Briefe
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Therese Huber
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Edited by:
Magdalene Heuser
In the planned nine-volume edition of the letters of Therese Huber (1764-1829), Volume 1 contains those penned by her up to her 40th year, thus documenting the development from late adolescence, through her two marriages (first to Georg Forster, then to Ludwig Ferdinand Huber) and the beginnings of her activity as writer and translator, up to the imminent move of the Huber family to Ulm. The letters are testimonies both of Huber's personal biography and of the times she lived in, and reflect the career of a successful and famous woman in the period around 1800, combining the duties of housewife, wife, and mother with professional activity as a writer and later as an editor. Alongside the development of an individual code of morality, the letters document the progress in Therese Huber's reading behaviour and critical judgment as well as the interests and motivation behind her own literary output. They also provide insights into the social life of the age, notably in Göttingen and Vilnius, but also in Mainz at the time of the French Revolution and the foundation of the first German Republic.
In the years 1804 to late 1807, the concerns expressed in the letters of Therese Huber centre around incisive changes in her private life. The most notable of these are the death of Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, the move to rural surroundings, the arrival of Emil von Herder in her immediate family circle and the departure of Victor Aimé Huber for the Fellenberg Educational Institute in Hofwil (Switzerland). In addition, the letters provide insights into Huber's engagement with a variety of issues: anonymous authorship, the collection of letters written by Huber and Georg Forster for use in their biographies, new professional and private contacts, and, on a broader plane, the major political restructurings in Europe as a result of the Napoleonic wars.
The main concerns in Therese Huber's (1764-1829) letters from this period are her situation as a writer of increasing renown and her problems in finding a publisher and a post as governess. The letters also give us Therese Huber's views on education methods (e.g. Pestalozzi), Catholicism (her daughter Luise converted to Catholicism in this period), politics (Napoleon, the Munich academic dispute, German nationals movement), and economic issues. She further reports on her travels to Munich, Stuttgart, and Switzerland. Her correspondence with Emil von Herder on books they had read was designed to give the unemployed and suicidally inclined young man support and encouragement.
The letters from 1812 to mid 1815 document a period of historical upheaval (the wars of liberation and the spread of nationalist thought in Germany) as well as incisive changes in the life of Therese Huber and her family (the failure of Luise's marriage to Emil von Herder and the collapse of Therese Huber's value system and self-image). She wrote articles for Cotta's »Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände« and gained increasing public acclaim as an author. Other topics are reading matter, the death of Therese's father Christian Gottlob Heyne, and plans for an educational institute.
In October 1816 Therese Huber became editor of the Kunstblatt, an art supplement to Cotta's Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände [morning paper for the educated classes]. In the middle of the following year Therese Huber became sole editor of the entire paper. From then on the content and recipients of her letters changed. She conducted an extensive correspondence with the internal editorial staff and with Cotta, mainly about the composition of the Morgenblatt.
Politics - Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle; Württemberg Constitution of 1818, Convocation of the State Parliaments in Southern Germany; Death of Queen Katharina von Württemberg; Murder of A. von Kotzebue; K. L. Sand's fate; The Carlsbad Decrees and the persecution of demagogues; the anti-Semitic Hep-Hep riots; the Liberal Revolution in Spain.
Career - Consolidation of her position as editor of the “Morgenblatt”; Giving up her editorships of the “Kunstblatt” and “Literatur-Blatt”; Translations, smaller essays, and “Huber's collected stories” (Vols. 3 and 4); Giving up her anonymity as a writer; Acquaintance with Jean Paul; Conflicts with J. F. von Cotta and A. Müllner.
Personal life - Relocation of the G. von Greyerz family to Augsburg; L. von Herder's stay in Switzerland; V. A. Huber's studies in Göttingen and Würzburg, his doctoral degree, his interest in the Spanish War of Liberation; Shorter trips in Southern Germany; Visits to Stuttgart by Göttingen relatives in Stuttgart.
