Caroline Schelling

Caroline Schelling, née Michaelis, widowed Böhmer, divorced Schlegel (2 September 1763 – 7 September 1809), was a noted German intellectual. She was one of the so-called Universitätsmamsellen, a group of five academically active women during the 18th and 19th centuries, daughters of academics at Göttingen University, alongside Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, Therese Huber, Philippine Engelhard, and Dorothea Schlözer.

She was born at Göttingen, the daughter of the orientalist Johann David Michaelis.

In 1784, she married a district medical officer named Böhmer, in Clausthal in the Harz. After his death, in 1788, she returned to Göttingen, where she became familiar with the poet Gottfried August Bürger and the critic of the Romantic school, August Wilhelm Schlegel. In 1791, she took up residence in Mainz, joining the famous French revolutionary society of the Clubbists (Klubbisten), and suffering a short period of imprisonment on account of her political opinions.

In 1796, she went to Jena and married Schlegel, who was appointed extraordinary professor. They were divorced in 1803. She became the wife of the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. She died at Maulbronn in 1809.

Caroline Schelling played a considerable role in the intellectual movement of her time, especially in her role with Jena Romanticism. Here she debated with poets and philosophers like Novalis, Fichte, Hegel, Schiller and her later husband Schelling, and was considered as the heart of the early German romanticism. She is especially remarkable for the assistance she afforded Schlegel in his translation of Shakespeare's works. In her own name, she only published some critical reviews.