WETZLAR AND CHARLOTTE BUFF
MAY--SEPTEMBER, 1772
During the summer and autumn of 1772 Goethe found himself in a society
and surroundings which were in curious contrast to those of Darmstadt;
and the next four months were to supply him with an experience which,
wrought into one book of transcendent literary effect, was to make his
name known, literally, to the ends of the earth,[116] and which may be
regarded as the most remarkable episode in his long life. It was as
"the author of _Werther_" that he was known to the reading world,
until after his death the publication of the completed _Faust_
gradually effaced the conception of Goethe as the master-sentimentalist
of European literature.
[Footnote 116: Werther, as Goethe reminds us in one of his Venetian
epigrams, was known in China:--
Doch was fördert es mich, dass auch sogar der Chinese
Malet mit ängstlicher Hand Werthern und Lotten auf Glas?]
It was mainly as a temporary escape from the tedium of Frankfort that,
towards the end of May, 1772, Goethe proceeded to Wetzlar, a little
town on the Lahn, a confluent of the Rhine. His settlement in Wetzlar
had the semblance of a serious professional purpose, since Wetzlar was
the historic legal capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and the seat of
the Imperial Court of Justice. If he had any such serious purpose, his
experience of the place speedily dispelled it. The place itself he
found distasteful; a "little, ill-built town," he calls it, though the
modern visitor finds it not unattractive, with its climbing, tortuous
streets, reminiscent of the Middle Age, and with its impressive
cathedral, one of the most interesting specimens of mediæval
architecture to be found in Germany, and still unfinished in Goethe's
day. Instead of the spectacle of an august tribunal administering
prompt and even justice, what he saw was a multitude of corrupt
officials, deluded litigants, and endless delays of law. Wetzlar, in
fact, he gives us to understand, destroyed any respect he may ever
have had alike for judges and the law they professed to administer. He
duly enrolled himself as a "Praktikant,"[117] but, as was the case
with the majority of that class who haunted the town, his legal
activity was confined to this step. "Solitary, depressed, aimless," so
he described himself to his friends during his first weeks in
Wetzlar.[118] Disgusted with law, he found refuge in the study of
literature. In a long and rhapsodical letter to Herder he depicts the
intellectual and spiritual experiences through which he was now
passing. The Greeks were his one preoccupation. Homer, Xenophon,
Plato, Theocritus, and Anacreon he had read in turn, but it was in
Pindar he was now revelling, and from Pindar he was learning the
lesson that only in laying firm hold of one's subject is the essence
of all mastery. A sentence of Herder to the effect that "thought and
feeling create the expression" had rejoiced his heart as expressing
his own deepest experience. Herder had said of _Götz_ that its author
had been spoilt by Shakespeare, and he modestly accepted the censure.
_Götz_, he admits, had been _thought_, not _felt_, and he would be
depressed by his failure, were he not occasionally conscious that some
day he would do better things.[119]
[Footnote 117: The _Praktikanten_ were voluntary attendants on the
Imperial Court, had little or no dependence on the authorities, and
lived on their own resources.]
[Footnote 118: Caroline Flachsland to Herder, May 25th, 1772.]
[Footnote 119: Goethe to Herder, _Werke, Briefe_, Band ii. 15.]
As in Strassburg, it was at a _table d'hôte_[120] that Goethe made the
acquaintance of the youths who, like himself, were idling away their
time in Wetzlar. To relieve the tedium of the place[121] they had
formed a fantastic society on a feudal model, with a Grand-master,
Chancellor, and all the other subordinate officials--the point of the
jest being that each associate bore the name and played the part of
his office and title. For frolic of all kinds Goethe was ever ready;
his taste for practical joking, indeed, as we shall see, occasionally
led him to play questionable pranks. Under the name of Götz von
Berlichingen he became a member of the brotherhood, and, according to
his own account, he contributed to the gaiety of the proceedings.
Among the company, however, there were a few serious persons with
tastes kindred to his own, and he specially names F.W. Gotter,
Secretary of the Gotha Legation at Wetzlar, as one who, like Salzmann
and Schlosser, impressed him by his character and talent. In English
literature they had a common interest, and, as a poem which both
admired, they each made a translation of Goldsmith's _Deserted
Village_--Gotter, according to Goethe, being the more successful in
the attempt. Gotter was thus still another of those grave counsellors
whom Goethe had the good fortune to discover and attach to himself
amid the distracting frivolities of every society he frequented.[122]
[Footnote 120: In the _Kronprinz_, the principal hotel in the town.]
[Footnote 121: Goethe's own lodging (still shown) was in the
_Gewandsgasse_, a narrow, dirty street, whence sun or moon could be
seen at no season of the year.]
[Footnote 122: In his contemporary letters, Goethe does not always
speak of Gotter so favourably as he does in his Autobiography.]
"What happened to me in Wetzlar," Goethe writes in his Autobiography,
"is of no great significance." But posterity has thought differently,
and, if we are to judge by the consequences of what, happened to him
in Wetzlar, both for himself and for the world, posterity is
right.[123] Be it said also, that contemporary testimony at first
hand leaves us in no doubt that, but for his Wetzlar experience, one
of the most remarkable phases in Goethe's development would not have
found expression, and one resounding note in European literature would
have been unheard.
[Footnote 123: An exhaustive account of Goethe's sojourn in Wetzlar
will be found in W. Herbst's _Goethe in Wetzlar_, 1772. _Vier Monate
aus des Dichters Jugendleben_, Gotha, 1881.]
In Leipzig and Strassburg Goethe had found objects to engage his
affections, and he was not to be without a similar experience in
Wetzlar. During his first weeks there he had seen no maiden to
interest him, and the fact may explain his dissatisfaction during that
period. After leaving in succession the circles of Sesenheim,
Frankfort, and Darmstadt, he tells us, he felt a void in his heart
which he could not fill. An accident at length came to fill the void.
On June 9th (the date is carefully recorded) he met a girl at a ball
in a neighbouring village (Garbenheim), who "made a complete conquest
of him."[124] Her name was Charlotte Buff, the second daughter of an
official of the Teutonic Order--a widower with twelve children.
Charlotte, or Lotte, as he calls her, was of a different type from any
of his previous loves, so that she possessed all the freshness of
novelty. Though only nineteen, she had taken upon her the care of the
numerous household, and discharged her duties with a motherly tact and
good sense which excited general admiration. Over Lotte's personal
appearance Goethe is not rapturous as in the case of Friederike; he
simply says that she had a light and graceful figure, and in the same
cool tone remarks that she was one of those women who do not inspire
ardent passion, but who give general pleasure. So he chose to say in
the retrospect, but neither his contemporary words nor actions permit
us to believe that his feeling to Lotte was merely a calm regard. In
the case of Lotte his situation was materially different from what it
had been in the case of Friederike. He had no rival in his relations
to Friederike; in his relations to Lotte he had one. Shortly after
their first meeting he learned that Lotte was already betrothed,
though the fact was not known to the world. The successful wooer was
Johann Christian Kestner, a native of Hanover, and a Secretary of
Legation settled in Wetzlar. Kestner was at every point the antithesis
of his intruding rival. He was calm, deliberate, unimaginative, yet
conspicuously a man of insight and character, with a fund of good
sense and good temper, on which the situation made a large draft.
"Kestner must be a very good man," was the frequent remark of Merck's
wife in view of the relations of the three parties to each other, and
Kestner's own words prove it. It is in his Letters and Diary that we
have the closest glimpse of all three, and all that he says of
himself, of Lotte, and of Goethe, shows a tact and good feeling that
inspire esteem.
[Footnote 124: This is the expression of Kestner, Lotte's betrothed.]
After their first meeting at the ball, according to Goethe's own
testimony, he became Lotte's constant attendant. "Soon he could not
endure her absence." In her home he made himself the idol of the
children; in the beautiful surrounding country they were inseparable
companions--Kestner, when his avocations permitted, occasionally
joining them. "So through the splendid summer," he records, "they
lived a true German idyll." But the testimony of Kestner shows that
the idyll was not without its discords. Goethe, he says, "with all his
philosophy and his natural pride, had not such self-control as wholly
to restrain his inclination.... His peace of mind suffered," and
"there were various notable scenes," though Lotte showed herself a
model of discretion. The situation was, in fact, an impossible one,
and Goethe came to see it. Several times he made the effort to break
his bonds and flee, but it was not till the beginning of September
that he took the decisive step. Equally from his own and Kestner's
account of the circumstances of his flight we receive the impression
that his relation to Lotte was such as to make their further
intercourse undesirable. The night before he went, according to
Kestner, all three were together in Lotte's home, and their
conversation, suggested by Lotte, turned upon the dead and the
possibility of holding intercourse with them. Whichever of the three
should die first, it was agreed, should, if possible, communicate with
the survivors. All through the evening Goethe was in deep dejection,
knowing, as he did, that it would be the last they would spend
together. The following morning he left Wetzlar without intimating his
intention to any of his friends--a proceeding which his grand-aunt,
resident in the town, characterised as "very ill-bred," declaring that
she would let the Frau Goethe know how her son had behaved.[125] In
three brief parting notes he addressed to Kestner and Lotte we have
the expression of the mental tumult which his passion for Lotte had
produced in him. On his return home, after the last evening he spent
with them, he wrote as follows to Kestner: "He is gone, Kestner; by
the time you receive this note, he is gone. Give Lotte the enclosed
note. I was quite calm, but your conversation has torn me to
distraction. At this moment I can say nothing more than farewell. Had
I remained a moment longer with you, I could not have restrained
myself. Now I am alone, and to-morrow I go. Oh, my poor head!" In the
lines enclosed for Lotte he has this outburst with reference to the
evening's conversation: "When I ventured to say all I felt, it was of
the present world I was thinking, of your hand which I kissed for the
last time."
[Footnote 125: Such abrupt departures were characteristic of Goethe.
We shall find him taking similar unceremonious leave of another of his
loves. Goethe, wrote Frau von Stein to her son (May, 1812), "kann das
Abschied nehmen nicht leiden, er ging ohne Abschied neulich von mir."]
From this record of the Wetzlar episode, directly reproducing the
relations of all the persons concerned, it is clear that Lotte was for
Goethe more than the pleasant companion he represents her in his
Autobiography. If his own words and those of Kestner have any meaning,
his feeling towards her amounted to a passion which only the singular
self-control of her and Kestner prevented from breaking bounds.
Strange as it may appear, neither Lotte nor Kestner regarded one whose
presence was a menace to their own peace with other feelings than
esteem, and apparently even affection. He parted from Lotte, he says,
"with a clearer conscience" than from Friederike, and the statement is
at least borne out by what we know of the sequel to the "splendid
idyll." As we shall see, he continued to remain on the most cordial
terms with the two lovers, and, though with mingled feelings, he gave
them his best blessing on the day which saw them united as husband and
wife.
In what has been said of Goethe's relations to Lotte Buff it is the
emotional side of his nature that has been before us, but from the
hand of the judicious Kestner we have a portrait of the whole man
which leaves nothing to be desired in its completeness and insight.
Kestner's description of his first meeting with his formidable rival
reminds us of the "conquering lord" whose self-assurance evoked
Herder's stinging criticism. Stretched on his back on the grass under
a tree, Goethe was carrying on a conversation with two acquaintances
who stood by. Kestner's first decided impression was that the
stranger was "no ordinary man," and that he had "genius and a lively
imagination." His final and complete impression, after Goethe had left
Wetzlar, he thus records:--
"He has very many gifts, is a real genius, and a man of character; he
has an extraordinarily lively imagination, and so, for the most part,
expresses himself in pictures and similes. He is himself in the habit
of saying that he always expresses himself in general terms, can never
express himself with precision; when he is older, however, he hopes to
think and express the thought as it is. He is violent in all his
emotions; yet often exercises great self-command. His manner of
thinking is noble; as free as possible from all prejudices, he acts on
the prompting of the moment without troubling whether it may please
other people, is in the fashion, or whether convention permits it. All
constraint is hateful to him. He is fond of children and can occupy
himself much with them. He is _bizarre_; in his conduct and manner
there are various peculiarities which might make him disagreeable. But
with children, with women, and many others he is nevertheless a
favourite. For the female sex he has great respect. _In principiis_ he
is not yet fixed, and is still only endeavouring after a sure system.
To say something on this point; he thinks highly of Rousseau, but is
not a blind worshipper of him. He is not what we call orthodox; yet
this is not from pride or caprice or from a desire to play a part. On
certain important matters, also, he expresses himself only to few, and
does not willingly disturb others in their ideas. He certainly hates
scepticism, and strives after truth and settled conviction on certain
subjects of the first importance; believes even that he has already
attained conviction on the most important; but, so far as I have
observed, this is not the case. He does not go to church; not even to
communion, and he prays seldom. For, says he, I am not hypocrite
enough for that. At times he seems at rest with regard to certain
subjects; at other times, however, very far from being so. He
reverences the Christian religion, but not as our theologians present
it. He believes in a future life and a better state of existence. He
strives after truth, and yet attaches more importance to feeling than
to demonstration as the test of it. He has already accomplished much;
has many acquirements and much reading, but has thought and reasoned
still more. He has mainly devoted himself to _belles lettres_ and the
fine arts, or rather to all branches of knowledge, only not to the
so-called bread-winning ones. I wished to describe him, but to do so I
should run to too great length, for he is one of whom there is a great
deal to be said. _In one word, he is a very remarkable man._"[126]
[Footnote 126: Kestner's characterisation of Goethe will be found in
Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. pp. 21-3.]