Clemens Brentano

The poet Clemens Brentano (1778–1842), one of the main representatives of German Romanticism, was born in Ehrenbreitstein in the house of his grandparents la Roche, while his mother Maximiliane was on a visit. At the age of 17 she had married the Frankfurt merchant and widower Peter Anton Brentano (1735–1797). Clemens was given the name of his godfather, the Elector of Trier Clemens Wenzeslaus (1739–1812). The Brentano family lived in Frankfurt but the six-year-old Clemens was sent together with his sister Sophie (1776–1800) to his childless aunt Luise Möhn (1759–1832) in Koblenz to make it easier for his mother. He stayed there until the end of 1786 and later portrayed this period in rather dark colors. The aunt’s husband, a Koblenz appeals court secretary, drank and was violent.

After a short stay at his parents‘ house in Frankfurt Clemens returned to Koblenz to live with his aunt in the autumn of 1787. He attended the Jesuit high school and had contact with various Koblenz families: Görres, Lassaulx and Liel. When his aunt divorced her husband in 1789 and moved to Offenbach to live with her mother Sophie La Roche, Clemens Brentano found accommodation in the house of Privy Councillor Christian Linz (1745–1813). He stayed there until the autumn of 1790.

In June 1802 Brentano visited Koblenz again when he and Achim von Arnim (1781–1831) took a trip along the Rhine. The two traveled from Frankfurt to Bingen. From there they continued via Rüdesheim to Koblenz. This trip was of great importance to Brentano and its impressions left many traces in the correspondence between Arnim and Brentano.

The poetically transfigured life on the Rhine became one of the roots of the song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Allusions to this journey can also be found in Brentano’s poems and in his Fairy Tale of the Rhine (written 1810–1812, printed in 1846).

Several years passed in which Clemens Brentano lived in various places before he came into closer contact with the city of Koblenz again. During a stay in Frankfurt with his family in early 1825 he met the Koblenz factory owner and city councilor Hermann Joseph Dietz (1782–1862) with whom he lived from May 1825 and with whom he was to remain friends for life. Dietz was strongly committed to caring for the poor and the sick in Koblenz. Thanks to his initiative a citizens‘ hospital was opened in Koblenz on November 19, 1825. Brentano supported his friend intensively in his charitable efforts. In May 1828 Brentano moved out of Dietz’s house and from July 1829 he no longer lived permanently in Koblenz but remained in touch with Dietz’s social projects. When he learned from his friend about the ice and flood disaster of February 10 in 1830 which had particularly affected the town of Lay he collected donations in Frankfurt and wrote the Mosel-Eisgangs-Lied which was published for the benefit of the victims in early March 1830.

(Image and text [slightly adapted] taken from: Koelges, B.: Sophie La Roche and Clemens Brentano in Ehrenbreitstein und Koblenz. In: von der Bank, M. [Hrsg.][2020]: Museum Mother Beethoven House. Petersberg 2020)