The New International Encyclopædia/Stein, Charlotte von

STEIN, stīn, Charlotte von (1742-1827). A friend of Goethe. She was platonically intimate with him from 1775 to the time of his Italian journey (1786), by which he won emancipation. To her he addressed the Briefe aus der Schweiz (1779), which are among the classics of travel, and a multitude of letters, first published in 1848, and best edited in the Weimar edition of his Works (1886). Her letters to Goethe were long supposed destroyed, but they have recently been recovered in part. After Goethe's union with Christiane Vulpius there was an estrangement between him and Frau von Stein, gradually overcome later on. Consult: Höfer, Goethe und Charlotte von Stein (Stuttgart, 1878); Düntzer, Charlotte von Stein (ib., 1874).