Waltraud Maierhofer
German Dept.
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52245
waltraud-maierhofer@uiowa.edu
Presentation / Spoken version, therefore without endnotes and bibliography. For conference preparation only. If you are not attending the conference of Women in German, I look forward to your written feedback and comments on this paper.
Not just another "beautiful soul":Wilhelmine Encke-Ritz-Lichtenau
Wilhelmine Encke (1752 or 1753-1820, ill. 1), the daughter of a Berlin innkeeper and musician in the orchestra of Friedrich II, King of Prussia, met Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (1744-1797), the king's nephew and heir to the Prussian throne when she was only twelve or thirteen (in 1764), shortly before he and Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Bevern were married (1764). (I have not found evidence that Wilhelmine Encke became the prince's mistress at this very young age, possibly because of the tabu of pedophilia, as the legal age for girls to marry was fifteen.) Later that same year Friedrich Wilhelm sent Wilhelmine to Paris for a year to acquire manners appropriate for the Court - and, one might add, the skills of a courtesan. She became his mistress upon her return in 1766 when the prince took her into his Potsdam residence.
At age 17, in 1770, Wilhelmine gave birth to Friedrich Wilhelm's first child who died soon after. That same year the prince obtained a divorce from his first wife on grounds of mutual infidelity, then married Friederike Luise of Hessen whom he promptly ignored soon after she became pregnant (she gave birth to a son in 1770). Wilhelmine later bore the prince a son and a daughter whom Friedrich Wilhelm made-- with the approval of Friedrich II-- Graf und Gräfin von der Mark [Brandenburg]. It was none other than Friedrich II -- infamous for his own misogyny who procured a house for Wilhelmine in Charlottenburg, giving her 20,000 Taler with which to buy it, and after the prince's divorce, also a yearly appanage of 3,000 Taler, a large amount for the time. Thus the king officially recognized her as the prince's mistress.
Probably due to a requirement of the prince's controversial membership in the Freemason order of the Rosicrucians (Rosenkreuzer), the sexual relationship between Wilhelmine and Friedrich Wilhelm ceased in 1782, or even 1781. In 1782 Wilhelmine Encke was married‚ (informally) to one of the prince's servants, Johann Friedrich Ritz (sometimes spelled Rietz), so the prince could keep her near him. In Berlin such a husband was mocked as a "Schanddeckel". In 1785, Wilhelmine had one more son whom the prince did not acknowledge as his; nevertheless, she named him Friedrich Wilhelm (1785-1837). Wilhelmine and Johann Ritz separated in 1794 and were 'divorced' (again, informally) in 1796 when Wilhelmine was ennobled. Even throughout Friedrich Wilhelm's reign as King of Prussia (after 1786), Wilhelmine remained his confidant, the only one he had, and when he became very ill in 1797 she nursed him until his death.
During his reign as king, Friedrich Wilhelm bought property for his illegitimate children, and Wilhelmine Ritz's wealth grew but recent research shows that her possessions were relatively modest. In 1787 she 'inherited' the Palais Unter den Linden (No. 36, later the Niederländische Palais) when her son Alexander died at a young age. In actuality, she administered‚ it until her daughter Marianne came of age. According to contemporary reports Wilhelmine was knowledgeable in history, geography, classical and modern literature, was very interested in art, and conversed comfortably in all topics of general interest. She was an early patron of the neoclassical architect Karl Gotthard Langhans who brought Neoclassicism to Berlin, and many of the ideas for the landscaping and architecture of the Pfaueninsel with its marble palace were hers, and she was also responsible for the neoclassical interior decoration of the palais Unter den Linden. This is where her memory is still alive today: in the tourism industry of Berlin. She had acquired much of her knowledge by reading together with Friedrich Wilhelm, an idea popularized by Rousseau. She spoke Berlin dialect, but also spoke French passably. Like other educated women of her time she wrote in a very unorthodox [unruly] style, not according to grammar and spelling rules. Friedrich Wilhelm and Wilhelmine had an extensive correspondence which Wilhelmine preserved, although the next king had much of it destroyed. Except for a short biography in a collection on women of Potsdam and the tribute to her in the Potsdam exhibition on Friedrich Wilhelm II and the arts, there is no recent biography of Wilhelmine Ritz-Lichtenau.
Wilhelmine Ritz was a celebrated beauty even in her forties after six pregnancies, extremely unusual for the time. In 1795/96 she travelled to Italy to improve her health in the spas and to buy artwork for the royal collections. In 1796, while Wilhelmine was in Italy, Friedrich Wilhelm II dissolved the Ritz marriage‚ and elevated her to the status of nobility, naming her Countess of Lichtenau (pre-dated to 1794), a move occasioned by the Queen of Naples‚ refusal to grant an audience to a non-aristocrat. (Also, plans for Wilhelmine's daughter to marry the son of a British Lord were underway - and she subsequently married a German Count.) As Wilhelmine von Lichtenau, Wilhelmine enjoyed royal treatment in Italy, and upon her return she was finally allowed to appear in the Berlin Royal Court.
In Italy she bought paintings including those by Philipp Hackert, Johann Christian Reinhart, and Angelica Kauffmann. The latter also painted a monumental portrait of her (see ill. 2). Wilhelmine von Lichtenau's eloquent guide [cicerone] in Rome was the art historian and archeologist Aloys Hirth. In a letter dated April 1796 he addressed her as his 'good student' ["gute Schülerin"], referring to a few private lessons in archelogy. He praised her as a "schöne Seele," a term central to classicist aesthetics which exemplified the idea of harmony in the individual and subsequently became an ideal especially for femininity. Aloys Hirt's flattery paid off: he followed her to Berlin, and with her help he was appointed Professor at the Berlin Academy. This was, however, one of the rare instances in which Wilhelmine had a voice in personnel decisions.
When Friedrich Wilhelm II died in 1797, only one year after Wilhelmine had become Countess Lichtenau, his oldest son and successor to the thrown, Friedrich Wilhelm III, supposedly prompted by his own strict morals, immediately imprisoned Wilhelmine and banned her to Glogau. She was accused of enrichment and fraud and was tried, having first been denied legal assistance--a singular exception in the progressive legal system of Prussia. The trial, however, failed to prove that she had overstepped the legal limits of her social standing. Still, the new king‚s sentence spoke of her "betrügerischen Mittel[n]" and "ihrem landesverderblichen Einfluß" in all matters of the rule of Friedrich Wilhelm II. She was forced to renounce her possessions, which were then confiscated, and had to live in the country on a very small pension. Following upon her imprisonment and the ensuing sentence by the King, a flood of satirical pamphlets, caricatures, and scandalous stories about Friedrich Wilhelm II and Wilhelmine circulated and were published. In 1802 Wilhelmine Lichtenau married a minor writer, Baron Franz Ignaz Holbein; they separated in 1806. In 1809 she was allowed to return to Berlin and through the intervention of Napoleon, part of her possessions were returned to her. Friedrich Wilhelm III later withdrew his sentence.
What I find most interesting about this scandalous woman is that she was mainly scandalized a long time after the sexual relationship had ended, and even after Friedrich Wilhelm had died. Even official historiography has scandalized her, generally exaggerating her alleged influence on the Prussian king, the decline of Prussia, or even Prussia's defeat by Napoleon's army in 1806 and the end of the empire. Even contemporary historians write of a "unerhörten Schauspiel öffentlicher Mätressenwirtschaft". Historical studies, strangely enough, often relied on the bogus memoirs and pamphlets more than on the facts. Yes, Wilhelmine von Lichtenau could have been the "Prussian Pompadour", but according to historical documents her political influence and power were minor, and she did not accumulate all the riches she was accused of (and could have secured for herself). Wilhelm Bringmann in his recent thorough study on Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm II concludes that his mistress and friend was not interested in political influence (and that she might have lacked the necessary insights and connections). Bringmann provides a more modest reevaluation: "Sie war vergnügungssüchtig, in Maßen verschwenderisch - aber sie hat die königlichen Kassen nicht ruiniert."
I will now briefly describe the printed discourse of the scandal and its two main topics: the over emphasis of the sexual relationship and the exaggeration of Wilhelmine Ritz-Lichtenau's spending and acquired wealth. We remember very well from the Clinton scandal how the publicity of an extra-marital sexual relationship can harm the image of a living politician. Even more so if that politician/sovereign is dead and cannot defend himself, when the successor is not as successful in military matters and does not object to satires of his predecessor. The vice president of the Berlin judicial court noted that Friedrich Wilhelm III later regretted his behavior toward Wilhelmine von Lichtenau and accused himself of not having respected his late father more. Kerstin Bütow has undertaken the study of the visual caricatures (examples ill. 3) as forms of "propaganda." These caricatures, a number of sarcastic articles and pamphlets, and even two parts of bogus memoirs and a biography, made a mockery of Wilhelmine von Lichtenau as a personification of avarice, immorality, and mismanagement, and the single cause of the kingdom's (brief period of) economic and political ruin. At Friedrich Wilhelm II's death in 1797, Prussia had recovered from the economic downturn. Not until after the defeat of Prussia did Wilhelmine von Lichtenau publish her own defense, titled Apologie (1808), in which she defended herself against "die Beschuldigungen mehrerer Schriftsteller." However, the seed of the satires had already developed into strong traditions in historiography that influenced the portrayal of Friedrich Wilhelm II and the main forces in Prussia 1786-1797 for a long time to come. In the latter part of the 19th century, Wilhelmine became the subject of novels. I would secondly like to draw attention to the most recent of the Wilhelmine-novels and how her memory is preserved in it.
Stories and History
It was only after Wilhelmine Ritz's rise to the rank of nobility that caricatures and pamphlets, such as the following example, were published and circulated openly:
Warnung an die Gräfin Lichtenau,
vor Zeiten Zitronen- und Kienäpfel-
Trägerin.
Flieh,
Buhlerin flieh!
Des Gerechten Donners Rache wird bald
Dein geiles, jetzt hochgeborenes Ohr erschüttern!
Schon türmt sich die furchtbar schwarze Gewitterwolke,
Deren Blitze
Dich, Vaterlandsschätze-Vergeuderin,
zerschmettern werden;
Entflieh
Der namenlosen Späher Augen!
Ihr dreimal beschworener Wahlspruch atmet
Tod und Verderben
Dir!
Die durch Lais‚ Künste
Nicht nur nackend auf schwarzen seidenen Sophas
Den Edelsten - als Mensch,
Nein,
Auch als Vater zu fesseln sich erfrecht.
Wahrheitsburg, im 17. Jahrtausend der Regierung
Philopatrides.
The pamphlets exaggerated her wealth and social advancement. For the old nobility, the ennoblement of the low-born woman was an affront. Especially aristocratic women opposed the servant-class woman among them, and ambitious members of the bourgeoisie were envious. Prussia's lower nobility used this issue to express open opposition to Friedrich Wilhelm II who had abolished some of their privileges.
Indeed, there had been no lack of gossip about the mistress before, as, after all, this was enlightened and liberal Berlin. Wilhelmine Ritz was the mother of two children of Friedrich Wilhelm who survived early childhood, and the prince and later king appeared with her in public much more than with his wife. The people referred to Friedrich Wilhelm as Vielgeliebten and der dicke Lüderjahn.(ill. 4)Mistresses were extremely widespread throughout Europe - except, of course, for Friedrich II. After Friedrich Wilhelm's second legal wife had borne him four sons and three daughters and then withdrew from him sexually, the church consented to two Ehen linker Hand with young ladies-in-waiting to the widow of Friedrich II. (After Gräfin Voß-Ingenheim died, he lived in a morganatic marriage (i.e., whereby the lower-born woman marries a higher-born man and renounces any claim to the royal name or possessions, both for herself and any children who might issue from the union) with Gräfin Dönhoff.
In the strictly delineated and gendered spheres of the 18th century, a friendship between a man and a woman was unimaginable, especially after a romantic relationship had ended. This led to rumors of Wilhelmine as the lifelong mistress of Friedrich Wilhelm, which found their way into biography and historiography. Friedrich Wilhelm, though, was extremely alienated from his family, and had suffered many years from false accusations by spies hired by his uncle. The correspondence between Wilhelmine and Friedrich Wilhelm attests that they talked about everything. Even during the French Campaign, Friedrich Wilhelm arranged for Wilhelmine to live in nearby spa towns. He wrote to her in September 1793: "Sie allein machen mir das Leben zu hause erträglich, denn sonst denke an die Retour wie an die Folterbank - ich habe nichts. Gar nichts mehr zuhause als Langeweile und Unerträglichkeit zu erwarten, wenn Sie nicht wären; ach, es wird ein schreckliches Leben sein - ohne Gesellschaft, ohne Freund, nur mir und meinen traurigen Gedanken überlassen, allein überlassen und stets überlassen.... Kinder ist meine liebste Gesellschaft, da habe ich weder Verrat noch Verführung zu fürchten ...." Other letters show that he even consulted Wilhelmine before entering new sexual relationships - and waited patiently for her consent. Contemporary sensationalist publications, such as the so-called intimate letters about the Prussian Court however, enforced rumors to the contrary. Writing in 1807 Friedrich von Cölln looked for the roots of the Jena defeat and the end of the old empire in the reign of the previous king and found them in his love life, especially in the dubious role of his former mistress: "Nun wurde sie die Kupplerin des Königs, und unterrichtete die Schlachtopfer seiner Wollust, wie sie mit dem König sich zu benehmen hätten. Sie hatte aber so genau des Königs Reizbarkeit studiert, daß, wenn er durch häufigen Wechsel sich abgestumpft hatte, die alte Freundin noch Reizmittel im Rückenhalt hatte, wodurch sie ihn so zu fesseln wußte, daß er immer wieder zu ihr zurückkam." He attributed Friedrich Wilhelm's consent to the peace of Basel and withdrawal from the Rhine (which weakened the empire against Napoleon) in the advice of Wilhelmine Ritz. The legacy of these writings is recapitulated even in a recent cultural history of Prussia where Wilhelmine is referred to as "eine Art Haremsvorsteherin am Hofe." Wilhelm Bringmann corrects this influential rumor in his passage on Wilhelmine Ritz and her influence on Friedrich Wilhelm: "Man kann diese Beziehung nur seriös würdigen, wenn man sich von kolportierten Orgien- und Lustphantasien frei macht ..." (Bringmann 113).
Accusations of her careless ("liederlich") lifestyle and her unihibited ("ungescheut") circle of lovers were repeated even in the historiography of the prudish 19th century. Rumors about "das üppige Serail" and the "Orgien der Rietz'schen Familie" again found their way into print in the histories of Prussia. Wilhelmine von Lichtenau stated in her Apologie that there had been no such decadent orgies: "Unser Kränzchen trieb keine höheren Geschäfte als die ganz gewöhnlichen: wir spielten Karte, sangen, musizierten, kurz, wir übten das allbekannte Freut euch des Lebens!‚ In fact, her palais was one of the meeting places of the intellectuals and artists of Berlin's bourgeois society. She established a salon (in which Pauline Wiesel and Rahel Levin debuted) which was frequented by foreign diplomats, high officials, military officers, scholars, artists, and clergy. As Barbara Becker-Cantarino has correctly pointed out, Wilhelmine's salon is one of several in Berlin around 1800 that deserves to be studied under the auspices of literary history. As countess, she had many admirers, many of them noble and wealthy, and envy and gossip spoke of more than one of them as her lovers (among them Prince August of England, Lord Templeton, Lord Bristol, the Bishop of Londonderry, and Italian noblemen). The truth about that remains yet to be found.
Memoirs
Ernst Rowe has conjectured that the mimor moralistic writer Johann Christian Siede (1765-1806) was the author of the anonymous two volumes of 'confessions' by Countess Lichtenau (Bekenntnisse, 1797, 1798). They were immediately in English and French also and received much attention abroad. The anonymous author referred to himself in the second volume as "der Mann mit der roten Mütze." The red Phrygian cap was the sign for liberty; it had been put on the tree of liberty in Mainz 1793. Here, it is (ab-)used as a call for rebellion against the alleged overwhelming influence of the countess. Siede, author also of a dubious work entitled Zeichen und Werth der Männerkeuschheit (1794), did not himself live such a moral life: In 1792 he abducted Karl Philip Moritz's newly-wed wife Christiane Friederike (nee Matzdorf), the daughter of a publisher. Wilhelmine confesses‚ high treason and murder: she made all the decisions at the Prussian court and did everything to increase her own power, she forbid books with enlightened, egalitarian, or liberal ideas, she betrayed the king's secrets to the courts in Vienna and London, she even murdered her rival, Countess Ingenheim.
The Bekenntnisse were often quoted to paint a dark, despicable image of Friedrich Wilhelm by way of contrast with that of Frederick the Great. For example, interspersed with his remarks on he memoirs‚ in his History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Thomas Carlyle quotes the so-called memoirs in the context of Friedrich Wilhelm's divorce: "one specimen, and one only, from that record of human puddles and perversities" (Book XXI II). Let me quote this length passage:
"From the first year of our attachment," says this precious Grafin, "I was already the confidant of his," the Prince of Prussia's, "most secret thoughts. One day [in 1767, second year of his married life, I then fifteen, slim Daughter of a Player on the French Horn, in his Majesty's pay], the Prince happened to be very serious; and was owning to me with frankness that he had some wrongs towards my sex to reproach himself with,"--alas, yes, some few:--"and he swore that he would never forsake ME; and that if Heaven disposed of my life before his, none but he should close my eyes. He was fingering with a penknife at the time; he struck the point of it into the palm of his left hand, and wrote with his blood [the unclean creature], on a little bit of paper, the Oath which his lips had just pronounced in so solemn a tone. Vainly should I undertake to paint my emotion on this action of his! The Prince saw what I felt; and took advantage of it to beg that I would follow his example. I hastened to satisfy him; and traced, as he had done, with my blood, the promise to remain his friend to the tomb, and never to forsake him. This Promise must have been found among his Papers after his death [still in the Archives? we will hope not!]-- Both of us stood faithful to this Oath. The tie of love, it is true, we broke: but that was by mutual consent, and the better to fix ourselves in the bonds of an inviolable friendship. Other mistresses reigned over his senses; but I"--ACH GOTT, no more of that.
The narration of this oath was repeated by other historiographers. Wilhelm Bringmann has pointed out that Friedrich Wilhelm's love life - which was not extraordinary for an eighteenth-century prince and absolutist monarch - was exaggerated and denounced especially by admirers of Frederick "the Great." This was not without effect, as this shed a positive light on an area where he Friedrich II did not otherwise have much to show.
As mentioned above, Wilhelmine Lichtenau was one of very few (if any?) women of the eighteenth century who were honored‚ with a biography during her lifetime, although Versuch einer Biographie der Frau Gräfin Lichtenau, einer berühmten Dame des vorigen Jahrhunderts was more a satire against enlightenment ideas than a biography. The name of the author, "August Wilhelm Baranius," was obviously a pseudonym. It has not been clarified. Posing as a candidate of theology gave it moral authority, but why did he give a fictitious publisher in remote Lindau on the title page (it was printed in Leipzig by Rein in 1798) and a false, but symbolically charged publication date (it was post-dated to 1800, the first year of the new century)? Let me pursue another line of speculation about the author's identity, though: There was a Henrietta Baranius (nee Husen, 1768-1853), a Berlin opera singer and actress and allegedly also a mistress of Friedrich Wilhelm II. However, according to recent research she was not the lover of the King, but of Johann Ritz whom she married in 1798 two years after leaving the opera. A riveting and piquant perspective might obtain by considering this woman, with Wilhelmine Ritz‚ husband‚ as the informant, as the author of these intimate revelations, one of several opprobrious and untrustworthy publications appearing after Countess Lichtenau's downfall. It certainly contained more fiction than facts.
Memories
Although historians rarely consult fiction, haven't we learned, at least since Schiller's Wallenstein, that fiction can be closer to the truth‚ than historiography? And it was, in fact, a novel that first incorporated the archival material about Wilhelmine, including the documents from the trial and the extant letters of Friedrich Wilhelm II to Wilhelmine, and revised the image of her. The novel was Ernst von Salomon's Die schöne Wilhelmine. Ein Roman aus Preußens galanter Zeit (1965). It was preceded by other novels that took up the topic of Wilhelmine relying on the scandalous literature. The first novel on Wilhelmine Encke that I am aware of was by Robert Springer (1816-1885), published in the year of the first German reunification, 1871, and then two more appeared in the 1930s, one by Bruno Stümke (1881-?) and the other by Clara Viebig (1860-1952). The early 20th century had also seen a republication of satires on the mistress, while the Golden Twenties dared a second look at this sexually assertive woman and made her the German Pompadour. On the other hand, the interest in the 1930s may be explained with renewed scandalizing of the mistress and anti-emancipation views as well as nationalist concepts: the immoral woman as dangerous for the Reich. The novels were largely based on the 'memoirs'.
Ernst von Salomon (1902-1972) is quite a unique writer and sometimes mentioned along with Ernst Jünger. Imprisoned in 1922 as one of the Walther Rathenau assassins, he published from the 1930s on, turning from Free Corps activism and nationalistic/Prussian novels (Die Kadetten, 1933) to scripts for entertaining Ufa movies. He wrote one of the first German post-World War II bestsellers (Der Fragebogen, 1951) and became an activist against nuclear weapons. Why did he turn to a topic such as a Prussian mistress? His style in this novel appears apolitical enough, but it is easy to see how a tempered form of Prussian patriotism endures in Die schöne Wilhelmine. The novel was turned into a TV movie with the same title (1984), directed by Rolf von Sydow. The novel, an easy read, focuses on the early years before Friedrich Wilhelm became King. It does not dwell on the accusations against and trial of Wilhelmine after his death and contains a sort of epilogue episode taking place in 1820. In it, Salomon states clearly that the Countess Lichtenau was the subject of pamphlets that were really directed at the reign of the late Friedrich Wilhelm II, very similar to Bringmann's recent assessment. Wilhelmine explains why she kept the name Lichtenau: : „... ich hätte ihn längst abgelegt, wenn ... ja, wenn die Lichtenau‚ nicht ein Begriff geworden wäre, zwar kein schöner, der beliebte Gegenstand aller Pamphlete, die gegen die Regierung meines Herrn gerichtet waren - und noch sind! Mein Prinz, ich habe mich meines Namens, meiner Herkunft, meines Lebens, meiner Liebe nie geschämt. Ich bin die Lichtenau‚ noch immer, weil die Pfeile, die gegen meinen Geliebten abgeschossen werden, an mir abprallen...!" (467) The fictitious publications were so influential that this king's reign and his successes were excluded from historical memory for a long time. This novel gives a glimpse of the schöne Seele that Aloys Hirt may have seen in Wilhelmine Lichtenau. She likes the social advancement, yes, but above all she sees herself as lover and mother and is in harmony with herself. Salomon lets the aged Wilhelmine Lichtenau express acknowledgement of the scandals, the trial, and her punishment as the price for protecting the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm II. For her it is natural to see her duty in protecting the love of her life. Sadly, Salomon thus depicts this scandalous woman as victim only.
There are many questions yet to be asked about this woman, and her story needs to be retold.
-------------------------------------------------------
Illustrations:
Ill. 1. Anna Dorothea Lisiewska-Therbusch, Wilhelmine Encke
(1776, Potsdam, Neues Palais) Portrait 1 s.: Die „offizielle" Kurzbiographie
in der Ausstellung Preußen 2001 mit 3 Portraits (ohne Verfasserangabe):
http://www.preussenchronik.de/person.jsp?key=Person_Wilhelmine_Encke
(return)
Ill. 2: Angelika Kauffmann, Wilhelmine Gräfin von Lichtenau
(1796, Halle, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg; replica in Potsdam, Neues Palais.
(Copyrighted.)
(return)
Ill. 4: Friedrich Wilhelm II and his Mistress Wilhelmine
Ritz around 1790 (tin figures)
s. http://www.fecho.de/Zinnfiguren/inhalt.htm
PS:
Ironie der Erinnerung: Auf dieser Seite mit Berliner Sehenswuerdigkeiten (s.
Pfaueninsel) wird Wilhelmine Lichtenau als die Geliebte Friedrich Wilhelms III.
(statt II) bezeichnet, der sie doch so sehr verachtet und bekaempft hat.
http://members.surfeu.de/hobbyuo/berlin4.htm
(return)