5 May 1812 - 2 Mar 1863), married first Anna Gertrud Christiane von Baumbach, married second Caroline Sophie Claudine Brentano-Laroche,
• Lucas Siegmund (2 Oct 1813 - 22 Feb 1890),
• Anton Friedmund Nepomuk (9 Feb 1815 - 24 Jul 1883),
• Waldemar Kühnemund (24 Mar 1817 - 24 Jun 1835),
• Maximiliane Marie Catharine (23 Oct 1818 - 31 Dec 1894), married Prussian lieutenant general Eduard von Oriola,
• Armgart Catharina (4 Mar 1821 - 17 Jan 1880), married Albert Georg Friedrich von Flemming,
• Ottilie Beate Gisela Walburgis (30 Aug 1827 - 4 Apr 1889), married Herman Grimm.

Though domestic duties related to her marriage limited Bettina's productivity, several art songs from the period have been recovered and have been published in Werke und Briefe. She was the first composer to set the poet Hölderlin's work to music.^[4]

After the death of her husband in 1831, Bettina maintained an active public life and continued her dedication to the creative community. She became the editor of Achim von Arnim's Collected Works (Gesammelte Werke).^[3] Her passion for Goethe revived, and in 1835 she published the largely fictional book Goethe's Correspondence with a Child (Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde).^[4]

During the cholera epidemic in Berlin, Bettina was involved in social relief measures in the slums and cared for the sick.^[3] She was a muse to the progressives of Prussia, linked to the socialist movement, and an advocate for the oppressed Jewish community. She published some politically dissident works, but initially evaded chastisement because of her friendship with the King of Prussia.^[4] Later Bettina von Arnim's Armenbuch was banned by the Prussian censors even before it was published, since she was suspected of having helped instigate the weavers' uprising.^[3]

Bettina passed away on 20 Jan 1859 in Berlin and was buried next to her husband in Wiepersdorf.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Matricula Online. Deutschland, Limburg, r.k. Bistum, Frankfurt Dompfarrei, Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus, Taufen FDom, FDom K 4_2, 1754-1785
2. ↑ "Deutschland, Hesse-Nassau, Diözese Limburg, Katholische Kirchenbücher, 1601-1919", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DWRT-HN6Z : 8 September 2021), Catharina Elisabetha Ludovica Magdalena Prentano, 1785.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} German Wikipedia article on Bettina von Arnim
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} English Wikipedia article on Bettina von Arnim
5. ↑ "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS86-W4Y5?cc=3015626 : 25 August 2021), > image 1 of 1; Records extracted and images digitized by Ancestry.com. German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
6. ↑ "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS86-W4YF?cc=3015626 : 26 August 2021), > image 1 of 1; Records extracted and images digitized by Ancestry.com. German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #6091705

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q57236
• German Wikipedia article on her mother Maximiliane von La Roche
• Münchner Stadtbibliothek: Kämpferin für die Wahrheit – Bettina von Arnim (1785 – 1859)