Friederike Brun
Encyclopedia
Friederike Brun, née
Münther (3 June 1765 - 25 March 1835), was a Danish author and salonist
.
She was married to the affluent merchant Constantin Brun
and during the Danish Golden Age of the first half of the 19th century she arranged literary salons at Sophienholm
, their summer retreat north of Copenhagen
.
, Thüringia
in present-day Germany
. Her father was Balthasar Münter, a writer and theologian, and the family moved to Denmark shortly after Friederike 's birth when he assumed a position as priest at St. Peter's Church
in Copenhagen
, the church of the city's German congregation. She was a bright child and acquired a thorough knowledge of literature and other cultural subjects in the intellectual home although never receiving any formal schooling. Her family enjoyed frequent visits from German and Danish literary figures such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
, Johann Andreas Cramer, and the brothers Christian and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, and Johannes Ewald
. In 1783, at the age of 17, she married the wealthy merchant Constantin Brun
.
Friederike Brun's father had her first poetic experiments, as well as a travel account from Germany, published as early as 1782. These two genre also dominated the rest of her literary career. Her travelogues were fostered by a comprehensive travel activity which she, backed up by her husband's ample financial means, undertook from 1789 to 1810, for some time in company with Princess Louisa of Anhalt-Dessau
(wife of Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
) and the poet Matthisson
.
On her travels, she met and befriended many leading European cultural figures of the day, and they feature prominently in her travel writings. With many of them she kept up a prolific correspondence. Among the European intellectuals she associated with were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
, Friedrich Schiller
, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Johann Gottfried Herder
, Wilhelm Grimm
, and the Swiss
female writer Madame de Staël with whom she formed a close friendship.
With Matthisson and with the historian Johannes von Müller
, she spent some time in Switzerland
in the house of Charles Victor de Bonstetten
, who was afterward for several years her guest in Copenhagen. Bonstetten corresponded with her, and some of his letters were later published. After a long residence in Italy
, she spent the rest of her life in Copenhagen.
.
Other works:
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Münther (3 June 1765 - 25 March 1835), was a Danish author and salonist
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
.
She was married to the affluent merchant Constantin Brun
Constantin Brun
Johan Christian Constantin Brun was a German-Danish. Born in Germany, came to Denmark as Royal administrator of the trade on the Danish West Indies and in the same time built a successful private trading empire during the early Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th century, profiting on Denmark's...
and during the Danish Golden Age of the first half of the 19th century she arranged literary salons at Sophienholm
Sophienholm
Sophienholm is a former country house and exhibition venue located north on the shore of Lake Bagsværd in Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark....
, their summer retreat north of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
.
Early life
Friederike Brun was born on 3 June 1765 in GräfentonnaTonna, Germany
Tonna is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany....
, Thüringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
in present-day 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...
. Her father was Balthasar Münter, a writer and theologian, and the family moved to Denmark shortly after Friederike 's birth when he assumed a position as priest at St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Church, Copenhagen
St. Peter's Church is the parish church of the German-speaking community in Copenhagen, Denmark. Built as a single-nave church in the mid-15th century, it is the oldest building in central Copenhagen. It is also notable for its extensive complex of sepulchral chapels.-History:St...
in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, the church of the city's German congregation. She was a bright child and acquired a thorough knowledge of literature and other cultural subjects in the intellectual home although never receiving any formal schooling. Her family enjoyed frequent visits from German and Danish literary figures such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet.-Biography:Klopstock was born at Quedlinburg, the eldest son of a lawyer.Both in his birthplace and on the estate of Friedeburg on the Saale, which his father later rented, young Klopstock passed a happy childhood; and more attention having been given...
, Johann Andreas Cramer, and the brothers Christian and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, and Johannes Ewald
Johannes Ewald
Johannes Ewald was a Danish national dramatist and poet.-Biography:Ewald, normally regarded as the most important Danish poet of the 2nd half of the 18th Century, led a short and troubled life, marked by alcoholism and poor health...
. In 1783, at the age of 17, she married the wealthy merchant Constantin Brun
Constantin Brun
Johan Christian Constantin Brun was a German-Danish. Born in Germany, came to Denmark as Royal administrator of the trade on the Danish West Indies and in the same time built a successful private trading empire during the early Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th century, profiting on Denmark's...
.
Literary career and travels
| At the time, there was virtually not a man or a women of any relevance in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland or Italy whom she did not know, with whom she had not had friendly relations, whose character, with imagination and understanding, she was not more or less able to determine and describe in the finest detail. |
| Adam Oehlenschläger Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced romanticism into Danish literature.-Biography:He was born in Vesterbro, then a suburb of Copenhagen, on 14 November 1779... . |
Friederike Brun's father had her first poetic experiments, as well as a travel account from Germany, published as early as 1782. These two genre also dominated the rest of her literary career. Her travelogues were fostered by a comprehensive travel activity which she, backed up by her husband's ample financial means, undertook from 1789 to 1810, for some time in company with Princess Louisa of Anhalt-Dessau
Anhalt-Dessau
Anhalt-Dessau was a principality and later a duchy located in Germany. It was created in 1396 following the partition of the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. The capital of the state was Dessau. Anhalt-Dessau experienced a number of partitions throughout its existence with Anhalt-Köthen being...
(wife of Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
Leopold III Frederick Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau , known as "Prince Franz" or "Father Franz", was a German prince of the House of Ascania...
) and the poet Matthisson
Friedrich von Matthisson
Friedrich von Matthisson was a German poet.-Biography:He was born at Hohendodeleben near Magdeburg, the son of the village pastor, on the 23rd of January 1761. After studying theology and philology at the university of Halle, he was appointed in 1781 master at the classical school Philanthropinum...
.
On her travels, she met and befriended many leading European cultural figures of the day, and they feature prominently in her travel writings. With many of them she kept up a prolific correspondence. Among the European intellectuals she associated with were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, 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...
, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
, Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.-Life and work:...
, and the Swiss
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....
female writer Madame de Staël with whom she formed a close friendship.
With Matthisson and with the historian Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller was a Swiss historian.-Biography:He was born at Schaffhausen, where his father was a clergyman and rector of the gymnasium. In his youth, his maternal grandfather, Johannes Schoop , roused in him an interest in the history of his country...
, she spent some time in 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....
in the house of Charles Victor de Bonstetten
Charles Victor de Bonstetten
Charles Victor de Bonstetten , was a Swiss liberal writer.By birth a member of one of the great patrician families of Bern, he was educated in his native town, at Yverdon, and at Geneva, where he came under the influence of Rousseau and of Charles Bonnet, and imbibed liberal sentiments...
, who was afterward for several years her guest in Copenhagen. Bonstetten corresponded with her, and some of his letters were later published. After a long residence in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, she spent the rest of her life in Copenhagen.
The salons
In addition to her work as an author, Friederike Brun is from 1788 known for her salons, held in the summer at Frederiksdal and in winters in Copenhagen. An inspiration for the salons was Madame de Staël's salons at Château de CoppetCoppet
Coppet is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-History:Coppet is first mentioned in 1294 as Copetum. In 1347 it was mentioned as Copet.-Geography:...
.
Works
Her early poems, edited by Matthisson in 1795 (4th ed., Zürich, 1806), were followed by Neue Gedichte (Darmstadt, 1812), and Neueste Gedichte (Bonn, 1820). She described her travels in:- Prosaische Schriften, 4 vols., Zürich, 1799-1801
- Tagebuch einer Reise durch die östliche, südliche und italienische Schweiz, 1800
- Episoden aus Reisen durch das südliche Deutschland etc., 4 vols., 1807-1818
Other works:
- Sitten- und Landschaftsstudien von Neapel und seinen Umgebungen, 1818
- Briefe aus Rom, letters from Rome addressed to her brother, the bishop of Seeland; edited by Böttiger, Dresden, 1816; new ed., 1820
- Wahrheit aus Morgenträumen und Idas ästhetische Entwickelung, her last work, containing a partial autobiography and an account of her daughter Ida's education, 1824
- Römisches Leben, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1833