"es wird sich auch kristallisiern!"

Charlotte von Kalb by Johann Heinrich Schmidt

Herewith another nice anecdote from Biedermann's Goethes Gespräche. It is from the pen of Charlotte von Kalb (1761–1843), describing a social gathering in 1788 in Weimar:

Einen Tag verlebten wir bei Frau v. Stein zu einer Kollation. Goethe stand am Fenster, hatte eine Glasscheibe in der Hand und einen Bogen, zeigte, wie bei jeder Bewegung des Bogens der Sand auf dem Glase verschiedene Figuren bildete. Das Geringste war ihm bedeutend, was zum Gesetz der Ordnung gehörte, und so interessierte ihn dies wunderbare Spiel lebhaft; und wie unzerstörbar die geheimnisvolle Ordung der Natur, konnte wohl auch dies Experiment beweisen; die Winde zerstreuen den feinen Sand, doch der leise Strich des Bogens zwingt die Körnchen zu bestimmten schönen Formen. Es beschäftigten uns seine Versuche in lebendig angeregter Teilnahme mit ihm ... Goethes prägnanter Ausdruck bezeichnete zuweilen wie vorausschreitend und voraussagend: es wird sich auch kristallisiern! –– O wohl uns, wenn wir einst nur schöne Strahlen darin zu erkennen vermögen.

The recollection is evidence of the way Goethe dominated such social gatherings. I imagine by this time, however, that Frau von Stein found little interest in Goethe's Glasscheibe and his esoteric experimenting –– although isn't it the case that she was greatly responsible for transforming him from a person who dominated by a sparkling personality (as pre-Weimar accounts inform us) into this "frosty" presence?

Charlotte von Kalb's ironic tone is of interest, indicating perhaps that she did not take Goethe as seriously as he took himself. A New York Times article from 1883 describes her as a person who was warmly admired by men ("she fascinated nearly all the men she ever knew"), less so by women! Of her relationship with Schiller, the article goes on: "She loved Schiller and although he ultimately persuaded himself that she had not exercised a wholesome influence over him, there can be doubt that for several years he had as strong a passion for her as she for him." For more on that relationship, go here, a tale written in 1850.

The article also mentions that she excited "the passionate enthusiasm of the unfortunate poet Hölderlin." Her husband killed himself in 1806.