Goethes erste grosse Liebe Lili Schönemann

"She was indeed the first whom I loved deeply and truly. I can also say that she was the last ..." She - that is Lili Schönemann, an equally attractive and intelligent daughter from a wealthy family, whom the young Goethe met at a piano recital. A short time later, he was already thinking about marriage. Suspiciously kept at a distance by Lili's brothers, who had their eye on a better match for their sister, who was just sixteen years old, Goethe soon had to realize that he would not meet the demands of her family. The break came.
Dagmar von Gersdorff brings this love story back to life before the reader's eyes. All the poems Goethe addressed to LiIi, as well as his letters and diary notes, are printed in this volume. Until his old age, Goethe was preoccupied with the time he was engaged to Lili. Decades later, he still wrote: "I would have been proud to tell the whole world how much I loved her, and I believe she would not have blushed to confess that my affection was reciprocated."