Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar [Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns]

David Gallagher (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1939

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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In September 1816, Charlotte Kestner (née Buff), whom Goethe had met in Wetzlar in 1772, and who was the inspiration for the character of Lotte in Goethe's best-selling novel

Die Leiden des jungen Werthers

[

The Sorrows of young Werther

, 1774], travelled with her daughter Clara and personal maid from Hannover to Weimar to visit her sister and her relatives, the Riedels. Whilst in Weimar, Goethe invited Lotte to lunch, but despite only a few brief innocuous entries in Goethe's diaries concerning the return of his old flame, Thomas Mann in

Lotte in Weimar

manages to construct a whole novel around this incident. Research has shown that Mann did not learn about the meeting from Goethe's diaries, rather his knowledge of the episode stretches back to the years 1931-2 and his reading of a…

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1817 words

Citation: Gallagher, David. "Lotte in Weimar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12339, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar [Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns]

Dates

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