Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar [Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns]

David Gallagher (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

In September 1816, Charlotte Kestner (née Buff), whom Goethe had met in Wetzlar in 1772, and who was the inspiration for the character of Lotte in Goethe's best-selling novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of young Werther, 1774], travelled with her daughter Clara and personal maid from Hannover to Weimar to visit her sister and her relatives, the Riedels. Whilst in Weimar, Goethe invited Lotte to lunch, but despite only a few brief innocuous entries in Goethe's diaries concerning the return of his old flame, Thomas Mann in Lotte in Weimar manages to construct a whole novel around this incident. Research has shown that Mann did not learn about the …

1817 words

Citation: Gallagher, David. "Lotte in Weimar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12339, accessed 29 March 2024.]

12339 Lotte in Weimar 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.