Lili Parthey

Lili Parthey (real name Elisabeth Parthey (1800 – 1829) was a German author whose diaries are regarded as important historical testimonies to the Biedermeier era.

Lili Parthey by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow

Life

Parthey was a granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai and a sister of Gustav Parthey. She received singing lessons from Amalie Sebald[1] and married Bernhard Klein in 1825. The marriage produced a daughter.[2] Parthey's diaries were printed in 1926 by her grandson Bernhard Lepsius. These notes give a vivid picture of the bourgeois lifestyle of their time.[3] The diaries written between 1814 and 1829 are owned by her family. They were shown in 2007 as part of the exhibition Biedermanns Abendgemütlichkeit at the Berlin Stadtmuseum; parts of them, read by Blanche Kommerell, were available in individual rooms of the exhibition.[4][5]

A portrait of Parthey from the time around 1825 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow shows her in the typical Biedermeier fashion with almost shoulderless dress, unadorned neck, centre parting, curly canes and chignon;[6] On 23 July 1823, Goethe dedicated these verses to her:

Du hattest gleich mir's angethan,
Doch nun gewahr ich neues Leben;
Ein süßer Mund blickt uns gar freundlich an,
Wenn er uns einen Kuß gegeben.[7]

Further reading
  • Rudolf Danke: Eine Berlinerin bezaubert den alten Goethe. Den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen Lili Partheys nacherzählt,[8] in Jahrbuch "Der Bär von Berlin", published by Verein für die Geschichte Berlins, volume 12, Berlin 1963.

References
  1. Hubertus Büschel, Untertanenliebe. Der Kult um deutsche Monarchen 1770-1830 (Publications of the Max Planck Institute for History), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006, ISBN 978-3525358757, p. 342
  2. Ausstellung Berliner Chic
  3. M. Rainer Lepsius, Demokratie in Deutschland. Soziologisch-historische Konstellationsanalysen. Ausgewählte Aufsätze, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1993, ISBN 978-3525357637, p. . 358
  4. Pressemitteilungen zu Biedermanns Abendgemütlichkeit In 2012 they were displayed in the exhibition geSchichten und beFunde at the Märkisches Museum.
  5. Anouk Meyer, Kunst unterm Tomograph, in Neues Deutschland, 14 February 2012
  6. Frisörmuseum Eckernförde
  7. Renate Grumach (Hg.), Goethe. Begegnungen und Gespräche, Band XIV, De Gruyter 2001, ISBN 978-3110233841, p. 135
  8. Eine Berlinerin bezaubert den alten Goethe. Den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen Lili Partheys nacherzählt in Die Geschichte Berlins
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