Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius (Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

, 1 June 1765 – Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

, 6 June 1816) was the mistress

Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...

 and wife of Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

Biography

In 1788, when a young woman of Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

, Goethe addressed to her the Römische Elegien, an epithalamium

Epithalamium

Epithalamium refers to a form of poem that is written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber...

. They lived together quasi-maritally from 1788 till their marriage in 1806, and afterward till her death in 1816, to the scandal of the ladies of Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 and the vexation of Bettina von Arnim-Brentano

Bettina von Arnim

Bettina von Arnim , born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist....

. Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...

's wife Charlotte von Lengefeld

Charlotte von Lengefeld

Charlotte Luise Antoinette von Schiller, born Charlotte von Lengefeld was the wife of German poet Friedrich Schiller.-Early life:...

 wrote of Goethe after Christiane's death, "The poor man wept bitterly. It grieves me that he should shed tears for such objects."

Christiane was the sister of Christian August Vulpius

Christian August Vulpius

Christian August Vulpius was a German novelist and dramatist. His sister married the noted German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.-Biography:...

.

Children and grandchildren

Christine Vulpius and Goethe produced a son, Julius August Walther von Goethe (25 December 1789 – 28 October 1830). He was chamberlain to the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar. He married Ottilie von Pogwisch (31 October 1796 – 26 October 1872), a highly accomplished woman. She later cared for Goethe until he died in 1832. Karl August and Ottilie had three children: Walther Wolfgang, Freiherr von Goethe (9 April 1818 – 15 April 1885), known as a composer of operettas and songs; Wolfgang Maximilian, Freiherr von Goethe (18 September 1820 – 20 January 1883), a jurist and poet; and Alma von Goethe (29 October 1827 – 29 September 1844). Karl August died while on a visit to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

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