Friederike Brion

Friederike Elisabetha Brion (probably 19 April 1752 Niederrœdern, Alsace – 3 April 1813 Meißenheim near Lahr) was a parson's daughter who had a short, but intense love-affair with the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

The date of birth of Friederike is uncertain because the parish registers were destroyed during the French revolution. Friederike was the third of five surviving children of the married couple Brion. The father, Jakob Brion, took over a post as the parson of the village of Sessenheim on St. Martin's Day 1760. Friederike—nice, jolly, but a little sickish—grew up in the village.

The young Johann Wolfgang Goethe from Frankfurt am Main visited the hospitable parsonage, like several other young people, while studying law in Strasbourg. He first reached Sessenheim in October 1770 and met Friederike there, for the first time, the same month, when he was exploring the region on horseback with an Alsatian friend, the medical student Friedrich Leopold Weyland (1750-1785). His depiction of Friederike, whom he liked most of the parson's three daughters, contains a lot of fantastical additions, but shows the situation vividly and lovingly, mentioning Friederike's slenderness and lightness, her way of walking "as if she did not have to bear anything at herself", the impression that her neck was nearly too tender for her dainty head with its mighty tresses, the clearly brisk glance of her serene blue eyes, and her nice snub-nose "searching as freely in the air as if there could be no sorrow in the world". The description is counted a literary masterwork that shows an enchanting scene with the help of modest colors.

Goethe, beginning already in winter, rode to Sessenheim many times, over the following months, and used to stay with the Brions for periods of up to several weeks. He roamed the surrounding area with Friederike, undertook boat trips with her, in the waters of the Rhine, and visited acquaintances with her. For the ensuing time, Sessenheim became the “center of the Earth” for the poet. He experienced an idyll that brought about things new and unknown to him and was inspirited by this to verse, after a longer time, again. In spring 1771, he wrote a couple of poems and songs, which he sometimes sent to Friederike with painted ribbons. These Sesenheimer Lieder (among them Maifest, Willkommen und Abschied and Heidenröslein) became crucial for the Sturm und Drang and founded Goethe's fame as a poet.

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