Recke, Elisa von der (1754–1833)

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Recke, Elisa von der (1754–1833)

German poet, diarist and salonnière. Name variations: Elisabeth von der Recke; Baroness von der Recke. Born Charlotte Elisabeth Konstantia von Médem, May 20, 1754, in Schönberg, Kurland; died April 13, 1833, in Dresden; dau. of Friedrich von Médem; sister of Duchess Anna Dorothea von Kurland (1761–1821), who married Duke Petr Biron; m. Georg von der Recke (div.); lived with writer Christoph August Tiedge.

After death of only child, divorced husband and traveled among European courts meeting many writers, among them Goethe, Schiller, Kant and Tischbein; exchanged poems with friend Sophie Becker-Schwarz which were published as Elisens und Sophiens (1790); moved to Dresden (1818), where she maintained a salon; diaries (1789–1804), which incorporate essays on various topics, including French Revolution, emerging German middle class, and repression of women, were republished as Tagebücher und Selbstzeugnisse (1984).