A WOMAN’S LETTERS OF LIBERTY IN 18TH-CENTURY GERMANY
441
literary reviews written by her and essays on women’s health written by
her brother, Ernst Schwabe (1752–1824).16
In contrast to the auto/biographical nature of so many women’s letters
examined by scholars to date, Hezel’s letters include little personal infor-
mation. When Hezel does reveal details of her family background and
domestic life, she usually does so at the end of the correspondence, often
as a postscript, perhaps indicating the slowly growing separation of the
public and professional spheres from the intimate sphere. In addition,
Hezel generally does not volunteer this information. She responds to ques-
tions posed by Zapf, and she answers precisely with little elaboration. For
example, curious about Hezel’s family background, Zapf asks if Hezel is
from Leipzig17 and how she acquired her education. Hezel replies in a
postscript (#141[142]) that she is not from Leipzig, and explains that her
father is the assistant superintendent of schools in Ilmenau. She does not
go into detail about her family history, although she notes that she is
descended ‘aus dem Stamme Levi’, i.e. a long line of individuals who have
served the church.18 She attributes ‘mein bißchen Wissens’ to the efforts
of her middle brother, ‘einem Schuler Riedels’.19 Hezel asks no questions
¨
of Zapf, although posing questions that allowed the male to display his
knowledge and experience was a strategy recommended to and employed
by women conversing with men in the eighteenth century.
The style and tone of Hezel’s letters are determined by her purpose in
writing. When the goal is to communicate information pertinent to the
management of Das Wochenblatt, Hezel writes clearly, concisely and politely
without being obsequious. In her letter to Nicolai, one of the foremost
16 For an evaluation of the literary essays see Melanie Archangeli, ‘Charlotte von Hezel and Das
Wochenblatt fur’s schone Geschlecht: An Eighteenth-Century Challenge to Gender and Genre’, WGY,
¨
¨
14 (1998), 71–89. For a discussion of the health column, see Archangeli, ‘Das Wochenblatt fur’s
¨
schone Geschlecht: A Sociohistorical and Literary Analysis of an Eighteenth-Century Periodical for
¨
Women’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan 1995, pp. 99–101, 138–41, 215–17, 232–5.
17 Zapf may have wondered if Charlotte von Hezel, ne´e Schwabe, was related to the well-known
Johann Joachim Schwabe (1714–84), university librarian and later professor of philosophy at the
University of Leipzig. Schwabe was a staunch supporter of Johann Christoph Gottsched’s theories
of language and literature. See The Oxford Companion to German Literature, 2nd ed., New York 1986.
Further references will appear in the text.
18 Hezel may have written that she was of the ‘tribe of Levi’ because of the influence of her hus-
band, an orientalist scholar. At one time ‘Levites’ referred to one of the twelve tribes descended
from Levi, one of the sons of Jacob. Some modern scholars doubt the existence of such a tribe
and believe that the term ‘Levite’ designated a priestly functionary, and only when the function
became hereditary did the concept of the tribe develop. In the Middle Ages, the term levitae
(servants, ministers) began to be used for deacons, a rank in the Christian ministry immediately
below priest and bishop. In the Protestant church ‘deacon’ applied to the holders of an office in
the ministry, and in the Lutheran church specifically, ‘deacon’ is applied to assistant parochial
ministers. See ‘Levites’ and ‘Deacon’, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd ed., New
York 1974. As already noted, Hezel’s father was a Lutheran minister whose professional title was
listed in contemporary lexica variously as ‘Fruhprediger’, ‘Diaconus’, etc.
¨
19 Hezel is probably referring to Friedrich Justus Riedel (1742–85), a pastor’s son who studied at
Jena, Leipzig, and Halle, and later became a professor of philosophy for a short time at the Univer-
sity of Erfurt (1768–72) and then Vienna (see The Oxford Companion to German Literature).
Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000.