Ellen Lenneck - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

"Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story;

The days of our youth are the days of our glory!"

Byron , Quoted by Helene Weichardt in Das Fräulein von Eppingheim.

Ellen Lenneck was the writing pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

of Martha Julie Antoinette Helene Weichardt (1851-1880), a German author of novels and novellas. She was the only known daughter of novelist and literary editor Friederike Henkel, and a descendant from a family of industrialists and artists from Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

and the Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

region of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

To download the collected literary works of the author, please see External Links (below).

Life and achievements

Family Background

Helene Weichardt was born in Kassel

Kassel

Germany

on 5 February 1851 into a family who had strong social connections within the developing industrialised German society of the early 19th century. They represented a vibrant combination of industrial, social and creative tendencies. This pattern of industrial skills, together with artistic abilities were personified in a number of Helene Weichardt's family, including her husband Carl Weichardt (an architect and artist who participated in the building of The Reichstag in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

and also designed the Eisenach

Eisenach

Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

Theatre (Thüringer Landestheater Eisenach), her mother Friederike Henkel, born Friederike Arnold (writer of several novels, short stories and later a literary editor, who had lived in the same city as The Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

), her uncle Carl Johann Arnold (the royal count painter tutored by Adolph Menzel), her grandfather Carl Heinrich Arnold (a wallpaper designer and artist associated with his business-skilled brother), her grandmother Antonie Arnold, born Antonie Reuter (a singer and actress at the Kassel Theatre), and their close family friend, the German artist Adolph Menzel, whose painting Portrait of Friederike Arnold http://www.bildindex.de/ in 1845 has been on public display at the National Gallery Berlin (Nationalgalerie Berlin) for over a century.

Early Life and Personal Development

There is generally very little information available concerning Helene Weichardt. Her adult life was relatively short since she died at the age of twenty nine. Her suggested considerable abilities in literature and music were commented upon by literary editors during the late Nineteenth Century and early 20th century. Her initial interest in music developed when she was a child living in Kassel with her parents. Her grandmother was a singer and actress at the Kassel Theatre, near to where her mother grew up. Later, her interest in literature was attributed to the city of Bern Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, where she lived when her family moved there, due to her father's employment in Bern.

Literary works

During the 1870s, she wrote several fictional works, which were published either as separate novels, or in serial format within weekly journals including Deutsche Roman Zeitunghttp://www.zeitschriften.ablit.de/romanzeitung/aut/aut.htm and Deutsche Roman-Bibliothek, later re-printed within the publishing houses' year books. One literary work was published in Deutsche Roman-Bibliothek in 1882, after her death. Other literary works (other than those stated in her bibliography, below) were mentioned without name in the German literature lexicons by Franz Brümmer and Heinrich Gross.

Death

Helene Weichardt died on Sunday 16 May 1880 at 8 o'clock in the evening, only six months after her marriage. There is an absence of information about the cause of her death. There is also ambiguity about the place of her death. Her death announcement implies that her husband wrote it on 18 May 1880 in Görbersdorf. In 1880, there were two locations in Germany by this name. One is situated at the South-eastern boundary of Oederan

Oederan

Oederan is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.- Geography :Oederan is situated 14 km southwest of Freiberg, 17 km east of Chemnitz and about 50km west of Dresden....

Germany

, and the other location in Germany was renamed Sokołowsko when it became part of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

in 1945.

The evidence from the death announcement and entries in German literature lexicons do not clarify in which location she died. Görbersdorf near to Oederan is a small settlement about 1 km long, and has changed little since 1880. Sokołowsko was the location of a sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

for treating patients suffering from chronic lung disorders, including Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

.

She was buried at the new southern cemeteries (neuen südl. Friedhofe aus statt) in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

on 20 May 1880 at 6 o'clock in the evening. The Leipzig Stadtarchiv has clarified that this reference from the death announcement implies that she was buried at the Neuen Johannisfriedhof in Leipzig, which was converted into the Friedenspark in 1970. No graves remain in the park apart from some masonry from tombs relocated to the South-Eastern boundary and headstones set into the wall at the Northern gatehouse.

Restoration and Re-Publication of Literary Works

Since late 2003, a research project based in Berlin

Berlin

has been researching the life and achievements of Helene Weichardt and Friederike Henkel. A central objective of the project is to acquire their complete literary works for re-publication in the public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

. The project is called the Helene Weichardt and Friederike Henkel Literature Restoration Project.

As of mid 2010, the project has acquired almost all the authors' literary works (see bibliography), has digitally scanned them (see book scanning

Book scanning

Book scanning is the process of converting physical books and magazines into digital media such as images, electronic text, or electronic books by using an image scanner....

), and has nearly completed processing the scans for compilation as online

ONLINE

ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

e-texts for Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...

, Wikisource Germany, similar online e-text resources, and printed publication.

To download the collected literary works of Helene Weichardt, please see External Links (below).

Biography

The existing information relating to Helene Weichardt is mainly from bibliographical or biographical entries in German literature lexicons from the late 19th century, and additionally, information from her marriage certificate at the Stadtarchiv Eisenach, Germany

Germany

. Since her death in 1880, a small number of entries have made in German literature lexicons and similar bibliographical or biographical publications.

Full name: Martha Julie Antoinette Helene Weichardt, born Henkel (from marriage certificate).
- Full name was abbreviated to Helene Weichardt.
- Used the name Ellen on signed documents.
- Signed her name Ellen Henkel before her marriage.
Writing pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

was Ellen Lenneck.
References sources use the abbreviations (included to assist search engines):
- E. Lenneck
- Lenneck, E.
- H. Weichardt
- Wiechardt, H.
- Weichardt, Frau H.
- Weichardt, Frau. H.
Surname was sometimes spelt Weichhardt.
Author of novels and novellas.
Daughter of German writer Friederike Henkel, born Friederike Arnold, and German statesman Wilhelm Henkel.
Her mother's religion was Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

since 'Evangelisch-Lutherischen' was stated as Friederike Henkel's religion in Helene Weichardt's marriage certificate.
Born *5.2.1851 Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

.
She lived in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

, Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...

, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

and Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

.
Married architect Carl Weichardt in Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

on 30.10.1879.
Died †16.5.1880 Görbersdorf.
Buried at the neuen südl. Friedhofe aus statt (Leipzig) 20 May 1880.
Grandfather was the Kassel wallpaper manufacturer Carl Heinrich Arnold] (*17.9.1793 Kassel, †1.4.1874 Kassel).
Her great-grandfather was Johann Christian Arnold (*24.2.1759, †29.7.1842) who founded the first wallpaper factory of Germany in Kassel.

Print (Section Under Development)

Otto, Astrid, Schriftenreihe Des Archivs Der Deutschen Frauenbewegung, Band 7: Schreibende Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts in Kassel und Nordhessen, Lebensläufe und Bibliographien (1756 - 1943) 1990, ISSN 0930-4444, ISBN 3-926068-07-8, page 202.
Brümmer, Franz, Lexikon 19 Jahrhunderts, Volumes 7 and 8, page 356.
Gros, Heinrich, Deutschlands Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen: Eine literarhistorische Skizze, Publisher C. Gerold's Sohn, Vienna 1882, Page 261. Reference for Ellen Lenneck.
Pataky, Sophie, Lexikon deutscher Frauen, Berlin, 1898, volume 1, page 492.

Further Information

Key to German-English Translation of Terms Used in Reference Sources:
- Bd., Band means volume
- Bde., Bänden means volumes
- Aufl., Auflage means edition
- Jahrg., Jahrgang means year (i.e., annual volume(s))
- Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt means German Publishing House-Institute

Deutsche Roman-Bibliothek zu Ueber Land und Meer was published twice annually, and consisted of two volumes each year. The date of the annual publication can be determined by considering that 1873 was the first year of publication. Bibliographical reference sources sometimes make an error of assumption about determining the date of volumes in this publication, often in error by one year.

External links

Collected Literary Works of Helene Weichardt (PDF ebook)
The collected literary works of Helene Weichardt are now available as a PDF ebook, which may be downloaded from this link. This is a digital restoration of the author's original literature, researched and created between 2004 and 2010, which consists of digital image scans from original editions of her three publications, together with an introduction by the researcher. The author's work is in the public domain and can be legally downloaded, distributed or used for any purpose in any nation in the world without any restrictions. This is the first time the author's work has been republished since the original publications during the 1870s and 1880s. Future editions of this ebook will be published during 2010, incorporating updated information and re-scanned original editions of higher quality.
SOPHIE
A digital library of works by German-speaking women.
Wikisource Germany
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg Germany

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