Louise von Gall

File:Louise von Gall.jpg

Louise von Gall

Louise von Gall (19 September 1815, Darmstadt – 16 March 1855, Augsburg) was a nineteenth-century German novelist and social critic.

Life

Johanna Udalrike Louise Gerhardine Freiin von Gall was the daughter of General Ludwig Friedrich Christian Wilhelm Philipp von Gall. She spent her childhood in Darmstadt and lived from 1830 to 1831 in the Schenkendorfstraße in Mannheim, where she learned English, French and Italian and received singing lessons.

With her mother, Louise von Gall made several trips to Vienna, where she published the first works under the pen name "Louis Leo". After her mother's death in 1841, she returned to Darmstadt, where she was friends with Ida and Ferdinand Freiligrath. With the Freiligraths and their friends, they spent the summer of 1842 in St. Goar.

At Freiligrath's suggestion, at the end of 1842, she began a correspondence with Levin Schücking, whom she married on 7 October 1843 in Darmstadt. Louise Schücking followed her husband at all stages of his eventful writer's life. With him she had five children:

• Lothar, born on 19 December 1844, in Augsburg;
• Gerhardine, born 10 January 1846, in Cologne;
• Theophanie (called "Theo"), born 19 April 1850;
• Adrian, born 13 July 1852; and
• Adolfine, born 19 September 1854, who died on 9 December 1854.

In September 1852 the family moved to Sassenberg in Warendorf, where Louise Schücking felt alien and unhappy, as a Protestant in a strict Catholic environment. An attempt in the autumn of 1853, again to settle in Darmstadt failed. Louise Schücking died on 16 March 1855, and against her express wish she was buried in Sassenberg. Her grave there is preserved in front of the church.

Works

• Frauennovellen, 2 vols., Darmstadt: Jonghans, 1845
• Gegen den Strom. Roman, 2 vols., Bremen: Schlodtmann 1851
• Der neue Kreuzritter. Roman, Berlin: A. Duncker, 1853
• (with Levin Schücking) Familienbilder, 2 vols., Prague: Kober, 1854
• (with Levin Schücking) Familien-Geschichten, 2 vols., Prague: Kober, 1854

References

Attribution

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Further reading

• Powell, Hugh, Louise von Gall: Her World and her Work, 1993

External links

• "Schücking, Louise", Hessisches Landesamt für geschichtliche Landeskunde
• "Louise von Gall (Johanna Udalrike Louise Freiin von Gall)", schuecking-museum.de