Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T06:48:12.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Johanna Kinkel – mother, musician, revolutionary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2023

Get access

Summary

Kinkel’s private life

Kinkel’s education was rather unplanned and was the result of her own eagerness to learn. Born into a Catholic middle-class family in 1810, Johanna Kinkel, traditionally, would have received a basic artistic education in needlework and music, and would have been trained primarily in household tasks including the care of a hard-working husband and numerous children. In contrast to other middle-class girls of her time, however, Kinkel was able to satisfy her hunger for knowledge in her teacher father’s library, which comprised books on music, history, literature, theology, and philosophy. Growing up, Kinkel faced the peculiarities of convention when, in order to satisfy her mother’s expectations, she took up an apprenticeship as a chef while still playing the piano as a hobby and even teaching others at the Mockels’ (Kinkel’s) house. In 1832, Kinkel married Johann Paul Mathieux, an educated Catholic bookseller and music dealer. The marriage emerged as a psychological nightmare for Kinkel, as Mathieux expected his wife to give up her musical interests in favour of a frugal Catholic lifestyle. Kinkel became unwell, which prompted her parents to take her back to their house. Shortly after, Kinkel decided to fight for a divorce, which at the time was subject to both the man’s and woman’s agreement, and she resumed her musical activities with the Bonn musical circle. When Mathieux still had not agreed to a divorce by 1836, Johanna travelled to Frankfurt am Main where she met Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) and Georg Brentano (1775–1851). Equipped with references from both, she set out for Berlin. Kinkel’s visit to Berlin offered various opportunities. As Berlin was primarily a Protestant centre, Kinkel’s social environment was more open-minded than in Catholic Bonn; she also improved her artistic education, as she was introduced to a great number of musical and literary luminaries of Berlin’s rich cultural life.

In Berlin, Kinkel first lived with Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859), who introduced her to Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861). There she played the piano at regular gatherings, and a rearranged version of Kinkel’s Vogelkantate, her op. 1 first conceived for the Bonn musical circle in 1829, was performed on the occasion of Savigny’s birthday in 1837.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Songs of Johanna Kinkel
Genesis, Reception, Context
, pp. 9 - 29
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×