Sophie von La Roche in Offenbach (1786 - 1807)
Sophie von La Roche lived in no other place as long as in Offenbach am Main - over twenty years. She wrote to her friend Jakob Sarasin from Speyer in November 1786: "La Roche wants to live in Offenbach because he likes the air and doctors better."(1) She herself would have preferred to stay in Speyer. Georg Michael Frank von La Roche had already moved to Offenbach in July 1786.
On the 10th of July I arrived at Mrs. André's in Offenbach at 6 o'clock in the evening thanks to the friendly help and guidance of my beloved Brent:[ano] son and daughter(2).
It can be assumed that he wanted to spend the rest of his life near his sister and his daughter Maximiliane Brentano. The letters he wrote to his daughter from Offenbach am Main in the first few weeks bear witness to his already poor state of health. "Regardless of my health barometre, I am raisonnable. Thank heaven."(3) While Sophie von La Roche was making preparations for her journey to England in Speyer, her husband was trying to find a house in Offenbach.
So peace and contentment alternate without chagrin or annoyance. God let me enjoy it more, and only give me soon a secure assured place not displaced by myself. amen. You know / : Dear Max : / what I think and ask.(4)
Summer and retirement residence for wealthy Frankfurters
La Roche's son-in-law, Peter Anton Brentano, was a wealthy businessman from Frankfurt am Main and supported him financially in the purchase of the house in Offenbach's Domstrasse.
At the time, the Isenburg residence of Offenbach am Main was not only a popular excursion destination for wealthy Frankfurt citizens, but also a summer and retirement residence. It was located in the countryside, just a few kilometers away from the nearby trading and trade fair city of Frankfurt am Main. There were magnificent estates on the outskirts of the town, with the gardens of the houses in Domstrasse and Herrnstrasse stretching right down to the river. It is difficult for later observers to imagine the bourgeois gentility of Offenbach at the end of the 18th century. Goethe, who often enjoyed spending time in Offenbach with the André family and the Bernard and d'Orville families, wrote in his memoirs:
When you left the house early in the morning, you found yourself in the open air, but not actually in the country. Handsome buildings that would have done honor to a city in those days, gardens overlooked like parterres, with flat flowerbeds and other ornamental beds, a clear view over the river to the far bank, often early in the morning an active navigation of rafts and steered market boats and barges, a gently gliding living world, in harmony with loving tender sensations. Even the lonely passing of a quietly moving stream was most refreshing and did not fail to spread a decidedly calming charm over those who approached. A serene sky of the most beautiful season of the year covered the whole, and how pleasant it must have been to find oneself surrounded by such scenes in the morning.(5)
Looking back on a broken engagement
It must be added that Goethe wrote this enthusiastic description of Offenbach in retrospect of his engagement to the Frankfurt banker's daughter Lili Schönemann, which took place in 1775 and was broken off in the same year. Her mother was born d'Orville. Sophie von La Roche, in turn, returning from a trip to England in the following decade, was surprised to learn that her husband wanted to buy a house in Offenbach and had already moved to the Main. She wrote in her last letter from Speyer to Johannes von Müller on December 9, 1786:
You shall have the last letter, which I shall write in my dear green parlor in Speyer, for my good La Roche has been persuaded to live in Offenbach, and I want to travel to him tomorrow morning(6).
Sophie von La Roche quickly settled in Offenbach am Main despite her attachment to Speyer. Her house in Offenbach's Domstrasse went down in literary history under the name "Grillenhütte" (cricket hut), in allusion to the "crickets" (strange habits, peculiar interests) that hatched there. The new accommodation was spacious and extended over two and a half floors with five windows across. The house also had a garden, which was tended by Sophie von La Roche herself. The "cricket hut" was located in Domstrasse next to the house of the André family of music publishers. It stood roughly where Hans Mettel's sculpture 'Der Sitzende' (The Sitting Man) stands today, on the edge of Büsingpark.
Magnificent Renaissance façade
Offenbach am Main had been an Isenburg residence since the 16th century. Count Reinhard had moved his seat from Birstein to the town on the Main due to geographical and strategic considerations. Isenburg Castle and its magnificent south façade was one of the most beautiful Renaissance castles north of the Alps. In the years around 1700, the House of Isenburg provided protection and shelter for minorities. When the French Huguenots were persecuted and declared outlaws by King Louis XIV following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), the French Reformed community was founded in 1699 under the government of Count Johann Philipp. He was interested in the settlement of Huguenots trained in trade and commerce, so he granted them privileges in 1705. In 1707, the Jewish community was founded through resolutions which were sanctioned by the count in 1708. As a result, a Hebrew printing tradition also developed in Offenbach am Main.
At the time, Offenbach was home to around six hundred inhabitants, mainly farmers and fishermen. Johann Philipp Count of Isenburg pursued the goal of further expanding the village. With the Huguenots, experts in the textile industry had settled here: Linen weavers, stocking weavers, silk weavers, hat makers and other trades. Rural Huguenots left the village. They had been given a piece of land to clear, which was used to establish the nearby village of Neu-Isenburg in 1699 at the same time as a French Reformed community was founded in Offenbach.
Western border of the city
A few years after the arrival of the first Huguenots, the population had already doubled. At the time of Sophie von La Roche, Offenbach am Main already had around 6000 inhabitants.
As a result of the mercantilist policies of the 18th century, it was necessary to build new streets. While the town had previously consisted of the castle and a few small alleyways in the immediate vicinity, the market square with Grosser Marktstrasse, Grosser Biergrund and Frankfurter Strasse was laid out in an initial expansion phase at the beginning of the century. By the end of the 18th century, Offenbach am Main already extended from the market square with Frankfurter Strasse, Grosser Biergrund, Grosser Marktstrasse, Kleiner Marktstrasse, Herrnstrasse (which at that time only extended as far as today's Linsenberg) and Domstrasse to Kanalstrasse (today Kaiserstrasse), which marked the western boundary of the town.
The Bernards and the d'Orvilles were among the best-known and wealthiest families in Offenbach at the time of Sophie von La Roche. In January 1733, Johann Nicolaus Bernard was granted permission to set up a snuff factory by Isenburg privilege. His brother Johann Heinrich, father of Peter and Rahel Bernard, was a partner. In 1768 Johann Nicolaus Bernard concluded a partnership agreement with the Frankfurt banker Jean Georg d'Orville, who married Rahel Bernard a year later. Her brother Peter married Maria Elisabeth, née Thurneisen. Around 1775 / 80, the manor house of the Bernard and d'Orville families was built, later known as the Büsingpalais. Maria Elisabeth Bernard made a note in her diary on December 26, 1786:
To please the princesses
Mrs. Laroche has arrived here [...] but has not yet made any visits except to the princesses, whom she is supposed to please very much, because her husband was attacked, but she is better now. (7)In a letter to her future daughter-in-law Elsy de l'Espinasse, Sophie von La Roche praised Bernard's private theater and the music band:
'The local houses of Bernard and d'Orville maintain a theater company, organize informal assemblies and concerts. [...] I dare say that you will find it better than I paint it.(8)
Sophie's granddaughter Bettine later reported enthusiastically about the orchestra's symphonies, which she listened to in the evenings with the window open. Sometimes she even climbed into a tree outside her window to be closer to the music.
Innovative neighbors
The La Roches' immediate neighbors were the Andrés, whose ancestors had come to Offenbach am Main as Huguenot silk weavers. At Domstraße 21, next to the La Roche family's house, which was later given the number 23, the André family was based with their music publishing house and adjoining sheet music print shop, founded in 1774. The founder of the publishing house, Johann André, was one of the poet's immediate circle of friends during Goethe's visit to Offenbach in 1775. In 1799, two people who made history met in Munich: Johann Anton André, the son of the founder of the publishing house, and Alois Senefelder, author, actor and inventor of lithography, the first modern printing process. As the new owner of the publishing house, the young André invested in the pioneering process and commissioned Senefelder to set up a lithographic printing shop in the backyard of Domstrasse 21.
In 1800, the new technique - with its first commercial use - began its triumphal march around the world. It became particularly important for the reproduction of high-quality artist prints. The process later led to modern offset printing. Finally, Johann Anton André acquired the musical estate of the great composer from Mozart's widow Constanze on his journey to Vienna in 1799. Seventy-nine Mozart compositions were subsequently published in Offenbach am Main in the first edition, many of them lithographed. Johann Anton André also cataloged the estate and thus created a basis for the later Köchel-Verzeichnis as a catalog of works(9).
"Uniting the softest tones"
Little is known about the neighborly relations between the Andrés and the La Roches. However, Sophie von La Roche acted as an intermediary between writers and the composer Johann André. She wrote to Elise Countess of Solms-Laubach on March 3, 1787:
H[err] André wants to unite the softest tones to find a worthy melody for Jacobi's song, so I must ask for the grace to send it to me again [...].(10)
André's family was also on friendly terms with Georg Michael Frank von La Roche when he arrived in Offenbach: "The André women and children are all very dear and kind to me."(11)
Although Offenbach am Main was largely spared the turmoil of war at the end of the 18th century, troubled times had begun. When the Austrian Rhine flotilla docked in May 1796, there were numerous quarterings. Frankfurt am Main was affected by the siege of the French in July of the same year. During the bombardment of the city, Goethe's mother, Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, fled to Sophie von La Roche in Offenbach. After a few days' stay, however, the danger was over and Frau Rat Goethe had to return quickly, as the Frankfurters would close their gates again. When no wagon was available, the Andrés helped out with a "Kütschgen", as Goethe's mother called it. The French Revolution was the beginning of far-reaching changes throughout Europe, including Offenbach. Prince Carl, the regent of Isenburg, had concluded a neutrality treaty with General Augereau in 1799 and was admitted to the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. He had to atone for his allegiance to Napoleon in the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna. Offenbach was initially placed under Austrian administration in 1815 before it fell to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1816, ending the Isenburg rule that had existed since the late Middle Ages.
Georg Michael Frank von La Roche had already moved to Offenbach when he was ill. On his arrival in Offenbach, he was already struggling with the consequences of a stroke, from which he slowly recovered.
[Despite the incessant rain, I can still talk and / : as can be seen : / write a few letters.(12)
After suffering several strokes in quick succession, he was cared for by his wife for almost two years before he died in 1788.
Three years after her husband's death, her beloved son Franz Wilhelm died of intestinal inflammation at the age of twenty-three. Franz Wilhelm had just taken up his post as a forestry official at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Sophie von La Roche had been happy to know that he was being cared for. Although she had been able to bear the death of her husband with composure, she never got over this stroke of fate. On September 14, 1791, she wrote to Elise, Countess of Solms-Laubach, on the death of her son Franz Wilhelm:
O noble, kind Princess Elise, pity me. God took my dear son Franz from an inflammatory colic. Deeply bowed, I ask for your participation. My pain is unspeakable. Surrender is a difficult virtue in such a case. They want to take me to Switzerland. Alas, nowhere will I find again what I have lost. Pray that God will sustain me and keep my Karl, who still needs me this year. I am going with Frau von Steinberg to Tissot to help save her seven-year-old son, and my 23-year-old is dead. Ripe for eternity early, he fell a pure flower of virtue and merit. Eternally happy rests beside his father my best child, who loved me most and who deserved my adoration.(13)
Death of the daughter
In 1793, two years later, her eldest daughter Maximiliane died after giving birth to her twelfth child, leaving behind eight underage half-orphans. At the insistence of her parents, the seventeen-year-old "Maxe" had been married in 1774 to the wealthy thirty-eight-year-old merchant Peter Anton Brentano from Frankfurt, a widower of Italian origin with five children. Although this provided her with a certain standard of living, she suffered from the fact that she could not find time for her artistic interests in the gloomy business household. Sophie von La Roche wrote to Elise Countess zu Solms-Laubach on November 27, 1793 after the death of her daughter:
'She is with God, above all the sufferings of the earth. But alas, her children. Eight still alive, happily preceded by four, and then memories, the sight of people who remember how much unnecessary grief, given out of malice, was driven through her heart. What were the first eight days after her death for me! I fled from the house as if from a murderer's den, went to Bethmann, asked her to let me go straight to Offenbach because I wanted and needed to be alone. I come into my house and find the man with four children. O best, kindest woman! Think of a torn heart on which a hundredweight burden is rolled. They are over, the eight days. He is back in his house, I am alone with a granddaughter with an old, 74-year-old niece of my husband, who laments that she had to outlive my son, my daughter. I also live, share, carry, kind Princess Elise! (14)
"Cursing all the time"
Her second daughter Louise also had an unhappy and involuntary marriage. In 1779, she was married to the Electoral Court Councillor Joseph Christian von Möhn, which met with complete incomprehension among the La Roches' circle of acquaintances. Councillor Goethe commented on this in a letter to Duchess Anna Amalia in Weimar:
[...] Madamm la Roche is here too ! ! ! ! Dearest Princess ! If Doctor Wolf could see the daughter's husband that the author of Sternheim wants to give to her second daughter Louise, he would, according to his otherwise praiseworthy habit, gnash his teeth and swear all over the place. Yesterday she introduced me to the monster - Good God! ! ! If he wanted to make me queen of the earth / : Americka included : /; so - yes so - I give him a basket - He looks - like the devil in the 7th petition in Luther's little Catesichmus [!]- is as stupid as a hay horse - and to all his[!] misfortune he is Hoffrath - When I understand something of all this stuff; then I want to become an oyster. A woman like la Roche, of a mind that is certainly not commonplace, of great fortune, of respectability, rank, etc., who takes it upon herself to make her daughters unhappy - and yet writes star homes and women's letters - in a word, my head is like a mill. Forgive me, Your Serene Highness, for telling you such a thing, but I have just the Awentheuer before my eyes - and I cannot stand the tears of good Louise.(15)
Louise separated from her husband when he was forced to resign from his position at the court of appeal in Koblenz due to alcoholism and moved to Offenbach to live with her mother in 1789, embittered. Her eldest son Fritz, who had been educated by Wieland in Erfurt for several years, settled in Offenbach for two years with his newlywed wife, a wealthy widow from Amsterdam, Elsina de l'Espinasse, known as Elsy, after fighting on the French side in the American Civil War. Sophie von La Roche reported to Elise Countess of Solms-Laubach on March 3, 1787:
"A beautiful, laughing region"
Assure your mother that I will take her place before God and fulfill her duties. You will find, my lovely daughter, a beautiful, laughing region, a beautiful river that washes the edge of the piece of land that we designate as your garden, a company of very honorable people [...].(17)
Fritz was finally able to finance part of Sophie's third trip to Switzerland thanks to his marital fortune. After he emigrated to America with his family to seek his fortune as a farmer in New York State, Sophie began to feel great sorrow for her eldest son. The marriage broke down after he had squandered almost all of his wife's fortune. Sophie von La Roche, who had grown very fond of her daughter-in-law, was horrified to see her in this situation with three children - one from her first marriage and two from her marriage to Fritz. She wrote to Elsy:
You and your children in such a cruel situation, through my son ! O my Elsy ! Nothing can express what I suffer because of your situation and my powerlessness.(18)
Elsy stayed with her sister in America. Sophie von La Roche broke with her son Fritz. She wrote to Elise, Countess of Solms-Laubach, on November 15, 1797:
'A new gloom has arisen in my soul, kind, magnanimous lady, since I had the apparition of my eldest son from America, who is going to France to reclaim four ships lost to his society and taken by corsairs, on which was his whole fortune [...] All manner of woe presses hardest upon the earth and that part of its most sentimental inhabitants. The few hours when I saw my son, unhappy in himself, around me were very sad. Between the grave of my Francis and the ruins of his brother's prosperity, I felt anew the truth of the Queen of England's saying: 'It is sweeter to weep for a child that is dead than for one that lives.
Lost in Russia
Fritz returned to Europe in later years and was considered lost in Russia from 1814. His stay in America inspired the writer to write the novel 'Apparitions on Lake Oneida' (1798). Sophie von La Roche had less grief with her son Georg Carl. Although he was very busy at work, he was only rarely able to look after his mother, but he had already been working as a ridge master in salt mining in Schönebeck near Magdeburg since 1786. He later lived with his family in Berlin.
In 1794, the French occupied the left bank of the Rhine. The payments from the Electorate of Trier's widow's fund did not materialize, which meant that Sophie von La Roche was dependent on financial support. She received regular donations from a charitable lady via an anonymous Frankfurt account.(20) She was barely able to maintain her house financially, and an impoverished old niece of her deceased husband, Cordula, also lived with her. She took in Elise von Bethmann's son and his courtier as paying boarders and, after the death of her son-in-law Peter Anton Brentano in 1797, three of her unprovided-for underage granddaughters: Bettine, Lulu and Meline. Together with Louise and a maid, up to nine people lived in the cricket hut.
"All feelings of care and love"
[...] I [will] now take my three youngest granddaughters to myself and bring up the fatherless and motherless orphans [...]. Their wealth is sufficient to provide cheap boarding money, and my heart is sufficient to devote all my feelings of care and love to their education. And so I shall end the evening of my life with a fact and not with ideals.(21)
Sophie's relationship with her headstrong granddaughter Bettine, who enjoyed listening to her wonderful stories, increasingly in Swabian dialect, and with whom she also shared a love of the garden, was intense and trusting. This was probably the closest Bettine came to understanding what her grandmother felt after the trees in the garden had been felled:
[...] when I came back to my grandmother - I looked pale and destroyed and she probably saw the traces of my tears. - She looked at me for a while - and said: 'You were in the garden?' - then she held out her hand to me. - What should I say? - I was silent, and so was she - she said: 'I shall probably not live much longer !' - I dared not say anything - but soon afterwards she opened the next room, from where you can see the garden, and said: 'The rustling in the evening wind was my joy, I shall not hear it again, I would have liked it if I had fallen asleep under its rustling last evening ! they would have done me this solemn service the dear friends whom I visited every day, whom I saw with great joy high above me; - you loved them too, it was your dearest stay - I often saw you from the window in their treetops rising in the evening and believed no one saw it - take my blessing, dear child, I thought of you, how they were mutilated despite the painful injury to my feelings. (22)
Writing for a living
The board money she accepted from a son of Peter Anton Brentano from his first marriage was partly offset against the financing of the house in Domstrasse.
Sophie von La Roche continued to write, despite all the blows of fate. What's more, her writing was no longer voluntary, but her work, with which she earned part of her living. She had thus finally developed into a professional writer in Offenbach, starting out as the "educator of Teutschland's daughters". She demonstrated a high degree of business acumen when she produced literature for daily use. Due to her life situation, this work process had to achieve an astonishing speed: She continued her pedagogical writings and wrote four novels. During her time in Offenbach, she wrote the extensive stories and novels 'Geschichte von Miss Lony und der schöne Bund' (1789), 'Rosalie und Cleberg auf dem Lande' (1791), 'Schönes Bild der Resignation' (1795 / 96), 'Apparitions at Lake Oneida' (1798), 'Letters about Mannheim' (1791), 'My Writing Table' (1799), 'Fanny and Julia' (1801 / 02), 'Love Cottages' (1803 / 04), 'Autumn Days' (1805). Her last novel 'Melusinens Sommer-Abende' (1806) was, like her first novel, published by her childhood friend Christoph Martin Wieland.
Traveling in company
Between 1787 and 1793, Sophie von La Roche wrote numerous travelogues in rapid succession, in which she literarily evaluated and cleverly marketed her travels. She did not travel alone, but was accompanied by wealthy friends who financed her travels and also provided her with protection. Some wealthy friends, such as Elise von Bethmann or Baroness von Werthern, were interested in foreign countries and needed a travel companion, as it was not appropriate for women to travel alone in the 18th century. The third journey to Switzerland was marked by sadness, as this trip reminded her of her son Franz Wilhelm. "O Princess Elise, I am suffering! This journey was meant to distract me, it proves my loss,"(23) she wrote to Countess Elise zu Solms-Laubach from Lausanne on November 29, 1791. On her last great journey - from Offenbach to Oßmannstedt near Weimar - she was accompanied by her granddaughter Sophie Brentano.
While her literary contemporaries visited her house in Domstrasse in the early Offenbach years and often came to Offenbach just for her, she lived a more secluded life after her numerous strokes of fate. She kept in touch with the Frankfurt families Bethmann and Holzhausen as well as with Goethe's mother, who wrote to her son in 1793:
Worshipped like a mother
Last Sunday I had the pleasure of lunching with Her Serene Highness the Reigning Duchess in the company of Mama la Roche and various Prussian officers. We were very amused - stayed until 5 o'clock - then all went to the theater.(24)
Sophie von La Roche cultivated a friendship with the Offenbach writer Christian Carl Ernst Wilhelm Buri, who adored her like a mother. From 1780 until Sophie von La Roche's death in 1807, Buri stayed in Offenbach as a court advocate from Isenburg. The small, enthusiastic circle of sensitive souls that had gathered around the "Sternheim" in Offenbach am Main was the source of Buri's own poetic experiments. Through Sophie von La Roche's relationship with Christoph Martin Wieland, Buri was often able to publish in Wieland's journal 'Der Neue Teutsche Merkur'. In some of his novels, he borrowed characters from her novels 'Liebe-Hütten', 'Geschichte von Miß Lony und der schöne Bund' and 'Melusinens Sommer-Abende'. He dedicated 'Das Lebensfest', a birthday poem, as well as the poem 'Todtenfeier' to Sophie von La Roche. Buri was close friends with Sophie's son Franz Wilhelm and the Offenbach merchant Peter Bernard. It is not known how close the relationship between Sophie von La Roche and the Bernard family was, but as Peter Bernard belonged to the Offenbach circle around Sophie, it can be assumed that she also maintained contacts with the rest of the Bernard family. A handwritten inscription "Madame Bernhard / gebohrene Turneisen - Zu erinnerung / von La Roche" to Maria Elisabeth Bernard has survived in a copy of 'Liebe-Hütten'.
"Loss of immeasurable greatness"
The death of his friend Sophie von La Roche was of incisive significance for Buri, who felt so much respect and devotion. He wrote to Elise, Countess of Solms-Laubach:
Most Serene Princess, Most Gracious Princess and Lady ! It is an irresistible urge in my heart, wounded by the death of the incomparable Mother la Roche, to most humbly communicate to Your Most Serene Highness the enclosed ode of mourning which I dedicated to her grave, since I know how much the Most Serene Highness appreciated this rare and unique woman, and since the immortal so often spoke to me of you with great enthusiasm. Alas! What a loss of immeasurable greatness for all who were in contact with this pearl of humanity ! (25)
In the same year, he left Offenbach to join Volrat Graf zu Solms-Rödelheim; he later worked in Homburg and Hanau.
Sophie von La Roche had connections to the princely house of Isenburg. She was on friendly terms with Elise Countess of Solms-Laubach, a Countess of Isenburg-Birstein by birth. Over three hundred letters to the Countess and her daughter Countess Sophie zu Solms-Rödelheim and Assenheim from the period between 1783 and 1807 have been preserved. They also paint a picture of the Isenburg residence of Offenbach am Main at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Sophie von La Roche once even described a wedding of the Isenburgs in detail and also reported on the enlightened regent in Offenbach. In this correspondence - as in her writings - she shows herself to be a historically educated, politically and socially interested woman who was inquisitive about many things.
"Sensitivity" is outdated
Initially not averse to the French Revolution, she soon detested the increasing acts of violence and expressed her resignation in a letter to the Countess of Solms-Laubach in July 1800:
As long as the fate of our good Offenbach was still in the hands of the Polish Legion - and all the garden walls on both sides of the road were broken through to support each other - - as long as we could not and would not write - but now we have come to the honor of the French headquarters - our garden walls have been restored, and I did not want to write - but now we have come to the honor of the French main quarter - our garden walls have been restored - the land of Isenburg has suffered 36 / m damage - and we can again sleep a little peacefully or dream waking of better times - for kindest princess it is more and more affirmed, that hoping for good things is a dream - and I no longer listen to anyone - I don't read any newspapers and only ask about the next thing to be done - the Providence knows everything better than I do - God [has] the omnipotence - and lets it go like this - I want to worship and remain silent, so I have become calmer - and live and work all the more: [...] Thanks be to heaven, it did not happen as much as one feared - but now Frankfort has been spared - all carriages are allowed in - but nothing out and they are to pay 800 / m livres - they do not want to count on neutrality - and now have 2000 men execution troops until the dispatched courier brings Buonaparte's decision on Saturday.(26)
With her later writings, Sophie von La Roche was unable to build on her former success, which was based on her first novel 'Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim'. The writer's sensitive style was now considered outdated.
Hope of recovery
On February 9, 1807, Sophie von La Roche wrote to Elise, Countess of Solms-Laubach:
Old La Roche has been suffering from severe stomach and back pains for six days, but hopes soon to express all her thanks for overflowing grace, because the doctor wants to help. The blessing of Princess Elise will make it perfect.(27)
On February 18, 1807, Sophie von La Roche died at the age of seventy-six. Her daughter Louise then informed the countess:
Madam, Madam !
Nothing is harder for me than to inform Your Serene Highness of the great loss I suffered on the 18th of this month at about 7 o'clock in the evening through the death of my best mother. It is doubly sensitive for me to write to you, madam, that a woman who enjoyed the great happiness of receiving such an excellent favor from your [Serene Highness] no longer feels it so deeply. Alas ! her heart still spoke the words on her sick bed: the noble ! the excellent ! the kind ! - She was calm, gentle, patient, resigned on her sick bed as she lived. She had no pain at all in the last 8 days, complete exhaustion was her death. I apologize to Your Serene Highness for entering into this detail, but you loved this good mother who has now been taken from me. Allow me to call myself with the greatest respect
Your Serene Highness
Most obedient servant
Von Möhn. g.[eborene] Von La Roche (28)
Catholic funeral in Bürgel
Although she was a Protestant, Sophie von La Roche wanted to be buried in the Catholic cemetery in Bürgel next to her Catholic husband and her beloved son Franz Wilhelm. There was no Catholic community in Offenbach am Main itself at the time and therefore no Catholic cemetery. The La Roche family gravestone is made of red sandstone and shows two superimposed inscriptions on a pyramidal epitaph, decorated with flower garlands and palmettes. An urn stands on the upper inscription field, which, like the lower, pedestal-like, appears as a structuring surface.
On the lower field, inscribed first after the death of her husband, is written: (29)
By this stone rests / Georg Michael Edler von Laroche / Old Chancellor and State Councillor of Churtrier / His great spirit, his righteousness / and goodness / are revered by all honest people / He loved the country people and wished / for a grave with them. / God calls him to the reward of his virtues / November 21, 1788 in the 69th year of his life / in Offenbach am Mayn.
On the upper field, inscribed after Sophie von La Roche's death, appears the inscription - with the wrong date of her son's death:(30)
At his father's side / rests his wife / Sophie de la Roche / née [orene] Guterman- / d.[orene] 18 Feb.[uar] 1807 / and his son Franz / Wilhem [!] de la Roche / d.[orene] 12 Dec.[ember] 1791.
Living memory
When the cemetery was abandoned, those responsible attempted to find descendants of the von La Roche family, but no relatives came forward after a period of time. Relocated to the church tower, the heavily weathered gravestone was transferred to the Offenbach Museum of Local History in August 1928. At the time, the museum was located in rooms in Isenburg Castle. The epitaph was placed in the arcade of Isenburg Castle, where it still stands today, while a faithful replica was placed in the church tower of St. Pancratius Church in Bürgel (incorporated into Offenbach in 1908) - close to the previous resting place. The memory of Sophie von La Roche will thus remain alive in Offenbach am Main for all time.
Notes
(1) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Jakob Sarasin, Speyer, November 11, 1786, cited in: Maurer 1985 I, p. 283.
(2) Georg Michael Frank von La Roche, letter to Maximiliane Brentano, Offenbach am Main, [July 11] [1786]. (Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum)
(3) Georg Michael Frank von La Roche, letter to Maximiliane Brentano, Offenbach am Main, July 15 [1786]. (Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum)
(4) Georg Michael Frank von La Roche, letter to Maximiliane Brentano, Offenbach am Main, July 18 [1786]. (Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum)
(5) Quoted from: Müller 1986 [Frankf. Goethe-Ausg.], p. 754.
(6) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Johannes von Müller, Speyer, September 9, 1786, quoted from: Maurer 1985 I, p. 283 f.
(7) Quoted from: Wingenfeld 1975, p. 138.
(8) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elsy de l'Espinasse, later von La Roche, Offenbach am Main, October 4, 1787, quoted from: Maurer 1985 I, p. 293.
(9) Cf. Eichenauer 2006.
(10) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, March 3, 1787, quoted from: Kampf 1965, p. 29.
(11) Georg Michael Frank von La Roche, letter to Maximiliane Brentano, Offenbach am Main, July 10 [1786]. (Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum)
(12) Georg Michael Frank von La Roche, letter to Maximiliane Brentano, Offenbach am Main, July 12 [1786]. (Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum)
(13) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, September 14, 1791, quoted from: Kampf 1965, p. 39.
(14) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Countess zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, November 27, 1793, quoted from: ibid. p. 50.
(15) Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, letter to Anna Amalia Duchess of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, Frankfurt am Main, April 11, 1779, cited in: ibid: Leis et al. 1996, p. 95 f.
(16) Sophie von la Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, March 3, 1787, cited in: Kampf 1965, p. 28 f: Kampf 1965, p. 28 f.
(17) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elsy de l'Espinasse, later von La Roche, Offenbach am Main, March 4, 1787, cited after: Maurer 1985 I, p. 292.
(18) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elsy von La Roche, Offenbach am Main, October 17, 1797, quoted from: ibid., p. 365.
(19) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, November 15, 1797, cited in: ibid: Kampf 1965, p. 72 f.
(20) Cf. ibid., Introduction, p. 12.
(21) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, March 30, 1797, quoted from: ibid., p. 70.
(22) Quoted from: Schmitz / Steinsdorff 1986 / 92, vol. 1, p. 581. (23) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Lausanne, November 29, 1791, quoted from: Kampf 1965, p. 40.
(24) Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, letter to J.W. Goethe, no place, January 22, 1793, quoted from: Leis et al. 1996, p. 303.
(25) Christian Carl Ernst Wilhelm Buri, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, February 23, 1807 (Haus der Stadtgeschichte, Archive, Offenbach am Main).
(26) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Countess zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, July 29, 1800 (Haus der Stadtgeschichte, Archive, Offenbach am Main)
(27) Sophie von La Roche, letter to Elise Gräfin zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main, February 9, 1807, cited in: Kampf, 1965, p. 106.
(28) Louise von Möhn, letter to Elise Countess zu Solms-Laubach, Offenbach am Main [1807]. (House of City History, Archive, Offenbach am Main)
(29) The lower panel is based on the copy of the stone in Offenbach-Bürgel because the inscription on the original stone in the arcade of Isenburg Palace is no longer legible in all parts. There are a few orthographic differences in the surviving part of the inscription compared with the copy, for example "Redlichn" instead of "Redlichen" and the like.
(30) The inscription on the upper panel is based on the still legible original inscription on the gravestone
Source: The essay by Daniela Kohls and Heidrun Weber-Grandke was published in: Dr. Jürgen Eichenauer (ed.): 'My freedom to live according to my character'. Sophie von La Roche (1730 - 1807) - Writer of Sensitivity. Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, Weimar 2007 Publication by kind permission of the publisher and the authors.