Buff, Charlotte (1753–1828)
Buff, Charlotte (1753–1828)
Friend and companion of the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Name variations: Lotte Buff, Charlotte Kestner. Born in 1753; died in 1828; married Georg Christian Kestner (a court councilor), 1773.
Little is known of the enigmatic Charlotte Buff, companion of Goethe and the inspiration for Lotte in his first novel Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther). At a party in Wetzlar in 1772, Goethe had met and fallen in love with Buff, the fiancée of Georg Kestner, whom she later married. The intensity of Goethe's affection for her remains unknown, although it is believed that he reveled in his status as the unhappy lover because it assured him his freedom; it is said that at one point, when Buff's marriage to Kestner appeared to be in doubt, Goethe fled. In The Sorrows of Young Werther, however, Werther is so overcome with his unhappy affair with Lotte that he commits suicide. The novel, published anonymously in 1774, was overwhelmingly received. Following the character's example, young men dressed as Werther and some even committed suicide with copies of the book in their pockets. Reportedly, Charlotte visited Goethe when he was an old man, appearing dressed in the clothing she had worn when they first met. This incident inspired Thomas Mann's novel Lotte in Weimar.