Stolterfoth, Karoline Wilhelmine Julie Adelheid Freiin von, née Baroness von Zwierlein

Writer

born: 11.09.1800 in Eisenach

died: 17.12.1875 in Wiesbaden

Stolterfoth was the eldest daughter of the Prussian hussar lieutenant Gottfried Freiherr von Stolterfoth. After the early death of her father (1805), her mother moved to Erlangen with her three daughters. From the age of twelve, Stolterfoth was a nun at the Birken convent near Bayreuth. A trip to the Rhine in 1815 left a deep impression on her, and a year later she moved with her mother, first to Bingen and later to Winkel.

It was then that she made her first attempts at poetry. She received further inspiration to write through studies in the library of her uncle, Privy Councillor Baron Hans Carl von Zwierlein (1768-1850). He was president of the Nassau Herrenbank from 1825-31 and 1838. Her preoccupation with English history prompted her to write the romantic-epic poem "Alfred" in 1821 (published in 1834). In 1825 she published the romantic poem "Zoraide" as well as a number of shorter poems which appeared in various journals.

Since the death of her mother (1825), Stolterfoth lived with her uncle's family, whom she married in 1844. After the death of her husband, she lived alternately in Winkel and Eltville in the Rheingau or in Frankfurt am Main and finally in Wiesbaden.

Stolterfoth became particularly well known for her Rhine poems and travelogues; she is considered a representative of Rhine Romanticism with graceful poetic descriptions of the Rhine, the Rheingau and the Wisp Valley.